{"id":7141,"date":"2023-08-15T10:15:45","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T09:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=7141"},"modified":"2023-08-15T11:53:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T10:53:35","slug":"how-to-see-what-others-see-in-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/?p=7141","title":{"rendered":"How to see what others see in you"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7151\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7151\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/David-and-Lois-2-300x227.jpg\" alt=\"A picture showing the author with his sister.\" width=\"300\" height=\"227\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/David-and-Lois-2-300x227.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/David-and-Lois-2.jpg 717w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-7151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">OU student David with his sister, Lois.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Chatting to my sister before I went to a job interview a few years ago, she gave me some advice. &#8220;Tell them you&#8217;re really good at putting other people at ease,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Am I?&#8221; I asked, surprised.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, we don\u2019t realise that what we\u2019re naturally good at is something other people wish they could do.<\/p>\n<p>Being aware of your strengths is essential to have the confidence to  plan your future. It\u2019s being both realistic and positive about yourself  at the same time. A difficult balancing act when we\u2019re raised not  to \u2018boast\u2019 about our achievements.<\/p>\n<p>When I became an OU student, I was delighted to suddenly have access to tools that gave me clarity about myself. These resources really helped me organise my thoughts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/your-skills-and-qualities\">Your skills and qualities<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/build-your-future-with-career-confidence\">Build your future with career confidence<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Chapter 1.3 and Activity 1.13 Skills audit of <a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/your-career-planning-guide-booklet\">Your Career Planning Guide<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>What our loved ones think about us can be enlightening. If you\u2019re auditing your skills and strengths, ask someone you trust what your strong points are. They might surprise you.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not only people close to us who have eye-opening insights. Research shows just how much employers value OU students. In a July 2023 survey, employers described OU students as: \u2018self-starters\u2019, \u2018diverse\u2019, \u2018determined\u2019,  \u2018adaptable\u2019 and \u2018work-ready\u2019. My favourite quote is from a 2019 study, where one employer said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOU graduates have better communication skills; you can just see how those softer skills are a bit finer tuned. To be honest, we\u2019ve saved a lot of time with taking OU graduates on. They show enthusiasm in terms of wanting to learn.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It just shows how much employers believe in OU students. So if employers value you, maybe it\u2019s time to start valuing yourself. My lightbulb moment was that chat with my sister. Where will yours be?<\/p>\n<h5><a href=\"https:\/\/help.open.ac.uk\/browse\/careers\">OU Careers and Employability Services<\/a><\/h5>\n<ul class=\"ou-list ou-list--social ou-list--social--icons\">\n<li class=\"ou-list__facebook\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/CESFacebook19\">Facebook<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"ou-list__twitter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/CESTwitter18\">Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"ou-list__linkedin\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/TOUCaN19\">LinkedIn<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"ou-box ou-box--info\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/DF-e1692090840171-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"70\" height=\"70\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-7145\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/DF-e1692090840171-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/DF-e1692090840171-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/DF-e1692090840171-768x769.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/DF-e1692090840171.jpg 866w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 70px) 100vw, 70px\" \/>David Foulkes is Marketing and Communications Manager in the OU\u2019s Careers and Employability Services. David\u2019s job is to spread the word about our careers support, because we know that students with clear goals do better in study and life. David&#8217;s also a keen OU student of physics, astrophysics and space science. He&#8217;s at the \u2018Discover\u2019 career readiness stage.\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chatting to my sister before I went to a job interview a few years ago, she gave me some advice. &#8220;Tell them you&#8217;re really good at putting other people at ease,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Am I?&#8221; I asked, surprised. Sometimes, we don\u2019t realise that what we\u2019re naturally good at is something other people wish they could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":7149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discover"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7141"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7336,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7141\/revisions\/7336"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/careers\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}