Well, right now you're a philosopher because you're asking a philosopical question.

Who or what am I?

Let's say you're the Greek philosopher Diogenes who lived in a barrel. Let's call it a CASK and if you remember the letters CASK, then you will have some tools of self discovery!

Competencies, Achievements, Skills and Knowledge.

Competencies are sometimes called soft skills.

• Are you good around people? Are you a good communicator? Can you develop people? Are you a leader? Are you a good organizer and planner?
• Can you deal with difficult customers? Can you develop customer relationships?
• Are you a problem solver? Can you make decisions?
• Are you good at researching and analysing data?
• Are you a creative person, always coming up with ideas and suggestions?
• Are you good with numbers? Have you a feel for budgets and costs?
• Are you a team player? Do you work well under pressure?

Write down what you feel are you competencies.

Review your life and career to date.

• What have you achieved and what was it about you that led to that achievement?
• Have you achieved a major objective?
• Have you confidently handled an emergency?
• Have you made savings, cut down overheads, increased efficiencies?
• Have you met impossible deadlines?
• Have you solved difficult problems?
• Have you invented,created,developed, or improved anything?
• Have you received an award, gained a qualification, achieved a recognition?
• Have you motivated your team to achievement?
• Have you improved systems?

When you answer "Yes" to any of these questions then follow up with the question "So what? " and write down the benefits that followed your action.

If you had an achievement, then you're a STAR.

Situation, Task, Action, Result.

• What was the Situation?
• What was the Task that you took on?
• What was the Action you took?
• What was the Result and benefit?

Can you put a number on it? If possible be as specific as you can.

Skills are similar to competencies, but are much more job specific.

• Are you a skilled tradesman, a carpenter, a plumber, a builder?
• Are you a computer programmer? What systems, what languages?
• Are you an accountant, a solicitor?
• Are you a hairdresser, a machinist, an engineer?
• Are you a dog handler, dog groomer?

All these and many more require you to have or to obtain very specific skills to do the job competently.

Knowledge is an understanding of facts or principles and can often be transferred between roles and organizations. We should try to identify all of our knowledge because it could give us an edge over the competition by providing a USP (Unique Selling Point). - Yes don't forget: you are selling yourself!

• What courses have you been on?
• What training have you had?
• What self study have you done?
• What are your hobbies and interests? What specialised knowledge do they require?

What knowledge have you used in your current or previous job?

What knowledge could you use in your future job.

When you ask yourself "What am I?", don't limit yourself with a job title.

That's merely what you're selling your abilities for at the moment.

There are many other roles that you could fulfil.

It may be helpful to say to yourself "Could I do that job with just a little training?". If the answer is "Yes!" then go for it.

So the first step to finding a job is to define who and what you are.

Remember Diogenes who lived in a barrel and find your CASK.

• Competencies.
• Achievements.
• Skills.
• Knowledge.