By : Marty Nemko
Bernard Haldane, a pioneer in career counseling, died recently at the age of 95. One of his core beliefs was that most people who don’t like their career are unhappy because they’re not using their best abilities. I have found this to be true.
Many of my clients say, "But I don’t know my best abilities." I’ll now try to help you to identify them, much as I do with my clients.
1. For you to be happy and successful, which one or two of these abilities should your job emphasize?:
* Speaking one-on-one
* Speaking to groups
* Reading
* Writing
* Working with data, numbers or programming
* Learning new things quickly
* Being entrepreneurial
* Supervising people
* Helping people
* Convincing people
* Handling details
* Working with your hands
* Making or fixing something
* Creating something artistic
Perhaps most important: What other abilities come to mind?
2. Some job skills, such as writing or computer programming, generally require a focused, hard-working person. Other abilities, however, lend themselves to more forgiving fields. Do you have any of these easier-to-use abilities?:
* Talking: Useful in fields such as sales and teaching.
* Observing: Applicable to jobs such as supervising, mystery shopping, appraising, and law enforcement (including airport screeners, customs agents).
*Organizing: An important attribute for administrative assisting, bookkeeping, archiving and research, to name a few.
3. Do you have specific expertise you know you want to use in your career? For example, a degree in molecular biology, ability to program in Java, three years of import-export experience.
3a. Do you have a more generic ability that you want to use? For example, Edgar had a knack for calming people down, and easily landed a job as a customer service rep. Another client had a knack for developing tests and surveys. He found a job with a polling organization. I have a knack for thinking quickly, so I write on deadline, host a radio show, and counsel people.
4. What do you find easy that many other people find difficult or stressful? For example, would you find it easy to learn a new computer language? Frame a door? Write a press release? Make 100 cold calls?
5. What abilities have you used again and again? Write a paragraph about each of your five favorite accomplishments and projects.
6. What have people praised about you?
Now that you’ve identified one or two key abilities that you know you’d like to use in your next job, here are some ways to figure out what sort of job you’d like:
* Is there a particular place you’d like to use your core ability: a university, a nonprofit, a downtown office building, in your own business, outdoors, etc?
* Are there certain kinds of people with whom you’d like to use your core ability? For example, children, poor people, brilliant people, by yourself, etc?
* Would you like to use your core ability in the service of a particular cause? Healing people? Saving the environment? Making megabucks?
* Plug your core ability into a computer program such as Eureka, Discover or Sigi-Plus, which are available to the public at many colleges and even at some high schools.
* Call or email 100 people in your personal network (everyone from your neighbor to your college buddies, to your parent’s friends, to your hairstylist) and ask, "I’m looking for a job that would allow me to use my ability to _____. Might you know of anyone in a position to hire me?"
*
Go to a directory of careers such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which profiles the 250 most common careers, or for quirkier ones, my book, Cool Careers for Dummies. Might any of those careers utilize your core ability?
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
Bernard Haldane, a pioneer in career counseling, died recently at the age of 95. One of his core beliefs was that most people who don’t like their career are unhappy because they’re not using their best abilities. I have found this to be true.
Many of my clients say, "But I don’t know my best abilities." I’ll now try to help you to identify them, much as I do with my clients.
1. For you to be happy and successful, which one or two of these abilities should your job emphasize?:
* Speaking one-on-one
* Speaking to groups
* Reading
* Writing
* Working with data, numbers or programming
* Learning new things quickly
* Being entrepreneurial
* Supervising people
* Helping people
* Convincing people
* Handling details
* Working with your hands
* Making or fixing something
* Creating something artistic
Perhaps most important: What other abilities come to mind?
2. Some job skills, such as writing or computer programming, generally require a focused, hard-working person. Other abilities, however, lend themselves to more forgiving fields. Do you have any of these easier-to-use abilities?:
* Talking: Useful in fields such as sales and teaching.
* Observing: Applicable to jobs such as supervising, mystery shopping, appraising, and law enforcement (including airport screeners, customs agents).
*Organizing: An important attribute for administrative assisting, bookkeeping, archiving and research, to name a few.
3. Do you have specific expertise you know you want to use in your career? For example, a degree in molecular biology, ability to program in Java, three years of import-export experience.
3a. Do you have a more generic ability that you want to use? For example, Edgar had a knack for calming people down, and easily landed a job as a customer service rep. Another client had a knack for developing tests and surveys. He found a job with a polling organization. I have a knack for thinking quickly, so I write on deadline, host a radio show, and counsel people.
4. What do you find easy that many other people find difficult or stressful? For example, would you find it easy to learn a new computer language? Frame a door? Write a press release? Make 100 cold calls?
5. What abilities have you used again and again? Write a paragraph about each of your five favorite accomplishments and projects.
6. What have people praised about you?
Now that you’ve identified one or two key abilities that you know you’d like to use in your next job, here are some ways to figure out what sort of job you’d like:
* Is there a particular place you’d like to use your core ability: a university, a nonprofit, a downtown office building, in your own business, outdoors, etc?
* Are there certain kinds of people with whom you’d like to use your core ability? For example, children, poor people, brilliant people, by yourself, etc?
* Would you like to use your core ability in the service of a particular cause? Healing people? Saving the environment? Making megabucks?
* Plug your core ability into a computer program such as Eureka, Discover or Sigi-Plus, which are available to the public at many colleges and even at some high schools.
* Call or email 100 people in your personal network (everyone from your neighbor to your college buddies, to your parent’s friends, to your hairstylist) and ask, "I’m looking for a job that would allow me to use my ability to _____. Might you know of anyone in a position to hire me?"
*
Go to a directory of careers such as the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which profiles the 250 most common careers, or for quirkier ones, my book, Cool Careers for Dummies. Might any of those careers utilize your core ability?
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
No comments:
Post a Comment