Realize Your Skills
Often we think of skills as being complicated special preserves of the highly trained. However, we all have certain skills which will be useful to employers. These are the skills which you use every day but which you don't think about. It will be very useful to you if you can identify the particular skills you have now, or have the potential to develop, and can give examples of how you have successfully used that skill. Such information will help when we are writing résumés or when we are answering questions in job interviews.
Use the information below to help identify some of your skills!
SKILL AREAS
Skills are often described as:
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JOB-SPECIFIC SKILLS - are those skills necessary to do a specific job. For example, if you were to hire someone for a typist position, a necessary skill would be typing. You probably would qualify typing by adding a speed requirement (e.g. 50 wpm). Are there job-specific skills that both a medical doctor and a veterinarian have in common? Yes, both professions require the ability to examine, diagnose and treat disease, dispense medication, perform surgery, etc. The set of skills in both occupations is similar, but the patient is different. However, it is important to remember that some jobs use the same or similar skills, but because of the client, or the environment or industry, the job requirements may be different. The following is a list of some job-specific skills:
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operating fork lift
soldering
filing
customer service
bricklaying
designing
hand-assembling
marketing
barbering
producing video |
repairing products
engraving
data entry
plastering
preparing working drawings
setting up drill presses
hand-packing goods
telemarketing
desktop publishing
cost accounting |
reading blueprints
etching
taking stenography
siding
instructing
welding
filling orders from stock
office cleaning
editing copy
analyzing budgets |
ADAPTIVE SKILLS - may be referred to as school-to-work transition skills or basic skills necessary for acquiring and keeping a job. As we enter the 21st century, the workplace will be more dependent on technology. Not only must people in the workforce know how to read, write, and do math, they must also be able to use computers. The SCANS Report for America 2000 lists the competencies effective workers have as:
"...productively use resources, interpersonal skills, information, systems, and technology. Competence requires a foundation of basic skills (reading, writing, arithmetic and mathematics, speaking and listening); thinking skills (thinking creatively, making decisions, solving problems, seeing things in the mind's eye, knowing how to learn, and reasoning); and personal qualities (individual responsibility, self-esteem, sociability, self-management, and integrity)."
The following list is an example of the kinds of skills termed adaptive:
- Getting along with fellow employees
- Professional telephone technique
- Listening to and following directions
- Dependability
- Obeying safety regulations
- Ability to work independently
TRANSFERABLE SKILLS - are skills that are useful in many job situations. Employers often ask for good communication skills. This includes the adaptive skills of reading and writing, as well as the transferable skills of public speaking, training, writing reports, etc. The following is a list of several transferable skills:
- Synthesize data and concepts
- Analyze
- Make decisions
- Identify problems and provide solutions
- Delegate
- Persuade and lead
- Plan and organize projects and/or people
- Assess performance
- Train others
- Observe and evaluate things and/or people
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