Your personal competences have to do with how you approach a task and how you deal with interpersonal relations. Perhaps you are especially good at cooperating, making decisions or structuring your work.
In other words, your personal competences describe your capacities as a person. And that in turn plays an important part in how you execute your job and how you cooperate with others.
It may be a good idea to practice your personal competences. If you are clear on what they are, you become more attractive to a potential employer. It means that you’ll be able to present yourself in a better way and, at the same time, determine whether a certain job or work place may suit you.
Generally, employers are equally interested in getting to know who you are and what motivates you as well as learning about your academic background.
What are my personal competences?
You may reflect on how you generally approach a task and cooperation. In doing so you may learn something about your personal competences. Test yourself by doing the following exercise:
- Try to remember the last time you took part in a project
- How was your initial approach?
- When were you successful?
- When were you less successful?
- Which of your personal competences helped you succeed?