Office of
Career Development

Where do you spend your energy?

Success is achieved by developing our strengths, not by eliminating our weaknesses. --Marilyn vos Savant

Strengths

What is a strength? How is it different from a skill?

According to Dependable Strengths, a strength is " . . . each person's special talent for excellence."

In other words . . .

talent a natural ability to do something well that can be developed by training
gift a natural ability, especially an artistic ability, or a social skill
aptitude a natural tendency to do something well, especially one that can be further developed
flair a natural ability to do something well, especially creative or artistic ability
knack a particular skill, especially one that might be innate or intuitive and therefore difficult to teach
genius exceptional intellectual or creative ability

   -Encarta® World English Dictionary [North American Edition] ©

What are my strengths?  
It’s useful to know your strengths when deciding on your career direction.  How do you get started in identifying your strengths? 
  • Complete a strengths reflection exercise. This will help you to look back at your experiences from the perspective of identifying strengths.
Strengths Reflection Exercise
  • Attend a StrengthsFinder workshop.   If you are a current student and are interested in taking the StrengthsFinder assessment, call our front desk at 253.535.7459 to set up an appointment with a career counselor. During your meeting with the career counselor, you will be signed up for our monthly StrengthsFinder workshop and receive the access code for completing the assessment.