Taking Stock of Your Essential Skills

Taking Stock of Your Essential Skills

What essential attributes do employers, graduate schools, and society want from you as a college graduate and productive citizen? The essential attributes fall into two skill categories:

I. Specific Skills: Evidence of Expertise in Your College Major
• Develop a portfolio of your academic major coursework and internships
• Show examples of your expertise development in your academic major
• Feature examples of your academic major coursework and how substitutes for professional experience

II. General Skills: Range of Skills from your College Experience
• Technology Skills (e.g., digital literacy, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, etc.)
• Quantitative skills (e.g.,accounting, statistics, economics)
• Communication skills (e.g., written and oral)
• Marketing/selling skills (e.g., sales, publicity, fund raising)
• Scientific skills (e.g., lab skills, scientific research)
• Foreign language skills (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, or Russian)
• Decision Making skills (e.g., problem solving individually and in group)
• Leadership skills (e.g., supervisory, extracurricular leadership roles, teamwork/team leader).

Resources for identifying your essential skills:

Quintessential Career: Transferable Skills

http://www.quintcareers.com/job_skills_values.html

http://www.quintcareers.com/cover_letter_transferable_skills.