How to Take Inventory of Your Skills and Use Them to Find a Job

The last edition of the Get Hired newsletter set the scene and made the case for taking your career and skills seriously as we head into this next era of work. Strategic planning and skills inventories will be a strong foundation to build your future upon as the workforce is rocked by uncertainty and AI technology.

You're not alone in this journey, though. My colleagues and I have been thinking a lot about this and talking to other incredibly knowledgeable leaders and thinkers. In fact, last week, we launched our first ever list of Skills on the Rise, featuring the top 15 skills growing in demand in the U.S. and those specific to 15 industries. You can also check out the Skills on the Rise in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, India, Spain and the UK.

Before you start learning new skills, though, it's important to know your starting point. To do this, I sat down with Jenny Wood , who is the author of the new book Wild Courage: Go After What You Want and Get It. Jenny knows what she's talking about when it comes to growing your career and finding new opportunities. She spent years at Google, becoming an executive and — as a side project — creating one of the company's largest and most successful career programs. We talked about how you can take a skills inventory and put it to use in your job search.

(This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

Andrew: What is your advice for sort of taking inventory of your current skills?

Jenny: Of the nine traits of Wild Courage, which are weird, selfish, shameless, nosy, obsessed, manipulative, brutal, reckless and bossy, this falls squarely into the shameless trait and the manipulative trait. We're reclaiming the words here. Shameless is having the ability to talk about your strengths. I think if we walked out on the street right now and asked 20 people, "What are your three skills?" I think that a lot of people would scratch their head and have a hard time identifying them.

Taking some time to sit down, to write down your passions, your talents, and your skills. Asking a former colleague or a friend or a mentor or a former manager, "What do you think my skills are?" Then, having a mix of business skills and people skills or hard skills and soft skills is really critical.

For example, my three power assets are people leadership, stakeholder influence and building things from startup to scale. Those are skills. I have a mix of hard and soft. Does it sound shameless for me to go into an interview and say these are my three skills? I would argue that it's helpful to the interviewer because they can just clearly write down what those skills are.

The reason I say that's kind of shameless is to dial up the confidence. Kick imposter syndrome to the curb and actually articulate and identify in an elevator pitch your three skills. And, by the way, three specifically — not 10. That's overwhelming. 

Now, we get to be manipulative, which  is the courage to build lasting relationships, the courage to influence through empathy. This is all about finding out what people want and making it happen for them. Whether you're selling yourself or a product or an idea, your ability to win friends and allies and partners is critical to getting anything done and advancing in your career or landing that job.

This would mean that once you identify those skills, share them 24 hours before the interview. Send a note with a couple of bullets that share these three power assets and know that it's actually expanding the pie. It's helping the interviewer right away understand what it is that you bring to the table so you don't have to spend 7 out of the 30 minutes of that interview level setting them around what it is that you contribute.

Andrew: And I assume part of that also is that you need to be able to back them up. Right? You need to be able to bring those skills back to real life examples.

Jenny: Yeah. I say think about the ROI of every bullet that you write or everything you mention in an interview. Not classic ROI — return on investment — but a new, redefined ROI. What was your role? What was your objective? And what was your impact?

Andrew: This follows advice that I often give people: you're not just telling them what you did, you're telling them how well you did it. You have to show that what you did actually mattered and moved the needle.

Jenny: Yeah. From the skill sharers perspective, it might sound boastful or obnoxious. I was coaching someone who was applying for a role. I suggested writing this email 24 hours before the interview sharing three bullets of his skills and evidence of them. He was so uncomfortable doing it. He was a top 1% sales producer. Literally, he shared this with me on the phone. I asked, "Well, why wouldn't you put that in a bullet?" He's said, "Well, doesn't it sound kind of obnoxious?" I told him, "If there's ever a time to share something like that, this is your moment."

It's hard to find good talent. I want the top 1% revenue producer on my team. I want to sign him so fast so that my colleague can't snag him before I do. We have this mindset that, "oh, everyone's smarter than I am. Everyone's more skilled than I am. Everyone is more talented than I am." We often forget to celebrate our own wins, and this is a great time to celebrate that.

Andrew: I think also that goes back to the idea that you're not just sharing any three skills; you're sharing ones that are relevant to the role.

Jenny: Yeah. And by the way, how you talk about the skills is really important, too. The same skill could be said in 20 different ways. I had this mentee, Martina. She came to me with her three power assets. They all sounded pretty meek, and she was an all-star. They were things like good at communication, good at teamwork and good at supporting others. 

We took some of those same soft sounding skills. Communication became go-to-market strategy because that's what she was doing. Again, call it manipulation of language, but it can be very effective. So think about the word choice, because the way you present your skills and the words you choose can make a big difference.

Andrew: What's your advice if you're looking at a role that you want and realize you don't have all the necessary skills? Also, what if you realize you don't like doing those things?

Jenny: There's so much upskilling you can do on your own. When I applied to Google, I did not even know what Google advertising was. It was called AdWords at the time. I told myself, "Well, I don't think every candidate is going to invest 20 hours in a Google AdWords certificate before the interviews, but I am." And that also told me that I loved the analysis and the way the program worked and all the different bells and whistles you could shift.

Especially with AI, new skills are coming out and there are different ways we can leverage it. A lot of that you can get a certificate, you can do training, you can do a 45-minute starter course and — just like you said — decide if you like it or if it's fun. Ask yourself, "Is it something that I think I'd enjoy doing for the next two years?"

Andrew: Plus, the main thing is — at the end of the day — you're going to be the one who has to learn it.

Jenny: It's a great barometer.

You may not like to think of your career as a game, but it's an apt analogy. For example, there are strategies you can use to increase your odds of success. Then, of course, there is always the element of luck. Kendall Berg , known as "That Career Coach," knows a lot about playing the career game. She shared her tips with me on the latest episode of my Get Hired podcast. She breaks down the three pillars of career success, shares best practices for asking for a promotion and identifies signs it’s time to move on to your next role. You can find a transcript of our conversation by clicking here. Also, the episode is available on your favorite podcast platform by clicking here.

As a quick reminder, we're looking for feedback on the podcast to help make it better. Please take a moment to answer our listener survey by clicking here.