Career Quest Determine Skills

Determine Skills

What skills you posses will be a big determining factor in what job you consider. If you have never been a brick mason it is not reasonable to believe that you can go out and instantly get a position as a master mason. If you wish to be a brick mason, you will need to develop the necessary skills in order to do that; either by working as an apprentice or by attending a vocational school which offers those types of courses.

For now let's consider what skills you already possess. Make a list on the worksheet provided of skills you feel you currently use in your work or in positions you have held in the past. Some of those might be typing, filing, ten-key, etc.

Next, write down skills you use in your everyday life such as organization. You could be surprised to realize just how organized you are to get three children to their various clubs and sports on time each day while also attending to the shopping, cleaning, laundry and meals.

Some of you have developed skills working as a shade-tree mechanic or leisure-time carpenter. Just because you have never received a salary for a task does not mean that you do not have the ability or skill to do the job. The same is true for skills you have acquired through volunteer work.

Let's talk a little about what a skill really is. A skill is a very basic activity that is one-dimensional and very focused. Skills are activities not ideas. A marketable skill is a skill that has a measurable value and can be marketed to an employer.

Skills vary from talents in that skills can be improved and developed and even learned. Talents can only be cultivated. To cultivate a talent you must develop the skills used in that talent. For instance, you may possess a talent to paint. To cultivate that talent you must practice or develop the skills used in painting. Some of those skills would be brush technique, color matching and blending, ability to transfer what is seen to the canvas and so on and so forth.

Someone with a natural talent for painting may not have to work quite as hard to develop their skill for painting as someone who has no discernable talent in that area. Someone without talent can learn the basic skills and can paint, but without a natural talent it may be more difficult.

You need to determine in what areas you feel you have a natural talent that you could cultivate and where you have developed or improved skills. When you begin to list your talents and skills, don't be modest. You need to be realistic and evaluate yourself honestly.

In teaching job search courses I have found that one of the most difficult parts of this process is for people to list their skills and talents. I repeatedly hear, "I don't have any." That's preposterous! Each task you have learned since you were a child is a skill of some kind. Each job you have had, each course you have taken has given you something.

God is the giver of talents. If you feel you don't posses any talents, get with God and ask him to show you where your talents lie. He has placed them there; he knows what they are. They may be undiscovered. You may have just not had the opportunity to uncover them. You might have a talent for music, but have never had the opportunity to play an instrument or take music lessons.

If God has given you a dream or a desire, the probability is high that he has also given you a talent and some skills to set you on the journey to that goal. They may be rough and few, but everyone has skills and talents. God will equip you for the call he has placed on your life.

Nancy Jackson, daydreamer extraordinaire

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