By James M. Lipuma, Ph.D.
While teaching my course on communicating professional expertise to a general audience, I assigned what seemed like a straightforward task. Describe a professional situation in which you would need to apply your expertise. Then explain the skills, academic knowledge, and practical experience that would allow you to respond effectively.
The logic seemed simple:
Profession → Situation → Expertise → Application
A student preparing to enter a profession should be able to imagine a plausible situation, identify what expertise it requires, and explain how their preparation would allow them to act. Except many students could not get past the situation. That led me to reconsider the assignment. Perhaps I was asking students to begin one step too far ahead.
Stop Starting with the Future Profession
Students approaching graduation are frequently asked some version of, “What are you going to do after college?” or “What kind of professional do you want to become?” Those questions have their place, but they also require students to imagine a professional future they may not yet understand well enough to describe.
The more immediate question may be simpler, “What do you currently have?” Students have already accumulated coursework, projects, technical skills, disciplinary knowledge, certifications, employment, student leadership, volunteer experiences, and other forms of preparation. The problem is that possessing these things does not necessarily mean they understand what those assets enable them to do. So instead of starting with, “Who will I become?” we can begin with, “What do I have, and what can I do with it now?”
That shift turns professional identity from an abstract projection of the future into an interpretation of evidence that already exists.
Step 1: Identify the Asset
Start with an inventory. Ask the student to identify one concrete element of the expertise they are developing through their degree. It might be:
- Technical skill
- Disciplinary knowledge
- Certification
- Project
- Practical experience
- Leadership experience
- Method pr protocol learned
Any of these or another capability you believe is relevant to the field is a good starting place. The first question is simply: “What do I currently have?” For example, I know Python.
At this stage, that is enough. Do not ask the student to construct an entire professional scenario yet. First, make the asset visible.
Step 2: Translate the Asset into Capability
The next question is, “What does this enable me to do?” This is where the student moves from possession to action. Knowing Python is an asset. Using Python to clean data, automate repetitive processes, analyze information, build a tool, identify patterns, or test computational solutions describes capability.
Similarly, knowing statistical methods is an asset. Being able to evaluate evidence, recognize patterns in data, test hypotheses, or determine whether a finding is meaningful describes capability. Knowing design software is an asset. Being able to develop, revise, test, and communicate a design describes capability.
The distinction is important: An asset is something you have.
A capability is something that asset enables you to do.
Students may have been accumulating assets throughout their education without ever being asked to make that translation explicitly.
Step 3: Identify the Beneficiary
Capability alone is still incomplete. The next question shifts attention away from the student, “Who could benefit from this capability?” The beneficiary might be:
- Another person
- Project team members
- Employers
- Clients
- Customers
- Patients
- Research group members
- Organizations
Community Stakeholders
This is an important transition because professional value is relational. Being able to perform an action does not automatically explain why that action matters. Someone has to benefit. A student who can automate a process, for example, might benefit a team currently spending hours performing the same work manually. A student who can analyze complex datasets might help a manager make a better decision. A student who can communicate technical findings clearly might help a client understand the consequences of different options.
The student is beginning to move from, “This is something I can do.” Toward, “This is something I can do for someone else.”
Step 4: Articulate the Value Proposition (for more on this see How to Write a Value Statement )
Now we can finally ask, “Why does that capability matter to the beneficiary?” This is where the pieces become a value proposition. The sequence is:
Asset → Capability → Beneficiary → Value
For example:
- Asset: Python programming
- Capability: Automating repetitive data-processing tasks
- Beneficiary: A project team working with large datasets
- Value: Reducing manual work, improving consistency, and allowing the team to spend more time interpreting results
The student can now say something substantially more meaningful than, “I know Python.” They can say, “I can use Python to automate repetitive data-processing tasks, helping a project team reduce manual work and spend more time interpreting results.”
That statement begins to articulate professional value. The same logic works beyond technical skills. A student might identify experience coordinating a student organization. That experience may translate into the capability to coordinate people with competing schedules, communicate across roles, manage limited resources, and maintain progress toward a shared objective. Those capabilities may benefit a project team. Their value might be improved coordination, reduced confusion, effective communication, or more reliable execution. What initially looked like a student activity can now be interpreted as evidence of an emerging professional capability.
From Inventory to Value Proposition
The progression therefore becomes:
- What do I have?
- What does it enable me to do?
- Who could benefit from that?
- Why does that matter to them?
That final question is the critical WHY. Not, “Why did I choose this major?” not, “Why do I believe this skill is important?” and not even, “Why do I want this profession?”
Instead, you can now ask, “Why is what I can do valuable to someone else?”
That is the beginning of a value proposition.
Step 5: Build Trust
Once a student claims that they can create value, another question immediately follows, “Why should anyone believe you?” Now we can move backward into evidence”
- How did you acquire this capability?”
- Where have you demonstrated it?
- What coursework, projects, employment, internships, certifications, leadership experiences, or other activities support the claim?
This is where the résumé, portfolio, elevator pitch, and interview story become useful. However, the direction has changed. Instead of starting with:
Here are all the things I have done
and hoping that another person recognizes their value, the student can put forth the value they claim to create with the evidence that supports that claim. The evidence now has a purpose and leads to a significant means of separating the individual form the vast collection of similarly trained students.
Differentiation: Why You?
Eventually, the student encounters an even more difficult question, “Why should someone choose you instead of another graduate who can do something similar?” This introduces differentiation.
Most graduates in the same discipline will share some knowledge and capabilities. A computer science graduate is unlikely to be the only applicant who knows Python. An engineering graduate will not be the only applicant who understands engineering principles or the design process. The student’s value proposition therefore becomes more sophisticated when they begin identifying combinations of assets that distinguish them from others.
Perhaps the student combines programming with communication. Engineering with project leadership. Data analysis with domain expertise. Technical knowledge with bilingual communication. Research experience with community engagement. The differentiating factor may not be a single extraordinary skill. It may be the particular configuration of capabilities, experiences, knowledge, perspectives, and demonstrated outcomes that the student brings together. The sequence can therefore expand:
Asset → Capability → Beneficiary → Value → Evidence → Differentiation
Only Then Do We Simulate Professional Practice
Once students can articulate what they have, what it enables them to do, who could benefit, and why that capability has value, we can return to the professional scenario that originally caused the problem. Now ask:
- Where might this capability be applied?
- What professional situation would require it?
- What would you actually do in that situation?
At this point, students are no longer being asked to imagine an unfamiliar profession from nothing. They have something to work with because they:
- Understand the asset
- Translated it into capability
- Identified a beneficiary
- Can Express their value
- Can provide evidence supporting their claim
Now they can begin projecting that value into professional practice.
The original sequence Profession → Situation → Expertise → Application has not disappeared. We have simply created the steps students may need before they are ready to use it.
Professional Identity Begins with What You Already Have
Students do not need to know exactly what job they will have five or ten years from now to begin developing a professional identity. They need to understand what they already possess, earn how to translate knowledge, skills, and experience into capability and then recognize who might benefit from those capabilities. Then, they must be able to articulate why those capabilities create value. Only then can they begin asking the larger questions about professional situations, career trajectories, competitive differentiation, and the kinds of professionals they might eventually become.
Thus, in the end, when asked what expertise will be applied as a professional in the field, requires a description of professional identity, which includes:
- This is what I currently have.
- This is what it enables me to do.
- This is who can benefit from it.
- This is why it matters and from there:
- This is the value I can create.