by Catherine Twiss
To refresh your memory on Sam's story check out:
Although doing a skills audit can seem like a daunting, time consuming task, it's an absolute essential activity for anyone looking to change jobs or careers. A skills audit helps identify what skills you have and
then most importantly helps you to organise and understand those skills in terms of your strengths/weaknesses, likes and dislikes. Not only is this vital information if you're thinking of changing career direction
but it's also essential for your resume, networking conversations and interviews.
Back to Sam...
Once Sam had completed the Skills Worksheet (Part B, Who am I?) she went straight on to Part C to organise the data, and then had to provide evidence and examples of where she's used her skills (Part D). Although completing Part D can seem quite tedious, you just know that at interview you'll be asked "can you give me an example of where you have used X skill?" So it's worth doing this exercise! In terms of interpreting the data, what was clear for Sam is that she was skilled in many of the categories under 'Analyse', 'Research', 'Planning and Organising' as well as 'Communication' and 'Interpersonal Skills' and these were of high interest to her. In terms of potential training opportunities she identified 'Management', 'Leadership' and 'Finance and Accounting'. What was interesting is that many of the skills listed under 'Counselling/Advising', although skilled in these areas, held little interest for her, yet formed a large part of her work as an Osteopath.
When reflecting on these results Sam acknowledged that part of the motivation in pursuing her studies was the scientific element of the course, the research, investigation etc and she derived a lot of satisfaction from her studies. The reality of having a practice was different however and although she enjoyed investigating how and why a patient presented with a problem, she was less comfortable interacting in a counselling/advising role.
In terms of training opportunities she noted that she had considered studying Finance and Accounting at uni but went down the clinical science route instead. The quandary for Sam was should she consider returning to uni to study accounting?
Read the next instalment here
