I. Three Steps to Career Discovery and Planning

Part 1. Self Assessment: A Personal Inventory & Self Portrait: Skills
Career Services

B. Skills

Skills reflect your specific abilities and strengths. A systematic assessment of your skills often reveals your strengths and how you might use these in a work setting. At this point you may not realize that many of the skills you have developed in and out of the classroom are transferable to a variety of work environments. Functional skills reflect the ability to work with people, data and information or objects. You can further break down your skills by looking at your natural talents as well as your intellectual, creative, leadership and problem-solving abilities.

A simple place to start in identifying your skills is to consider your achievements in a whole range of activities, from school, to work, internships, sports, volunteering, and family life. Nothing is irrelevant. Whether it was a research project (analytical, writing, problem solving) or participating on the crew team (time management, teamwork, and goal setting), your unique skills contributed to accomplishing your goals.

Do not underestimate the value of the skills and abilities that you have cultivated in these settings. Look to your experience for some important clues on how you might want to shape your future.

When thinking about your skills don't compare yourself to others, but look for evidence of skill in situations that you handled or tasks that you accomplished. Be sure that you are being realistic and not wishful. It is important to keep in mind that what you are capable of doing in one context can be done in others. At the end of this assessment you should review your skills with a career counselor.

This exercise is designed to help you evaluate some specific skills that are transferable to work settings.

SKILLS INVENTORY (this inventory is not yet functional for submission, but you can tally up your strengths manually)

This is a list of skills found in a cross-section of careers. Check the skills that you believe reflect your strengths.

administering programs	investigating problems
advising people	listening to people
analyzing data	locating missing data
appraising services	managing an organization
arranging social functions	measuring boundaries
auditing financial records	mediating between people
budgeting expenses	meeting the public
calculating numerical data	monitoring progress of others
checking for accuracy	motivating others
classifying records	negotiating contracts
coaching individuals	operating equipmeent
collecting money	organizing people and tasks
compiling statistics	persuading others
confronting other people	planning agendas
constructing buildings	planning organizational needs
coordinating events	politicking others
corresponding with others	predicting futures
counseling people	preparing materials
creating new ideas	printing by hand
deciding uses of money	processing human interactions
delegating responsibility	programming computers
designing data systems	promoting events
dispensing information	protecting property
displaying information	protecting property
distributing products	raising funds
dramatizing ideas and problems	reading volumes of material
editing publications	recording scientific data
enduring long hours	recruiting people for hire
entertaining people	prehabilitating people
estimating physical space	remembering information
evaluating programs	repairing mechanical devices
exhibiting plans	repeating same procedure
expressing feelings	researching in library
finding information	reviewing programs
handling complaints	running meetings
handling detail work	selling products
imagining new solutions	serving individuals
initiating with strangers	setting up demonstrations
inspecting physical objects	sketching charts and diagrams
interpreting languages	supervising others
interviewing people	teaching classes
updating files	writing clear reports

 

SUBMIT GOES HERE
This exercise is adapted from The Complete Job-Search Handbook, by Howard Figler, Ph.D.

 

 

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Career Services
University of Pennsylvania
Suite 20, McNeil Building,
3718 Locust Walk
Philadelphia
PA 19104-6209