In addition to the variety of skills gained from your degree, employers also look for evidence of other abilities, such as communicating, organising and prioritising, problem solving, team working and adaptability.
In order to sell yourself, you need to be clear about what skills, abilities and experience you can offer to a particular job. Be honest with yourself and identify areas where you could improve with experience or possibly add skills that would be desirable to employers. By checking job adverts regularly, you will gain an idea of what employers are looking for when they recruit.
As an introduction to assessing your own skills, you can refer to our Skills and Qualities leaflet and also to our information about applications and interviews which includes writing a CV. Alternatively, come along to the Careers Centre where you can speak to a Careers Adviser or attend one of our workshops on writing CVs and applications. If you would like more comprehensive help on self-assessment, try using CV Builder, or a session on Prospects Planner. Bear in mind that these are just tools to help you to assess and develop your own abilities and are not meant to be prescriptive.
Written Communication Skills
- using good, clear, grammatically correct English
- correct spelling
- summarising and simplifying complex information
- presenting your arguments clearly and persuasively
- writing short reports
- using foreign languages
Oral Communication Skills
- listening to arguments
- identifying key points
- networking
- persuading others
- simplifying complex information
- being persuasive
- presenting information clearly
- speaking publicly
- using foreign languages
Information Technology
- keyboard skills
- ability to use and learn new software packages
- being knowledgable about computer languages
- writing computer programs
- developing computer systems
Numeracy
- being quick with numbers
- being accurate
- analysing numerical information
- manipulating numbers
- interpreting the implications of numbers
- determining trends
- using formulae
Problem-solving
- analysing situations
- understanding the critical elements
- seeing the relationship between them
- devising ways of resolving difficulties
- creative thinking
Working with others
- working effectively in groups
- setting objectives
- planning to meet objectives
- making decisions
- getting the best out of others
- negotiating
- delegating
- coordinating
- confronting difficult decisions and people
- using assertiveness techniques
Improving your own performance
- actively reflecting on process and work outcomes
- prioritising demands
- looking critically at effectiveness
- learning from experience
- identifying and confronting own weaknesses
- setting personal development objectives
- monitoring personal development
