Layoff: First, Inventory Your Skills

Inventory your skills by looking at three areas:

1. Critical strengths: List whatever your previous supervisors have told you that your key strengths are. For example, they may have written in previous performance appraisals words like analysis, synthesis, working with people, finishing the job, etc. Make this list as comprehensive as possible. And don’t be afraid to drill down into the weeds. For example, if you’re really good at Microsoft Excel, definitely list it. List ALL your skills. Aggregate the list into several (3-5) key areas, categories or clusters. Wade through the data you’ve created and place your key skills into critical strength skills areas like communication, analytical skills, strategic, sales, engineering, etc.
2. Passion: After you have the list, decide on which skills you’re really passionate about—the kinds of skills that would get you up in the morning with a smile saying, “I can’t wait to get up and go to work on…..” Then, go through your critical strength areas and check those passionate areas. For example, you may have been told that you’re very good at analyzing mounds of data, but you really don’t enjoy the task. Don’t check that one. Only check things you love to do—tasks you’re passionate about performing. Passion, whether for a person or a profession, provides the drive to sustain that interest. Without passion, sustainability is short lived.
3. Getting Paid: We will discuss this one on the next post. Stay tuned.