What skills have you acquired as a SoAn major? How can you articulate those skills to prospective employers or graduate schools?

Here are some starting points to assist in your brainstorming. Note that these won't fit every student or every situation. You'll need to personalize these to reflect your experiences, including specific examples that demonstrate your ability to meet the needs of the position/program.

Perspective

• Communicating in globalized world
• Recognizing varied perspectives
• Avoiding preconceptions
• Providing a global perspective
• Seeing the "big picture"

Knowledge Base

• Understanding group behavior and dynamics
• Understanding societal trends and influences
• Understanding human migrations
• Understanding ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins
• Understanding community resources
• Understanding connections between past and present

Data

• Formulating appropriate research questions
• Interviewing
• Surveying
• Selecting research methods
• Sampling, gathering and organizing data
• Synthesizing and analyzing data
• Using statistical software packages
• Recognizing trends and patterns
• Careful record-keeping

Communication

• Formulating clear and persuasive messages
• Writing well
• Developing organized oral presentations
• Creating informative visual aids
• Using both descriptive and statistical data to support an idea.
• Listening, clarifying, questioning and responding
• Writing grant proposals

 People skills

• Understanding race, class, and gender differences
• Working well with diverse groups
• Providing strong leadership
• Working well in teams
• Demonstrating social ease in strange situations
• Paying attention to detail
• Planning projects
• Conducting field studies
• Managing conflicts
• Understanding and improving human relationships