The Value of Self Assessment
Self assessment is considered to be the first step in the process of choosing a career for yourself. Before you make that choice, you should attempt to evaluate yourself completely and gather relevant information about your strengths and weaknesses.
Unless you do so, you may not be able to make the right career choice. This assessment is usually done by an expert career development professional and looks at various things, such as your interests, personality, values, and skills.
Value Assessment
When assessing your values, a career development professional looks at the set of values you have acquired through your life and what beliefs and ideas you give importance to. You are going to live your life according to these values and you need to make sure that they gel well with your career choice.
Among the values that are evaluated in a self assessment are job security, prestige, flexible work schedule, interpersonal relations, outdoor work, high salary, perks, and leisure time. Based on this evaluation, a professional will be able to give you a fair idea on what job would be most appropriate for you.
Interest & Personality Assessment
A part of the self assessment is also to understand where your interests lie. You might wonder why that would be important. Professionals believe that people who share the same kind of interests would be interested in similar jobs or occupation.
Another important aspect of this assessment is getting to understand the candidate’s personality traits and attitude. Each job requires a certain personality type and mindset, and it is important to know what your motivational drives are, and what keeps you going. The most famous personality inventory is the MBTI or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator(MBTI).
Skills Assessment
A skill assessment has dual purpose – attempting to understand what you are good at, or what your aptitude is, and what you really enjoy doing. Any skill that is required by a job must be a combination of both. Not only should you be good at it, you should also enjoy it.
Lack of enjoyment can lead to lack of job satisfaction and that, in turn, can lead to de-motivation. This assessment can also help you know what skill sets you need to perform better in your current job.
Create your very own Career Development Plan here.