Embedded Files
Knowing how to communicate your skills, experiences, strengths, and values to a future employer is a great way to demonstrate why you would be good for a role and helps you feel confident in your employability. It can feel difficult to talk about your strengths, and this might not come naturally to you, but it is important to learn how to do so in order to write effective job applications and to feel confident in your ability to be successful in the future. The activity below outlines questions you can answer to help you see how you are an asset, and how to communicate this to future employer.
Activity
Activity
You have experiences from all aspects of your university life that have helped you develop transferable skills that will be valuable to future employers. To help you with this thinking, write yourself the knowledge and skills you have learnt from the following experiences - use the follow-up questions as prompts:
- Your degree experience
Your degree offers you lots of experiences where you can develop skills that will be valuable outside of the academic setting.
During your studying, when have you used these valuable skills:
Active Listening
Teamwork
Time-management
Organisational skills
Written communication
Verbal communication
Which of these skills do you feel most confident with in your degree expereince? What makes you good at this skill?
Why might these skills be valuable to a future employer?
What specific examples from your degree experience could you use to explain why you are good at one of these skills?
Use the STAR technique to write about one of these experiences examples where you have used one of these skills well. Use the STAR Guide to help you.
- Your personal experiences
Your personal experiences can come from your extracurricular activities, hobbies, passions, societies, clubs, and your personal circumstances.
During your personal life, when have you used these valuable skills:
Active Listening
Teamwork
Time-management
Organisational skills
Written communication
Verbal communication
Which of these skills do you feel most confident with in your personal life? What makes you good at this skill?
Why might these skills be valuable to a future employer?
What specific examples from your personal experience could you use to explain why you are good at one of these skills?
Use the STAR technique to write about one of these experiences examples where you have used one of these skills well. Use the STAR Guide to help you.
- Your professional experiences
Your professional experience can come from a part-time job, any internships, shadowing, placements, or volunteering.
During your professional experiences, when have you used these valuable skills:
Active Listening
Teamwork
Time-management
Organisational skills
Written communication
Verbal communication
Which of these skills do you feel most confident with in your professional experience? What makes you good at this skill?
Why might these skills be valuable to a future employer?
What specific examples from your professional experience could you use to explain why you are good at one of these skills?
Use the STAR technique to write about one of these experience examples where you have used one of these skills well. Use the STAR Guide to help you.
Questions
Questions
Have you faced any challenges in any aspect of your life that you have been able to learn from? Why might learning from this challenge be valuable to a future employer?
Why might having examples from a range of experiences be useful in future applications?
What did you learn from using the STAR technique to explain these experiences? Why might using this technique be helpful in the future?
How can you remind yourself that you are an asset to a future employer?
Adding to your 'My development experiences' on your mySkills profile can help you record your experiences - why might keeping a record of your experiences be useful for your future applications/interviews?
By completing this activity, you will have used these SGAs:
Growth Mindset
Positive Mindset
Defining Purpose
Self-awareness
Communication
Integrity
Critical Thinking
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