One of the basic steps when you are creating your profile at Workana is to define what your skills or abilities are to develop your work.

Beyond showing them in your profile, it is useful to have them identified so you know what your strengths will be when putting a bid together or when you are persuading your client of how good you are at carrying out that project.

One of the keys is to be as objective as possible. What you are looking for is to faithfully convey what these skills are, without limiting them but also without oversizing them – both would play against you.

Many may have a clear idea of their strengths (and weaknesses. We all have them). But if you find it difficult to identify them, you can follow these tips that will surely help you to clarify the panorama ?

Developed Skills

A good start would be to make a list that includes your experience to date, differentiated by function. Beyond your “technical” experience, try to think about what skills or abilities you involved in when carrying them out.

For example, if you were a Senior Marketing Analyst (and your role would have been to develop market strategies, make product presentations, manage supplier relationships, and more), you’ve probably brought into play skills such as analytics, creativity, communication skills, negotiation, and public speaking, just to name a few.

Follow this same procedure for all the roles you have taken on, and then analyse “trends”, make a general assessment and objectively define what skills you have developed during your years of experience.

Skills in your Workana profile

With this in mind, you’re ready to put them on your profile: Workana offers a special section for you to detail your skills. And the interesting thing is, that if some of them are not entered in our database, you can still add them without any problem, so you are not limited to a strict list.

At the same time –and as a test point– it is important that you are prepared to back up with concrete arguments what activities you carried out that support those skills and what your achievements were as a result.

Remember that the skills or abilities most sought after by clients can be shared by many professionals. That is why you should be able to support them with information that sets you apart from the rest of the candidates, in addition to your experience and knowledge, of course.

Personalized bids

Beyond the skills that you include in your Workana profile (general, and which will reflect your professional experience and development), when you apply to a specific search you will need to put the most suitable ones for that project.

One of the details that customers value the most is receiving personalized bids, that you know how to show to them what is special for them to hire you and what will be your concrete contribution in terms of experience and skills. Therefore, regardless of your generic skills list, when submitting a bid always consider mentioning those that are most favorable to you.

Start now! It’s an excellent exercise. Knowing your skills will be fundamental to developing as a professional. Not only will it allow you to know exactly what makes you unique and what projects to aim for, but it will also be essential for positioning yourself in front of your potential clients.

Have you identified them yet? Add them now to your Workana profile ?