Know Your Skills
A skill is the ability to do a certain task well. Skills can be a natural ability or they can be learned over time. You can gain or expand your skills with practice or training. It is important to assess your skills at all phases of your career since you develop new skills at work, school, and through extracurricular activities.
- Professional skills: These are the skills necessary to perform a specific job. A pilot must know how to safely fly and land an airplane. An auto mechanic must know how to repair a flat tire and tune an engine.
- Adaptive skills: These are personal characteristics that are unique to you, they describe you and how you interact with others. They assist you when adjusting to a new situation or job and include creativity, self-motivation and dependability.
- Critical skills: These are skills necessary to maintain a job. They include the ability to consistently arrive at work on time, the ability to follow instructions and to complete job tasks in a timely manner.
- Transferable skills: These are the skills you take with you from job to job. You can transfer them from one employer to another and are valuable in most work situations. They include public speaking, problem solving, project completion, and coping skills. They might also include computer skills or skills with specific software.
Examples of Skills
| Professional | Adaptive | Critical | Transferable |
|---|---|---|---|
| You will want to specify or quantify these skills by prefacing them with a transferable skill. For example: Diagnosing a car engine malfunction. | These are so essential to achieving success on the job that employers value your adaptive skills above all other types of skills. | These are essential to maintaining your job. | You develop these naturally from all aspects of life. |
| Foreign languages | Deliberate | Arrive to work on time | Teaching |
| Cares | Analytical | Follow instructions | Public speaking |
| Organs of the body | Energetic | Punch in on timecard | Assembling |
| Food operating machinery | Strong | Submit timecard | Supervising |
| Parts of a refrigerator | Expressive | Complete assigned tasks | Computing |
| Minerals (specify) | Tactful | Researching | |
| Buildings (specify) | Reasonable | Organizing | |
| Floral arrangements | Precise | Analyzing | |
| Hydraulics | Helpful | Deciding | |
| Jewelry | Productive | Operating | |
| Journalism | Dependable | Designing | |
| Motors | Truthful | Repairing | |
| Hair | Capable | Advising | |
| Finance | Diplomatic | Appraising | |
| Drills | Creative | Bargaining | |
| Clothes | Enthusiastic | Budgeting | |
| Income taxes | Industrious | Communicating | |
| Musical instruments | Loyal | Developing | |
| Inventory, stock | Patient | Interviewing |
| Skill Set | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Skills | These are skills needed by almost all workers. These skills are very important to have. Writing, for example, is a basic skill that gets you into a good job. Not having it can keep you out of a good job. |
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| People Skills | These are some of the most needed and wanted skills. They're sometimes called "soft skills." These skills help people to work well with others. |
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| Management Skills | All workers need these skills, not just managers. Employers hire people who can keep track of projects, money, and their time. |
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| Technical Skills | Technology includes computers and equipment. Computers are common in most workplaces. People in all occupations should know how to work with technology. |
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Do a skills assessment and then write down Your Top 10 Skills and Occupations that Match Your Skills (pdf).
Online Skills Assessments
