Gain insights into your skills by having your partner interview you

This tool helps you think about your skills out loud and from different perspectives.

• Duration:30 minutes (two 10-minute interviews)
• Participants: in pairs
• What it is suitable for: thinking about your skills and strengths out loud and from different perspectives

We all have lots of knowledge, skills, capabilities and strengths! We accumulate them at work, in daily life, in our free time, hobbies, human relationships – in practically all kinds of situations. All skills are valuable, but we are sometimes unable to recognize our own skills.

Talking about your skills can feel difficult. In fact, 40% of Finns feel that talking about their skills and capabilities is not easy. The good news is that we can help ourselves and each other reveal our skills! Other people are like mirrors that help you recognize your skills, which is why having discussions with others helps you identify your skills and capabilities.

In this exercise, you will think about your skills with the help of an interview script. You will take turns, with each of you having 10 minutes to answer the questions by thinking out loud. The one who is playing the role of the interviewer supports the interviewee by asking the questions and listening carefully.

1) First choose which of you will start as the interviewer and which as the interviewee.

2) The interviewer asks the following questions and writes down notes on the insights and strengths mentioned by the interviewee.

Tell me about the last time you felt like you were in your element: when you did something that felt very natural to you or something that made you lose track of time. What was it?
What strengths did you get to use in that situation? Your strengths can be skills, knowledge or attitudes, for example.

What other skills or capabilities have you benefited from recently? What about knowledge? Or attitudes?
Are there any areas of your life where you are not yet taking advantage of these strengths? How could you start putting your strengths to use in these areas of your life?

3) The interviewer sums up the strengths they heard the interviewee mention. If the two of you know each other, the interviewer can also mention what other strengths they recognize in the interviewee.

4) Change roles. Now it’s the interviewer’s turn to answer the questions.

5) To wrap up, take a moment to discuss what thoughts you had when you listened to your partner’s answers and what you thought about the interview in general. “When you said that _________, I realized that ________.”