As a teaching fellow and as a student personal tutor, I answer many of my students question. One of them being: How do identify my skills?

I understand this question very well because it is something that I keep asking myself every once in a while too. When the last student asked this question again, I thought it would be an interesting post, so here it is. Let me give you some advice on how to identify your skills and how to show them in your CV.

First of all, we need to talk about hard and soft skills.

Hard skills

All the abilities that you learn through practice, working, or study experiences. These are strictly related to the technical aspect of what you work with or what you are studying. Examples of hard skills are ‘writing,’ ‘presentation,’ or ‘analytical skills.’ If you are looking for a food science graduate opportunity or placement, you might want to look into what you have done during the semester.

Have you done laboratory activities? You might have developed analytical skills. 

Have you done some group activities, a presentation, or written an essay-type of assessment? You might have developed presentation and writing skills. 

Soft skills

Those are all the abilities that characterize how you interact with your environment, workspace, and the people you work/study with. Let’s say that this is more related to your personality too. Some examples of soft skills are working autonomously, problem-solving, teamwork, etc…

Have you had any group work or presentations to prepare as an assignment? You might have developed teamwork or leadership skills if you were the team leader of that workgroup.

Did you have to do some laboratory experience or practical, and did you manage to solve issues like analyzing the wrong sample or running short of reagents? You might have developed problem-solving skills.

How do I identify skills?

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