Reflecting, Developing And Articulating Your Competencies
Applying Your Competencies
In the previous chapter, you were introduced to the eight Science Professional Competencies needed to thrive throughout your career. This chapter will provide guidance on how to apply these competencies in meaningful ways during your studies and beyond.
You’ll explore how to:
- Reflect on your current strengths and areas of growth
- Develop your competencies through SMART goals
- Articulate your skills confidently to others — whether in resumes, interviews, or networking conversations
Remember: The competencies can be applied across many areas of your career development.
Knowing your competencies and areas of development can inform your job or graduate school application materials, preparation for an interview, search for experience, and more! Use the drop-down menu below to explore how each competency connects to topics covered throughout this Pressbook.
1. Reflect
Regularly reflecting on your competencies is critical. Reflection can be used before, during and after an experience to support various goals and aspects of your career development. Reflection can help you identify areas of strengths and development, acknowledge your progress, and inform your next steps. Below are some reflection prompts to help you get started:
- Which competency or components are my strengths?
- Which competency or components have I seen the most growth?
- Is there a specific moment or opportunity where I have demonstrated a competency or component? Why was it meaningful to me?
- Which competency or components would I like to improve in?
- How might I improve in a competency or component?
- Are there opportunities or resources available to help me develop a competency or component?
Writing down your reflections provides a focal point for personal reflection as you track your competency development. You may even choose to share these reflections with a supervisor, mentor, career advisor, or someone else who can help guide your competency development.
In any case, reflection is a simple, but powerful tool to return to throughout your academic journey and your future professional career.
2. Develop
Throughout your academic journey, you’ll take part in many activities that help build your competencies. After you reflect on your competencies, create a S.M.A.R.T. goal on how you’d plan to develop a specific component of a competency.
Setting S.M.A.R.T. Goals
S.M.A.R.T. goals are any goal that is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. For each step, there are actions you can take to build clear and specific goals. For more support, read this Goal Setting guide.
| S.M.A.R.T. | Guidance | Example Action |
| Specific | Clearly describe your goal. | I want to improve my problem-solving skills by independently troubleshooting at least three laboratory experiments or data analysis challenges during my co-op term. |
| Measurable | Answer: How will you track your progress?
If possible, define your goal in numerical terms (e.g., how much/how many?). Specify how will you know you’ve accomplished your goal. |
I will track the number of troubleshooting cases I encounter and document at least three examples where I successfully identified a problem, generated possible solutions, and chose one to implement. |
| Attainable | Answer: What steps will you take?
Is this a goal you can realistically accomplish with the time available? Why or why not? Are there any potential roadblocks to your goal? |
This goal is achievable because I will ask my supervisor for opportunities to troubleshoot lab experiments and seek guidance when needed to ensure I’m approaching problems effectively. |
| Relevant | Answer: Why is this goal important to you?
Is it relevant to your long-term goals? |
Strengthening my problem-solving skills will boost my confidence in lab work, support independent thinking, and prepare me for a career in biotechnology research. |
| Timely | Answer: What is the timeline for reaching this goal?
Determine when/how you will evaluate your progress. Are you setting smaller goals along the way? |
By the end of my co-op term, I will have completed and documented at least three troubleshooting cases. |
Exercise: Identify the action for each component of S.M.A.R.T
3. Articulating Your Competencies
Being able to clearly and confidently describe your competencies is a key part of career readiness. One powerful way to articulate your competencies is by crafting accomplishment statements or stories. An accomplishment statement will help you describe your skills to employers and can be used in a resume, cover letter, job interview, or to market yourself on LinkedIn. Accomplishment statements highlight your competencies by:
- Showcasing your unique contributions — Think of them as your personal “highlight reel.”
- Helping you stand out — In today’s competitive job market, it’s not enough to just list your degree. Accomplishment statements show how you’ve applied your skills in real-world situations.
- Quantifying your impact — Whenever possible, use numbers or measurable results. For example, instead of saying “assisted customers,” you could say “resolved customer inquiries 20% faster by streamlining the intake process.”
Writing accomplishment statements:
Identify an experience when you’ve demonstrated a specific competency. Once you have a specific experience in mind, answer the following questions:
- What did you do? State the specific task or responsibility from your professional experience where you applied this competency. Begin your statement with a strong action verb.
- How did you do it? Specify the skills or methods you used to accomplish the task.
- Why was it important? Identify the result or impact of your actions to highlight their significance.
- Communication: Tutored high school student using plain language to communicate complex physics concepts, resulted in improved course grade from 68% to 81%.
- Problem solving: Developed a data-cleaning script to automate the detection and correction of inconsistencies in user analytics reports, reducing manual processing time by 40%.
- Collaboration, Teamwork, and Interpersonal Relationships: Collaborated efficiently with kitchen staff during peak hours, adhering to order protocols, to ensure accurate and timely order delivery and high customer satisfaction.
- Motivation, Perseverance and Resilience: Incorporated supervisor feedback to refine patient communication techniques, resulting in more empathetic interactions and improved patient satisfaction scores.
For more guidance, visit the following chapters:
Need more support with communicating your Science Professional Competencies?
Meet with a Science Career Advisor
Book a 30-minute appointment the Science Careers & Experience Centre (BSB 127) in advance through OSCARplus.
Explore these additional chapters:
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Discover real stories of how your peers are articulating their competencies to gain professional experience.
