Identifying Your Skills and Accomplishments

Identifying your skills
Identifying the skills that have driven your accomplishments

• Shows the employer your capabilities.
• Communicates your selling points.
• Provides solid evidence of your value.

General/soft skills determine your success in a wide range of positions and situations. These may include:

• Analytical ability
• Ability to motivate others
• Thinking strategically
• Ability to drive results
• Focusing on customer needs
• Building relationships
• Managing profitability
• Demonstrating flexibility

Specific/technical skills determine your success in unique positions. Some examples include:

• Budgeting
• Forecasting
• SAP programming skills
• Actuarial math skills
• Database management
• Financial analysis
• Public relations
• Manufacturing

Identifying your Accomplishments

Accomplishments can be professional or personal. To identify them, peruse old performance appraisals, job descriptions, letters of praise, calendars or planners to remember the projects and tasks you've completed, and any outstanding results you've achieved. 

Sample Accomplishments could be:

• Managed a staff of fifteen.
• Reduced operating costs by 20%.
• Completed a database program that allowed the organisation to obtain reports on variables that they were previously unable to investigate.
• Improved customer service ratings by 35%.

An easy way to define/explain each achievement it to specify the Challenge, Action and Results (CAR). Once you've identified your major accomplishments, this formula will help you be more specific, both on your resume and during interviews.

The C-A-R formula: 
C — the CHALLENGE you or your business faced. 
A — the ACTION you took.
R — the RESULTS you obtained.