reducing
referring
rehabilitating
relating
remembering
rendering
repairing
reporting
representing
researching
resolving
responding
restoring
retrieving
reviewing
risking
scheduling
selecting
selling
sensing
separating
serving
setting
setting-up
sewing
shaping
sharing
showing
singing
sketching
solving
sorting
speaking
studying
summarizing
supervising
supplying
symbolizing
synergizing
synthesizing
systematizing
taking instructions
talking
teaching
team-building
telling
tending
testing & proving
training
transcribing
translating
traveling
treating
trouble-shooting
tutoring
typing
umpiring
understanding
understudying
undertaking
unifying
uniting
upgrading
using
utilizing
verbalizing
washing
weighing
winning
working
writing
When you are done with these two lists, pick out your favorite five things that you can do, and love to do; and write out some examples of how you actually demonstrated that, sometime in your recent past.
Incidentally, if you want a longer list, for any reason, Canadian career expert Martin Buckland has a free list of 2,010 action verbs at Elite Resumes (http://aneliteresume.com).
HOW TO DEAL WITH “NO CAN DO, BUT WANT TO DO”
What about a real disability: something you can’t do, but really want to be able to do? Maybe someone has invented a technology or simple strategy that helps you get around that disability. You never know. There are some very clever people out there. So, if your particular disability has a name, look it up on the Internet. Put its name into a search engine like Google, and see what turns up. Look particularly on the list it gives you for any professional association that deals with your disability. Contact them, and ask them what information they have.
An alternative way of dealing with this is to search for related jobs. Example: one career counselor in Europe was working with a young teenager who wanted to be a pilot. Problem: his eyesight was too poor. So the counselor sent him out to the large airport nearby, with a pad of yellow paper and a pen, and told him to spend the day listing every different kind of occupation that he saw or heard about, there at the airport— besides pilot. The next day he showed his list to his counselor. It was very long. When asked if he’d come across any occupation that interested him, he said, “Yes. I love the idea of making the seats that they put inside new airplanes.” So, that’s the job he pursued. He ended up in the airline industry, even though he couldn’t be a pilot.
As for employer prejudices, you may have to cast a wider net in your search, than just the Internet. The kind of things you won’t find there: the detailed help for ex-offenders that Dick Gaither offers.
