We're told that everyone has a talent – that we're all good at something. We're told it's key for everyone to find out what that thing is and to develop those skills. The problem for most of us is that we either never take time to properly identify our talents, or we don't appreciate the skills we do have.
Skills may refer to specific, hard skills, like being good with numbers or woodwork, or less tangible, soft skills like teaching. Your skills come from different sources (and combinations of sources): innate ability, formal education, on-the-job training, volunteering, and/or hobbies/personal interests.
Skills can be identified and measured by formal testing or by self-assessment exercises. Do-it-yourself competencies/skills tests found in career-strategy books should be one of the first steps. Career counselors offer formal skill tests, which are sometimes industry-specific and done by companies to assess the suitability of a potential hire for the specific job and work environment. (Some in academic circles are moving away from endorsing this sort of assessment as overly simplistic and not predictive enough.)
Your skills will fall into one of several categories:
personal/interpersonalleadership/supervising/managingnumeric/technical/hands ontime managementcreativity/thinking/planningselling/marketingresearchingteaching/learningotherList your skills under each category:For example, under personal/interpersonal, list qualities such as good team-building skills, ability to work independently, comfortable with diverse populations; under teaching/learning, list qualities such as acting as preceptor, mentoring; and under numeric/technical/hands on, list qualities such as troubleshooting blood gas analyzers, building a computer from parts.
Indicate your ability level for each:Very high, high, average, below average, theoretical knowledge only, none.
Skills are usually observable:You may want to get feedback from friends, teachers, colleagues, or employers about what they feel your skills are. A caution here: Your acquaintances may identify skills at which you excel, but that you do not enjoy, e.g., you may be a gifted teacher but you find teaching personally stressful.
Highlight which skills are your favorites:Which skills you are naturally good at and also enjoy.
Skill use:
Which of the favorites and which of the other skills do you use in your current job or in your personal or recreational life?Do you feel you are using enough favorites in your current job?Are there any skills that you feel you absolutely have to do in order to be happy in your job?Skill development:
Which favorites or other skills would you like to develop but have not had the opportunity to use in your current job?What are your opportunities to develop these through work, volunteering, further education, or other?If you are looking at new jobs or new careers:
What skills do you need for the type of job you want?Do you have any of these?