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• 1. Self Assessment
  • 1.1 Pride Experiences
    • 1.1.1 My Pride List
    • 1.1.2 Writing Your Stories
  • 1.2 Personality
    • 1.2.1 Personality Checklist
  • 1.3 Values
  • 1.4 Skills
    • 1.4.1 Your Skills
  • 1.5 Interests
    • 1.5.1 Your Career Interests
    • 1.5.2 Understanding Career Clusters
  • 1.6 Knowledge
    • 1.6.1 Identifying Your Style
  • 1.7 Self-employment
  • 1.8 Integrating Your Assessment
• 2. Research
• 3. Decision-Making
• 4. Networks & Contacts
• 5. Work
• 6. Life/Work Planning

Step 1: Self Assessment

Welcome to Step 1!

Completing Step 1 will help you to: Understand why self assessment is a key factor leading to career success Conduct a complete assessment of your personality, interests, values, skills, learning needs and self-employment potential Know what you are looking for in your career

The First Step to Career Success!

In the past it was normal for students to declare a major related to a career; complete a prescribed set of studies; find a job in a related field; and stay in that field until they retired. One decision and that was it! Today, however, it is far more common for individuals to change their majors, do several career searches and changes in a lifetime. People change their careers for a variety of reasons. For example, they did not make a wise choice initially; the career they selected no longer exists; they want to match their changing values and needs to a new set of career possibilities.

Making the right plans for your future during these changing times can be difficult. Starting with the self assessment process can give you more choices and broaden your options. You then can have the confidence that you are on the right career path.

A self assessment can reveal your characteristics, interests, values and skills. It will define your strengths and your weaknesses. Looking for a match between these and the work you are considering is the most important step you can take before you write a resume or begin the search for a job. In fact, when the time comes to write your resume and prepare for a job interview, you will find the task easier if you have completed the self-assessment process first!

You are the place to start.  Ask yourself:

• What do I do well? What am I good at? What do others tell me?
• What do I enjoy doing? What turns me on? What energizes me?

Answers to these types of questions and many others will help you identify your strengths and make decisions around the contributions you can make. Many people try to fit into jobs advertised in newspapers or other sources. The employer today has many qualified candidates from which to choose. You will be seriously considered for a position only by showing the employer that you know who you are, what you can offer and where you are going.

You will need to commit some time to prepare your personal inventory. Your honesty and the quality of your work will predict your level of success in getting the right job. Write out your answers and the conclusions you come to as a permanent record of your thoughts and feelings. This data then becomes an important resource as you continue in your career planning and work search activities.

In order to prepare for this process, the first step is to complete the Pride Experience exercise.

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Help! I don’t have time for all of this! You will be more likely to find the work you want if you complete all of the sections in Step 1. However, if you are in real hurry, you can shorten this process by doing just the Pride Experiences and then going to the Skills Analysis. Alternatively, you can skip the Pride Experiences and simply circle the words that appeal to you in the Personality and Skills sections. However, this latter process will not have as much accuracy compared to doing the full exercises.