Enterprise Rent-A-Car’s guide to identifying your skills and competencies

Have you ever talked yourself out of applying for a job because of your inexperience? Have you stumbled through an interview, then spent your journey home imagining all the smart answers you could have given when asked a question? Are you worried you may have missed out on gaining vital employability skills due to a lack of opportunities during lockdown? Here are some brilliant methods and tips from Enterprise recruiters for identifying the skills already in your toolbox and making them shine throughout the application process.

Identifying your skills: start with one strength

‘We all have hidden skills ,’ says Graeme Butler, who works in recruitment marketing for Enterprise. He suggests that a great way of uncovering them is to start by zoning in on one thing you are passionate about, or have strengths in.

He explains the method: ‘Imagine you identify that you are great at generating ideas. Think of three things closely linked to that strength. Generating ideas is connected to:

• engaging with people (people find new ideas interesting)
• telling great stories (a key to presenting)
• demonstrating strategic thinking (new ideas often link to big picture problems).

‘You have gone from one skill to four in a short period of time!’ he says. ‘I recommend repeating the exercise twice more to expand your list of four to a list of 12. Write these down and keep a track of them. They are not only good for interviews, but they are useful for business networking sessions too,’ he adds.

Identifying your skills: reflect on what you do

What if you’re struggling to come up with that one thing you have strengths in? Talent Acquisition Marketing Specialist Louise Sivewright, who is based in Enterprise’s north-east region, suggests taking a reflective approach to uncovering hidden skills. ‘Reflection enables you to develop a questioning attitude, allowing new perspectives to emerge,’ she says. It leads you to identify areas for change and improvement, and to discover the skills you have that you may not have considered.

‘If you’re working in a busy café, for example,’ she offers, ‘you’ve probably already spotted that you are improving your customer services skills, but are you aware that you’ve engaged in conflict resolution and problem solving, and developed emotional resilience?’

‘There are so many skills that can be learnt from every life experience and thinking reflectively will help you to realise them and apply them to future situations,’ she adds. Day to day university life, being a caregiver, volunteering or being part of a sports team… all of these offer aspects of skills developed outside a work environment, important in Louise’s eyes.

‘Reflective thinking can help you to pick apart each one,’ she says. ‘For example, being part of a sports team may just be a fun activity for you, but it teaches you the importance of teamwork, leadership and accountability.’

Louise advises: ‘Try to incorporate reflective thinking into your daily routine and observe how your confidence grows.’

Identifying your skills: an example of leadership potential

‘One of the skills we look for here at Enterprise is leadership and, within that, teamworking,’ says Paul Hanrahan, Talent Acquisition Specialist at Enterprise. ‘As we offer a Management Training Programme, we are not looking for the finished article – someone who has led hundreds of people on a multi-million pound project – but for people who understand what it means to work with others, how to get the best out of each other and who can demonstrate their potential of being a future leader in our business.’

How can you demonstrate that potential? Paul offers an example from his own life: ‘I look back to when I joined Enterprise over two decades ago and I still remember the examples I gave to demonstrate my leadership and teamworking capabilities. Outside of work, I have always played a lot of sport and have captained and managed both football and cricket teams. For me, the things I’ve learnt about leading my teams in the middle of a sporting arena absolutely apply to how I have led teams within the workplace. You have to be fair, be a strong communicator, set high standards and reinforce expectations, listen and encourage ideas to achieve buy in, and understand different personality types and how to get the best out of their strengths.’

The next time you are asked for an example of when you’ve demonstrated leadership, Paul suggests, don’t be afraid to draw on the experiences you’ve gained from any hobbies or interests, societies that you have been a member of or any group projects that you have taken the lead on at university. They all require the use of the same sort of skills and traits and will aid you in your journey to becoming a manager of the future.

Find out more and how to apply to Enterprise .