Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sweet Skills, Part 1

This post and the one that will follow it started off as one humongous post-- a post so long that I kept losing interest and focus while I was proofreading it. Lucky for you, dear reader, I realized that if my writing can't hold my own attention, there's no way it will be able to hold yours. So I chopped the post in two, which means that you're about to experience a Why You Should Hire Me first: a two-part post. Whoa.

Since this is a blog that I hope potential employers will be looking at, I feel compelled to list some of my own skills, although I'm going to go somewhere else with this train of thought in the next post I write.
  • organizational skills: I can organize files, inboxes, arts and crafts supplies, calendars, and groups of people.
  • writing skills: I can write reports, handbooks, lesson plans, witty and not-witty emails, essays, and blogs.
  • proofreading and editing skills: I can and have proofread/ edited just about every kind of document you can think of.
  • people skills: I have worked in many different office environments and with diverse populations; I've also recruited, managed, and trained volunteers; worked at front desks; attended diversity workshops and trainings; and gotten along with just about everyone I've ever met.
  • drawing/ designing skills: I can make visually attractive fliers, invitations, and signs (this may become its own post if I can ever get my hands on a working scanner; in the meantime, one caveat: I don't know how to use any sort of design software... yet), and I studied a lot of fine art in college (mostly drawing and painting).
  • language skills: As I hope this blog has demonstrated, I am a good writer who truly loves the English language. I also speak good Spanish, bad Italian, laughably bad Portuguese, and perhaps three words of Arabic.
  • computer skills: I am proficient with both Macs and PCs, Micosoft Office, and a variety of databases.
  • being professional skills: I've worked in a wide variety of offices and have maintained a friendly, calm, and professional manner in all of them.
  • tutoring skills: I have experience tutoring adults and children of all ages and in a variety of subjects.
  • cooking skills: This may not have much to do with a job description, but any office I work for is virtually guaranteed to get tasty homemade treats at least once a quarter (more on that here).
OK, so those are the skills that ought to convince you to hire me. But what really sparked this blog post was my increasing frustration with my lack of tangible skills. It's great that I can analyze the heck out of a Victorian novel or a grant proposal, but I can't even tell you how much it irks me that I can't fix my car or build a bookshelf. Stay tuned for Sweet Skills, Part 2, in which I ruminate on some skills I would like to acquire and why.