Exercise 2: What are your skills?

We often overlook or don't recognise what we've achieved or what skills we've gained through employment. In particular we tend to overlook skills gained through other activities such as raising children, volunteer work, leisure, travel, education, etc.

Step 1

A very useful exercise is to spend some time thinking about your past and identifying what you've accomplished, things you've done well and especially things that you've enjoyed.

Step 2

Write these down using the 'memory net' * form below. You can do so by copying the form over to your word processing package, or by printing it out.

Memory Net

Adapted from: Bolles, R.N. (1989) What Color is Your Parachute? A practical manual for job-hunters and career changers. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, pp. 218-223.

After filling in the 'memory net' you may find it beneficial to write out your achievements in prose style, focusing on your accomplishments, no matter how small, from childhood onwards. This can be a wonderfully gratifying exercise, giving yourself pats on the back for your achievements and for skills you have gained and used.

If you're having trouble identifying accomplishments and skills, you're probably being too hard on yourself! Ask someone who knows you well to help you out.

Benefits

By identifying and writing down your skills and achievements, you have a record that you can use to:

• provide data for use in your résumé, in addressing selection criteria, and in answering questions at interview
• boost your confidence.