1. Chapter 5 Assessing Your Skills Amanda, Cameron, Nathan, Chris, Luis , Chandra , Huy

2. Defining skills -Skills are the currency of the job market-We must have skills for a job… skills include specific attributes, talents, and personal qualities.- We develop our skills through daily living and interacting with others.-Our personal interests often affect the skills and abilities we have, skills will repeatedly use are part of activities we enjoy.

3. Self-Motivators: skills we enjoy and do well• Functional skills are used to accomplish general tasks or functions. Example: maintaining schedules, collecting data and diagnosing and responding to problems.• Work-Containing skills are specific and specialized to one job.Example: assigning grades is done by teachers, healing wounds is done my doctors or nurses and bookkeeping is done by bookkeepers.• Adaptive or self-management skills are personal attributes; also known as personal traits or soft skills. Example: ability to learn quickly, the ability to pay close attention to detail, self-directions and cooperativeness.

4. Identifying Your Skills Reflecting your skills may be difficult because we were taught not to brag. We often discount our own special talents. False assumptions make it difficult to list our skills honestly and accurately Hundreds of skills acquired just by life experiences and one part of your portfolio

5. Don’t categorize yourself too narrowly Ex: “I am a student” or “I am a conservative” These labels tend to lead to stereotype at your job interviews. Be more specific about certain skills you possess! Ex: “My experiences involve public speaking and working over weekends effectively.

6. Analyzing Your Accomplishments -accomplishments: completed activities, goals, projects or jobs held -sample accomplishments: getting into college, repairing a car, planning a surprise party, completing a degree, getting a job, mastering a sport, overcoming a bad habit, giving a speech

7. some may seem simple and like no big deal, but they are accomplishments you can analyze your accomplishments in several ways identify and list skills required to complete them a pattern of skills are your self-motivators that can be used in future endeavors the following activities are a good way to analyze your accomplishments as well

8. Useful Links about Analyzing your Accomplishments Discover Your Skills PSA Featuring Mike Rowe Discoveryourskills.com

9. Transferable Skills -transferable skills are skills you carry from one job to another-there are three ways to identify transferable skills1. Reviewing a tradition national report on skills considered necessary by employers (SCANS skills)2. Reviewing skills one develops while being a secondary school student as well as a college student3. Reviewing a nation Bureau of Labor Statistics website that connects skills ...to occupations

10. -SCANS acronym for Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills-U.S. Department of Labor issued a report-The skills of today include:1. Professional/Work ethnic2. Communications (written and oral)3. Teamwork/Collaboration4. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving-Now work on your skills for your future

11. Identifying Your Transferable Skills A liberal arts degree is a preparation for variety of careers. Majority of graduate with a liberal arts degree do not find work in there field.Communication skills: Listening with a good ear and writing essays and reports or group activities where ideas are shared.

12. Problem Solving or Critical thinking: Is when one is to be an Analytical or abstractly thinker and is able to determine broader issues and able to define them. Creating solutions and handling a new way of problem solving.Human skills: By speaking and advising helps solve and resolve problems. Communicating ideas and effectively cooperating with others to solve and complete projects.

13. Organization skills: Planning or arranging social events and delegating responsibility to others.Research skills: By computerizing the date base, you will be able to use references and themes or analyzing data. You will be able to have more detail when research is done.

14. Your Most Valuable Assets Personalities traits are those that are called natural abilities. Skills that we have naturally without training or education. For instance, a positive attitude, persistance,confidence sense of humor. These things are personal characteristics, that can be very useful when it comes to the job market

15. Identifying your personal traits, set you apart from the crowd if you know them and use them to your advantage. these abilities help you sell yourself and along with your talents when added with your transferable skills.

16. The Portfolio Employee -Your skills are your most valuable asset because it is transferable between jobs. -The more skills you acquire through education or jobs the more versatile you are in the job market.-Examples such as word processing and data management are two common skills that are transferable and can be placed on a portfolio.

17. -Books such as The Future of Work and Free Agent Nation and A Whole New Mind proposes that in this decade that the number of portfolio workers will grow dramatically. -Therefore it is suggested that such workers will not completely belong to one organization but work for several employers on a freelance.-This trend towards self-employed portfolio employees means each of us CAN benefit from this. Being able to identify our skills and determine what skills we have to offer.