Evaluating and Developing your Skills
Evaluating your skills is a useful exercise as it can help you to think
about your future career path and is useful when you are applying for jobs.
It can also identify what you need to improve on to help you finish your
research.
Use the checklist below to identify the skills you already have and those
you'd like to develop:
(these examples have been taken from the UK Research Councils' Skills
Statement for research students - visit www.grad.ac.uk/jss for the full list)
Personal Effectiveness
* I have a willingness and ability to learn and acquire knowledge
* I am creative, innovative and original in my approach to research
* I am flexible and open-minded
* I am self-aware and able to identify my own training needs
* I am self-disciplined, motivated and thorough
* I recognise my own boundaries and draw upon/use sources of support
as appropriate
* I show initiative, work independently and am self-reliant
Communication Skills
* I can write clearly and in a style appropriate to purpose, e.g.
progress reports, published documents, thesis
* I can construct coherent arguments and articulate ideas clearly to a
range of audiences, formally and informally through a variety of techniques
* I can constructively defend research outcomes at seminars and viva
examination
* I contribute to promoting the public understanding of my research field
* I effectively support the learning of others when involved in
teaching, mentoring or demonstrating activities
Networking and Teamworking
* I am developing and maintaining co-operative networks and working
relationships with supervisors, colleagues and peers, within my institution
and the wider research community
* I understand my behaviours and impact on others when working in and
contributing to the success of formal and informal teams
* I listen, give and receive feedback and respond perceptively to others
Career Management
* I appreciate the need for, and show commitment to, continued
professional development
* I take ownership for, and manage, my career progression, set
realistic and achievable career goals, and identify and develop ways to
improve employability
* I can demonstrate an insight into the transferable nature of
research skills to other work environments and the range of career
opportunities within and outside academia
* I can present my skills, personal attributes and experiences through
effective CVs, applications and interviews
Collecting evidence of your skills
For the skills you already have, write down evidence of when you have
demonstrated them. You could use the 'STAR' Approach to help you lay out
examples:
Situation - When, where, with whom?
Task - Describe the situation or the task you were faced with
Action - How? What action did you take? Sometimes people focus on what the
group did without mentioning their individual contribution
Result - What results did you achieve/conclusions did you reach/what did you
learn from the experience?
After identifying the areas you want to develop think about:
* What is stopping you from achieving your goal or things that concern you
* What will help you achieve your goal
* The resources that might help you
Then set some deadlines! Have a look at www.grad.ac.uk/evaluateskills to see
some examples of personal objective plans.
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