Innovators and creatives
Discover the benefits of developing your innovation and creativity skills.
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Unleash your imagination and problem-solving prowess through creativity. Creativity is the art of generating fresh ideas and exploring unique possibilities. As you learn and grow, your creativity flourishes, fuelling diverse forms of expression.
But creativity doesn't stop there. It's the driving force behind innovation—applying those creative ideas for commercial and financial success. An innovation can be a physical object, a concept to improve or creating a new process. These two forces are deeply intertwined.
Demonstrating your creativity though tangible ideas, plans and outcomes is highly sought after by employers, as it shows both innovation and creativity skills.
Reflect
- Are you open and adaptable, always seeking new ways of doing things?
- How do you bring your ideas to life?
- How can you showcase your creative and innovative spirit?
In the next section you will see how you can develop this skill.
Develop your skills
Next, let's dive into skill development. Here are some suggested activities to supercharge your innovation and creative skills:
- Research: Gather materials and study the task or problem at hand, exploring both specific and general aspects.
- Mulling: Instead of rushing to find a solution, immerse yourself in the issue and play with different ideas.
- Take a break: Innovators embrace breaks, allowing ideas to simmer and resurface.
- Emerging idea: After a break, fresh insights often arise - words or images will combine correctly, a pattern will stand out or a solution seems to present itself.
- Idea development: Build upon your idea and start bringing it to life, focusing on practicality, effectiveness, and appropriateness in your work.
Get ready to unleash your full creative potential!
Once you have started to consider how you can develop your skills, start to think about how you might be able to showcase them during your career journey.
Demonstrate your employability skills
You will be asked to provide evidence of your skills in job applications, CVs and interviews – articulating where, when, why and how successfully you have used your employability skills. Top tips:
- Start with noting down examples of your skills on our Employability Skills Checklist
- Keep this as a record to use when completing applications and preparing for interviews.
Reflect on your journey
- Identify the skills you're using in your studies.
- Record all your experiences (paid work, voluntary work, roles in clubs or societies, for example) using our Employability Skills Activity Sheet
- Maintain your skills audit for future reference.
- Pinpoint any challenging skills or qualities you are struggling to evidence.
- Take action to bridge any skills gap.
Check out our employability guide (perfect for new students) to unlock opportunities and more ideas to help you develop your employability skills.
Be positive and relevant
- Give examples of the most relevant skills first from your job, internship or work experience
- Use confident language to describe your skills, for example, praise employers have given you.
- Better to focus on transferable skills than routine tasks on your CV, gained through part-time jobs.
Sell your skills in different ways
These are just a few examples:
- Social Media including a Linked-In Profile
- Networking opportunities
- CV, Covering Letters, Application Forms
- Interview and Assessment Centres
- Presentations
Think beyond common skills
Our Employability Skills are probably ones you are familiar with. But there are some you might not be familiar with, such as meta-skills. A meta-skill like a master skill – it's something that can help you in lots of different environments.
Think also about:
- Subject skills e.g. Software, use of Lab equipment or research methodology
- Talents and abilities e.g. Languages, drawing skills, athletic
- Personal qualities e.g. Calmness, tenacious, creative, supportive
Match skills to your employer
Research the employer – what is their company culture? Look on their website and see what their company beliefs are.
Look at the job description you have. You should be able to find some of the employability skills they are looking for.
Use the STAR technique to help you relate the employability skills into your answers and examples.
Resources
- Social Enterprise
- Entrepreneurial Mindset and Skills
- Personal Branding
- Job hunting for graduates
- Market Research
- Learning LinkedIn for Students
Our experts have selected further Employability resources for you to use.
Speak to a Careers Adviser
Get guidance from our friendly team of Advisers. Book an appointment or call 0161 295 0023 (option 5, option 3).
Open to current students and Salford Alumni only.