I read an article from a old Career Management colleague recently and it made sense.
Making an informed and objective choice for your next career move is a critical phase of any job search.
It is really worth spending time and effort in making sure that the decision is right. We all know people who walk into a new job and find themselves desperately unhappy after a few months. Over 50 per cent of the population don’t look forward to Monday morning because they are in the ‘wrong’ job for them.
Whether you are unemployed or in work and looking for change the question is how to ensure that the next job is the ‘right’ one. Your abilities, experience and qualifications will determine whether you can do a job, but they will not tell you whether you will enjoy doing it. Fulfilment in a job depends much more critically on your personality strengths, related weaknesses and transferable skills base. A successful career planning exercise must begin with a careful analysis of these factors.
To identify your personality strengths and transferable skills, ask yourself these questions and then, importantly, write down the answers:-
- Which 10 work-related tasks do I do particularly well?
- What are the personality strengths which make me good at them?
- What do other people say I am good at and why?
- What are my 10 most impressive achievements?
- Which of my transferable skills were essential to each achievement?
If you look carefully at your answers you will see some common patterns emerging which are related to your personality and working style. Make the analysis as objective as possible by seeking feedback from other people. The more objective the assessment the more useful it is in identifying the functions, sectors and types of companies to which you are best suited.
Now do the exercise again and this time concentrate on what you are not good at. This will help to define areas to be avoided. Remember, though, that with correct guidance some weaknesses can be turned into strengths in a different working environment or job function.
With self-awareness exercises like these, whether done by yourself or by seeking professional guidance , you are more likely to make the right career move and career and work choices for the right reasons.