Knowing who you are is the first step in making a career change, looking for a new job or discovering your purpose. It is also the most overlooked and misunderstood step in the process. Many people take very little time for introspection and even if they take a complete inventory, interpreting and translating the information into a concrete job can be challenging. In reality, acquiring the data is relatively easy, but using the information as the foundation of a career search can be difficult. There are times when assessments will confirm your chosen path. Other times, it is just a bunch of confusing information. That's when involving a career counselor or coach can be a worthwhile endeavor. The exercises below with help guide you through the self-assessment process

Define Your Values
Work Values are the motivators and satisfiers we receive from work. Most people need to work for money, benefits, etc., but may also work for other reasons. Determining your work values is a primary way of obtaining success and fulfillment from your job.

Exercise: On a piece of paper, list all the things that are important for you to receive from work.

Where people get stuck:

• Because most people need to work for a living, many compromise their work values for a paycheck. While there may be compromises, a clear understanding of your top motivators will help direct where you look for opportunities. As your career coach, I will help you clarify your values and develop options for meeting them.
  
  
• Some values are constant and some are fluid. As workers mature, their values may change. People tend to do what they have always done to find success and the mature worker may not recognize the change in their values or how to shift their focus. As your career coach, I will help you look at core issues and strategies for the new you. Email me for a free coaching session!
  

Resources: Online list of work values: NWC

Embrace Your Passions
Passions or work interests are the desire to engage in one activity or occupation over another. The activity is something that engages, excites, or otherwise holds your attention.

Exercise: On a new piece of paper, make a list of the activities you have particularly like doing presently, or in the past.

Where people get stuck: Many people are afraid they can't make an adequate living doing what they love. NO matter what activity you can think of, someone is making a living doing exactly that activity. Why not you? As your career coach, I will help you identify your interests and develop resources to explore occupations where you can use them. Email me for a free coaching session!

Resources:
Books: Amazon.com review: Live the Life You Love by Barbara Sher shows you how to decide what your dream is, eliminate the unnecessary burdens and clutter in your life, develop your ideas, and get what you want. Stop just getting by and start getting the most out of your life!
Also visit her site: www.wishcraft.com

On-line Assessments:::
Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS): A contemporary vocational interests and skills inventory with a comprehensive career planner for individuals who are college-bound or college-educated. ($17.50). Visit the store or email me if you would like to take the assessment.

The Career Key NCSU (Free): This site introduces you to Holland's six career types, a great way of classifying careers.

Recognize Your Skills
Skills are your abilities to do things, which may be innate or learned. There are three types of skills: character traits, transferable (functional) and knowledge based. When we think of work skills, we usually think of knowledge based skills, but those are only one aspect of what you bring to work. Transferable skills are natural abilities to do something. They become increasing important as you explore new and different occupations.

Exercises:

• Character traits:Character traits:Take a piece of paper listing what your friends and family would say about are your best attributes.
  
• Transferable skills: On a different piece of paper, make four columns with the headings of: people, things, data and ideas. Under each column, list the skills you have in each category. After you have completed each heading, go back and circle the five or six skills you enjoy using most.
  
  
• Knowledge based skills: On a new piece of paper, list the special knowledges you have and would like to use. These can come from formal education, on-the-job training or self-taught.

Where people get stuck: Transferable skills are often difficult to determine. Because they come naturally, people tend to minimize their value. It is essential to identify transferable skills, especially if you are thinking about a career change or expanding your options. As your career counselor, I help you identify your transferable skills and then focus them into a concrete career plan. Email me for a free coaching session!

Resources: What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles Amazon.com review: At the heart of Bolles's formula for finding the right job are two questions: What do you want to do? Where do you want to do it? Answer those and you're well on your way to finding the job you really want. Packed with time-tested advice, "What Color Is Your Parachute?" works as a good companion for those just starting out in the "real world" as well as for those who are thinking seriously about a career change.

Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS): A contemporary vocational interests and skills inventory with a comprehensive career planner for individuals who are college-bound or college-educated. ($17.50). Email me if you would like to take the assessment.

Uncover Your Purpose
Your grand purpose or mission means engaging in a pursuit bigger than you are and meaningful of your time and energy. It is action oriented and is most likely about service or transcending self.

Exercise: Imagine yourself at eighty looking over your life. What activities would you have pursued to have the most fulfillment and ideal life?

Where people get stuck: Some people go through their entire lives and never have a sense of purpose. A few lucky ones seem to know almost automatically. Finding your purpose requires getting passed societal messages to the core of your being. As your coach, I can objectively partner with you to get to the things that really matter. Email me for a free coaching session!

Resources: Whistle While You Work Amazon.com review: Leider and Shapiro guide readers to discover their "core gifts" and the work they were born to do. Each chapter describes a conversation with a cabdriver in a different city to introduce a key idea about the process of heeding your life's calling. These lively conversations are followed by stories of individuals-- from a Motorola executive to a building security guard--who have identified their calling. The stories are paired with bulls-eye exercises that allow readers to discover their calling.
Also visit their website: The Inventure Group

Putting it Together
The final phase of "Know Who You Are" is making sense of the data you collected. From this introspection, hopefully you will discover three or four trends or themes. These themes can now be used to explore career and job options.

Exercise: Spread the completed exercises on a table and highlight the trends that fit together. List the three or four themes that dominate. They will most likely involve people, creativity, things, data or ideas.

Where people get stuck:Looking at the components of your personality and finding the patterns that can be translated into a career can be difficult. It may feel like you can't see the forest through the trees. When information is so close, a person can lose objectivity. As your coach, I will help you put the pieces together into a workable whole. Email me for a free coaching session, so we can put all the pieces together.

The Next Step: know where you are going