Many graduates enter the world of work without even understanding the fact that they are specific somebodies, much less knowing the kinds of competencies and motivations with which they have been endowed. The tragedy of not knowing is awesome. Ignorant of who they are, most graduates are doomed to spend too much of their lives in work for which they are poorly suited. Self-knowledge is critical to effectively managing your career.
Answer the following questions about yourself:
Who am I? What do I stand for? What do I do well? Where do I get my confidence from? What motivates me? What am I passionate about? What are four words I would use to describe myself? How do I add value to others? to a company? to the world around me?
6 comments:
These are good questions. I'll be interested to hear your answers. In February at the JRCLS Conference in Arizona, there was a woman speaker who is an Ethics professor at a law school. She said at the beginning of her course she has students take a 3x5 card and write these two things. First, write your MOTTO at the top. Second, complete the sentence: "THE LINE I WILL NEVER CROSS IS ...." She had interesting stories to tell about what some students told her years later about the effect of these thoughts. As with your questions, they are good things to know a head of time. Love, Mom
So after you answer these questions, what is the tool to help you find which job matches your answers?
Well actually, this particular exercise is part of a "Marketing Myself" assignment. You're supposed to answer these questions for yourself, and have someone close to you answer them about you also. Then you compare the answers and see what you can learn about yourself. From there you're supposed to develop your mission statement, 5, 10, 15, year vision plan, perform a SWOT analysis, and come up with your final marketing plan.
I'm not sure that any of it would actually help you find the right job.. but the idea is that the better you know your strengths and weaknesses the better you'll pick a job that fits you.
oh man those questions are really hard. i'm glad i never had to do that. do we get to read the final analysis? sounds fascinating!
The hard part of those question is that I think the answers can change over time. Who I am today, is not who I was in college. Elements of me are the same, but I've grow a lot. You know what I mean? But it would still be very ineteresting to have those answers from myself about myself 10 years ago.
Good questions! I should write down my answers. I think that would be helpful.
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