How To Include Spatial Orientation Skills In Your Resume

Cognition refers to the mental process that helps you to know and understand things. This happens when you think, sense, and experience things.

Cognitive abilities are, therefore, any brain-based functions that enable you to learn, remember, and comprehend things. They are also referred to as cognitive functions. And they influence your intellectual capacity.

Your cognitive functions affect your ability to pay attention, recall information, and solve problems. They also affect your perception, learning, decision making, and language skills.

The outer part of the brain, which is known as the cerebrum, affects your cognitive processes. The right side of your cerebrum controls the left side of your body and vice versa. But different lobes on both the left and right sides control different functions.

For example, your reasoning and decision-making skills are under the control of the frontal lobe. But the temporal lobe controls the ability to smell and memorize information. Your speech is also controlled by this lobe.

Spatial orientation is an example of a cognitive function and employers consider it a desirable ability. And its presence can improve your chances of being hired for a job.

What Is Spatial Orientation?

Spatial orientation refers to the body’s ability to regulate its posture or orientation relative to the environment. It is dynamic. That is because when you move, your brain must determine your new position relative to the surroundings that you are in.

Were it not for spatial orientation, people would probably end up going in circles. It would have been impossible to determine which direction you need to take to get somewhere. Then you would end up walking into doors and walls.

Good spatial orientation needs multiple sensory inputs. These include visual, auditory, and vestibular sensory inputs. And it helps us to visualize things in three dimensions as well as two dimensions.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that affects our spatial awareness. It is responsible for giving us a sense of direction. The more we exercise our spatial abilities, the bigger the hippocampus becomes.

Spatial awareness is what helps you to determine:

• Where you currently are

• Where you are going

• How to get back to your original position or location

• The relationships between objects in an environment — (how far apart they are)

• The distance between you and something that you want to get to

• The changes in space that are happening or need to happen

• What an object is regardless of the perspective you are viewing it from

Visually impaired people tend to have better spatial cognition functions.

They may not be able to see, but they can determine the locations of objects in a non-visual way. Their tactile senses are much sharper. And they can use them to mentally calculate distances and visualize forms within the environments that they are in.

Signs of Low Spatial Awareness

Not everyone has a good spatial orientation. Some people have lower levels of spatial awareness. Here are signs that determine you need to improve your spatial awareness:

• You struggle to park your vehicle in the position that it should be in

• You find it difficult to read a map

• You are always getting lost – everyone jokes that you don’t have a good sense of direction

• It’s difficult for you to read, write, or perform mathematical calculations

• You get confused when determining up and down, or left and right directions

• You are always bumping into things even when they are right in front of you

• When reaching out for objects, you always miscalculate the distance – you are the glass breaker in your home

• Dressing up is sometimes difficult for you

• It’s hard for you to get an accurate sense of personal space — you are always standing too close or too far from people

• Your body is uncoordinated – your sports performance is always dismal

• You tend to write content in the middle of the page and it may not always be in a straight line horizontally

• You are always having a hard time organizing your stuff, especially in a small space like a locker or luggage

What Are Spatial Orientation Skills?

Spatial orientation skills are the combination of skills that enable us to mentally determine our body’s positions relative to the environment. They also include skills that enable us to determine an object’s position within both two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces.

Many fields require people with excellent spatial abilities. These include engineering, sports, meteorology, mathematics, and financial forecasting. Others include natural sciences, cartography, and physics.

If you would like to work in these fields, then you need to ensure that you include an extensive list of spatial orientation skills.

Spatial abilities can be put into four major categories. These are:

1. Spatial perception. Spatial perception is your ability to perceive spatial relationships relative to your body’s orientation regardless of the distractions around you.

   If you have this ability, you should be able to take in information outside your body to understand spatial information. Even in a dense forest, you can find your way if you are lost.

2. Spatial visualization. Spatial visualization involves the visual representation and manipulation of spatially presented information. It takes into consideration the features, measurements, movements, and shapes to understand a problem.

   Data visualization platforms tend to incorporate this capability within their systems.

3. Mental rotation. Mental rotation refers to your ability to quickly and accurately rotate and manipulate 2D and 3D objects in space. The object’s features, however, must not change. This ability helps you to solve problems.

   Examples of activities that can help you improve your mental rotation skills include solving a Rubik’s cube and jigsaw puzzles.

4. Mental folding. Mental folding is a spatial transformation process that involves the folding or conversion of 2D patterns into 3D objects. Embracing origami as a hobby can help you improve your mental folding abilities.

Ways to Include Spatial Orientation Skills in Your Resume

You don’t always have to state that you have great spatial orientation skills in your resume. You can simply include other associated skills that show you have excellent spatial awareness.

Here are ways to include them in your resume:

• Highlight your navigation skills. If you are the kind of person that can find your way through a place while disregarding the noises around you, then highlight your excellent navigational skills.

  That includes information about how you have directed a ship or aircraft. If you have planned routes in the past, also include that information.

  If you have worked in jobs that need excellent navigational skills such as taxi driving, then be sure to include that in your resume also.

• Highlight your astronomy skills. Astronomy is the study of celestial objects including the sun and moon. It also involves the study of the stars and planets.

  You should include any astronomy skills you possess. For example, if you can tell time by using a makeshift sundial, state that.

  Also, share if you can determine direction using the stars. All these skills indicate that you can determine your location relative to the celestial bodies. You can be relied upon to find your way in remote areas if your GPS fails to work.

• Highlight your sporting skills. To be good at sports, you need to have good spatial perception. This ability enables you to hit balls accurately, control your body movements to get desirable results, and improve your sports performance.

  If you were an excellent baseball hitter, fencer, or footballer, don’t be shy. Share your accomplishments in your resume.

  Most sports, including gymnastics, golf, and basketball, require a decent level of spatial awareness. So, any sports experiences that you include will help your chances of getting jobs rather than work against you.

• Highlight your mechanical skills. You need spatial orientation to fix mechanical issues. You must have the ability to take things apart and put them back together correctly.

  The ability to mentally take bigger parts apart, analyze them, and determine the problem is an important aspect of spatial visualization. Be sure to highlight your mechanical skills. These include the ability to operate and fix equipment.

• Include spatial awareness technologies you are familiar with. If you are familiar with any technological tools that are relevant in fields that rely on good spatial orientation, include them in your resume.

  These include virtual reality, architectural, engineering, and robotics tools.

  Examples of tools that you can list include Adobe Animate, SketchUp, MATLAB, Fusion360, and ArcGIS among others. It all depends on the job description and how relevant the technology you are familiar with is to the job you are applying for.

• Include hobbies associated with excellent spatial reasoning abilities. Some games require the use of spatial reasoning and perception. These include live-action video games, Tetris, Rubik’s cube, and jigsaw puzzles.

  Artistic hobbies like origami also need similar abilities.

• Include relevant academic credentials. Some fields of study need you to have spatial awareness. Without it, you cannot complete some of these programs.

  Research shows that your probability of getting an advanced degree in a STEM field (science, technology, engineering, and math) is directly proportional to your spatial abilities.

  If you have a degree associated with astronomy such as astrophysics, physics, or natural science degree, you should include it as part of your academic credentials. It shows you have some understanding of spatial orientation.

Final Thoughts

Spatial orientation and its impact on your career should not be underestimated. Not everyone has good spatial orientation skills that can help them navigate through their careers successfully.

If you possess this skill set, ensure that you include it in your resume by highlighting what you can do and the technologies you’re familiar with.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.