You can't put together an effective résumé or perform well in an interview if you can't identify and discuss your strengths. What are they? Examine the skills you've acquired and use with proficiency.

Skills fall into two broad categories—functional and work-content—and employers look for candidates who provide the best mix of both. Employers want job candidates who can do the job and make an immediate contribution, and that requires both work-content and functional skills. Work-content skills are those skills that enable you to perform a specific type of job, such as programming a computer, analyzing blood, preparing a financial statement or fixing a car. These are the skills you gained through your course of study and through work experience, and these are the skills you'll see listed as job qualifications.

Generally speaking, it's often easier for a graduate with a degree in a career-specific discipline—such as accounting or nursing or civil engineering—to identify his or her work-content skills than it is for the new grad whose degree isn't geared to any one specific occupation. In fact, many graduates responding to a NACE survey said that they weren't sure what their degree prepared them to do! This is often the case with liberal arts grads, like Sarah Lawrence alumnae/i, who tend to have a tougher time in identifying their skills in a concrete way.

If your degree isn't career-specific, many of the skills you've acquired will fall into the functional or transferable skills category. These are the skills that cross careers, jobs and industries. Many careers aren't degree-specific—that is, there is no one degree that qualifies a person for the job. Unlike your friends who know their degree has prepared them to be a nurse, accountant or computer programmer, you have a wider range of options. That means, however, that you need to have a clear view of your strengths, weaknesses, interests and values to focus your job search.

Functional Skills

Personality and Work-Style Traits