Career Development for Meaningful Life Work
Susan Imel, ERIC Digest
(ED467240 2002-00-00),
Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC),
Institute of Education Sciences (IES),
U.S. Department of Education (ED)
[ 2002 ] (Adobe PDF file)
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Overview of Career Development Theory
Workforce Development,
Penn State Cooperative Extension,
College of Agricultural Sciences,
The Pennsylvania State University (PSU)
(Adobe PDF file)
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Career Assessment
Career assessment is the most important first step you can take when seeking
employment, yet all too often it is bypassed entirely. Even most job
search agencies do not stress this critical component of career building.
Whether you are seeking first-time employment or are an experienced member
of the workforce, this procedure is absolutely essential if you are
serious about capturing the employment opportunity for which you are best
suited and which will bring you the greatest degree of job satisfaction.
Career assessment should be divided into three components:
personality profile, skills assessment and needs assessment.
Personality
profiling identifies who you are; it includes such
attributes as attitudes, comfort zones, ego, integrity, loyalty, motivators,
prejudices, and work ethic. An individual who undergoes personality
profiling may be surprised by what they learn about themselves.
Skills assessment includes attributes such as speaking and
writing, personal interaction, organizational abilities and job skills.
Needs assessment, often (wrongly) set aside in favor of
a good-paying job, includes such things as family time, caregiver
status (if you have children, a disabled dependent, elderly parent or pets
who require your attention), your own physical limitations, transportation
and travel distance, and career goals.
To make it convenient for you to begin your assessment right away, we have
provided links to career assessment resources to the right.
Career Assessment Review
The goal of career assessment is to identify your strengths, weaknesses and
requirements, then make changes that will lead you to the right employment
opportunities. Once you have concluded your career assessment, review
the results. Look first at your strengths to determine in what directions
to focus your efforts and how to develop a plan of attack. Next, analyze
your weaknesses. This is difficult for many people to do, but it is
essential if your job search is to be successful.
You may discover that your professional or organizational skills need to be
honed or updated; your response might be to accomplish this by taking
an online college course or by utilizing
computer-based
training (CBT). If you are not a good writer, you might decide to
hire a professional resume writing service such as
A and A Resume
to develop a quality resume and accompanying letters. If you discover
that you do not have sufficient professional recommendations, you may want
to contact former business associates to see whether they will agree to
give you a letter of recommendation.
Performing a career assessment and a career assessment review will help you
to focus on the correct career choice, ultimately leading to a
rewarding career and greater job satisfaction.
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 2 July 2003, updated 23 December
2005.
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