Module 4 - Career Planning

Unit 6: Your Skill Base

Recognising and Articulating Your Skill Base

We all have skills. They can be developed at university (beer-drinking, anyone?), at work, in voluntary activities or at play. These skills, in turn, can be applied to your job search to a) narrow down career fields or b) make you more attractive to employers. (OK, maybe not the beer-drinking!)

To obtain a job, you need to be able to demonstrate that you possess the skills that your employers believe are necessary to successfully fulfil the role. Many of these are generic, remaining valuable in a wide variety of environments - communication skills, teamwork, organisation, initiative, etc - which can then be refined for the position. Teachers, for example, should be able to interact with students, manage a classroom, adapt to varying situations and get involved in school activities. Other positions require some specific skills; IT positions, for example, will require the knowledge of certain programs and technical skills.

To determine which skills are necessary for the jobs you are seeking, you should read actual job advertisements or generic job descriptions.