FINDING A CAREER ~ Part 4: “Gifts, Strengths, Talents, Assets, Skills”
This is part 4 of a 5 part series focusing on THE 4 LISTS, a tool I developed over the years to facilitate the process of finding your next wonderful career. If you read parts 1, 2, and 3 before reading this, you’ll have the big picture for doing this process. My approach is an organic one, growing out of who YOU are, what you love, what’s important to you and what you have to offer — as opposed to choosing a career because it is on a “Best Careers for the Next Decade” or some such list. We’re interested in you finding your best career for the next part of your life.
The titles of the 4 pages of THE 4 LISTS are as follows:
#1. Interest and Passions
#2. Career Options
#3. Criteria for Choosing Career
#4. Gifts, Strengths, Talents, Assets, Skills
List #4. Gifts, Strengths, Talents, Assets, Skills
In this part you’ll create the 4th and final page, List #4. Gifts, Strengths, Talents, Assets, Skills. On a 4th piece of paper, write this bolded title at the top. Below it, write these questions:
> What do I have to offer?
> What are my gifts or talents (things that come naturally, easily to me)?
Examples: good singing voice, tend to organize things
> What are my strength areas (personality or character traits)?
Examples: Outgoing, reflective
> What are my skills (things I have learned how to do)?
Examples: computer graphics, scuba diving
> What are my assets (things I know or have experienced that are relatively unique, i.e., not everyone knows or has done this)?
Examples: lived in Japan, studied engineering
THEN, star the items on this page that are especially fun for you, or the ones you want to include in your next career.
What do you do with this information?
First, be aware that you can include any of these strengths, talents, etc., on your resume — when and if the particular item is pertinent to your job search objective and strengthens your case for being qualified.
Second, look at your starred items. Each of those, by itself or paired with another starred item, is a starting point for more brainstorming of career possibilities — see Part 1. You can also pair any interest or passion from list #1 with a starred talent, skill, etc. from list #4, and brainstorm additional career ideas. Brainstorming, by definition, is just letting the ideas flow — without any judgement about them, good or bad; judging stops the flow. So, in your FINDING A CAREER notebook, just record the ideas as you brainstorm them for 5 to 10 minutes or longer; then review the career ideas and capture any you especially like onto your career options list, list #2.
The next steps are to explore these careers, evaluate them using your own career criteria, and then choose a career. This will be described in Part 5.