Resume guide: identify your skills
What special skills or knowledge did you need to perform successfully in your experiences? What skills have you acquired in your education/training? Create lists around three types of skills: technical/professional; functional; personal/adaptive.
Technical/Professional
Technical and professional skills are related to performing within a job, task or class, acquired by reading, training or education. These skills are often listed in classified ads, or job descriptions, as key qualifications required for the position. Examples include:
- Positioned ads in QuarkXPress
- Constructed Social Studies Thematic Unit on Rainforest
- Proficient in Unix, Oracle, Oasis, LAN
- Conducted exercise testing and analyzed results
- Created flow diagram for nuclear design code system
- Performed sterile cell culture and nucleic acid isolation and purification
- Managed inventory system using DBA accounting software
- Handled hogs from farrow to finish
Functional
Functional skills are related to people, information, or things that are transferable from one field or occupation to another. These may have been developed and enhanced through unpaid or paid work. Based on your past experience, be able to identify several with confidence to answer the question:
My strengths for DATA are:
- Researching
- Organizing
- Problem-solving
- Creating
- Planning
- Analyzing
- Decision-making
- Visualizing
- Computing
My strengths for PEOPLE are:
- Communicating (oral, written)
- Teaching/Training
- Advising/Coaching
- Assessing/Screening
- Performing/Entertaining
- Managing/Supervising
- Leading
- Initiating
- Negotiating
My stengths for THINGS are:
- Handling
- Expediting
- Operating
- Maintaining
- Constructing
- Raising/Tending (animals/plants)
- Precision Work
- Motor/Physical
- Coordination
- Fashioning
- Sculpting
Personal/Adaptive
Personal and adpative skills that represent your style of working, are often called personal traits or self-management skills. You may receive comments from supervisors/teachers or friends for being:
- Acurate
- Innovative
- Open-minded
- Practical
- Adaptive
- Outgoing
- Patient
- Perceptive
- Resourceful
- Responsible
- Self-motivated
- Creative
- Supportive
- Tactful
- Dependable
- Diplomatic
- Quick/work quickly
- Calm
- Persistent
- Energentic
- Cooperative