How to Best Articulate Your Work Skills

 

 Steven Simon, Ph.D.

Jim was unexpectedly laid off from his administrative job of 20 years at a tech company. Now, he needs to quickly prepare for a job search, something he hasn't done in many years. He knows that first,  identifying and articulating his skills will be important. This will help in deciding on a job goal, writing a resume, searching for a job and preparing for interviews. But what are those skills and how can he best present them? Can he transfer his skills to other jobs? He's finding the task difficult and more complicated than it first seemed.   

The task is complicated because Jim is not entirely clear on what is meant by a skill. Popular articles talk about soft and hard skills. Skills are also described in various levels of specificity. What makes it worse is that Jim can't remember all the skills he's developed in all those years of working. His tendency is to focus on the skills he's using right now. So let's try to make finding and articulating Jim's skills a process that brings to the forefront all the skills that he has.

We define skills as proficiencies and/or knowledge that underlie the ability to perform tasks. For example, an attorney has the task of completing briefs. The proficiencies needed to complete briefs can be described at several levels. At the most general level, "communication" is the skill. At a more specific level "writing" is a type of  communication skill. Going further, "summarizing complex information in writing" and "summarizing complex legal information in writing" are even more specific. We can see that all of these levels of skill underlie the ability to complete briefs and each level more specifically articulates the general skill of "communication" of the attorney.

In recent years, skills have often been characterized as "soft" vs "hard." Sometimes, hard skills are also called technical skills.  The softest skills are very general and sometimes overlap with personality traits. Because they are general they are also not easy to teach or measure. However, softer skills are easily transferable among jobs because they are important in so many jobs and therefore almost universally desired by employers. "Communication" as discussed above is the most frequently mentioned example. Other cited examples are creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, flexibility, dependability and problem solving. Some so-called "soft" skills, such as creativity, flexibility, and dependability, might better be presented as personality traits than as skills mainly because they don't really represent  proficiencies or knowledge. An internet search can find listings of almost unlimited titles of "soft" skills.

Hard skills are more specific, concrete, measurable, and tied to performing a single or smaller range of jobs. In the earlier example, "summarizing complex legal information in writing" would be considered a hard skill. So would such proficiencies as "using QuickBooks accounting software", "negotiating labor union agreements", and "interior decorating." They are quite specific and can easily be tied to the skill requirements of a particular job. They also can often be an extension of or concrete example of a more general soft skill.

So....general, specific, soft, hard.... How do you best articulate your work skills? It depends on your situation.

1. If like Jim, you have a work history and will be changing jobs, it will best serve you to inventory both your soft and hard skills. This will enhance your ability to demonstrate skills for specific jobs and to see what skills can transfer to a variety of jobs. The best way to do this is to think back to prior jobs, volunteer work, training and education, hobbies, and other life situations in which you have developed specific skills. Document each specific skill on a detailed list. These are your hard skills. You may find that you have 30-50 or more. Then summarize your hard skills from this detailed list into 10-15 skills. Some of those can be softer skills that are supported by hard skills from your detailed list or others on your summary list. This method gives you a way to lend credibility to any less concrete soft skills that you claim you have. For example, if I have strong hard skills in selling cars, or in negotiating contracts, this concretely demonstrates my strong (soft) communication skills. On your detailed and summary lists, also make note of which are your strongest skills and of those, the ones you are most interested in using. When looking for jobs, give priority consideration to jobs requiring those skills. Then when you apply, be sure to list them in a "skills" section on your resume.

We have developed a workbook which includes a systematic guide for creating a skills inventory and a consistent format for presenting skills in writing. You can get a free copy of that portion of the workbook here. However, be forewarned that this is a time intensive task that requires a great deal of thought. The payoff is high, though, because the lists you develop will make you feel great about everything you know and can do. They will also provide important information for use in searching for jobs that require skills consistent with yours, particularly your best ones you enjoy using. That will then give you the specific and general information you need to put on a resume for each job application. Finally, you will have a preparation tool for use before interviews. This approach gives you the advantage of having all your unique and "hidden" skills readily available when you need to explain them to others.

2. If you are still in school and are looking for a major or trying to select a career in which to develop your best skills, focus on articulating soft and general skills. Although it is usually best to figure these out yourself, this free assessment checklist helps do it for you: https://www.careeronestop.org/toolkit/Skills/skills-matcher.aspx. After you take the assessment, you can navigate to a general list of your skills. You can also view occupations consistent with your skills. 

Although several free and paid checklists are available to assess skills, they cannot list every skill that any one person might have. The only way to articulate your unique skills is to dig deep into your own life experiences and write the skills yourself. That's why it's so important to do this if you are an experienced worker looking to be competitive in a job search and to find the best fitting new job. If you are simply exploring a career direction, a checklist can serve the purpose.

______________

Dr. Simon is President, CEO, and a Career Consultant with Human Services Outcomes, Inc. in Clearwater, FL and Atlanta, GA. He has done skills assessment and transferable skills analysis in thousands of cases. He has also written articles and a book with chapters addressing the topic.