Your job title is hiding what you're good at
When someone asks what you do, you probably give your job title. That's true, but it doesn't tell anyone what you're actually good at. If you're thinking about a new kind of job, the title can even work against you, because it ties your skills to one place.
Here's a simple way to find the skills underneath it, in about ten minutes.
Same person, two answers
Mike would say, "I've worked in construction for fifteen years."
But on one job, Mike noticed the schedule would close off a hallway before another crew had finished working there. He caught it early and flagged it. So what he really does is:
"I compare the plans with what's happening on site, and catch scheduling problems before they cost time."
Same person. Now you can picture the skill.
It helps to pull apart three things:
- What you do: Mike checks plans against reality.
- What makes it tricky: knowing how one crew's work affects the next.
- Where you do it: on a building site.
The where is often the part that ties you to one place. The what might work somewhere else, even from a desk.
Ask yourself three questions
If nothing comes to mind, say these out loud and answer the first thing you think of:
- What do people come to you for, even when it isn't your job?
- What would go wrong if you were away for two weeks?
- What have you explained so many times you could do it in your sleep?
Two more, if you want extra:
- What do new people get wrong in their first month, and how do you spot it?
- What do you check that nobody asked you to check?
Write each answer as something you do
Turn each answer into one sentence that starts with what you did, like Mike's. For example:
- What did you do? "I tracked down where orders were getting stuck and added a quick check."
- What does that show you're good at? "Finding the real cause of a problem and fixing it."
A few tips:
- Say what you did. Team projects are fine. Just describe your part.
- Keep it true. "I figured out why people were confused and wrote a clearer guide" is better than a big claim nobody measured.
- Don't worry if it feels small. Know-how you use every day is exactly what a textbook can't teach.
Those sentences are the skills you can take with you. You'll use them again in your résumé, in job searches and in interviews.
Try it tonight
Pick one question, answer it, and write the sentence. One good example is enough to start.
Mike is a made-up example from the course, but the situation is very real.
From the course: this tip comes from Reflect, the first step of the Remote Escape Plan. Reflect walks you through this with your own examples and saves what you write. It's free.