Career Assessment
Accessing Career Assessment
As human beings, we all have unique talents and strengths, which when used or expressed bring out the best of who we are and helps to make significant contributions to the work we are doing. The recipe for discovering your path lies in detecting the smaller elements of who you are, what you long desired to become and how you react when placed in an environment where you truly come alive and in tune with what is happening around you.
In today’s society, there is a certain script that has been prescribed for everyone who would like to be successful. This script usually goes as, go to school, get good grades and find a good job that pays you enough to buy a comfortable home and stable lifestyle. This journey is what our parents expect of us and we have also somehow come to accept this script as our way of life because it is safe. What has become troubling today is that, we have even settled for less. After graduating, we find jobs that pay us less than what we are worth, consume our energy and give us no fulfilment, yet we are fine, right? We have settled. No. Choose not to stay there.
Choosing not to stay there will bring you back to refocus on the most important person in this process. You. Who are you really? What did you always want to do since you were a kid or young? What are you really good at? When that job ends or that company shuts down, what will be left of you? Asking these very difficult questions will enable you to draw closer to yourself, bringing you to a point where you truly begin to know and discover your unique talents and strengths and how these elements can lead you towards a career journey that is satisfying, life-giving and potentially one that can change our world.
There is a great place to start and that is to assess your current career status.
What is a Career Assessment?
A career assessment is a prominent part of your career discovery. It is a process of assessing your personality traits, strengths, talents and values. By conducting a career assessment in these four areas you are likely to discover which career fits you best. The higher a career scores in all four areas, the more assured you can be that it is one that suits you the most.
The information you gather from assessing your career should assist you in clarifying who you really are, what you can do so well and what you would like to do. Identified as the cornerstone of one’s career growth and development, career assessment should lead you to greater self-knowledge and to a place where you can collectively look at all the options available to you and make well-informed decisions.
Research has shown that people who know themselves well are better prepared and are in a better position to make rational decisions towards a successful future. Career assessment should help you gain insights, clarity and direction. You should also have a general overview of your skills, interests, personality, values, needs, career beliefs and the obstacles you may encounter along the way as you build the career you love.
By understanding yourself better and having an idea of the type of work and work environment which will be a great fit for you, you already possess an edge that sets you apart from the majority of people looking for work without self-knowledge. You know exactly what to target and maximize on in order to move your career forward. You are less likely to rely on chance to move your career forward.
Career Assessment Tools
There are various formal and informal career assessment tools that can be used to help you assess your career. Formal career assessment tools such as the Myer Briggs Type Indicator test is one of the most well-known assessment tools around the world. However, an informal assessment with simple questionnaires and other creative methods, have also been proven to be successful in assessing one’s career. In this course, we will use both tools to help you get a broader and inclusive understanding of your abilities and opportunities.
Exercise
10 Questions to help you assess the state of your career/work today
- What experience do I want to gain from my work?
- What do I want to improve or change the most in my current work situation?
- What are my most preferred work problems to solve?
- What are my least preferred work problems to solve?
- What is / would be my most preferred role?
- What are the key strengths that I want to apply the most at work in general and for my next assignment?
- I am most interested in learning or improving the following skills or abilities :
- In general, my work interests mostly have to do with 1 or 2 of the following categories: human resources or event planning; data analytics or software development; making or fixing things ……..
- If there was a way, I would love to connect my work with the following activities outside work interests: ex: Volunteering your skills to youth clubs or non profit organisation.
- I want the impact of my career to be…
It is okay for now if you are unsure of the impact you want to make with your career. However, it is something worth thinking about and to be consciously planned towards.
Submit your answers to your advisor for a review, but most importantly to give them an insight into your current state.
Now that we have assessed your current career/work state, we can move on to another fundamental aspect of your career discovery. You know where you stand now, you have an idea of what you would like to see in your next career move, now let’s reflect a little bit on how best to make that move.