What's in your COVID Kit? - TAPPING INTO YOUR SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
In the second of our BLOGs focused on COVID resilience for your arts career, we will ask questions to see where there might be opportunities to tap into your existing skills and knowledge to diversify your career path or your creative business.
Over the coming weeks, I will be sharing some different aspects of my learnings that I have put into my COVID Kit/ Resilience Kit/ Risk Management Tool Box. They won't be appropriate solutions for everyone but I hope to encourage conversation and sharing of ideas to help us all get through these challenging times.
Let's start with an audit. Yes it sounds very formal but it is an important step in reassessing where you are at and where you could go. There are two basic categories when it comes to defining your skill sets - technical skills and soft skills.
Technical skills refers to the things you are capable of making and doing. So obviously your art form skills sit within this list. This could include things like:
you are great at instagram
you can write a good media release
you can do basic web design
public speaking is your thing
you are a successful grant writer
you are a great organiser
teaching is your passion
Soft skills look more at your ability to work with others and within work environments. This could be:
you participate well in a team environment
you are highly motivated
you can think outside the box
you are reliable
you learn quickly
you find the positive in situations
you have leadership skills
It is the technical skills combined with the soft skills that you can turn into an opportunity. Can you monetise any of these skills as part of a business model? Can you train others? Have you seen a part time gig offered recently that would match these skills. Don't discount what you have built up as a skill set over time because you don't have a"qualification". Unless it specifies it, you might just be the right person to fit into that team!
Conversely, are there some skills you would like to acquire? Is there a course you could do - there are plenty to choose from out there - that could help you to fill that skill gap you feel you have that could help you achieve that career goal?
I am running a more detailed workshop in April around career mapping if you'd like to explore this more - tapping into my skill set in teaching and sharing my experiences!