In our last column, we talked about how an “interests inventory” can help you focus your job search. Now we’ll show you how to refine it further with a “skills inventory.”  

Why Identifying Our Skills is Important
A skill is a learned or innate ability to do something well. Developing a list of your skills and accomplishments can “feed” you details for your resume, help you identify areas of strength, boost your confidence, and aid you in targeting jobs that are a good fit. If you’re considering self-employment, identifying your skills is an important step toward determining what you have to offer potential customers or clients.

Building a comprehensive list of your skills and related accomplishments isn’t complicated, but it can take more care than you’d think. If you look at everything you’ve done in your life -- say, from high school to the present -- you’re likely to find that your skills list is much longer than you expected. You may even discover strengths in areas you hadn't considered, thus widening your job search options.

When we take stock of our skills, a natural modesty sometimes hinders us from identifying the skills we possess, and makes us feel that we are “promoting” ourselves in too many areas. While it’s never a good policy to exaggerate our expertise when we’re searching for a job or launching a business, neither is it a time for excessive modesty. Being objective as you list your skills will help you draw a true picture of your strengths, and “knowing what you know” (and avoiding what you don’t) will bolster your self-confidence as you interview with potential hirers or clients.

Getting the Ideas Flowing
Below is a list of “thought starters” to help you get the ideas flowing before you actually list your skills. Place a check beside the entries that feel like they may apply to you. (The language is intentionally vague, to help your imagination flow.) You’ll have an opportunity to elaborate and be more specific in the next step.

__ Physical coordination and agility
__ Using hand coordination with tools
__ Working with machines
__ Working with nature
__ Working with animals
__ Working with children
__ Problem solving
__ Analysis, logic, examination
__ Evaluate, assess
__ Research, investigate
__ Conceive, develop, discover
__ Study, observe
__ Conceptualize, integrate
__ Entertain, perform, “show off”
__ Intuition, insight
__ Artistic ability
__ Creativity, imagination
__ Write, translate, edit, critique
__ Care, heal, treat, minister
__ Planning events, celebrations, business functions
__ Mediate, solve problems between people
__ Instruct, teach, train, inform
__ Administer, prioritize, plan, decide
__ Advise, influence
__ Manage, direct, delegate
__ Motivate, uplift
__ Initiate, promote change
__ Convince, sell, negotiate, persuade
__ Advocate, debate
__ Demonstrate, speak in public
__ Financial, account, budget
__ Attention to detail
__ Calculate, compute
__ Compare, distinguish, differentiate
__ Appraise, estimate
__ Monitor, implement, coordinate
__ Organize, arrange
__ Counsel, coach, guide, advise
__ Host, comfort, serve, welcome

Your Skills List
Now it’s time to identify and illustrate your skills in clear and concise terms.

On a sheet of paper, or in your word processing application, create two columns. Label the left one “Skill” and the right one “Specific Experience.”

On the left, make a list of all the skills you possess (remember to be as objective as possible), and on the right, opposite each skill, describe at least one instance where you applied that skill in a meaningful way. (At this point, you can draw your examples from any context -- previous job, home life, hobby, etc. -- because the goal is to clarify skills you actually possess, and eliminate the rest.)

When the exercise is done, and you’ve identified your skills and attached an illustrative experience to each, you can now go through the inventory and pull out the best skills and accomplishments to include on a resume, or to bring up in a job or client interview.

In our next column, we’ll discuss methods for identifying and exploring career options that best fit your interests and skills.