Skills Audit Summary
Completing the Deakin Talent ‘Self Awareness audit’ gave me the opportunity to identify the way I solve problems, what I enjoy about my work and the strengths and weakness in my skill sets.
The image below provides a snapshot into the three areas listed above.
Areas of Interest
The area of interest summary describes the way you like to perform a job and the method of problem solving. The top three areas of interest for me were Realistic, Investigative and Social.
Realistic. A realistic person likes to use tools and work in a physical environment. They like to solve problems by having a go (Deakin Talent, 2018). As a qualified Maintenance Fitter I find a lot of enjoyment out of fixing things and working with my hands. I also believe the best way to fix something is to just start.
Investigative. An investigative person has a natural curiosity and tends to prefer to use their mind over tools. They like to solve problems by thinking through them logically and critically (Deakin Talent, 2018). This is the other side of my trade background. Sometimes a customer needs something fabricated or modified to do a particular job. So there was a requirement to think the problem through and develop a solution to suit the purpose.
Social. A social person tends to trust their feelings and enjoys working with others by providing training, teaching and being generally helpful. They solve problems through their feelings and through collaboration (Deakin Talent, 2018).
Career Values
The career values describe what you enjoy about your working environment. The top three career values identified for me were Expertise/Challenge, Autonomy and Authority/Influence.
Expertise/Challenge. This describes a need for an intellectually stimulating and challenging work environment. Continued learning and development is important.
Autonomy. Autonomy describes a desire to work independently or to complete tasks their way. They enjoy creative freedom when working on a task.
Authority/Influence. This describes a strong need to be in a managerial or leadership position. There is a desire to be part of the decision making team and be seen as a subject matter expert.
Skills Strengths and Weaknesses
The list of skills in the ‘self awareness audit’ was quite comprehensive and gave a good indication of the areas i need to develop.
My strengths such as leadership, decision making, adaptability, problem solving, technical skills and teamwork all come from a long working career. These form part of our continuously development, as regardless of your specific job role, these skills form part of the core skill set.
When assessing my weakness I noticed a majority of them have one factor in common: social interaction. Facilitation, building relationships, mentoring, verbal communication, negotiating, networking and presenting are all interpersonal skills. Although I am capable of performing all these skills as required, on a personal level I am not a very social person and don’t actively seek opportunities to interact with others. This is something I will always continue to work on.
Whilst completing the audit I was also able to identify that my interpersonal skills that I currently have are environment specific and may not transfer directly to a new industry. Throughout my degree I will be looking for opportunities to interact with other students and IT professionals. I’ll be keeping a mental note on the way in which people interact to achieve the same outcomes. I am confident I won’t have any issues developing these skills to the required level; one of my key strengths is adaptability.
Conclusion
The ‘Self Awareness audit’ provided me an opportunity early in my education to identify the type of work I enjoy, the environments best suited to me and my skill sets. Identifying these early provides an opportunity for me to focus on a career path that I am likely to enjoy. I will also be able to identify ways to improve on my weakness during my studies to make them strengths before I complete my degree.