Advance Employability - IdentifyInterests, Skills & Values

Introduction

Finding a job or career that is satisfying begins with knowledge about yourself. Practitioners can help clients increase their self-knowledge by directing their attention to their values, interests, skills and abilities. This is referred to as a self-assessment.

How to assist clients with self-assessments

A self-assessment requires that you think about your everyday activities to gain an idea of your strengths, personality and preferences. Self-assessments can involve taking a personality inventory or interest inventory, or they could involve a more informal approach, such as talking to family members and friends about their thoughts on what is suitable for you, based on what they know about you. You could also seek the help of a counsellor or a practitioner.

A practitioner can help identify aspects of the client and use this information to direct the client towards suitable careers. The practitioner can facilitate the process of self-assessment, which deals with the following questions:

1. What matters most to you? (This defines your values.)

2. What do you enjoy doing? (This defines your interests.)

3. What are you good at doing? (This defines your skills.)

When people are sure about their values and are aware of what they are good at doing, researching similar work environments becomes easier. People will choose according to their personalities and commit to what gives them satisfaction. It is with this clarity that goals and effective decisions can be made.

Therefore, the practitioner needs to help the client become self-aware, understand their needs and wants, and help steer them in the right direction. Our values, interests and skills change and grow as we do, so we need to constantly reassess ourselves in relation to the world and our own development.

Values defined

Our values are the basic and central beliefs that motivate and guide our actions. Values help us determine what is important to us and define the personal qualities that make us who we are. Values shape how we interact with others, and are vital in providing guidelines for everyday conduct. Practitioners could use the following written or verbal exercises with clients to encourage self-reflection and help them realise their values.

Career development practitioners can ask clients the following questions:

- What kind of life do you want, and what type of work can allow you to achieve this?

- Would you work to satisfy intellectual, moral or ethical values?

- Do you want to live in a specific area that makes your career possible?

- How important is it to you to help others as part of your career?

- What type of work environment do you favour?

- Is stability an important factor for you?

Values exercise

Each person has a unique set of qualities that they value above other values. What characteristics are most important to you?

- Advancement — I value advancing rapidly in my field of work.

- Adventure — I prefer working where there is a high level of risk-taking and excitement.

- Aesthetics — I need to be involved in an aesthetically pleasing environment.

- Authority — I want to be making decisions, setting policies, and guiding others' work.

- Challenge — I enjoy solving difficult yet interesting problems.

- Creativity — I place value on creating new ideas, objects or programmes.

- Enjoyment — I prefer high levels of personal fulfilment.

- Entrepreneurship — I want to develop my own ideas and projects.

- Ethics and values — My work must complement my personal beliefs and values.

- Expertise — I want to be a subject-level expert in my chosen career.

- Family and personal life — A balance between my work and personal life is important.

- Independence — I work best by myself and prefer working on my own.

- Job stability — I want the security of long-term employment.

- Knowledge — I want to learn more and expand my skills in my job.

- Location — The geographic location of where I work is really important to me.

- Pace — I prefer a high-pressure, fast-paced environment within which to work.

- People contact — I enjoy working directly with a large number of people.

- Recognition — I would like my accomplishments to be acknowledged.

- Social service — My work must benefit society, as this is important to me.

- Structure — I prefer to work within clearly defined procedures and policies.

- Variety — I prefer to work on many different projects at the same time.

- Wealth — Earning a good income from my job is very important to me.

Interests and personality

Our interests refer to those activities which hold our attention and fuel our enthusiasm, both at work and outside of work. A career takes up a large part of life, as we spend most of our adult lives working. It is therefore important to choose a career that aligns with your values, strengths and interests. Your interests are evident in your activities and in what you have a "natural liking" for. Identifying your interests will help you focus on ideas and pursuits that will keep you engaged in satisfying work.

Career development practitioners can advise clients that they could consult with a psychologist to have a formal assessment done. Assessments can reveal a client's interests if they are in doubt. Six broad interest groups, based on Holland's theory of career choice (RIASEC), might describe clients. These interest groups are as follows:

1. Realistic people are called the DOERS. These are people who like to work with their hands, either with plants and animals or with tools. They like to fix things.

2. Investigative people are called the THINKERS. Investigative people like to analyse data and solve problems. They prefer to work independently.

3. Artistic people are called the CREATORS. Artistic people may enjoy making things or performing in front of other people. They like flexibility in their lives.

4. Social people are called the HELPERS, who prefer to work with other people. They enjoy counselling or caring for others.

5. Enterprising people are called the PERSUADERS. Enterprising people prefer to start new projects and make decisions. They enjoy selling things or managing other people.

6. Conventional people are called the ORGANISERS, who enjoy structured jobs. They appreciate working with numbers and instructions, and like to organise data and write reports.

Interest exercise

Career development practitioners can assist clients in identifying their interests by asking the following questions:

- What past experiences have you found intellectually stimulating or enjoyable?

- What activities do you enjoy most in what you currently do, either at work or school?

- What activities do you prefer most when you are not at school, college or work?

- What hobbies or extracurricular activities do you enjoy?

- If you were browsing in a bookstore, which section would you go to first?

- Think of topics or themes in life or society — what do you feel strongly about?

- What type of entertainment do you prefer (movies, restaurants, books, travel destinations or conversation topics)?

- Think about a recent stimulating conversation you had. What was it about?

- Imagine you had enough money to go on a dream holiday — where would you go?

- If you had one chance to meet someone, who would that be?

- What topics do you prefer to read about, in print or online?

Skills defined

A skill is something a person is good at doing. It could refer to a talent, a personal attribute, or a special ability that a person has. This could come as a natural talent or as something that can be learnt through training or experience. Skills that are developed have a strong influence on your career and options. Along the way, we learn "transferable skills" — skills acquired in one environment and transferred to another.

Whilst studying, students acquire various skills, such as:

- Researching skills

- Problem-solving skills

- Analytical thinking skills

- Project management skills

- Time management skills

- Communication skills

Skills exercise

Visit www.employability.co.za/seed and complete the Self-Education Employability Device (SEED). This will provide you with a report on sixty transferable skills, along with developmental tasks for the skills in which you rated yourself lower.

Putting the pieces together

Now that the client has developed their list of values, interests and skills, practitioners can assist them in thinking about how this could be applied to different careers. Career development practitioners can start by summarising the main themes that emerge from the self-assessment.

- Clients can read their list out loud and start thinking about careers that incorporate those themes.

- Clients can share the list with friends or family members to gather additional information about career options.

- Clients can brainstorm, writing down everything that comes to mind and any suggestions made by family and friends.

- Clients are encouraged to keep an open mind as information comes in, and to judge how a certain career connects to their values, skills and interests.

- Clients can keep a journal of any career-related ideas. This should include information about jobs, print media, notes from a television programme, and even information gained from informal sources such as family and friends.

Conclusion

Career development practitioners have a responsibility to ensure that the client is informed. Sometimes the information needed is not external to the client but relates to the client's own internal workings. Practitioners will benefit from taking the time to sit with clients and discuss their values, interests and skills, even though this might be time-consuming. Clients could also treat the exercises as take-home activities. The most important thing is that career development practitioners engage with clients throughout the process to offer support and options.