Image
Your skills
When applying for any opportunity, such as placements, jobs or further study, it's important to understand and explain the skills you have throughout the application and interview process.
This guide will help you:
- understand different types of skill
- recognise the strengths you've developed through study, work and extracurricular activities
- match your experience to opportunities that interest you
- gain ideas to build and develop your skillset
In this guide:
Types of skill
You may have come across the terms ‘hard skills’ and ‘soft skills’ before. Hard skills may also be referred to as ‘technical skills’. These are specific skills and abilities needed for a particular job, such as a specific qualification, an aptitude for a software or programming language, or the ability to speak an additional language.
Broadly speaking, soft skills, which are also commonly referred to as transferable skills, are those that are developed through your studies and work experience that you can ‘take with you’ and apply to many different roles.
Skills valued by employers
Graduate employers are increasingly looking for candidates who can demonstrate a wide variety of transferable skills, such as communication, teamwork and problem solving. These skills show you can work effectively with others, adapt to new situations and continue learning in a professional environment.
Even if you don't meet every requirement in a job description, strong evidence of transferable skills can help you demonstrate your potential.
Common skills required by recruiters
- Teamwork/collaboration
- Verbal and written communication
- Problem-solving
- Critical and analytical thinking
- Commercial awareness
- Adaptability
- Customer service
- Organisation and time management
Personal qualities
Alongside technical and transferable skills, employers may also look for personal qualities that influence how your work and interact with others. These might include:
- Motivation
- Persistence to complete tasks
- Use of initiative
- Dealing with criticism
- Overcoming weaknesses
- Perseverance
Skills, values and interests
Identifying your skills is an important step in the career planning process, however, career choice is not just dependent on your skillset. See our career planning page to find out how to discover careers that align with your interests and values, so that you will ultimately have an enjoyable and fulfilling career.
Visit our career planning page
Identifying your skills using a Skills Audit
A good way to identify your skills is to complete a Skills Audit. For help with this, you can use our Skills Audit (PDF) document. It can assist you to:
- assess your confidence across key employability skills
- identify examples from your studies, work experience and extracurricular activities
- recognise gaps in your development
- build a bank of evidence for applications and interviews
Keeping a record of your examples now will help you to save time when applying for opportunities later.
Take a look at the examples in the table below to help you get started on completing your Skills Audit:
| Skill | Evidence |
| Communication |
|
| Teamwork |
|
| Problem-solving |
|
| Analytical Thinking |
|
Using AI to support your Skills Audit
Generative AI can be a useful tool when assessing your own skillset - it can help you recognise skills you may have overlooked and identify examples from your own experience.
When using AI as part of a Skills Audit, try to:
- Describe your studies, work experience, volunteering, societies and hobbies
- Ask AI to identify transferable skills from each activity
- Use the suggestions as a starting point for reflection
- Check the skills identified genuinely reflect your own experiences
- Add your own specific examples and evidence
An example prompt might be:
"I am a second year Psychology student, I work part time in retail and volunteer as a course representative. Based on these experiences, can you highlight what technical and transferable skills I might have developed?"
Remember - AI can help generate ideas, but it cannot accurately assess your experiences without your input. Always review the suggestions provided critically, and ensure any examples you use in applications genuinely reflect your own achievements and experiences.
The Portsmouth Award
Consider enrolling on The Portsmouth Award - our online employability programme - to reflect on your skills in more detail and to confidently develop examples to share with prospective employers.
Matching your skills to job roles
Different roles will require you to have specific qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge. A useful exercise is to compare your skills to employer requirements by researching current live roles. When researching a role:
1. Review the job description and person specification
2. Highlight the skills, experience and qualifications required
3. Compare these with your own skills portfolio
4. Identify strengths you can evidence clearly
5. Note any gaps in your skillset that you might want to develop further
This process can help you target your applications more effectively and identify opportunities to build relevant experience.
Developing your skills
If your Skills Audit and other reflection highlights areas you'd like to improve on, there are many ways to build up your experience and develop your skillset.
Work experience - which could mean internships, placements, volunteering, part time jobs or work shadowing - is one of the most effective ways to develop and demonstrate employability skills. You'll have opportunities to strengthen skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving and commercial awareness. It also provides you with valuable examples you can use in applications and interviews.
Don’t underestimate the value of your extracurricular activities, hobbies and interests in helping you to build up your skill set. Getting involved in societies, sports teams, student representation or committee roles can help you build leadership, organisation and communication skills. Even hobbies and personal interests can demonstrate initiative, commitment and creativity.
Online learning can be a flexible and accessible way to develop existing skills or gain new ones.
Completing online courses can help you:
- build confidence in areas where you have less experience
- develop technical or industry-specific knowledge
- demonstrate your motivation and commitment to learning
- enhance your CV and professional profile
An easy (and free!) resource to use to complete online courses is via LinkedIn Learning As a student, you get free access to the whole library, and you'll keep this access for five months after you graduate. Use LinkedIn Learning to improve your skills, learn a new skill or just get some tips about a new hobby. Log in using your University login details.
Further reading
- Skills Assessment - from the National Careers Service
- What can I do with my degree - each degree listed on this Prospects resource provides a list of skills you will have gained from your course
- What skills to put on a CV - useful Targetjobs article
- Key skills to put on your CV - Bright Network resources which highlights key skills for your CV by industry
Explore more from Careers & Employability
Career planning
Find out how to create a career plan to help you research your career goals and enhance your self-awareness
Career guides
Explore more than 40 industry guides and learn about the knowledge and experience you need to find a job in your dream sector.
Building work experience
Get hands-on industry experience and showcase your knowledge before you graduate!
Using online learning to boost your career search
Find out how to utilise online learning platforms to supercharge your skills and experience!
Enable University alerts
Turn on notifications for critical updates like closures, safety alerts, and urgent service disruptions.