What you can do, and what you want
List your skills from real evidence, name the values and limits a job has to respect, and find where they overlap. That overlap is where your search starts.
THREE LISTS
Can do, enjoy, need
Before you look at a single job, write three short lists. Can do: skills you have used for real. Enjoy: the kinds of tasks that give you energy. Need: what a job must give you or respect, like pay, stability, learning or hours. A good target sits where all three overlap.
Arash can build spreadsheets (can do), loves explaining numbers to people (enjoy) and needs a job he can reach in under an hour (need). That already rules out a lot, and points him somewhere.
Transferable skill
A skill you built in one place that is useful in many jobs: explaining things clearly, organising work, handling upset customers, learning a new tool fast. Students and career changers usually have more of these than they think, from part-time work, university projects, volunteering or a family business.
Two years helping at your uncle's shop taught you stock-keeping, dealing with suppliers and handling cash. None of that says 'retail' on a CV unless you write it down.
Check yourself
Which list does each one belong on?
- Calming down an angry customer on the phone
- Learning something new every few months
- Commute under 45 minutes each way
- Writing clear weekly reports
- Doing work that clearly helps people
- Can't work evenings while finishing university
Show the answer
A skill: Calming down an angry customer on the phone, Writing clear weekly reports
A value: Learning something new every few months, Doing work that clearly helps people
A limit: Commute under 45 minutes each way, Can't work evenings while finishing university
Build your skills list from evidence
- List ten things you've done
Jobs, internships, university projects, volunteering, helping in a family business, organising an event. Anything where you had a task and finished it.
- Write the verbs
For each one, what did you actually do? Taught, sold, fixed, analysed, planned, wrote, negotiated. The verbs are your skills.
- Mark what you did well
Look for proof: a result, a number, praise from someone, being asked to do it again. Proof turns a claim into a skill.
- Star what gave you energy
Some things you're good at still drain you. Those stars will matter when you choose where to aim.
Check yourself
Parisa's skills list says: 'Creative, hard-working, good with people.' She wants it to be useful for applications. What should she do next?
- Add more adjectives like 'motivated' and 'detail-oriented' so the list looks fuller and more professional
- Keep the list as it is, since employers mainly want to know about personality
- Write a real example behind each word, and keep only what she can prove
- Replace it with a list of software she has heard of but not used
Show the answer
Write a real example behind each word, and keep only what she can prove
Yes. 'Good with people' becomes 'handled 40 customer calls a day at a summer job'. Evidence is what she can later put on a CV and talk about in an interview.
WHAT YOU NEED
Your work values
Values are what you want work to give you: pay, stability, learning, freedom, meaning, time, people you like. Everyone wants all of them, so the useful question is which three come first for you right now. No job scores top on everything, and knowing your order makes trade-offs easier.
Two friends get the same offer from a young startup: good pay, lots to learn, no job security. For Sina, who is 23 and lives with his parents, it's ideal. For Mina, who supports her family, the lack of stability is a real problem. Same job, different fit.
Two kinds of need
Must-haves
If a job misses one, you won't take it, however good the rest is. Keep this list short: two to four items, like a minimum income or no night shifts.
Nice-to-haves
Things that make a job better but that you'd trade for something else, like a nicer office or a well-known company name. A long must-have list quietly rules out almost everything.
Check yourself
Kaveh's top value right now is stability; he has rent and a loan to pay. A startup offers him more money than a large company, but it may run out of funding within a year. Because the pay is higher, the startup is automatically the better fit for him.
Show the answer
False
False. Higher pay is only one value. For Kaveh, stability comes first, so the risk of losing the job in a year counts heavily against the startup. It may still be worth it, but only after he weighs it against what he said matters most, not automatically.
Reading the overlap
- Good at it, enjoy it, fits your needs: your target zone. Aim here first.
- Good at it but it drains you: fine for a while, risky as a whole career.
- Enjoy it but no evidence yet: something to build, through a course, a project or a side task.
- Fits your needs but you're neither good at it nor into it: a job, maybe, but not a direction.
Check yourself
Ali has done bookkeeping at an office for three years and is good at it, but he dreads it. In the evenings he tutors teenagers in maths, which he loves, and parents keep recommending him. What does his overlap suggest?
- Look for more senior bookkeeping jobs, since that's where three years of his experience and references are
- Explore roles built on teaching or explaining, using his tutoring as evidence
- Quit his office job now and wait until the perfect job appears
- Ignore enjoyment, because only skills matter when choosing a job
Show the answer
Explore roles built on teaching or explaining, using his tutoring as evidence
Right. His tutoring is real evidence: repeat work and recommendations. Roles like training, teaching or explaining numbers to clients use his skills and give him energy.
Lesson recap
- Write three lists: what you can do, what you enjoy, and what you need from work.
- Build your skills list from things you've actually done; evidence beats adjectives.
- Rank your top three values and keep your must-haves short.
- Aim first where skill, energy and needs overlap.