CHAPTER 3 Understanding Yourself Investigating Your Career Ann

CHAPTER 3 Understanding Yourself Investigating Your Career Ann K. Jordan Lynne T. Whaley © Thomson South-Western 1

CHAPTER 3 Understanding Yourself ÞRecognize how assessments can help focus your career journey. ÞIdentify types of formal assessments and explain how to use the results. ÞDescribe types of informal assessments. © Thomson South-Western SLIDE 2

CHAPTER 3 Learning about Yourself l Your Internal Career Design: l Is unique to you. l Matches your interests, abilities, personality, and values to your ideal career field. l Assessments provide information that will help you choose a career based on your unique talents and passions. l Self-assessments are based on what you think of yourself. © Thomson South-Western 3

CHAPTER 3 Formal Assessments l Formal assessments are created by psychologists and career counselors based on their research. l Interest inventories l Ability assessments l Personality assessments l Work value assessments l Formal assessment results l Companies may charge a fee for the assessment and/or the scoring. © Thomson South-Western 4

CHAPTER 3 Interest Inventories l Interest inventories are designed to help you relate your interests to career clusters. l The format of interest inventories varies. © Thomson South-Western 5

CHAPTER 3 Ability Assessments Ability assessments measure: l How well you perform specific tasks now. l Whether you can master certain skills in the future. © Thomson South-Western 6

CHAPTER 3 Personality Assessments l Personality assessments reveal the personal qualities that make you unique. l Personality assessment results reveal the: l Behavior style that best describes you. l Type of work environment that fits your personality traits. © Thomson South-Western 7

CHAPTER 3 Work Value Assessments l Work values are the aspects about a career and the workplace that are important to you. l Work value assessments: l Help you discover why you want to work. l Help you find characteristics of careers that appeal to you. © Thomson South-Western 8

CHAPTER 3 Formal Assessment Results l Different assessments appeal to different people. l No one assessment is completely accurate. l Different assessments give different results. l Keep in mind that you are unique. l Taking more than one assessment will give you a better picture of yourself. l You know more about yourself than any assessment can tell you. l The assessment does not tell you everything. © Thomson South-Western 9

CHAPTER 3 Informal Assessment Experiences l Informal assessment experiences are activities in which you talk to or observe someone working in a career or in which you work in a specific career yourself. l Career events l Informational interviews l Job shadowing l Internships l Service learning Continued on next slide © Thomson South-Western 10

CHAPTER 3 Continued from previous slide Informal Assessment Experiences l Informal assessments can help you: l Learn firsthand about the types of jobs and job requirements in a career field. l Eliminate possible careers that are not a match for you. l Understand the world of work and its positive and negative aspects. l Create your Internal Career Design. © Thomson South-Western 11

CHAPTER 3 Career Events l A career fair is an opportunity to talk with many business about many careers at one time. l A career day is organized so you can listen, interact, and ask questions of people in careers that interest you. l If your school coordinates the event, you will move from room to hear speakers from various careers. l If a professional organization sponsors the event, you will learn only about the career areas of the sponsor’s members. © Thomson South-Western 12

CHAPTER 3 Informational Interviews l An informational interview is a conversation with a person about her or his career area. l You will direct the questions. l You will learn most about a particular career by talking directly with workers rather than with upper-level managers. l Before the appointment, send some of your questions to the person you are interviewing in case he or she needs to research some of the answers. © Thomson South-Western 13

CHAPTER 3 Job Shadowing l Job shadowing is where you spend several hours following a worker at his or her job location. l Learning business etiquette and knowing some of the details of the workplace surroundings ahead of time will help you be prepared. l The shadowing experience may take from two to six hours. © Thomson South-Western 14

CHAPTER 3 Internships l An internship provides practical experience working in a specific career. l An internship: l Offers a way to test a career before committing to it. l May be an unpaid volunteer experience. l May be a paid work experience. l May lead to a job or even entry into a career. © Thomson South-Western 15

CHAPTER 3 Service Learning l Service learning programs let you volunteer your time to help the community. l You may choose to participate to: l Meet a course or graduation requirement. l Help a particular group. l Service learning: l Involves mutual give-and-take between you and those you serve. l Can become part of your Career Portfolio Builder. © Thomson South-Western 16 l Can serve as a type of internship.

CHAPTER 3 Summary l I can recognize how assessments help focus my career journey. l I can describe different types of formal assessments and explain how to use the results. l I can describe types of informal assessment experiences. © Thomson South-Western 17