Evaluating Skills

Skills represent your talents, abilities, and aptitudes.  In short, what you are good at doing.  Many people believe they have few skills, or that they do not have the right ones.  In fact, the average person has numerous skills they do not give themselves credit for having, but yet possess.  You have been acquiring these skills throughout your life.  Discovering your skills and abilities is an important key to making career choices.

There are different types or groups of skills:  Self management, transferable, and work content.

Self management skills can be described as who you are.  These are personal characteristics or traits, such as being accurate, open, logical, or thoughtful.  Place check by the self management skills you have:

             _____ Adaptable                            _____ Logical
             _____ Aggressive                           _____ Loyal
             _____ Assertive                             _____ Methodical
             _____ Ambitious                           _____ Optimistic
             _____ Calm                                  _____ Organized
             _____ Confident                            _____ Patient
             _____ Cooperative                          _____ Persistent
             _____ Dependable                        _____ Practical
             _____ Diplomatic                          _____ Precise
             _____ Energetic                            _____ Realistic
             _____ Enthusiastic                        _____ Resourceful
             _____ Flexible                               _____ Reliable
             _____ Frank                                   _____ Risk taking
             _____ Idealistic                               _____ Sensitive
             _____ Innovative                             _____ Tactful
                    

Transferable skills represent what you can do.  These are skills acquired in one setting which can be applied to other settings.  The same writing and research skills which helped you prepare a paper on "Persian Artifacts" can be transferred to a decision paper on the purchase of an office computer system.  Below is a list of transferable skills.  Check those which apply to you:

            _____ Research                             _____ Problem solving
            _____ Writing                                _____ Communicating
            _____ Producing                            _____ Supervising
            _____ Budgeting                            _____ Managing
            _____ Evaluating                            _____ Negotiating
            _____ Comparing                           _____ Explaining
            _____ Teaching                              _____ Motivating
            _____ Coordinating                        _____ Reviewing
            _____ Planning                               _____ Clarifying
            _____ Organizing
 

Work content skills are what you know.  These are specific skills that are crucial to one's performance in certain occupations, such as writing a computer program, speaking Spanish, or knowing how to operate certain types of equipment.  These are usually the types of skills that are developed in your classes as well as through on-the-job training.

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Career & Counseling Services
PO Box 60728
Canyon, TX 79016
(806) 651-2345
Virgil Henson Activites Center Suite 210