SELF-AWARENESS: GOALS AND INTERESTS
1. Self-awareness: goals and interests
1.6. Competencies
When looking for a new job, we all face the challenge of convincing the employer why we are the best candidates. Every employer wants to hire the top specialists. To prove that you’re the right fit, you must present your skills and qualifications clearly and persuasively.
To be a good specialist, it’s not enough just to enjoy what you do—you also need to be skilled at it. This requires knowledge, skills, and abilities. Knowledge provides a general understanding of the subject, skills enable us to perform specific tasks, and abilities help us adapt to various situations.
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Knowledge |
For example, knowing a company’s history makes it easier to impress during a job interview. |
| Skills | For example, typing on a keyboard or driving. |
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Abilities |
For example, the ability to quickly resolve an unexpected problem. |
All these elements—knowledge, skills, and abilities—make up our competencies. The more we have, the more effectively we can perform various tasks. For example, to be a good programmer, it’s not enough to just know programming languages (knowledge); you also need to be able to write code (skills) and solve problems creatively (abilities).
Competencies can be divided into professional and general competencies.
General competencies are further categorized into three groups: instrumental, interpersonal, and systemic competencies.
Instrumental competencies are like tools we use to manage information, technologies, and languages. Here are some examples of instrumental competencies.
Interpersonal competencies are a set of skills that help us understand others, build connections, and resolve conflicts. They enable us to communicate effectively, collaborate, and develop relationships with other people. Here are some examples of interpersonal competencies.
Systemic competencies allow us to analyze complex processes, such as organizational activities or social systems. They include the ability to identify systemic problems, plan changes, and design new, more efficient systems. These competencies are often developed later, after mastering instrumental and interpersonal competencies. Here are some examples of systemic competencies.
In today's world, where technology and the nature of work are constantly evolving, professional knowledge quickly becomes outdated. To be successful, we must continuously learn new things. This is why general competencies—such as the ability to learn, adapt, and solve problems—are so important. General competencies provide us with a solid foundation on which we can build our careers and more easily adapt to changing circumstances.
Perform the practical task.