Marble Jar Gang Career Counseling: Skills

The basic premise or formula is to recognize that when your skills + traits + behaviors are placed in the right environment, the outcome will give you a greater chance of success and happiness in your work.

Skills – you have them!

You have three different types of skills. Your goal is to know your strengths in each category and have examples of you utilizing these skills, positively, in previous positions or activities.

-> Cognitive Skills – are mental activities such as thinking, reading, learning, memory, attention span and reasoning. These are considered a ‘soft skills’ and may be described as a part of your personality. Companies will look for flexibility, work ethic, problem solving, analytical and adaptability skills in addition to your interpersonal skills.

-> Interpersonal Skills – how you interact with others, your style of communication and level of emotional intelligence. This is also considered a ‘soft skill’. This skill set may often give others evidence of your leadership, teamwork, management style and relationship building.

-> Technical Skills - the tasks you can accomplish with some level of competence. Your technical abilities are perceived as your ‘hard skills’. Think of these as the things you can already do. Your level of competence in computer programs, any education degrees, how many languages you speak and the level of fluency, or abilities in math.

While a job description may list the minimum levels of technical skills it requires, you will rarely see an outline of the soft skills they require. Do not believe that makes them less important, as it is a fact that they are more important! It is easy to see evidence of a technical skill but, it is up to the candidate to demonstrate, with examples, that they possess the soft skills needed to be a successful employee.

Your homework is to write a list of your cognitive and interpersonal skills and how you have used each in a positive way in current or previous positions.

Second, list your technical skills and how you learned them.

Example: school, read in books, learned on the computer, got a tutor, etc...

When you complete these you can put another marble in your jar.

For a deeper dive check out this great article on skills;

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/skills-companies-need-most-2019-how-learn-them-paul-petrone/