Quick! Name ten of your most important abilities and skills. Then name ten of the traits employers consider the most important for your job.

Having trouble? You're not alone. Understanding what your skillset actually is -- and how it matches your chosen or desired career -- is one of the more difficult, and most important, pieces of self-analysis you'll ever do. Knowing your own capabilities gives you an advantage, no matter whether you're happy where you are or itching to change jobs -- or fields.

What's a Skillset?

Your skillset includes all the knowledge and training and experiences and talents that make you unique. These traits can be divided into five categories:

1. Personality traits. Your personality provides your most fundamental aspects.
   
2. Basic skills. These skills are used in most careers.
   
3. Specialized skills. These skills set you apart from others with the same basic background.
   
4. Education and training. Your degree and other training make up this category, which may overlap with your skills.
   
5. Experience. Like specialized skills, your experience sets you apart. Even better, it's uniquely yours.

What's Your Real Skillset?

Today, we're going to determine what your skills actually are and how they match up to your current or desired career. If the two sets of skills are a close match, you have most of the skills you'll need to jump into a new career. If not, you'll know where you need to grow and improve.

When you finish, you'll have a powerful weapon for your career: an accurate self-assessment of your strengths. Use these strengths to get noticed by potential employers, especially government contractors and federal hiring officials, and create targeted resumes that will get you interviews. We'll show you how.

To get started, download our free skills evaluation worksheet [PDF], which will walk you through determining which skills you have and which you need. Use the concepts below as a guide when you fill out the worksheet.

Where You Stand: Your Current Skillset

Think of yourself as a bowl full of bits of knowledge and experience. Put a mental sticker on that bowl that says, "My Skillset." Like salads, each person's combination of traits is a little different. The "lettuce" base, your personality, grounds and gives context to all your other traits. 

Use the downloadable PDF worksheet to record the skills you have in each category. You'll be able to save and print what you type.

Finished? Now that you know your current strengths, we'll explore what you can do with it in the next article, Find and Land Your Dream Job, Part 2: What's Your Dream Job?

This article is part of GovWin.com's jobs and staffing resources. Check out the GovWin staffing section, ask the experts a question or follow @HireGovCon on Twitter for the latest govcon job listings.

Lindley Ashline is the Web editor at GovWin.com, the network that helps government contractors win new business every day. She can be reached at lindleyashline@deltek.com, or you can follow her on Twitter @lindleyashline.