Give yourself a career assessment
Whenever I speak to a new coaching client, one question I always ask is where do you want to be in twelve months time?
This one question can provide so much insight into the individual and so much direction for all future activities.
The problem is, that for the individual it's not always easy to find an answer to the question.
There are so many aspects in play when it comes to our lives that it just becomes too overwhelming to even consider our options.
It's this difficulty that often leads us to drift in our lives and our careers and let things happen to us, rather than take control ourselves.
Well, I'm here to say that we should all be in control of our lives, because if we don't grab it by the horns, then no-one will do it for us.
I'm not here to give relationship, health or family advice, but, when it comes to our careers, the place to start is with a career assessment.
What questions should I ask?
Like any assessment, a career assessment involves getting the answers to a series of questions, and I've found that the following give a really good indication of where we are and where we want to be:
- What are the good and bad points of your current role / career?
- What does your ideal career situation look like?
- What do you enjoy about your current role and what elements do you want to continue with?
- On the flipside, what bits are you happy to ditch?
- What qualities/skills do you bring to work?
- What skills are not being fully used?
- What would you lose by leaving your current workplace?
- What do you hope to gain by moving?
(source: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/bl...)
What should I do with the answers?
The important thing here is that you've been totally honest with yourself when it comes to answering the questions. If you can't be honest with yourself then you've no chance of finding out where you want to be in twelve months time.
I'll assume you have been honest, so the next step is to review your answers, and you'll notice that there will likely be some themes that appear.
- Your ideal career situation will probably make use of the skills you enjoy using and are good at (most people don't want to work in a role where they appear incompetent!)
- The bad points of your current role won't likely appear in your ideal career (who wants to carry on doing things they hate!)
A little focus on what we value as positive skills, activities, and roles, as well as the reverse, will then give us an indication on whether we're in the right place or heading in the right direction.
More positives and we're moving towards our preferred goals.
More negatives and we need to start considering what needs changing.
It really is that simple, but most people don't undertake a career assessment, so most people don't really understand why they might not be happy at work or why they aren't getting the job of their dreams.