Describe the value you bring to your work [Exercise]
It’s more than your skills and work experience!
The main thing to take away from this article is that you bring much more to your work than a list of skills and experiences in your CV.
Take a moment to think about how you’d usually describe your skills and experience. Maybe it‘s something like “I’ve been a software designer for 5 years, and I can use XYZ tools and I’m good at communicating and being creative.”
But what about your life and work journey and themes, your history, other knowledge and experience you have from volunteering, sports, hobbies, your challenges overcome, your interests and motivations. They’re all really valuable too!
The reason we tend to think about what we bring in the narrower ways is because the places we usually gather this information (CV, LinkedIn, cover letter) isn’t for us, it’s for someone else.
🌟 But, it’s really useful to think more broadly about all the value you bring?
It helps you to feel confident and purposeful, to be more intentional about what jobs to try next or skills to grow, to show how you fit a job, to identify your strengths.
Taking stock of your full value every now and then is a chance to act as your own CEO, in control of your next steps.
Background
During my Masters degree in 2019, I studied ways to support people in tech to take care of their careers. My research showed that most of us still expect that our employers can and will help us take care of our careers. But, times have changed.
Employers are dealing with a lot more complexity, people move more often and don’t stay in their jobs as long. There are many more avenues for people to grow which makes it hard for them to pinpoint what’s best for each individual. Employers don’t have time to help people figure out all they bring, what they need and want. Added to this, people have their own goals and desires that may not match what an employer expects.
This means it’s really useful for each of us to have an idea of what we bring, which includes:
- A wide variety of skills and experience from work and outside of work.
- Generic skills you have that are useful across many workplaces, not just for specific jobs.
- Your own set of ‘human’ skills, more varied than ‘communication’ and ‘teamwork’.
- Your own motivations, goals and interests, challenges overcome.
- Your own lived experience and context at work and in life and within your community and wider.
Below, I’ll describe areas of value (experience, skill, knowledge) and give options for how to use your insights.
All the Value You Bring
There are eights parts: six categorise different kinds of skills and experience, one looks at wider influences, and the central part is about you!
The model offers a wider and more personal and specific view of all you bring, to any work you do.
➡️ Download a practical worksheet here.
🔵 1. Technical skills
These are skills for specific role or context
Technical skills are the tools, processes or understanding needed for a specific role or work context. For example:
- A support specialist uses a specific set of skills which are different to the key skills used by a UX Designer.
- People who work in finance or banking have different industry knowledge than people in advertising or web design.
In both examples, there are also skills used by both types of jobs or industries, but it’s useful to pinpoint your job and industry knowledge.
Technical skills can be basic to advanced level. They are gained by study and work experience — could be paid or volunteer work, hobbies or side gigs.
Technical skills are about doing a specific job or work context. Generic work skills are covered below.
🔵 2. Work essentials
Skills used across different workplaces.
These skills aren’t about a specific role — they’re the skills needed across all your workplaces.
Work skills include things like:
- How to have effective one-on-ones and performance reviews
- Techniques for getting work done and meeting deadlines
- Giving status updates
- Holding/attending meetings
- Planning and prioritising your work
- Being able to use generic work tools such as Slack, Zoom, Miro, Google Drive etc.
🔵 3. Human skills
Soft skills, social skills and interpersonal skills.
These are the attitudes and perspectives that we bring to our interactions with others.
Think of the ways that people interact with each other in person and online, the human qualities used at work, people’s approaches and attitudes — all of these skills are valuable at work, and can be learnt and grown just the same as technical skills are.
The most common human skills that people refer to are communication, teamwork and leadership, but there are many more, for example empathy, storytelling, giving/receiving feedback, active listening, collaboration, building trust, coaching, facilitation, encouragement, visualisation.
🔵 4. Business basics
The fundamentals of business.
Knowledge of the different areas of business adds to the value you bring. This may include knowledge of strategy, finance, sales, marketing, legal, technology, operations. Also diversity, equity, inclusion and the role of senior leadership, boards and legislation.
It is not essential to understand these different areas of a business but they are very helpful as you grow in seniority.
These skills can be learnt on the job but also from hobbies, study or activities outside of your day job.
🔵 5. Career growth
Navigating your career journey
Modern career skills support us to adapt to changes in our workplaces, to grow our employability, to keep learning and to be equipped to create a fulfilling career that meets our evolving needs.
Career skills include things like:
- Writing and updating your CV, LinkedIn, cover letter etc
- Knowing how to navigate modern careers (when to move on, what to do next, acting as your own CEO)
- Understanding effective ways to describe what you bring, what you want and need
- Changing focus / re-training
- Options to grow skills, get training, practice
- Job search approaches
- Connecting with people, networking
- Expanding your influence
- Supporting others in their career journey
🔵 6. Self-awareness
Your needs and wants
Ultimately, your work and your career should suit you. Knowing yourself and your needs, goals and wishes is valuable because those insights allow you to plan better and to be more intentional.
Self-awareness includes:
- An understanding of your traits, behaviours and feelings
- Your goals and interests
- What brings or drains your energy
- How best to take care of your wellness
- Your appetite for risk
- Your capacity for change or taking on new things
- Practical considerations for things like finances, work location, requirements like getting a visa, flexible work etc.
🔵 7. You
Your unique journey
This refers to the insights, knowledge and context that comes from your life journey. It includes:
- Your unique family context and history and the events and stories that inform your world view.
- Your values and interests.
There are many other examples of personal context and life events that mean you have special insight and understanding. Some examples: your family and generational history, your struggles and experiences, where you have seen injustices or hardship, being in a group that may not be offered as many opportunities, causes you care about.
All of these experiences and perspectives shape what you bring to work.
🔵 8. The wider context
External considerations
Wider influences come from the work and social communities you are situated within. They could be local, national or international.
Some external considerations may be predictable but many are not. Some examples might be the impact of distributed teams working from home, the impact of climate change, the state of the job market, political or economic outlook, business/hiring outlook.
Your experience of these influences and your place within them, as well as your ability to respond and adapt, will have a bearing on what you bring to your work.
🌱 Ways to use this model
Option 1. Take stock
Take a few moments to reflect on each of those areas for yourself. (Download a blank worksheet here).
Note a few ideas per section, think of the abilities, experience and context that you have, and how those factors might be of value in your current or future workplace.
Option 2. A tool for growth
Scan the model and identify only one or two areas that you are drawn to or feel curious about. Reflect on the skills you have in those areas and where you’d like to grow your skills. Decided on a few small steps to take.
These exercises give deeper insights into the qualities and substance you bring to your work, they help with confidence and allow you to be more specific about what you offer.
This in turn helps you to identify common ground between the value you bring and what would be useful, for example when applying for a new job.
If you’re applying for a new job
Think of the most pressing needs of that new team.
Compare those needs to what you offer. Where is the overlap? Use this information to focus and to be specific about your value in that context.
We’re seldom aware of the rich and interesting lives that our workmates have led, the work they’ve done, the influences and experiences that make them who they are. We often haven’t thought about this for ourselves.
When you gain these insights you can better describe what you bring to your work. You can draw on that understanding for your own sense of self, for your confidence, as a touchpoint for making decisions, to describe areas of strength or to look at ways you’d like to grow.
You can also support others to gain these insights for themselves so they too feel more certain of all the value they bring.
👏🏻 If you found this article useful, please consider giving it some Claps so it can reach more people, or help fund my coffee addiction with a Ko-fi tip 👏🏻
