Discovering Your Aptitudes
The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, o non profit scientific and educational organization founded in 1922, offers comprehensive aptitude testing for those of you who are unsure about what abilities you possess and how they pertain to the world of work. Testing, which takes about a day and a half, con assist you in gaining knowledge of your natural abilities, and help you make informed decisions about school and work.
The Foundation has branches in the following cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Irving, TX (near Dallas), Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
By Process of Elimination
"I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do.” Luciiie Bail. Be the time you backpacked your way through Iraq while wearing a "Saddam Sucks" T shirt. Another might be that successful naked co ed ski trip you organized.
Once you've thought of your top five accomplishments, take out a sheet of paper. Now get set to write five illuminating stories. In vivid detail try to recreate each accomplishment as carefully, precisely, and graphically as possible. When you are done, review the stories methodically, and try to extract from them the skills you utilized to do whatever it was you did. Be generous with yourself. Did you use communication skills? Organization skills? Analytical skills? Foreign language skills?
List at least ten skills for each of the five stories. Put a star next to those skills which you particularly enjoyed using. Now go over your list again. Do you notice any patterns? Are there certain skills that keep popping up on each list? If so, make a note of them. If you discover that all your accomplishments center on writing, you may want to investigate a career in journalism or publishing. If, on the other hand, most of your accomplishments focus on your interpersonal skills, you may want to explore fields such as psychology, human resources, or sales.
If you have a tough time with any portion of this exercise, get a friend, relative, or counselor to help you out. This is not an easy exercise. Nor is it short. But it's worth it.
Different Skills for Different Thrills
Let's get to work classifying your skills. Your goal is to determine where your skills lie, as well as which skills you most enjoy. Start with four broad categories: people (e.g., teaching); data and information (e.g., researching); things (e.g., assembling); and ideas (e.g., creating). You may find that the skills you most enjoy all involve dealing with people. If this is the case, you will probably want a job or career characterized by a high degree of personal contact. If you're a people person but you're in a job that requires you to crunch numbers all day, the prognosis for happiness is not good.
In addition to the people/data/things/ideas breakdown, skills can be further classified as either transferable or content specific. Transferable skills are generic, acquired throughout life in a variety of informal and formal settings. They can usually be applied in just about any work environment. Some common transferable skills are organizing, listening, teaching, and leading. Content specific skills are specialized and generally acquired through formal education or on the job training. They consist of the knowledge and abilities that are required to work in a particular field. Examples of content specific skills include computer programming, financial planning, writing press releases, translating French into English, and preparing corporate tax returns. These skills are not directly transferable from one career field to another.
Creating Your Personal Skills Inventory
Review the following list of transferable skills and circle the ones in which you believe you have some proficiency. On a separate sheet of paper cite a specific example that demonstrates how you used each of the circled skills. Put a check next to those skills that you most enjoy using. Put a line through those that you loathe using. Star the skills you don't currently possess but would like to acquire. This exercise will give you a clearer picture of the responsibilities you might enjoy taking on in your next job, as well as those you might want to avoid.
Create a list of all your content specific skills. In what areas have you developed some degree of expertise? Are you a sports nut, wine connoisseur, civil war buff, computer whiz, shutterbug, aspiring musician, motorcycle maven, or art aficionado? Any subject, no matter how trivial it may seem to you, is fair game for this list. Put a check next to the subjects you are most passionate about. Are you considering pursuing one of these areas as a career? If so, in what capacity would you want to work? Are there new skills that you need to acquire? Will you need to go back to school, or alter your current curriculum if you're already in school?
Values
For work to be truly fulfilling, it must satisfy some of the values that you hold dear to your heart. In a sense, your motivation to work is derived from the pursuit of these values. They give you a raison d'etre. Are you driven by power, prestige, intellectual challenge, or helping others? Your answer plays a major role in determining your career direction. If money is most important to you, it makes sense to consider occupations that have high income potential. If it's job security you seek, it's a good idea to look into professions that have proven stable over time.
Keep in mind that almost every career or job choice involves some form of compromise. While you can't always get everything you want, if you know yourself well you can at least minimize the likelihood that your values will conflict with your career choice. If you place a high premium on creativity, for example, then it would probably not be wise to accept a highly structured position within an organization that rewards conventionality. Likewise, if one of your values is saving the environment, then working for a Styrofoam manufacturer might not be the best choice. To avoid conflicts between your personal values and your career, you need both to know yourself and to carefully research potential career fields.
What Do You Want From Your Work? Take a good look at the following list of work related values. Keep in mind what you honestly want from a career not what your family or friends want, but what you want. After giving it some thought, circle the three values you consider most important. If you had to compromise, which of the three would you give up? Which could you never give up? How do your current career plans match up with the values you most cherish? What steps can you take to avoid conflict between your values and your career plans?
Putting It All Together
If you've worked through this article thoroughly, you have a bunch of lists and ideas written down. Now take a moment to reflect on all the exercises you so diligently completed. See the big picture coming into sharper focus? What activities really hold your interest? Which skills do you most enjoy using? Which ones would you never want to use even if you got paid royally? Do you have a preference for working with people, data, things, or ideas? What are the values that you would like to satisfy through your work? What kind of rewards are you looking for? Are you Mr. Corporate America, Rafael Artiste, or Angela Non Profit? After you come to your own conclusions, you may want to consult with the people who know you best. Hopefully these exercises have helped you gain a better sense of your interests, skills, and values, and the direction in which you want to take them.
