The idea
You've spent years collecting proof that you're capable — most of it is just sitting in the wrong language, or you've stopped noticing it's there. This week you're not learning anything new. You're doing an inventory of what's already true about you.
Treat this like an experiment, not a self-help worksheet. You're gathering data points. Some will be obvious (things you did in the lab or at work). Some will be things you've never once called a "skill" — a hobby, a thing a friend paid you for once, a thing people always come to you for.
The goal by Sunday: 12–15 filled rows. Aim for 2–3 a day — don't try to do it all in one sitting, the dormant ones especially tend to surface when you're not trying.
How to fill it in
For each row, capture one thing you did or do — professional or not — using these five prompts:
- What did you do? — Raw and unfiltered. Don't pre-judge whether it "counts."
- Type — Professional / Hobby / Dormant (something you can do but never use or mention)
- The story, briefly — Situation → Action → Result, one or two sentences, no jargon needed yet
- Who noticed? — Anyone who complimented you, paid you, asked you to teach them, or came to you specifically for this. If nobody has yet, leave blank — that's useful information too.
- Plain-language translation — Strip out the field-specific language. What is this actually, in words a stranger outside your industry would understand? This is the line that could go on a CV or an introduction.
Mix your sources deliberately. Don't just list job duties — several of the best entries in this kind of exercise turn out to be things people almost didn't write down because they didn't think it was "real."
Example (filled in for you)
| # | What I did / do | Type | The story (S→A→R) | Who noticed? | Plain-language translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Managed 6–7 parallel cell line experiments through my PhD, staggering timelines so a contamination in one didn't derail the whole project | Professional | Needed reliable data by fixed deadlines with biological material that fails unpredictably → built backup lines and buffer time into every experiment → never lost a deadline to contamination in 4 years | My current manager, when I started running two workstreams and she said I was "a natural" at it | I ran multiple concurrent projects with limited resources and built contingency planning into every one of them, without ever needing to be taught how — that's project management |
Your table (fill in as you go)
| # | What I did / do | Type | The story (S→A→R) | Who noticed? | Plain-language translation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| 15 |
Next week we'll build on this table — don't worry about deciding what any of this means for your future yet. This week is just collecting the evidence.