Who Are You? Part Three of Discover U

In part one you discovered your heroes. In part two you identified your strengths. Today you will explore your skills. What do you do well? There are different kinds of skills.

1. Job skills are specific to an occupation, like filing or writing a report.
2. Transferable skills are general work skills like the ability to use a computer program or attention to detail. There’s another list of transferable skills at the Skills Zone.
3. Self management skills are personal qualities like being analytical or reliable.

Northwestern College lists various skills to look at. The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) identified skills needed for success in the world of work. There is a nice overview of the SCANS skills and competencies at Academic Innovations.

Look at your work experience and list the different skills you have used. You can look at it two ways:

1. Specific to general: what job duties were performed? what projects were accomplished? What transferable skils and self-management skills were demonstrated? or

2. General to specific: How have you demonstrated self-management and transferable skills in your work?

The Skills Center at CareerOneStop is a great place to start identifying your skills. This Career Lab article shows how to describe your accomplishments with specific examples.

In part four you will examine your beliefs.