Two-Approach Job Assistant and Career Information Guide

The first step of the career exploration process is Self-Assessment. To discover the perfect career for you, you need to learn as much as possible about yourself. It's cute to think about your future when you're ten. Not so cute when you're 45. No matter your age, planning your future begins with the same simple question - "What do I want?" 

To find the answer, you must first know yourself. You need self-assessment. It can help you gain a greater understanding of your skills, preferences, values, as well as vision of life and work. This assessment can lead to a fulfilling career and more satisfying professional and personal life.

If you have the impression that you already know everything about yourself, you will be surprised to discover what you may have disregarded or taken for granted. Only if you assess your past and present you will be able to make the right decisions about your future. The strengths you identify thorough skills-assessment form the basis of your job search as you learn to market your values to others. This understanding leads to your decisions regarding selection and research of viable employers, resume development, effective interview talking points, and overall confidence. This site provides you with a variety of resources like Career Centers on the Internet or self-guided books with a variety of ideas and exercises to help you clarify your journey into self-discovery.

The following fundamental steps should be considered in the self-assessment process:

2.1   Identify Accomplishments

The first step in the Self-Assessment is the identification of accomplishments in our life or career. 

All of us already had some accomplishments, even if they have not been major career milestones. Identification of accomplishments does not mean that we identify only major success stories of career events. Alternative work experiences like volunteering, internships or freelance work also show that you are improving your skills and it might be even more important to identify alternative career options. In the following we present a modified “Accomplishment Exercise “ published by Schiebelbein in 2001 that analyzes past accomplishments to provide you with insights concerning your skills and knowledge. The analysis proposed by Schiebelbein is very interesting as it not only focuses on your strengths, but also clarifies the things that stimulate and motivate you.

a. In the accomplishment column write down all the activities that you have completed in your life and which are a source of pride for you, independent if they are directly related to your present or past job (or school) or not. Also consider accomplishments from your volunteer and extracurricular activities and your personal life (family activities, hobbies, club activities, etc.).

b. In the "Activities" column, list all the actions or activities you can identify that led to the accomplishment. Here you should also include activities like literature search, team work (networking), time management (work at extra hours, week end, holidays), travel activities or budget planning. 

c. List the skills in the "Skills and Knowledge" column that you had to apply or to develop in order to complete the activities described in the "Activities" column.

d. In the last column, list all sources of excitement about the accomplishments you have written down. The reflection upon what stimulated or even excited you in succeeding your goals give you insight into your real interests and values. Make notes about the interests and values that are reflected in your accomplishments.

e. Talk with your family, best friends or your partner about what you found out about your strengths, interests and values. Ask them if they agree with your analysis and if they have other observations that you did not include in your analysis (other talents or strengths. You will be surprised how other people see yourself and how their perception can differ from your own. 

In the first step of the analysis you identified your talents and strengths and you learned more about your interests and values. But are you really ready to tackle the job search? Before contacting employers, you should do your homework and be well prepared to communicate your job search objective, your skills and qualifications and how these relate to particular careers.

There are a big number of assessment tools available in the literature and also the Internet. For best results, you should consider assessments with professionals who have expertise using assessment tools, like counselors at high schools, trade and vocational schools, colleges or universities.

We searched the web and checked several free or low-cost assessment tests. In general, the evaluation of the presented tests showed that several free tests are fairly good, but if you require more detailed information you should consider investing either in a paid online-assessment test or in a specialized book, using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or Don Lowry's True Colors Personality System. If you prefer to rely on the free online assessment tests, you should take several of them, as we found that results can differ quite a bit from test to test. 

If you are thinking of opening your own business and being your own boss, you should consider this option in your self-exploration exercise. Visit our Self-Employment page or start with a basic questionnaire that helps you to think about the most important aspects of being self-employed. You should go through this questionnaire before you continue with the self-assessment. Don't tell your boss and never quit your job without learning as much as possible about the pros and cons of opening your own business. There are a lot of resources in the internet available that can help you in this decision process but we highly recommend reading specialized literature like Start Your Own Business by Rieva Lesonsky, considered as "The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need" (Chicago Tribunes).

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