Friday, 19 August 2011

personal skills

When you are exploring a career change, having a list of personal skills can be a great help. Click here to go straight to the list.
Knowing what you are good at is an essential step in identifying the right career, but it can be quite hard to work this out for yourself.
Help is at hand.
I have created a list of personal skills below which you can read through and review in two key ways:
1.    assess and rate the skills you think you have

2.    assess and rate the skills you really enjoy using
These two steps are important, because when you are exploring new career ideas you should be looking at the things you are good at and that you really enjoy. Many of us develop skills over the years because we have to, but these may not be the ones that you take pleasure in exercising.
For example, over the years I have got to be quite competent at using a computer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I will want a job where I have to use or develop a high level of IT skills.
What matters is that when you are doing a personal skills audit, you use the two ratings together to get a real sense of what skills will be the most significant in your new career.

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A List of Personal Skills
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Skills can be grouped in different ways. You will see that I here, have broken the list down into four types of skills...
•    People

•    Data and Information

•    Things and Tools

•    Creativity and Ideas

You may find it helpful to see if your skills fall more in one area than another. This could give you another clue about the direction for your career change.
Scan through this list of abilities and skills – it is a long one! You might find it easier if you print out this page so you can sit back and do this exercise in comfort. Be sure to take your time over it.
For each skill, give yourself a rating on a 1- 4 scale
a) on how competent you are at this skill and
b) on how much you enjoy using this particular skill.
Highlight the skills where you have rated highly on both factors.
You should also look carefully at the skills you rated highly for enjoyment. Are these connected to activities that you want to make sure play a bigger part in your new career?
You should end up with a list of personal skills relevant to your career change plans.

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Here's the list...
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People    Data and Information
Advising    Analysing information and data
Adjusting communication style    Applying statistical analysis
Advocating for people    Auditing records
Anticipating people's needs and reactions    Attending to detail
Appreciating others    Being thorough
Being patient    Budgeting
Building relationships    Calculating
Caring for people    Checking for accuracy
Conducting meetings    Classifying and sorting data
Conflict management    Comparing and evaluating information
Coaching and mentoring    Compiling numerical and statistical data
Debating ideas with others    Coordinating and presenting information
Delegating    Creating efficient systems
Demonstrating empathy    Creating implementation guidelines
Developing people’s abilities    Developing plans and setting objectives
Developing rapport easily    Editing and proofreading written material
Directing others    Ensuring completion of tasks
Explaining things     Evaluating information
Expressing opinions without offending    Following procedures and instructions
Facilitating groups    Forecasting, estimating expenses and income
Facilitating self-awareness in others    Gathering information from varied sources
Helping others    Getting things right
Influencing others    Having an eye for detail
Interviewing people to get information    Identifying and organising tasks or information
Leading    Finding appropriate information sources
Listening    Interpreting plans & diagrams
Managing people    Keeping financial records
Motivating people    Manipulating numbers rapidly
Negotiating    Memorising
Open minded & non-judgemental    Organising and improving systems
Participating in group discussions    Patiently searching for hard-to-find information
Persuading    Presenting data diagrammatically
Providing service to others    Problem solving
Public speaking    Recording facts
Responding to non-verbal cues    Researching
Showing sensitivity and tolerance    Sequencing information and actions
Supervising others    Setting up and keeping to time schedules
Teaching and training    Studying data to extract facts
Working well in a team    Tracking progress of projects
Working well with the public     Using technology for statistical analysis

Things and Tools    Creativity and Ideas
Analysing and correcting faults    Acting and/or dancing
Assembling things    Adapting flexibly and easily/td>
Building things    Brainstorming
Constructing self assembly items    Communicating using metaphor
Driving and operating vehicles    Composing music
Finding out how things work    Conveying ideas through drawing or painting
Fixing or repairing things    Creating novel solutions
Gardening and farming    Designing building and interiors
Hand-eye co-ordination    Designing new processes and systems
Handling things with precision    Developing others’ ideas
Inspecting equipment and machinery    Expressing ideas through art
Installing technical equipment    Graphic design
Making things    Improvising
Manual dexterity    Innovating
Monitoring systems    Insight
Physical strength & stamina    Intuiting strategies and solutions
Physically inspecting things    Inventing products and processes
Raising, training, tending animals    Lateral thinking
Repairing machines and equipment    Photography
Restoring objects    Seeing alternatives
Sporting ability    Seeing things from different perspectives
Tending plants    Showing artistic flair
Understanding machinery    Strategic thinking
Using hand tools    Using accurate spatial memory
Using scientific or medical equipment    Using colour, shape and form creatively
Using spatial awareness for practical tasks    Using imagination
Using technical equipment and machinery    Utilising computers for artistic creations
Utilising computer software and equipment    Visualising concepts and possibilities
Working physically    Writing creatively

Phew! That was quite a list of personal skills! How did you get on?

________________________________________
What did you find?
________________________________________

Once you have been through it carefully you will have a better idea which will be the best new career skills for you to focus on when you change careers.
Did you notice if your best/favourite skills fell into a particular category - People, Data, Things or Ideas? What does that tell you about your career choice?
Make a note of what you have learned about your skills in your Career Change Project File. A list of personal skills will add to the understanding you have of yourself and this will help you to work out your new career direction.

Here's the list...



People
Data and Information
Advising
Analysing information and data
Adjusting communication style
Applying statistical analysis
Advocating for people
Auditing records
Anticipating people's needs and reactions
Attending to detail
Appreciating others
Being thorough
Being patient
Budgeting
Building relationships
Calculating
Caring for people
Checking for accuracy
Conducting meetings
Classifying and sorting data
Conflict management
Comparing and evaluating information
Coaching and mentoring
Compiling numerical and statistical data
Debating ideas with others
Coordinating and presenting information
Delegating
Creating efficient systems
Demonstrating empathy
Creating implementation guidelines
Developing people’s abilities
Developing plans and setting objectives
Developing rapport easily
Editing and proofreading written material
Directing others
Ensuring completion of tasks
Explaining things
Evaluating information
Expressing opinions without offending
Following procedures and instructions
Facilitating groups
Forecasting, estimating expenses and income
Facilitating self-awareness in others
Gathering information from varied sources
Helping others
Getting things right
Influencing others
Having an eye for detail
Interviewing people to get information
Identifying and organising tasks or information
Leading
Finding appropriate information sources
Listening
Interpreting plans & diagrams
Managing people
Keeping financial records
Motivating people
Manipulating numbers rapidly
Negotiating
Memorising
Open minded & non-judgemental
Organising and improving systems
Participating in group discussions
Patiently searching for hard-to-find information
Persuading
Presenting data diagrammatically
Providing service to others
Problem solving
Public speaking
Recording facts
Responding to non-verbal cues
Researching
Showing sensitivity and tolerance
Sequencing information and actions
Supervising others
Setting up and keeping to time schedules
Teaching and training
Studying data to extract facts
Working well in a team
Tracking progress of projects
Working well with the public
Using technology for statistical analysis

Things and Tools
Creativity and Ideas
Analysing and correcting faults
Acting and/or dancing
Assembling things
Adapting flexibly and easily/td>
Building things
Brainstorming
Constructing self assembly items
Communicating using metaphor
Driving and operating vehicles
Composing music
Finding out how things work
Conveying ideas through drawing or painting
Fixing or repairing things
Creating novel solutions
Gardening and farming
Designing building and interiors
Hand-eye co-ordination
Designing new processes and systems
Handling things with precision
Developing others’ ideas
Inspecting equipment and machinery
Expressing ideas through art
Installing technical equipment
Graphic design
Making things
Improvising
Manual dexterity
Innovating
Monitoring systems
Insight
Physical strength & stamina
Intuiting strategies and solutions
Physically inspecting things
Inventing products and processes
Raising, training, tending animals
Lateral thinking
Repairing machines and equipment
Photography
Restoring objects
Seeing alternatives
Sporting ability
Seeing things from different perspectives
Tending plants
Showing artistic flair
Understanding machinery
Strategic thinking
Using hand tools
Using accurate spatial memory
Using scientific or medical equipment
Using colour, shape and form creatively
Using spatial awareness for practical tasks
Using imagination
Using technical equipment and machinery
Utilising computers for artistic creations
Utilising computer software and equipment
Visualising concepts and possibilities
Working physically
Writing creatively

Phew! That was quite a list of personal skills! How did you get on?


What did you find?



Once you have been through it carefully you will have a better idea which will be the best new career skills for you to focus on when you change careers.
Did you notice if your best/favourite skills fell into a particular category - People, Data, Things or Ideas? What does that tell you about your career choice?

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