You Actually Have More Skills Than You Think
Kyle Hamilton, PhD, Chief Innovation and Data Officer at iQ4, shares how to spot the skills you’re building and talk about them.
You’re building skills all the time, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Maybe you helped plan a school event, worked a job, made videos with friends, or figured out how to fix something that wasn’t working. Those experiences can teach you things you may use in a future job.
The tricky part is recognizing those skills and finding the words to describe them. That’s where skill extraction comes in. It means looking at something you’ve done, identifying the skills you used, and explaining them in a way someone else can understand.
Why the way you describe your experience matters
Imagine two people who were captains of their robotics teams. One writes “Robotics Team Captain” on an application. The other explains how they organized teammates, tested designs, and solved problems when a project didn’t work.
They did the same activity, but the second person gives a clearer picture of what they can do.
| If you’ve done this | You might have practiced |
|---|---|
| Led a robotics team | Teamwork, solving problems, testing ideas |
| Worked at a grocery store | Helping customers, staying organized, handling busy situations |
| Helped in a science lab | Following instructions, recording results, paying attention to detail |
| Managed money for a club | Budgeting, keeping records, making decisions |
These are examples, not automatic labels. The best skills to mention are ones you can back up with a real story about what you did.
So, what is skill extraction?
Think of it as asking yourself three questions:
- What did I do?
- How did I do it?
- What skills did I use or build along the way?
For example, “I helped organize a fundraiser” tells someone what you did. “I helped organize a fundraiser by tracking donations and working with my team to meet a deadline” also shows organization, teamwork, and attention to detail.
You can use this approach with experiences from school, work, volunteering, hobbies, and projects you started on your own. It can help you write a résumé, prepare for an interview, or explore careers you hadn’t considered.
Skills can hide in schoolwork, too
A class name tells people what you studied. A project or assignment can show what you learned to do.
| Experience | Skills you might have used |
|---|---|
| Analyzed information in a statistics class | Working with data, spotting patterns, explaining results |
| Discussed books in a literature class | Understanding different perspectives, supporting an opinion, writing clearly |
| Completed a chemistry lab | Following a process, recording observations, checking your work |
You don’t need to turn every class into a long list of skills. Start with one assignment you remember well. What was the challenge? What did you do to complete it?
Why can it be hard to spot your own skills?
It’s easy to remember the name of a class or job and forget all the little things you did there. “Grocery store clerk” is a job title. It doesn’t show every customer question you answered or problem you solved.
Technology can help find possible skills in descriptions of your experiences, but words don’t always tell the whole story. If a tool suggests a skill, ask yourself: Can I think of a time I actually used it? You know your experience best.
How GoZig can help
GoZig is a free career exploration platform for young people. Its skill discovery tools can help you look at your experiences and identify skills you may have built along the way.
A suggested skill is a starting point. You can think about where you used it, how you’re still developing it, and which careers might give you a chance to use it again.
You don’t need a perfect résumé or a detailed career plan to begin. Start with something you’ve done recently and ask: What did this teach me to do? The answer might open up more possibilities than you expected.