🌟 Introduction to Career Development and locating the Career Planning Process
A career is not just your job, it is defined as the sum of all the work you do in the family, community, self and at work. To live a purpose-driven life and do meaningful work, practising lifelong career development and management helps you to successfully manage your life, learning and work/career. To manage your career, you need to develop a number of career management competencies that are in three broad clusters – (1) personal management, (2) lifelong learning and work exploration and (3) career building. To develop these competencies, you need to expose yourself to a several career development and management processes that Career Management Professionals or Institutions design and facilitate as services, programs, courses and information. One of those foundational processes is career planning.
Ennie Career Coach work, facilitates learning and provides information aimed at equipping you gain knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours that empower you to manage you life, learning and career in self-directed ways. The main platform to access the learning resources and career information, plus 4 years-worth of free career development resources is my Facebook Page – https://www.facebook.com/EnnieCareerCoach/
🌟 Career Planning – Step 1 – Know Yourself 7 Self-Assessments AND Tasks
Career Planning has several stages or steps as depicted in the diagram above, and the foundation is Knowing Yourself. To do this holistically, there are several sources of information one needs that are important for career planning and decision-making. In this program, we are guided by the holistic framework known just as “The Wheel” developed by Amundson and Poehnell in their 2008 book Career Pathways.
The Wheel for Career Planning and Decision-Making is a holistic guide because it includes both the personal factors (values, interests, personal style and skills), as well as the external social factors such as work/life experiences, learning experiences, labour market trends and significant others. It considers the whole person. It is also a good visual that can be used to explain how career goals depend on a wide variety of factors. In its case, the factors are not only targeted at occupational options, but can help you explore and make connections between occupational choices, work experiences and life roles that could easily be missed. It helps you to know and see the various sources of information and career assessments one can do as part the career decision-making process. [SOURCE: https://slideplayer.com/slide/9105082/ ]
SEVEN CAREER PLANNING SELF-ASSESSMENTS AND TASKSÂ
🌟 TASK 1 – ASSESSING LIFE ROLES, EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE in Career Planning
The tasks outline in the blog link below Know Your Context and Life Roles in Careers provide self-assessment information related to four parts of The Wheel = Significant Others; Learning Experiences; Work/Life Experiences and Career Opportunities. Visit the blog and do TASK 1 self-assessments as part of Career Planning Step 1 – Know Yourself.
🌟 TASK 2 – ASSESSING PURPOSE AND HOLISTIC WELLNESS in Career Planning
The tasks outline in the blog link below Meaning and Personal Mastery in Careers – Life Purpose and Holistic Wellness provides self-assessment information related to four parts of The Wheel = Significant Others; Learning Experiences; Work/Life Experiences and Interests (passion and life purpose). Visit the blog and do TASK 2 self-assessments as part of Career Planning Step 1 – Know Yourself.
🌟 TASK 3 – ASSESSING VALUES AND BELIEFS in Career Planning
The tasks outlined in the blog link below Your career Ice-berg – Assessing Values in Career Planning provide self-assessment information related to one part of The Wheel = Values. Visit the blog and do TASK 3 self-assessments as part of Career Planning Step 1 – Know Yourself.
https://ennielifecoach.com/2019/03/27/values-in-career-planning-a-self-coaching-guide/
Values are deeply held beliefs that influence a person’s career and life choices, as well as behaviour. To assess career values you can use any of the following either pdf or online self-assessment tools –
- https://career.berkeley.edu/Plan/Values (PDF)
- http://www.rop.santacruz.k12.ca.us/resources/career_planning/step1tool1.pdf
- The Life Values Inventory is a questionnaire-style assessment which measures how strongly you endorse certain pre-determined values such as Achievement, Belonging, Financial Prosperity and Spirituality.  The assessment also measures where these values find their strongest expression and areas in your life where they are expressed least. Visit lifevaluesinventory.org to take the assessment and create a profile.  You can take the assessment as many times as you’d like and record how your values change over time.” – https://career.virginia.edu/interests [SOURCE]
- Visit my blog cited below for more resources on values – videos and articles
🎯 https://ennielifecoach.com/2019/03/27/values-in-career-planning-a-self-coaching-guide/
🌟 TASK 4 – ASSESSING INTERESTS – Identifying interests and passion in Career Planning
An interest in career planning and decision-making is an area of assessment as it can help you zero in on potential career options. An interest is defined as what you like and dislike or your preferences. “According to Holland, an individual’s interests and how he or she approaches life situations determines his or her type. Since human beings are multi-faceted, Holland realized that one wouldn’t only fall into a single category. Most people would fall into multiple interest categories. Each letter of your Holland Code represents the top three types in which you could be categorized.” The Holland Code has 6 interests and personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/the-holland-code-526166
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INTERESTS SELF-ASSESSMENT GUIDANCE –
- Self-assessment using a PdF Guide
 There are informal assessments to assess your interests that you can use. Here you can make use of the one in the guide found in the link below from the University of Georgia Career Centre. PDF GUIDE – you can assess your interests using the University of Georgia Guide page 6.
http://career.uga.edu/uploads/documents/FindingYourCareerFit.pdf
- ONLINE Self-assessment – O*NET Interest Profiler
For a quick free online one, which I took and it helped me identify 10 possible career paths I could explore based on my interests profile, is the O*Net Interest Profiler. It links to information about career options, I would recommend you try the O*NET Interest Profiler which can help you find out what your interests are and how they relate to the world of work. You can find out what you like to do. The O*NET Interest Profiler helps you decide what kinds of careers you might want to explore. Follow this link to take the assessment:Â https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip
Make sure you click on career options that interest you as you will then be given a huge amount of information about the education, skills, salary range, growth options etc in that field. Please note that this is developed for the US, but a lot of the information is relevant to anyone and you can adapt to your context if you use it as a guide.
 🌟 TASK 5 – ASSESSING PERSONALITY – Personal Style in Career Planning
 Personal Style is another area of assessment that is critical for career planning and decision-making. This is because one’s personality, which is “the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character” [SOURCE: www.dictionary.com] has a huge bearing on career choices and actions. There are a lot of formal and psychometric assessments that one could take, but these cost money and need a professional psychologist to administer them with you. What I have provided below, are options for your to do a good enough self-assessment that will give you some awareness of your personal style and how it is or could affect your career decisions and actions.
Self-Coaching Guide: Five Factor Model of Personality and Career Planning
According to psychologists, five major traits underlie personality. This is called the Five Factor Model of Personality. We will not do deep formal testing, but use it informally as a guideline for self reflection based on what you know about yourself or have heard from others. In career planning it is used to measure a person’s most important personality characteristics to help with self-understanding and which roles at work or in social settings may suit the person. It is used to assess role fit. What are the Five Factors and Using them in career planning ~
Five Factors Model of Personality – 5 underlying Traits ~
1. Openness to experience – curious and ready for a variety of experiences. Ready to act on unusual ideas.
2. Conscientiousness – tendency to be organised and dependable; self discipline and aims for achievement
3. Extraversion or Introversion – this is where the terms extrovert and introvert come in. Extroverts are highly sociable, like to be in groups and are energetic and talkative. Introverts are quieter, reflect and observe a lot and avoid social settings if they can or stay for a short while. They like to spend time or work alone. For those who have both of these….one is more dominant.
4. Agreeableness ~ tendency to be compassionate and cooperative. Helpful and generally well tempered.
5. Neuroticism ~ tendency to be prone to psychological stress, experiencing unpleasant emotions easily e.g. anger, anxiety, vulnerability etc. It refers to the degree of emotional stability and impulse control one has. E.g. reacting without thinking.
‼ THE TASK ~ using your reading of the information below, reflect on the five traits and how they show up or how you exhibit them or practice them in your life.
- Is this trait high or low for you?
- What habits or behavior do you have because of that trait? Refer to the picture below.
- How does it impact your job and life roles (career)?
🌟 TASK 6 – ASSESSING SKILLS – Identifying your Skills in Career Planning
Knowing what you are good at and able to do is key in career planning and decision-making. A skill is your ability to do anything. You are not born with skills, but this is what you develop over time from experience. There are different types of skills: technical skills, essential/soft skills and transferable skills. For Skills assessment, there are both pdf (paper) self-administered option and online options.
https://www.careers.govt.nz/plan-your-career/not-sure-what-to-do/figure-out-your-skills/
- Skills self-assessment PDF Guide – you can assess your interests using the University of Georgia Guide page 13.
 There are informal assessments to assess your skills that you can use. Here you can make use of the one in the guide found in the link below from the University of Georgia Career Centre. http://career.uga.edu/uploads/documents/FindingYourCareerFit.pdf
2. Free online Skills Assessment
This free competency test gives a reliable and extensive report about your competencies and skills plus development tips! https://www.123test.com/competency-test/
3. Skills Assessment online via SkillScan – note that this one has a fee to be paid
The choice is based on its uses, which is “SkillScan helps your clients and employees identify their transferable skills, the essential building blocks for every stage of career development from planning a first career, making a transition to self-marketing in the job search.” You will find two versions of this tool – the Professional, Advanced and Career Driver. “SkillScan is an intuitive-based, holistic assessment process in which the user makes decisions about his or her skills based on unique life and work experiences, feedback and preferences.
The resulting report has high face validity because the results reflect the user’s selections.” It is user friendly even for those who are tech phobs, as it is a quick 20 minute click through some colourful cards. It is good as it enables you to first sort competencies by what you are good at and then by your willingness to use those competencies. https://www.skillscan.com/skillscan-system
🎯 TASK 7 – TAKE ACTION – BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER IN A DRAFT CAREER PLAN
There is a wonderful resource based on the Wheel that brings all its eight elements together with some guiding questions for reflections. Visit the following site and download the tools and the questions. Use this tool to review your progress in the program and for this final task that brings everything together.
https://medium.com/praxium/career-decision-wheel-4d6571ac18a1
🌟 TASK 7 – Bringing it all together in a Draft Career Plan
Using the information gatherered so far, to help you with drafting career goal/s and actions, do the following tasks.
- Review all the 6 or more sets of self-assessment information that you have generated.
- Answer the questions in each of the 8 areas of the Wheel Tool, providing a summary version (bullet points). YOU CAN DRAW YOURS OF DOWNLOAD THE TOOL FROM: https://medium.com/praxium/career-decision-wheel-4d6571ac18a1
- Use the information and take note of actions you need to take as part of your DRAFT Career Plan. NOTE: There is more career research you need to do under Step 2 – Know Your Market.
- Capture your insights and lessons after going through the whole process of Self-Assessment as part of your foundation for Career Planning.
Happy self-assessment and getting deeper self-knowledge!
For support and enquiries for available career coaching services e-mail – ennielifecoach@servicesgalore.co.za
Ennie Chipembere
Career Coach🔥
09 April 2019
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