Identify Personal Interests, Skills and Values

Self-assessment involves identifying and understanding your interests, skills, and

values as a foundation for career decision-making, planning and action.
Assessing and understanding your interests, skills and values is the first step in
identifying the career path that is right for you.
Theres a big difference between getting a job and pursuing a career you love.
Research has shown that individuals who choose careers that are closely aligned with
their interests, skills and values tend to be more satisfied in their jobs and enjoy
greater career success.
The self-assessment process is important, not only in pursuing your first job after the
HSC, but throughout your life.

Interests
Interests are those activities you enjoy doing.
Interest in the work you perform is a key motivating factor.
Those who are interested in their work will find it more enjoyable, be more motivated
to learn about it, develop relevant skills, work hard and persevere when the job
becomes challenging.
All of these factors will increase your chances of success and job satisfaction.

Interests Exercise
To help identify your interests briefly answer the questions below:

What do you do well?

When reading newspapers, magazines,

the Internet or watching TV, what
issues/topics are you drawn to?
What are your favorite classes?

What are the most interesting jobs you

can think of?
What activities or hobbies do you like to
do in your spare time?
If money were no object, how would you
make a living?
Of all of the people you know, who do
you think has the most interesting job?
Who are your heroes?

What did you dream of being when you

were a child?

Based on your answers to the questions above, list your top three areas of interest:

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Skills
Skills are learned abilities.
You discover what your skills are by looking at the experiences that have given you the
most satisfaction and greatest feeling of accomplishment.
These successes may have occurred through a variety of experiences not just schoolrelated accomplishments.
Story Exercise
The Story Exercise will help you identify your strengths and weaknesses when it
comes to your skills and interests. For this exercise, you will write a short story about an
experience in your life that was enjoyable and fulfilling, but also presented an obstacle
that you had to overcome or resolve.
Include the following information:

A description of the experience and problem(s) that had to be overcome.

Other people that were involved and how you interacted with them. Did you
work as part of a team or alone, did you lead the group and did your
responsibilities grow over time?
A step-by-step account of what occurred from beginning to end and your role in
it?
A description of the end result, make sure you include both positive and negative
results.

STORY:
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Once you have finished with your story share it with another student and together
answer the following questions:
1. What skills did you demonstrate?
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2. Which skills did you enjoy using the most and the least?
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3. Identify the transferable skills you used? (Skills that can be carried into other
situations)
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List three skills you demonstrated and most enjoyed using:

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2.
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3.
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Personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

Strengths are your internal, positive attributes. You have some control over these.
Weaknesses are your internal negative attributes. You have some control over these as
well. Opportunities are uncontrollable external events that you can possibly leverage.
Threats are uncontrollable external events that may work against you and require you to
take protective action.
EXAMPLES:
STRENGTHS

Education.
Work Experience.
Enthusiasm and passion.
Positive Personal Traits.
Network of contacts.
Solid understanding of chosen
career and opportunities.
Job Search Plan.
Specific Transferable Skills.
Technical knowledge within your
field.

OPPORTUNITIES

Demand for skills you possess.

Geography ability to re-locate.
Benefit of additional training
(University and TAFE etc).

WEAKNESSES

Lack of relevant work experience.

No network of contacts.
Low Academic results.
Lack of direction or focus.
Negative personal traits.
Lack of knowledge in chosen field.

THREATS

Global Financial Crisis.

Limited opportunities/competition
for job opportunities in your chosen
field.

SWOT Analysis Exercise

Now complete the table below identifying the personal strengths and weaknesses that
will influence your career path and any opportunities or threats that may exist
concerning your chosen path.

STRENGTHS

OPPORTUNITIES

WEAKNESSES

THREATS

VALUES
What are ideals and core beliefs are most important to you?
What motivates you to work hard?
You will most likely to be comfortable and thrive in a work environment that is
compatible with your own values.
Difficulties may arise if you find yourself in conflict with a work situation or
environment that conflict with your values.
Note that all of values listed below are worthwhile, how you rank them in importance
to you is what is important.
From the list of values below, TICK () the ten that are most important to you in a
work environment:

Achievement - sense of accomplishment.

Advancement - moving forward in your career through promotion.

Adventure - work that frequently involves risk taking.

Autonomy - working independently, without significant direction from others.

Challenge - stimulates full use of your potential.

Change & Variety - varied, frequently changing work responsibilities/settings.

Competition - pitting your abilities against others.

Cooperation - working as part of a team to reach common goals.

Creativity - being imaginative and innovative.

Economic Security - having enough money.

Excitement - experiencing a high degree of excitement in your work.

Family - spending time with and develop quality relationships with family.

Friendship - developing close personal friendships.

Health your physical and psychological well being.

Help Society - contributing to the betterment of the world.

Integrity - working in a manner that is honest, sincere and ethical.

Intellectual Status - being regarded as an expert in your field.

Knowledge - understanding gained through study and experience.

Leadership - influence over others.

Leisure - time for sports, hobbies.

Location - place to live that allows you to do the things you enjoy most.

Loyalty - steadfastness and allegiance.

Pleasure

Power authority.

Precision - working in situations where there is little tolerance for error.

Responsibility - being accountable for results.

Recognition - getting recognized for your work or contributions.

Stability - work responsibilities that are fairly predictable, not likely to change.

Spirituality - whatever this means to you.

Time Freedom - ability to set your own work schedule/hours.

Wealth - profit, gain, making a lot of money.

Wisdom - understanding based on accumulation of knowledge.

Of the ten you TICKED, rank the 5 that are most important to you with 1 being
the most important?
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2.
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5.
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DECIDE ON YOUR GOALS

Now it is time to make some decisions.
What do you want to be doing in two years' time? What about five and ten years'
time?
This kind of thinking helps break down big picture career strategy and planning
into manageable pieces.

The SMARTER system - planning your career goals:

S

Specific

Be as clear as you can and avoid ambiguous statements.

Measurable

So you can see what you have achieved.

Achievable

Provides motivation, but also keep your goals reachable.

Realistic

Be reasonable and avoid the realms of fantasy

Timely

Create time frames for completing steps, for example,

doing short courses or talking with someone about the
skills required for a particular job.

Empowering Make sure your goals feel right for you and help you make
the changes you want.

Reviewable

Do not set your goals in concrete; be flexible.

DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT YOUR CAREER STRATEGY

Once you have decided on your goals, you can develop an action plan to help you
put your career strategy into action.
Remember, planning will increase the likelihood of success, but it's important to
remain flexible and open-minded. You might have a couple of choices that
interest you so take opportunities to prepare for both.
As you progress, your ideas might become more specific.

As a starting point, here are some questions to ask your self:

Do you need additional job skills, experience or information?
What areas of yourself will you need to develop?
Do you need to develop a wider network or links with specific people?
Is there a course you need to do to gain specific qualifications or skills?
Do you need to find ways to demonstrate your skills and knowledge so you
can provide evidence of what you can do?
Do you need to find out more about what would be required to achieve
your career goals?
What kind of work experience would be helpful to you?
Who can you discuss your goals with? When will you do this?
Do you have a supportive network?
Do you have a mentor with whom you can discuss the realities of your
career path?
Do you need to make some radical changes to your present direction?
Do you feel in charge of your own career direction?
REVIEW AND ADJUST YOUR PLAN
Career planning is a way of making the best use of your current situation and
foreseeable opportunities. Given that unpredictable events and changes can
occur over time, view your plan as a guide and allow space for adjustments and
changes to your approach.
Draw on your experiences to help you achieve your goals. You will generally find
it helpful to revisit your plan regularly. Remember, the career strategy you put in
place at one stage of your life may not be relevant once you have achieved
certain goals and experienced other life events.
Revisiting your strategy will help to reinforce and clarify your thinking, and can
help you decide if you need to change your career strategy, seek help or advice or
put more effort into achieving your goals.
Keep an ongoing journal or record of your achievements and the training and
development activities you have done. Include any work experience you gain and
outline what you learned from the experience. Retain any letters or other
communications that provide feedback about your work or other matters, and
refer to them when you apply for new positions. Reflection and documentation
provide assistance with ongoing career strategy planning.

* Compiled with information from the Victorian State Government, Australia and University of Maryland, U.S.A