What Are You Good At? You May Not Be the Person To Ask!
by Peter Vogt
You would think that when it comes to figuring out what you're good at, the best source of information would be ... you! After all, who knows you any better than you yourself?
Strangely enough, however -- as I've seen with many college students -- other people can often spot skills in you that you never realized you had.
I once counselled a student who was interested in going into the field of Human Resources. She had just completed an HR-related internship at a local company and was about to graduate. But she was scared she hadn't "really learned much of anything" during her internship, and as a result, she'd have difficulty putting together a good resume and cover letter to land a job in the field.
"What, exactly, did you do in your internship?" I asked her.
"Not much worth talking about," she replied.
"Humour me?" I chuckled, half-asking and half-challenging.
She then went on to tell me about some of the things she'd done during her internship. Among other things she had:
- Written and placed job announcements for positions the company was trying to fill in local and national publications
- Participated in candidate interviews conducted by her supervisor and asked a few questions
- Entered confidential employee information into a computer database
- Analyzed evaluations from an HR professional conference hosted by the company and summarized the information in a written report
She also mentioned that she'd held a job at a local non-profit organization for five hours each week. Again, she said she "didn't do anything" there -- only to concede minutes later that she had reorganized and updated the organization's files dating back to the 1930s!
Clearly, this student had developed wonderful skills in communication, dealing with people, handling private personnel matters, and analyzing and organizing information. So why were her perceptions of her skills so different from mine? Because she, like all of us, had some "blind spots" about her skills -- blind spots that had developed because she was simply too close to herself to recognize her own abilities.
Sometimes it's difficult to see what's right in front of you. This particular student had trouble seeing her skills because they came so easily and naturally to her. They were all so "second nature" that she didn't view them as identifiable, marketable skills. It took an objective "outsider" -- me, in this case -- to point them out to her.
Do you have some skills and abilities that you don't recognize in yourself? If you're like most people, you almost certainly do -- and you'll need to get some help to identify them.
Try the following experiment to see what I mean: Ask two or three of your friends to take a few minutes to think about you and your skills. Have them jot down all of the skills and abilities they think you have, whether they are traits (e.g. honesty, reliability, trustworthiness), transferable skills (e.g. those skills you can take anywhere, like analyzing, organizing, motivating), or special knowledge (e.g. knowing how to develop a Web site, knowing how to design and sew a dress). Then, write down your own thoughts about your skills in these areas.
Once you're finished, compare your list to the lists drawn up by your friends. You'll find, for starters, that you've listed some skills that your friends don't know about. But perhaps more importantly, you'll discover that one or more of your friends list skills you didn't include on your own list -- skills you very likely take for granted. These are the skills that are such a part of you that you don't even recognize them.
Your favourites among these skills will likely point you in an appealing career direction to explore -- one you may not have considered had you not looked beyond the mirror to seek out others' perspectives on your talents and abilities.