In this episode, I talk about the steps to take to build a skills inventory. I'll cover some of the resources that we spoke about in Episode 17 as well as the specific approach for creating your skills inventory. We'll also talk about why having a skills inventory is important and how you can use it to support your career and learning journeys.
Key Takeaways
- Broadly, skills can be grouped as transferable skills (what you can do), special knowledge (what you know), and self-management skills (how you conduct yourself)
- Transferable skills are the most important and these are skills like constructing, creating, researching, analysing, teaching, organising, repairing, initiating, networking, communicating, planning
- Special knowledge is skills like physics, graphic design, bookkeeping, mathematics, data analysis, French, and psychology
- Self-management skills are skills like being adaptable, self-confident, dependable, supportive, loyal, persistent, innovative, and resourceful
- The more transferable skills you have, the more choice you will have when it comes to jobs and careers
- Transferable skills can be further broken down into people skills, information or data skills, and skills working with things
- Identify and describe seven stories that are significant to you. These can cover both your career and personal life. Typical things might be something that stood out in your life, publicly displaying your skills, a really good outcome, something that gave you pride or was a particular challenge, something that your colleagues or peers could not do, something that you would like to do or experience again, something that excited you
- Matching skills to these stories will provide you with a skills inventory, highlighting your strongest skills and also any gaps
- Use this inventory to compare against still that are in demand
Resources Mentioned
I used the following resources in this episode:
Recommended Reading
I used and recommend reading What Colour Is Your Parachute? 2020: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles
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