Assessing Who You Really Are

A cover letter is utilized to sell yourself, but precisely what about yourself are you selling? For one who spends twenty-four hours a day with yourself, you actually can be surprised to find how little you understand about yourself. This was (and still is to a degree) the truth with me. When I first sat down to construct a cover letter, I was confronted with some unnervingly challenging considerations. What specifically are my strengths? How will they profit an employer? Do I even have any valuable skills at all?!

As you keep an eye out on the modern world, it may well be a struggle, or at the very least counterintuitive, to turn it around and seriously look at just who you are. Even when you do attempt to discover who you are, your self perceptions are often different from the way the world sees you. Have you ever noted how your voice sounds entirely different when you hear a recording of it, but it sounds completely typical to other people? It’s the very same rule here. We see ourselves differently from the inside out than others do from outside in. Because how you are thought of by other people has some highly practical applications (ie. how your prospective employer perceives you), there are a few ways which will help you understand the way the world sees you.

Consult with the people who you are nearest to. Your good friends and family members typically know your strengths, personality, and habits (and quirks), better than you will. By asking them, you can locate some gems available to incorporate in your cover letter (and résumé). If it feels embarrassing, just inform them that you are performing a self assessment to assist you to develop a cover letter. Some questions you can ask are:
What are my strengths/weaknesses?
What are my best personal attributes?
What employability skills do I possess? and
What am I naturally efficient at?

Of course, you might have to take some of these replies with a grain of salt, as some people (your mother, maybe?) will tell you what they suppose you want to hear to help you feel good about yourself. Once again, explain why you’re asking them, and ask them to be truthful with their responses.

I learned that it is worthwhile to generate a skills assessment matrix from my university career center. You can do this by getting a piece of paper, and recording employability skills down the left hand side. Such skills could include:
Intelligence
Communication
Conflict Resolution
Creativity
Customer Care
Flexibility
Initiative
Leadership
Motivation
Organization
Problem-solving
Responsibility
Teamwork

Go ahead and add any others that you feel are needed.

Next, across the top of the page, write down some of the places in which you are most likely to have used these skills, for example work, school, and other extracurricular or volunteer activities.

Now, fill in the grid, using specific examples from those activities. I found this activity to be particularly useful and gained loads of clues about who I am and what I’m good at. This can also give you a great jump start using the STAR method, which I will touch upon in a later post.

By using these tools, you are on the right trackto discovering precisely what you have to offer an employer.

What other tools have you used to discover who you actually are? Tell me in the comments below!