MODULE 4

• Sample Values


  • Time with family
  • Financial reward
  • Community service
  • Professional position
  • Personal relationships
  • Social status
• Understanding Yourself: Your Interests


  Interests and Your Career Choice. Career interests are your preferences regarding work activities and environments. Identifying your career interests helps you make a well-informed and more strategic career decision. Following your career interests means you're pursuing a career that uses your talents and aligns with your values and preferences.
• Understanding Yourself: Your Personality Traits


  The word personality originates from the Latin word persona, referring to masks worn by theater performers to hide their identity or portray different roles. Your persona, or personality, is unique to you. It’s a combination of the behaviors, emotions, thought patterns, and motivations that define us. Research from the past few decades has pointed to the role of environment – including how we were raised – and our genetics in forming and shaping our personalities.
• Stick to your values, they are your foundation. - Howard Schultz, CEO, Starbucks
• Understanding Yourself: Your Values


  Values are deeply held beliefs about what you MUST have in your life for it to be worth living. Some folks want “enough” money—however they define it. Some want security or stability. Others want power or prestige. Maybe you want creativity or independence. Values act as a filter for the other pieces. It is important to identify and to consider your values as you approach career decisions since your work will influence the ways in which you can live out your values.
• Your personality needs to fit with your career and workplace
• Skills are abilities that have been acquired by training or experience. An ability is something you are able to do and is usually innate as opposed to learned. You can learn skills in the classroom, at work, or through a variety of life experiences. As you are career planning and conducting a job search, you will want to focus on assessing how many skills you have
• Soft Skills and Adaptive Skills are important in the workplace
• Transferable or functional skills


  • Skills that can be transferred from one job to another, enabling exploration of a wider variety of career choices and standing out with employers
• Achievement is an accomplishment or success that you attain
• Hard Skills are technical expertise gained through education and experience
• Identifying your Skills Gap is crucial in obtaining your ideal job
• Examples of Adaptive Skills include Time management, honesty, dexterity, active listening
• Continuing to expand your career possibilities as you learn new skills is important
• Match Your Degree to Goals and Possibilities to explore different career options
• Adaptive Skills are related to your work style and help you function as a good employee on a day-to-day basis
• Make your skills and achievements specific and quantifiable in your marketing documents
• Organizing and outlining your skills, values, and accomplishments makes it easier to create your resume, cover letter, and portfolio
• Define skills gap and explain how you might close this gap
• Continue to expand your career possibilities as you learn new skills
• Explain the difference between hard and soft skills and provide two examples of each term
• Transferable or functional skills and technical skills are crucial in the workplace
• Technical skills


  • Knowledge and capability to perform specific operational tasks related to a job
• Job-Specific Skills require special training, experience, education, or certification
• Examples of Soft Skills include Listening
• Your Brand Identity is your personal marketing image that highlights your worth and value to employers
• Skills Vocabulary: Identifying your skills in order to market and sell yourself to potential employers, or to your current employer if you want to be considered for advancement
• Your completed degree shows that you have the ability to achieve a long-term goal and can make you valuable for careers you have not even considered
• Increased awareness of your interests, values, and skills helps in determining suitable careers
• Increased awareness of what careers you should consider based on your interests, values, and skills
• By knowing what skills you possess, you will be able to identify skills you need to acquire for your ideal job
• Name two different careers you could consider with your degree
• Examine the positions you seek and see what requirements you still need to obtain to close the Skills Gap
• Describe how being more aware of your personality, values, and interests assists you in finding a great career fit
• Explain transferable skills and provide two examples