By Stu at SJI Creative
What are you good at?
I know I’ve asked myself that question innumerable times over the course of not only my career, but my life. At times, I still struggle to grasp what exactly my skills are, let alone quantify them. Lucky are they who know where their abilities lie.
Or are they? If you’ll permit me, I’ll provide a personal example: I am, for better or worse, skilled at interpersonal interaction; this has at times been seen as an excellent fit for customer service roles, particularly those that are customer-facing. I have sat behind many counters and handled thousands of transactions, queries and requests from the public. However, it may be apparent to you readers that I’m not currently in one of those roles, nor have I been for many years. Because, as good as I might be at the role of customer service, or welcome assistant, or whatever a given company or organisation chooses to call the job, I find it incredibly stressful. As sociable as I am, I also have a limited ‘social battery’, so I often found that when I worked in those roles and environments, I would have little to no energy left at the end of the day to engage in anything social outside of work. My skill, although evident and still extant, proved detrimental to my personal life and well-being.
Fortunately, I’m good at other things too, e.g. writing. A task I am gladly engaging in at this very moment. Also: researching, collating, summarising, issue framing, and understanding the creative process – among other things. But those skills are more complex to demonstrate in an interview setting. To succeed in my current role, I need to have a body of work, a portfolio, references, and customer testimonials – all of which can be a bit more challenging to acquire and present than simply appearing personable and engaging in front of a hiring manager.
You, whomever you may be, might have immediately apparent skills. If those skills align with your passions and don’t clash with your ability to lead the kind of life you want outside of the workplace, so much the better. But perhaps, like me, those immediately apparent skills don’t align with your passions and inhibit your ability to lead that life. In which case, should you pursue work that utilises those skills? Should I return to customer service positions to escape the difficulties inherent in my current profession? No, I don’t believe so. I’d rather face challenges with greater peace of mind than do a job that is, on the surface, easier, but causes me difficulties in the longer term.
Don’t be afraid to explore the less obvious. Your range of marketable skills is very likely much wider and runs much deeper than you might imagine. If you feel like you’re ready, take the chance. See what else you can be good at.
