Can you show others what you can do?
Introduction
This section is about identifying and demonstrating your skills and capabilities. This is the foundation for making effective decisions about work and careers. Describing what you can do and showing what you have achieved so far, is what employers and others in work expect you to be able to do. It is especially important to be able to articulate how what you have learned in a university context can be applied elsewhere.
Your Skills and You
Whether it’s working in an attic on your first novel or working in the City or for a charity or in public service or in business, you need to know what you can do and so do employers: the average person has between 500 and 800 skills!
In the course of your degree you will have developed many skills related to reading, writing and interpreting and analysing texts. Employers value these discipline-specific skills, but they are also interested in how your studies have helped you to develop generic skills. In recruitment processes, employers typically look at six skill areas (or 'competencies') so it is worth becoming familiar with them:
- Cognitive skills (identifying problems, finding solutions and resolving problems)
- Generic competencies (e.g. planning, communicating, teamwork)
- Personal capabilities (e.g. creativity, decisiveness, initiative, leadership)
- Technical ability (working with technology)
- Business and organisation awareness (understanding how organisations operate)
- Practical elements (effectiveness at handling processes and procedures)
Not all jobs involve all of the competencies outlined, and it is rare to find a person who could demonstrate a high level of competency in each area. But it is worth experimenting with all of them in order to discover what you are good at and enjoy. You may think that you lack leadership potential, but by trying out a leadership role you may surprise yourself!
The Competencies Assessment Exercise helps you to assess you proficiency at, and enjoyment of, the competencies employers look for. It can be used at any point in your university career, but start soon enough to give yourself time to identify areas for development and seek out experiences that will address these.
Your Qualities and You
As well as skills, you also have personal qualities that make you unique and special. What do your lecturers and fellow students say about you, for example? Thinking about your qualities can help you to develop a picture of yourself which could clarify career possibilities as well as helping you to describe yourself to potential employers. The Qualities Assessment Exercise helps you to do this.
To help you identify and demonstrate your skills
The following exercises help you to build up a picture of your own skills, with examples of how you have applied them. You can then make use of this in your personal development plans, writing your CV and making applications.
The Competencies Assessment Exercise helps you to assess you proficiency at, and enjoyment of, the competencies employers look for. It can be used at any point in your university career, but start soon enough to give yourself time to identify areas for development and seek out experiences that will address these.
The Qualities Assessment Exercise helps you to identify your personal qualities and to give examples to others of how you have used them.
The Prospects Planner helps you to identify your skills and motivations and then to match yourself to various job types.
To help you work out your own skills, have a look at the English Student Employability Profile. This describes key skills that can be developed from the study of English and that relate to the world of work. Many of them will be familiar to you. Which of these most applies to you? How could you illustrate them to a potential employer? The 'STAR' technique can help you with presenting you skills to an employer - have a look at the University of Surrey's handout on this.
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