List Your Strengths and Skills

Writing down a checklist
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters, via Unsplash

Everyone has a set of skills and strengths that they use in their everyday lives. Exploring those skills or strengths by creating a list of them can be beneficial in various ways! Some examples were listing these skills can be helpful include when you are preparing for college, looking for a job/co-op, or just trying to get to know yourself better. It is crucial to list your strengths and skills to have a visual understanding of yourself, your strengths, and how they could help you plan for your future. 

Understanding your Strengths: 

If you want to address your strengths and skills, you can do so in a simple chart. Focus on several main points to define where your talents lie, then list each of them:  

  • Knowledge-based skills: Describes areas where you have skills from experience or education (computer skills, languages, degrees, training, and technical ability).   
  • Transferable Skills: Skills you acquired from working with others (communication and people skills, analytical problem solving, and planning skills).  
  • Personal Traits: Your unique qualities that make yourself you (dependable, flexible, friendly, hardworking, expressive, formal, punctual, and being a team player). 

Think about it! 

How are you different from other people? What experiences may contribute to you thinking differently from others? Think about your relationships with friends, family, and other people and list your strengths and skills based on what they say about you and what you have experienced from positive interactions with them. They could help inspire you to write more about yourself! 

Use examples that apply to you! 

Think about situations that you’ve been in. How did you go about that given situation, how did you react or problem solve? Do you have traits that give you experience in a particular field? Are you able to understand specific topics that you have previously worked with or are learning about? Use examples from your own life to examine how to define your strengths and skills.   

Be descriptive and specific: 

If you want to list out your skills, they should have a reasonable description with a well-informed use of vocabulary to explain them. Rather than writing simple sentences about what you did or worked on, focus on writing something that would get another person’s attention:  

Example: 

Instead of this:  

  • Drove around to several places to deliver materials for workers.  

Try this: 

  • Delivered various materials to landscaping jobs to provide assets for the workers. 

Examples: 

Here are some examples of strengths and skills to give you additional inspiration for your list: 

Strengths: 

  • Enthusiasm – Looking to work with others or yourself on any given project.   
  • Trustworthiness – Willing to work with and put trust in others to get an assignment done. Reliable in team situations.  
  • Creativity – Outside-the-box thinking that provides ideas to help solve a problem or brings a new perspective.  
  • Discipline – Knows reserve when necessary and handles a situation with care and focus.   
  • Patience – Calm and able to carry a voice of reason, slow to become frustrated, and able to go with the flow when something doesn’t go your way. 

Skills: 

  • Marketed a fashion brand through websites that encompass modern trends and styles. 
  • Operated various forms of machinery to station pipelines across roads & crosswalks.  
  • Developed a computer program with other designers to create a network that keeps the company connected. 
  • Conducted experiments in various fields of research to reach a conclusion based on future environmental concerns. 
  • Designed promotional material for YouTube videos that focus on themes of design and media. 

These are just some of many different forms of strengths and skills that can be used to inspire you to create your own list!