resume and cover letter

Over the years, you have developed many skills from school, volunteer work, work and your total life experiences. A prospective employer expects you to be able to apply the skills you have learned throughout your life to the work environment. Use the following checklist to help you pinpoint some of your transferable skills.

Communication Skills

·

· Speaking effectively

· Writing clearly and concisely

· Listening attentively and objectively

· Expressing ideas

· Facilitating group discussion

· Interviewing

· Editing

· Responding appropriately to +/- feedback

· Using various media to present ideas imaginatively

· Providing appropriate feedback

· Negotiating

· Perceiving nonverbal messages

· Persuading

· Reporting information

· Public speaking

· Using various styles of written communication

Research/Planning/Investigation

·

· Forecasting/Predicting

· Creating ideas

· Identifying problems

· Identifying resources

· Gathering information

· Extracting important information

· Analyzing

· Developing evaluation strategies

· Formulating questions

· Making conclusions

· Observing and discovering

· Conceptualizing

Human Relations/Interpersonal

·

· Developing rapport

· Listening

· Providing support for others

· Motivating

· Cooperating

· Interacting effectively with peers, superiors and subordinates

· Persuading others

· Teaching/Instructing others

· Demonstrate effective social behavior

· Delegating with respect

· Working with diversity or multi-cultural issues

· Keeping a group “on track”

Work Survival

·

· Implementing decisions

· Cooperation

· Enforcing policies

· Being punctual

· Managing time and stress

· Attending to detail

· Working effectively under pressure

· Taking initiative in job-related duties

· Meeting goals

· Enlisting help accepting responsibility

· Setting and meeting deadlines

· Organizing

· Seeking opportunities for professional development

· Evaluating personal and professional strengths

Financial Management

·

· Developing a budget accurately, estimating expenses and income

· Keeping accurate and complete financial records

· Accounting

· Assessing

· Investing

· Ensuring timelines of payments

· Fundraising

· Calculating

· Projecting /Forecasting

Organization/Management/Leadership/Decision Making

·

· Initiating new ideas and tasks

· Handling details

· Coordinating tasks

· Coaching/Mentoring

· Counseling

· Managing conflict

· Motivating an leading people

· Organizing people/tasks to achieve a specific goal

· Following up with others to evaluate progress

· Conducting meetings

· Giving praise and credit to others for a job well done

· Solving problems/Mediating

· Taking risks

· Implementing sound decisions

· Managing groups

· Delegating responsibility

· Teaching/Instructing

· Promoting change

· Selling ideas or products

· Making decisions with others

· Analyzing tasks

· Identifying people who can contribute to solutions of problems or tasks

· Facilitating brainstorming activities

· Developing goals for an organization

· Prioritizing tasks

· Encouraging and inspiring

· Negotiating agreements

· Taking responsibility for decisions

Critical Thinking/Problem Solving

·

· Anticipating problems before they occur

· Defining problems and identifying possible causes

· Identifying possible solutions and selecting the most appropriate ones

· Creating innovative solutions to complex problems

· Involving group members to evaluate solutions and developing plans to implement solutions

· Multi-tasking

· Identifying a general principle that explains interrelated experience

PUTTING YOUR TRANSFERABLE SKILLS TO WORK

List five skills that you consider your best transferable skills. Write an example of where or how you used each skill and rank the skills with number 1 being the most important.

Skills

Example

Ranking

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.