Characteristics & Work Style — JSA Lesson 4.3

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LifeSketch · Job Search Accelerator

Week 4 · Career Capital · Lesson 4.3

Characteristics & Work Style

Skills show what you can do. Style shows how you do it — and that difference is often what gets you chosen.

Why this matters

Two people can have the exact same skills and be completely different to work with. Characteristics — your transferable traits, personal skills, and work style — are the qualities that make you unique and valuable in the marketplace. They let you describe who you are in terms of what you can do, but mostly how you do it. That's how you differentiate yourself in the search and find the environments where you'll actually thrive.

Transferable TraitsDescriptive qualities you've developed in one context that travel with you into any job or career.

Personal SkillsHow you manage yourself and your relationships — the self-management and people skills that carry across roles.

Work StyleYour preferences and approach to work: how you deliver your skills, and the conditions where you do it best.

Meet Ryan. Ryan is action-oriented, runs on variety, and does his best work with high stimulation and low micromanagement. As you'll see, naming his style helps him understand why certain roles will energize him — and why others would quietly drain him. Watch for his examples throughout.

There are five activities, plus two short reflections that connect your style back to your skills and targets. Work them in any order. Everything saves automatically.

Activity 1

Mine Your Stories for Traits

You've already audited your career capital and written stories about significant moments. Those exercises focused on your skills — but the same stories reveal the traits employers value. Look back over your last two assignments and name the characteristics you exhibited.

ThemesWhat recurring traits or attributes show up across your career — your education, jobs, projects?

ChallengesWhat characteristics helped you overcome significant challenges in your life or career?

AchievementsLook back at accomplishments you're proud of. What traits helped you get there?

FeedbackWhat do colleagues, supervisors, or clients tend to say about your work style or personality?

Lessons LearnedWhat are the most valuable lessons your work has taught you — and what traits did you rely on to learn them?

Activity 2

Trait Word Bank

Tap every word that finishes the sentence "I am very…" for you. Don't overthink it — go with your gut. Your selections feed your Top 10 at the end.

0 traits selected

Activity 3

Personal Skills Self-Assessment

Rate how much you agree with each statement. There are no right or wrong answers — respond honestly based on your own experience. 1 = Strongly disagree, 4 = Neutral, 7 = Strongly agree.

Self-Management Skills

Strongly disagreeNeutralStrongly agree

Self-management average: —

Relationship-Management Skills

Strongly disagreeNeutralStrongly agree

Relationship-management average: —

Activity 4

Your Work Style Spectrum

Slide each marker toward the word that feels truer for you at work. The middle means "both / it depends." This is observable, practical preference — not a personality verdict. There's no better end of any scale; there's only what fits the role.

Ryan slides toward: Spontaneous, Independent, Flexible, Fast-paced, Risk-taking. That pattern points straight at dynamic, autonomous, variable environments — and away from rigid, closely-monitored ones.

How you work

Pace & decisions

Collaboration & communication

Reflection

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Where You Thrive vs Where You Drain

Look at your spectrum above. When your style aligns with a role and culture, you create energy and leverage. When it clashes, you create friction and burnout. Name the conditions on each side.

Energizes me

Drains me

Reflection

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Connect to Your Product & Targets

Your style is part of your "product." Tie it back to the work you've already done this program.

Amplify your skillsHow does your work style make your motivated skills from Lesson 4.2 even more valuable — or hard to replicate?

Fit your targetsLooking at your Week 3 targets — which roles or employers fit your style, and which would create friction? What does that tell you?

Activity 5 · The Deliverable

Your Top 10 Transferable Traits

Pull it all together. List your ten strongest transferable traits — qualitative descriptions, in order of preference. These become language you'll reuse in your resume, your stories, and your interviews.

Style makes your skills uniquely valuable.

Skills get you considered. Style — the how behind your work — is what makes you the right fit for the right environment. Knowing yours lets you choose better, differentiate faster, and protect your energy.

Bring one key style preference to your next coaching call — and how it connects to your targets.