Skills
are acquired through life experiences, education,
and work experiences. Every job requires certain
skills. Your skills, combined with your interests
and values, are key to career success.
There
are three main categories of skills: Functional
skills relate to the functions of
a task and can be transferred from one career
to another. Examples include communicating,
problem solving, supervising, and organizing.
Content skills
result form specific knowledge gained about
a subject matter, procedure, or vocabulary.
Examples include speaking in Spanish, programming
in C++, applying the rules of parliamentary
procedure. Self-management
skills are the personality strengths
you bring to a situation. Examples include
efficiency, trustworthiness and accuracy.
This
exercise is designed to help you uncover
clues to those skills that come more
easily to you, and those that you especially
enjoy using. These skills are the foundation
upon which you are likely to build your
career.
As
you learn which skills are required for
success in specific occupations, you can
better evaluate how well these occupations
make use of your strongest skills.
Directions:
On a separate sheet of paper, describe 10
experiences that made you feel proud or
satisfied. The experiences may be academic,
work-related, or personal. Examples include
developing skill in a sport; teaching a
friend a skill or subject; organizing an
event; setting up a new filing system; running
for officer of a club; writing a story or
poem; or designing a database.
Functional
Skills
Realistic skills involve the use
of objects, tools, machines, animals or
your body. They are required in activities
such as tuning a car, planting a garden,
competing in sports, building a bookcase
and repairing a sewing machine.
___
Constructing: putting together parts,
assembling, building.
___ Cultivating: raising or growing
things; such as plants or animals
___ Designing: creating furniture,
models, patterns
___ Handling: lifting, balancing,
carrying, loading, moving
___ Inspecting: appraising, examining
___ Installing: positioning for use
___ Maintaining: preserving optimal
condition
___ Manual Coordination: dexterity
___ Motor Coordination: agility,
endurance, strength
___ Operating: controlling a tool,
machine, vehicle, equipment
___ Repairing: fixing, refinishing
___ Sensing: smelling, tasting, seeing,
hearing
Investigative
skills involve exploring, investigating,
examining, and analyzing ideas and phenomena.
Examples include playing thought-provoking
word and number games, reading technical
reports, researching a topic, reading science
fiction and passing a course in calculus.
___
Analyzing: critically examining, studying,
appraising
___ Conceptualizing: getting a general
idea based on what you have learned
___ Diagnosing: investigating and
analyzing the course of nature or a phenomenon
___ Evaluating: assessing or judging
information and alternatives
___ Examining: looking over, exploring
___ Informing: presenting information
through oral or written communication ,
assigning meaning, translating into familiar
terms
___ Predicting: anticipating or foreseeing
future events
___ Problem solving: identifying
possibilities and alternatives, developing
solutions
___ Questioning: interrogating, interviewing,
challenging
___ Researching: gathering data and
information, systematically investigating
___ Synthesizing: combining and integrating
information
___ Thinking: using logic and reason,
formulating creative possibilities
___ Understanding: perceiving meaning,
learning
Artistic
skills involve creating art forms or
products through materials, music, drama,
or writing. Examples include writing a poem
or short story, preparing a special meal,
performing in a one-act play, exhibiting
your photographs, designing a piece of jewelry
and attending a concert.
___ Appreciating: being critically
and emotionally aware of aesthetic value
___ Composing: arranging or forming
by uniting parts and elements
___ Creating: bringing into being
from thought or imagination, originating,
inventing
___ Decorating/Consulting: advising
others on artistry, color, form, arrangement
of interiors, clothing, accessories
___ Designing: conceiving and planning
jewelry, graphics, models, patterns for
self or others to produce
___ Drawing: portraying people, scenes,
or events by sketching, painting, illustrating
___ Entertaining: performing before
an audience, diverting, amusing
___ Exhibiting: displaying, demonstrating
___ Exploring: seeking new experiences,
showing perpetual curiosity
___ Expressing: conveying thoughts
and feelings through an artistic medium
___ Imagining: visualizing, forming
mental images
___ Producing: making a product in
art or craft form, writing, performing
___ Speaking/Singing: using voice
to entertain, inform, tell a story, dramatize
___ Writing: using words to tell
a story, describe a product, critique an
artistic event
Social skills involve working with
people to help, teach, inform, train, and
lead. Examples include facilitating a personal
growth group, counseling runaway teenagers,
interviewing applicants for a job, supervising
playground activities, teaching an adult
education class and caring for a sick person.
___ Advising: giving information,
consulting, aiding decision making
___ Collaborating: working as a team
member, maintaining cooperation and support
___ Communicating: exchanging thoughts
and information, interviewing
___ Coordinating: acting as a liaison,
putting others in touch with useful resources
___ Counseling: guiding or mentoring
others
___ Empathizing: understanding and
acknowledging the feelings of others
___ Encouraging: motivating and developing
the capabilities of others
___ Facilitating: assisting the progress
of a person or group
___ Giving/Getting feedback: conducting
appraisal of others, asking for and giving
supportive and critical feedback
___ Listening: attending to others
actively and accurately and with openness
and concern
___ Planning: arranging meetings,
social occasions, activities
___ Rehabilitating: restoring to
healthy functioning
___ Relating: meeting and associating
easily with all kinds of people, developing
trust and rapport
___ Serving: anticipating and attending
to the needs of others
___ Teaching: instructing, tutoring,
coaching, training others
___ Valuing: making decisions that
will maximize both individual and collective
goods
Enterprising skills involve persuading
and leading people and organizations to
attain goals or economic gains. Activity
examples include campaigning, organizing
a fundraiser, starting a business, lobbying
and selling Girl Scout cookies.
___ Administering: managing people
and projects by setting standards, choosing
priorities, assigning activities, evaluating
progress
___ Delegating: giving responsibility
to others appropriately
___ Implementing: establishing and
executing policies and procedures
___ Leading: taking initiative, advancing
ideas, directing action
___ Motivating: prompting action,
providing incentive, inspiring and encouraging
others
___ Negotiating: promoting resolution
of conflict, arbitrating, bargaining
___ Persuading: winning acceptance
and approval for ideas or products, selling,
advocating, raising funds
___ Planning/Forecasting: designing
long-range strategies based on predictions
of the direction of growth and opportunities
___ Risking: hazarding change, promoting
alternatives, troubleshooting
___ Speaking: communicating publicly
and persuasively, representing or acting
as a spokesperson
___ Staffing: recruiting, interviewing,
selecting, placing, promoting and transferring
personnel
___ Supervising: overseeing the performance
of others, disciplining, setting priorities
___ Team building: recognizing and
utilizing the skills, of others, organizing
and supporting cooperative efforts
Conventional skills involve gathering,
organizing, and evaluating numerical and
written data; attending to detail system,
computing income taxes, serving as club
treasurer, setting up a library system and
budgeting.
___ Auditing: examining and verifying
accounts and records
___ Calculating: using numbers and
performing accurate computations
___ Classifying: cataloging information,
coding, filing
___ Collecting: gathering data and
information
___ Developing: designing systematic
procedures
___ Evaluating: assessing the effectiveness
of procedures, accuracy of information,
and compliance with standards
___ Following procedures: attending
to detail, following through on the details
of a plan
___ Inventorying: counting, listing,
assigning value to articles
___ Keeping records: carefully recording
and listing, keeping books
___ Managing resources: planning
and managing finances, time, personnel,
materials
___ Operating: running business and
data-processing machines
___ Organizing: organizing information,
procedures, tasks
___ Preparing: producing budgets,
written reports, correspondence, maps, charts,
tables
___ Purchasing: finding and buying
resources and materials
___ Scheduling: making and keeping
a schedule
Content
Skills
1.
From work, school, leisure, or volunteer
experiences, I have developed considerable
knowledge about:
2.
My favorite school subject(s) were/are:
3. I could teach someone else how to:
4. If I had a gift certificate for five
books in a single field, the field would
be:
Self-Management
Skills
Directions:
Circle the self-management skills that are
MOST descriptive of you. Add others to the
list as necessary.
|
Accurate
Cheerful
Cooperative
Energetic
Helpful
Intelligent
Meticulous
Persevering
Reflective
Sensitive
Thoughtful
|
Adaptable
Clever
Creative
Enterprising
Honest
Kind
Open-minded
Polite
Reliable
Sincere
Trustworthy
|
Adventurous
Competent
Curious
Enthusiastic
Humorous
Logical
Optimistic
Practical
Resourceful
Sociable
Understanding
|
Assertive
Confident
Dependable
Fair-minded
Imaginative
Loyal
Organized
Precise
Responsible
Sympathetic
Versatile
|
Calm
Conscientious
Determined
Flexible
Independent
Mature
Outgoing
Purposeful
Self-controlled
Tactful
Warm
|
Capable
Considerate
Efficient
Friendly
Ingenious
Methodical
Patient
Reasonable
Sensible
Thorough
Witty
|
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