Lesson 1: Mastering Your Life
11 - Exploring Career-Related Abilities, Interests, Skills, and Values
Before you make a major decision about your career and academic goals, knowing yourself is important so that you make realistic choices. People often suffer from career confusion because they do not know the depth and scope of their capacities and interests so they can be measured against the requirements of various careers.
Abilities
These describe the things at which you are proficient and which come easily to you. Abilities can be intellectual as well as musical, artistic, and/or mechanical. Your intellectual capacity is constantly being measured by tests, assignments, and final examinations. Realistically, you need to look at these results and see whether they meet the requirements of your career choice. If your marks do not match the minimum requirement for your career choice, then looking at another career choice is wise, perhaps in the same area but with lower requirements. For example, if you wanted to become a psychologist, you need certain marks in your Bachelor of Arts (BA) to get you into graduate school. If you do not have the marks, then look at another field such as human resources or corrections work where the academic requirements are not as high.
Interests
Be sure you choose a career that matches well with your interests. Sometimes people are good at something but do not really enjoy it. People are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs if they are allowed to do the things they like.
One way of doing this is to write how you spend your leisure time. Do you read, practice the piano, surf the net, work on old cars, or do volunteer work at a children’s shelter? Another way is to think about long-standing interests. Have you always been drawn to animals, old people, history, or music?
Skills
Skills are specific abilities. You may have good communication skills, good people skills, good research skills. You can also improve skills with practice and learn new ones.
Values
Choose a career path that does not come into conflict with your own personal values – those things individuals believe are desirable or good. Some people place high values on integrity, others value security, independence, power, adventure, or love. Often values are deeply held, and major value conflicts caused by work may be painful.
Self Assessment tools for choosing career paths
Skills, abilities, values. Most people choose careers consistent with their own ability profile. They are motivated to find the kind of work activities which they can do best. The aim of this Skills Profile is to help you assess which of your personal skills are the most important to you and to review the career implications of your skill profile. When you have completed your scores, you can see which group of occupations match your main skills.
This exercise is designed to aid in the process of finding a career that's right for you. It is not the only means to learning what career might be right for you.