Assignment 3 Instructions
Part 1: Skills clusters
The first part of this assignment is to look at the various lists of skills and documents in Week 3 that talk
about skills employers want
and to find some common themes among them.
1.) Please look at the “Top 10†lists already provided:
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From surveys in 2000:
- Listening skills
- Ability to work with others as part of a work team.
- Getting along with others
- Desire and ability to learn.
- Willingness to learn new important skills.
- Focus on customers or clients.
- Interpersonal relationship skills
- Adaptability to changing situations.
- Ability to suggest solutions to problems.
- Problem solving skills
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From more recent work by NACE:
- Ability to work in a team structure.
- Ability to make decisions and solve problems (tie)
- Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization.
- Ability to plan, organize and prioritize work.
- Ability to obtain and process information.
- Ability to analyze quantitative data.
- Technical knowledge related to the job.
- Proficiency with computer software programs
- Ability to create and/or edit written reports.
- Ability to sell and influence others.
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From Burning Glass:
- Communication skills
- Organizational skills
- Writing
- Customer service
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- Problem solving
- Planning
- Computer literacy
- Research
2.)Look for common clusters across all the lists and develop a name for
THREE
skills that span all the lists.
- For each “new†skill, please list what that skill was called on each list and briefly explain why you included it.
- For example, you might create one called “Technology literacy†and list “Working smarter to improve productivityâ€, Proficiency with computer software programs, MS Excel, and Computers and electronics and then explain why you included each of these. For example, why include “Working smarter to improve productivity†in the list?
Part 2: Tell your story
We will be practicing cover letters and résumés later, but let’s get started thinking about that now.
1.) Building on Part 1, imagine you are writing a cover letter for a job. For each skill, name the skill and give examples to explain how you have developed that skill. Keep in mind your audience is a hiring official, so be concise but descriptive. You will have three brief sections (one for each skill)
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JOB MUST INVOLVE A PSYCHOLOGIST POSITION:
- Examples – clinical psychologist, mental health counselor, etc