What Employers Evaluate

Employers usually evaluate three skill sets:

Content skills are related to performing a job in a particular field, profession, or occupation and are acquired through reading, specialized training, internships, academic degrees, and on-the-job training. Examples include programming computers, word processing, teaching, and bookkeeping.

Functional skills are characteristic ways of working with people, information (data), or things. They are often referred to as transferable skills. These skills are applicable to a wide variety of jobs or situations and may be acquired almost anywhere. Examples include managing, operating, informing, calculating, coordinating, building, and reading.

Adaptive skills are rooted in temperament and personality and are acquired during one's early years among family, friends, and peers. They're often referred to as self-management skills since they describe how you operate as a person. Examples include being assertive, careful, dependable, honest, introspective, industrious, open-minded, punctual, and tolerant.