But what I do have are a very particular set of skills…

Working in the Media Industry continues with the second task of thinking about the personal skills you have and the skills that particular future destinations might require of you.

The first thing to identify is the difference between ‘soft skills’ and ‘hard skills’.

Hard skills are those technical, and teachable, abilities that can be tested. For working in media, these might be the knowledge and ability to operate certain cameras or use specific editing software. Contrasting to soft skills which are harder to quantify like creativity, dedication, and passion.

This was a really interesting task set to us, to really define what skills we have, and how we might prove them, and ultimately what information is it that companies want to know when they interview you.

When first starting, we didn’t think of technical skills to promote in an interview situation. Instead, we thought of those human skills, like being an all-round nice person to work with.

When it came to self evaluation it was easier to list the hard technical skills over the soft human skills. I know how to use editing software and I know basic composition and camera terminology. And this can be supported by shadowing me edit, or watching a video I have previously made. However, self-doubt would be a large factor when identifying certain skills I had. Am I actually passionate about X? Am I really that humble? And so on…