Your Self Assessment

The first component of your Personal Job Search Plan is your preparation of a detailed self-assessment of yourself. Initially, this will seem like a Herculean effort. However, it is essential that you understand your likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses so that you can find work that is enjoyable and satisfying.

Your Self-Assessment consists of nine different exercises:

	Exercise # 1-- Review Your Resume
	Exercise # 2-- Identify Things You Really Like To Do
	Exercise # 3-- Determine How You Make a Difference
	Exercise # 4-- Study Your Personal Characteristics
	Exercise # 5-- Review Your Values
	Exercise # 6-- Understand Your Preferred Work Environment
	Exercise # 7-- Identify and Analyze Your Accomplishments
	Exercise # 8-- Consider Psychological Testing and Feedback
	Exercise # 9-- Analyze and Plan for Your Financial Needs

Let’s get started!

Exercise # 1-- Review Your Resume

Make a list of all the positions you have held, both business and non-business.

	For each position, list the things you liked about it and why.
	For each position, list the things you didn’t like about it and why.

Once your lists are completed, review them, highlighting all action verbs / phrases.

Make a list of the four or five action verbs / phrases that are highlighted the most.

This will give you a sense of:

	The kinds of actions or work you like to do.
	The kinds of actions or work you don’t like to do.

This is critical, valuable knowledge that will help you find a new job that is right for you!

Exercise # 2-- Identify Things You Really Like To Do

Get relaxed and create a list of ten or more things you really like to do. Explore all areas of activity, not just work. Consider recreation, sports, volunteering, community, clubs, church involvement, hobbies, and education.

Look over your completed list carefully and identify the top four or five in which you are most interested.

	Are any of them real passions?
	Do any of them suggest career directions different from what you are doing now?

Exercise # 3-- Determine How You Make a Difference

Most job seekers present themselves, whether networking or interviewing, based on their technical or functional skills.

	To stand out from the crowd, go back to Exercise # 1, in which you made a list of all the positions you have held. For the three or four jobs you liked the most, make a list of the ten accomplishments of which you are most proud.
	This list defines how you make a difference, and how you add value to organizations. Your accomplishments are a concrete, tangible, and memorable way for you to communicate your core competencies.

Exercise # 4-- Study Your Personal Characteristics

	Make a list of ten adjectives or phrases which describe you personally. Not all of them will be positive.
	For each adjective or phrase, define it and give an example.
	Ask someone who knows you well to make a similar list. Compare it with your list.
	Highlight which three or four adjectives or phrases are most like you.
	We will return to this list later in your self-assessment process.

Exercise # 5-- Review Your Values

Values are things that you hold dear, things you want and need to protect. They change as circumstances change, so they need to be reviewed fairly often. They are important as you evaluate new opportunities because most organizations have cultures or shared values that are hard to identify. If you get into a situation where the culture or values are very different from yours, there could be a bad fit.

What follows is a list of values, with definitions following them.

Identify and write down your six current most important values right now and your four least important; ones that can be traded off if appropriate.

When you get an offer, review the culture into which you are going against this list of your values.

	Achievement-- sense of accomplishment, mastery
	Adventure-- new and challenging experiences
	Affection-- loving, caring
	Appearance-- how one looks, feels
	Competitiveness-- winning attitude, taking risks
	Cooperative-- working well with others, teamwork
	Creativity-- being imaginative, innovative
	Economic Security-- steady, adequate income
	Fame-- being famous, well known

	Family Happiness-- domestic tranquility
	Freedom-- independence, autonomy
	Friendships-- strong relationships with others
	Health-- physical and mental well-being, energy
	Helpfulness-- assisting others, helping society
	Inner Harmony-- being at peace with oneself
	Integrity-- honesty, sincerity, standing up for one’s beliefs
	Involvement-- participating with others, belonging
	Leisure-- hobbies, sports, recreation, relaxing
	Order-- stability, conformity, structure
	Personal Growth-- having a career path, growing
	Power-- control, authority, dominance
	Recognition-- respect from others, status
	Religion-- strong beliefs, spirituality
	Responsibility-- accountability for results
	Self-Respect-- pride, sense of positive personal identity
	Sense of Humor-- wit, light touch
	Wealth-- making money, getting rich
	Wisdom-- understanding life, getting knowledge
	World of Beauty-- appreciation of aesthetics, the arts
	Others-- feel free to add to your list values not covered above

Exercise # 6-- Understand Your Preferred Work Environment

Examining the environment of several of your past jobs can be very helpful in determining what you want in the future.

Here’s the exercise:

	Pick five of your most recent jobs and perhaps one volunteer activity in which you were very involved-- for a total of six.
	Set up a spreadsheet with two columns-- “Satisfiers” and “Dissatisfiers”.
	For each of the six jobs / activities, note everything about it that satisfied you, that you liked, that turned you on.
	Then note everything about it that dissatisfied you, that you didn’t like, that turned you off.
	Combine these notes into a summary list of satisfiers and dissatisfiers.
	Finally, put together ten bullet points describing “My Ideal Job Parameters”, in which you describe the specific attributes you want in your next job.

Exercise # 7-- Identify and Analyze Your Accomplishments

An accomplishment is something specific that you did that solved a difficult problem, met an interesting challenge, reacted to a crisis, or created a rewarding success. It is quantifiable, and you enjoyed doing it.

Your accomplishments, if carefully identified at the beginning of your search, can help you easily answer interview questions such as:

	Tell me about yourself.
	What have you done on the job to make money or save money for your company?
	What have you done on the job to improve work flow?
	What makes you stand out among your peers?

Examining your accomplishments increases self-awareness and, often, raises self-esteem. Analyzing your accomplishments can help you determine your key strengths and give some insight into your interest patterns. Your accomplishments can then be used to communicate your core competencies and how you add value to an organization.

Start by making a list of your accomplishments:

	Beginning with high school, take 3 to 5 year segments of your life, and identify things you did that had some kind of result and that you liked doing. The objective of this exercise is to come up with a list of at least 25 to 30 accomplishments.
	The majority of your accomplishments should come from your work life, but your accomplishments can also include things you did as a student, an athlete, a volunteer, or a family member. All of these can show how you do things and what you like to do.
	The accomplishments need not be monumental in the eyes of others. What counts is that you actually did something, there was a result, and you felt good about it.
	If an accomplishment you have noted has no result involved, it is most likely a responsibility, not an accomplishment. It should be removed from your list.

From this “accomplishment dump”, pick ten accomplishments, most from your work experience, that are quite different from each other.

For each accomplishment, prepare a PAR statement. A PAR statement breaks an accomplishment into three parts:

	“P”-- The Problem
	“A”-- Your Actions
	“R”-- The Results

First, the Problem or situation:

	What was the context of the situation?
	What was your role?
	What actually was the Problem?
	Why was there a need for action?
	What were some of the obstacles you faced?

Second, your Actions:

	What specific Actions did you take?
	How did you take the steps necessary to resolve the Problem?

Third, the Results:

	What were the Results of the Actions you took to address the Problem?
	If possible, please quantify the Results. Use dollar amounts, percentages, or testimonials to your performance.
	If you can’t quantify the results, in more general terms talk about how your Actions affected people and the organization.

Once you have created PAR statements for your ten accomplishments listed above, conduct the following analysis for each PAR statement:

	Underline the action words or phrases that you have used.
	Once you have done this for all your PAR statements, make a list of the five action words that appear the most frequently.
	This is good input into identifying your key strengths.

Also, for each of your PAR statements, answer the following questions:

	What was the main thing accomplished? (Examples-- created a successful marketing approach, got the team working well, communicated better with my boss)
	What was the main subject matter of the accomplishment involved here? (Examples-- specific industry segments, specific product / service issues, or specific functional areas such as Sales, Marketing, Finance or Human Resources)
	What about doing this did I most enjoy?
	What did I do best and why?
	Was I energized by this activity, or just spinning my wheels?
	What was my key motivator to complete this?
	How did I get along with everyone involved?
	Describe the working environment and how it felt each day?

Finally, carefully review:

	Your PAR Statement action word / action phrase analysis (above)
	Your answers to the PAR Statement questions for each PAR Statement (above)

This review should reveal emerging patterns that will help you identify your four to five core competencies, how you like to add value to organizations, and where your true interests lie.

Click here to see examples of PAR statements.

Exercise # 8-- Consider Psychological Testing and Feedback

The CaTS team recommends two psychological testing instruments that can add more refined information to the rest of the self assessment exercises on this web site.

These instruments are:

	The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) provides corroboration of your strengths and your preferred work environment. An understanding of it will also help you better communicate your value to employers.
	The Strong Interest Inventory assesses your interest in various types of employment and personal style in areas such as leadership and risk-taking.

CaTS team members Mac Walker or Mercer Field can help you administer and interpret these test instruments. They can also be obtained over the internet, but CaTS recommends that you seek qualified help in using them. Please contact Mac or Mercer if you have further questions.

Exercise # 9-- Analyze and Plan for Your Financial Needs

The final self assessment exercise in the CaTS battery involves an analysis of your financial needs, and the creation of a plan meet those needs.. This task probably sounds more daunting than it actually is, but it is critical in minimizing personal and family stress during your job search.

Think of it as a simple cash flow analysis, and answer the following questions:

What is my household’s monthly income (after tax, not gross)?

What is my household’s monthly cash outflow (mortgage, car payment, credit cards, etc.)?

If this analysis shows that current sources of income are not enough to meet your outflow, you can do one of two things:

	Reduce discretionary spending
	Identify other sources of cash, such as savings, investment portfolio, or a second mortgage, that can supplement your current income

Once you have developed a plan, it is critical that you have a budgeting process in place to limit monthly spending to an acceptable level

If you have further questions about financial planning or are struggling to put a plan together, please contact a member of the CaTS team. We can help!

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