What Is the Main Difference Between a Personal Characteristic and a Skill?
No Matter if you apply for freelance projects or build your online profile, clients often ask about your skills and your personal characteristics. But what have these 2 in common when it come to freelancing?
At first glance, they sound similar — both describe what you bring to the table.
But understanding the difference between them can completely change the way you present yourself, and how much you earn.
🧭 The Simple Difference
A personal characteristic is who you are.
A skill is what you can do.
That’s it — short version.
But let’s break that down so it really clicks.
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Personal Characteristic | A trait or quality that defines your natural behavior or attitude. | Patience, honesty, curiosity, adaptability. |
| Skill | A learned ability that allows you to perform specific tasks effectively. | Copywriting, video editing, coding, negotiation. |
💡 Personal Characteristics: Your Natural Core
Personal characteristics are the built-in parts of your personality. These are the traits that set appart the best of the best from the majority, the champions and the mediocre world, and it is like this in freelance too.
They shape how you work, not necessarily what you do, and client need to know that you can deliver in both ways. Sometimes the patience, creativity, communication and other abillities can weight more than the skill itself.
Examples:
- You’re naturally curious → you explore new solutions faster.
- You’re patient → clients love that they can talk 30 min on a useless videocall and you are still in a calm energy – that’s a skill. If you don’t know how to nod at any BS they say, and seem happy even if in reallity you think about eating a big buritto – thats a skill!
- You’re organized → your projects run smoother, finish faster and so on.
These traits are harder to measure, but they define your reputation.
A freelancer who’s honest, communicative, and reliable will always beat a more skilled competitor who’s hard to work with.
👉 Think of personal characteristics as your long-term personal brand.
⚙️ Skills: Your Professional Toolkit
Skills, on the other hand, are learned through study, training, and or experience. As a freelancer you need to know at least one skill, and master it in time. But hey, one skill is not enough, you may want to diversify your options, and learn adiacent skills.
In short – they’re the tools you use to get results.
Examples:
- Web design
- SEO writing
- Project management
- Python development
- Video editing
Skills are measurable and teachable.
Unlike the personal characterisitcs that are mostly given at birth, skills can be learned. You can prove them through your portfolio, clients love results, or certifications.
👉 Think of skills as your professional tools that evolve as you grow.
🔁 How They Work Together
Freelancing success comes from the combination of both:
| Scenario | What Helps You Win |
|---|---|
| Client communication | Empathy + clarity (traits) + copywriting (skill) |
| Negotiating rates | Confidence (trait) + persuasion (skill) |
| Managing multiple clients | Organization (trait) + time management (skill) |
You can have all the technical skills in the world — but without the right personal traits, clients won’t stay.
Likewise, being nice and patient won’t pay bills if you don’t deliver skilled work.
The balance between character and skills is what defines top freelancers.
Maybe you can see from my reviews, most of the clients add both traits my excelent video creation skills, and also, there is more accent put on communication, creativity, fast delivery time, and versatility to comply and create the project after the clients wish, not as you want.
That’s another skill, and a harsh truth to digest. No matter if you are a top rated freelancer, or a master in your skill, and you know that your way to do things is better, but your client wants to make things in his/her way, you need to know how to abstain from your point of view, so the end result will make the client happy, you get paid and everybody is happy. This skill is knowing how and when to STFU.
🧩 How to Showcase Both in Your Freelance Profile
When building your profile (on Upwork, Fiverr, or your portfolio site), make sure you include both elements:
Example profile intro:
“I’m a detail-oriented (trait) graphic designer (skill) who blends creativity (trait) with strong brand strategy (skill) to create visuals that convert.”
This formula shows clients who you are and what you do — instantly.
🚀 The End!
The main difference between a personal characteristic and a skill is this:
Your characteristics describe your behavior (hard to change)
Your skills describe your performance (you can easilly change that by training).
In freelancing, clients buy both.
They want someone skilled enough to deliver results, and trustworthy enough to enjoy working with.
If you can highlight both sides — your personality and your competence — your profile will stand out in a sea of generic freelancers. Bonus points if you hae a bit of humour you’ll be unstoppable as a freelancer.
Having the “freedom”to crack a joke when everybody is serious at a meeting will make clients brake their tough sales face, you know that fake poker face that they all have, pretending that they can find a better option than you and so on… In reallity if you make a subtile joke, they’ll get a bit softer, that’s why its called a “punch line” And also they will immediatelly assume that you know what you’re doing if you got the confidence to joke, that’s a big sign that you are too relaxed and secure on your skills and character, so they will get allong and you will probablly asecure that client.
Good luck!
