Finding Skills in Your Accomplishments

We've looked at your motivated skills by going through an inventory where you rated them in a few different ways.    And you've made a list of past accomplishments where you have demonstrated those skills.

But you may have other skills that we've overlooked or that you didn't think to highlight.   What we need to do next is to look at some of your accomplishments and see what skills you displayed in the course of those experiences.

Yes,   it seems like we're going over the same ground again.   But as I said before,   you need to feel confident when you present yourself on your resume and in interviews.   You need to be prepared!   This will help.

Here are the Instructions:

1.
 		Make a list of about five to seven accomplishments you feel good about.    These can be experiences from any facet of your life,  not necessarily work or education related.    It could be something you did like planning a surprise party,  finishing your senior project,  becoming a U.S. citizen,  organizing a charity event,  planting a garden,   installing a new air conditioner in your house,   or taking a hike up Half Dome in Yosemite Valley.    Anything you did that you feel good about.

2. Select one or two accomplishments from your list that you would like to write a short narrative about.    Be sure to select ones that have a beginning and an end and that can be written about in just a page or two.   

Now write a page or two describing exactly what you did to make your accomplishment happen.   Begin by writing a few thoughts on a sheet of paper.    When you've jotted down a few thoughts that you can use as an outline,  you can write the rest of the story on your computer. (e.g.: Planning a surprise party:  The first step I took was to make sure she didn't have the slightest clue that there was a party waiting for her.   In order to do so,  I had to create a diversion by ... .   I had to invite all of our close friends and family,  so I found her address book and ... .).

Here's an example of an Accomplishment Narrative

3. For the next step,  have a friend or your career coach help you.   Read the narrative out loud and have your friend jot down any thoughts they have about the skills or abilities you used to succeed in the accomplishment.  It works best if you read each sentence and brainstorm together to identify what it was necessary for you to do to make each part of it happen.   If you can't think of any skills that were necessary for each step,  you can refer back to the Skills Inventory we worked on before.

4. For the last step, look at the notes your friend jotted down from your accomplishment narrative and turn them into skill statements,   just like you did in the previous exercises.

Here is an example of an Accomplishment Narrative with the skill statements


We've come to the end of the skill assessment exercies!

But we haven't finished with self-assessment.    You have catalogued your motivated skills,  tied your skills to accomplishments,  and searched for skills in your accomplishments.   Before that,  we looked at your career personality.  Now we have to start looking at what motivates you in life:  what you value,  what really interests you   and what you need to thrive.