“I’m a team player. I work well under pressure. I have a passion for results.”You heard yourself say it. And somewhere inside, you knew it wasn’t landing.
You’ve prepared for the interview. You know the company. You’ve thought through your experience. And then comes the question you knew was coming – and something happens. Your mind goes slightly blank. You reach for the safest, most generic answer you can find. I’m a team player. I work well under pressure. I have a passion for results.
You hear yourself saying it. And somewhere inside, you know it’s not landing.
This isn’t a confidence problem. It’s not an experience problem. It’s a clarity problem. Most people – including highly capable, experienced professionals – have never been taught to identify what they’re genuinely good at, separate it from what they’ve simply been doing, and put it into words that actually mean something.
That’s what this is about.
What a skill actually is – and why the distinction changes everything
Richard Bolles, whose book What Color Is Your Parachute? has been the definitive guide to career change for over 50 years, draws on the research of occupational psychologist Sidney Fine. Their framework is still one of the most useful in career work – because it explains why so many people sound good in interviews but don’t quite land.
What you do – Functional Skills. Transferable abilities expressed as verbs: analyzing, structuring, persuading, facilitating, developing. Bolles calls them transferable because you carry them into every job – regardless of industry, title, or company. These are precisely the skills most people underestimate, because they come so naturally that they seem unremarkable.
What you know – Knowledge Skills. Industry expertise, tools, methods, qualifications. They open doors – but they age quickly. And on their own, they rarely set you apart.
How you work – Traits. Your working style in adjectives: reliable, methodical, intuitive, calm under pressure, empathetic. They describe how you apply your abilities. Almost never named directly in interviews – yet often what actually decides the outcome.
The pattern I see repeatedly in coaching: people present their Knowledge Skills, forget to name their Functional Skills, and never mention their Traits at all. That’s exactly where the leverage is.
Tools that give you language – used the right way
There are well-established tools that help you see all three layers more clearly. But one thing first: no test tells you who you are. They give you hypotheses and language – not verdicts. And they show you the surface. What lies beneath takes more.
Gallup CliftonStrengths helps you identify Functional Skills and Traits. It shows where you naturally gain energy – not just what you’re good at. It costs money, and it’s worth it if you actually work with the results. High5 follows a similar approach and is free – a solid starting point.
MBTI focuses on your Traits: how you think, decide, and operate. Particularly useful in career transitions, because it shows which environments help you thrive – and which ones quietly drain you. The official assessment is paid; 16Personalities offers a free version built on the same principles.
What almost always happens with these tools: the aha moment is real. And then comes the inner voice – Is that really me? Can I actually say that in an interview? Is that enough? That’s where most people get stuck. The tools give you the raw material. Turning it into something you can own and articulate – that takes reflection. And usually, another person.
How to find your skills yourself
Before you buy a tool or book a session, there’s one exercise Bolles puts at the center of everything:
Think of three to five moments in your working life when you were genuinely in your element. Not your biggest achievements. Not the moments you received the most praise. The moments when you felt: This is me. This is right.
Write them down – as concretely as possible. What was the situation? What did you specifically do? What came out of it?
When you read those stories back, your Functional Skills appear as verbs. Your Traits show up in how you describe your approach. Your Knowledge is the context. Three layers – a more honest picture than any resume.
💡 If you had to describe what you do in your best moments at work – what single verb would you choose?
Why you can get lost in this – and what actually helps
Doing this alone, most people hit a wall. Not because the exercises don’t work – but because we’re trapped inside our own perspective. We see ourselves through the lens of our history and our doubts. What others immediately recognize as a clear strength, we dismiss as obvious or ordinary.
One example from practice: a project manager, twelve years of experience, preparing for a career change, named almost exclusively Knowledge Skills when I asked about her strengths in our first session. Tools, certifications, methods. Through a few specific questions, what actually set her apart became visible: the ability to create clarity in chaotic situations and calm people down without softening the truth. No tool would have surfaced that. No test would have put it that precisely. But in conversation, it was clear within twenty minutes – and she could articulate it fluently in her next interview.
That’s the difference between solo reflection and coaching: not more depth, but a much faster route to clarity.
What this means for your next interview
Interviews rarely fail because of missing expertise. They fail because someone can’t clearly say why them – and not someone else.
Someone who can name their Functional Skills as verbs. Who frames their Traits not as self-praise but as a concrete description of how they work. Who uses a Gallup or High5 report not as gospel but as a mirror – that person shows up differently. Not more arrogant. Clearer. And that’s the difference between a good interview and one that actually lands.
Still not sure what your actual strengths are?
That’s exactly what a free 30-minute call is for. We’ll cut through the generic answers and find the two or three things you’re genuinely built for , in language you can actually use in your next interview.
Book your free Career Clarity Call
One conversation. You’ll know more about yourself than most people discover in months of solo reflection.
Where to start
Write down one moment – just one – when you were recently in your element at work. Not a job title. A situation. What happened, and what did you do?
If you find yourself going in circles instead of forward: talk to me. I’ve helped over a hundred professionals get clear on exactly this – faster than they expected, and without a one-size-fits-all answer. Because you’re not one.
