What are my interests?“KNOW THYSELF.”
—SOCRATES1
Self-awareness is power when it comes to planning your work life or career. In other words, really knowing who you are is power in discovering which jobs or careers are best for you. Ideally, it is about finding what fits for you, rather than trying to fit in.
Why is having the “right” job or career important? When you are in the “right” job, you are in the best position to maximize your strengths, and make the biggest professional or work-related impact.
The impact you make leaves a trail, and this trail is your legacy. Your legacy is the proof that you have contributed. This contribution, or this legacy, affects your feeling of fulfillment, and ideally you want to be as fulfilled as possible. If you feel unfulfilled, your trail is most likely leading to nowhere, which undoubtedly is causing frustration for you. Your trail may have been leading somewhere at some point, but now has been redirected. This redirection may be caused by change, and change comes in many different forms. You need to adjust to this change and get the direction straightened out first in order to achieve fulfillment. The best way to get back on track is to find a reference point to start from.
The first step is to identify who you are and what makes you tick. With this knowledge, as you will soon discover, you can then target the best job or career for you. Employed, unemployed, or in transition, by choice or by force, the key to getting the job you want or to figuring out what job you want is to know who you are.
Driven by agents of change, the world is transforming rapidly. These transformations and paradigm shifts affect us all. Consider the speed of change in portable devices, including media players and mobile devices. A big shift in thinking occurred from thinking of media devices as individual, one-function devices, to these incredibly integrated miniature multi-functional mobile devices. This is an area of technology that has seen some amazing progress in my lifetime, from the beginnings, with the invention of the stereo belt in 1972, to these smart mobile phones with Internet, e-mail, and text, as well as rich media such as camera, audio player, audio recorder, video player, TV, and video recorder capabilities as standard features. You can even bank, buy groceries or pharmaceuticals, and send money from one mobile device to another.
Constant change just like portable/mobile technology is occurring across all areas of our lives, forcing changes in our careers, and career directions. The skills you relied on for the last 10 years were valuable, and now they are, or may be, obsolete. You need to keep your skills up with new technology and processes or you risk losing your edge in the battle for jobs. You can have the greatest job skills in the world, but if no one knows you have them or can’t find you to offer you a job, then those skills go to waste. Just as importantly, you need to know how to communicate that you have these important skills and be able to market yourself so you can attract the right attention from the right employers. Alternatively, you may simply choose to adjust your career or your job focus to better reflect your current skills and interests. Because over time you change and develop new skills, knowledge, and interests, you may reach a point where you want a new challenge. If this is the case, you may choose to examine what new avenues are open to you that meet your new skills and interests. In a fast-shifting world a professional needs to be nimble and quick to adjust to take advantage of interesting opportunities as one door closes and others open. The bottom line is: There will always be opportunities, but will you be ready for those opportunities?
Many of you may feel comfortable, and oblivious to a tsunami of change that may affect you. These agents of change come in many forms. For example, a shocking life event, disease, a death of someone close, a revelation, a loss of a long-time job, or a mid-life crisis can force you to change. Nothing will stimulate the urge for self-awareness more than a full-blown disruption of life. For all these reasons, you need to be prepared and have the tools at your disposal— and know how to use these tools—to find work or to have work find you.
If you are employed, be proactive and take advantage of this chapter to discover your skills, knowledge, and style as well as your interest and what drives you. This most likely has changed significantly from your first job to now. If, on the other hand, change has been forced upon you, take the time to reevaluate and discover who you are before seeking a new job or committing to a new job.
Consider that many of you did not get supportive messages growing up, and many of you got mixed messages when it came to choosing work or a career. Some of you were bombarded by statements like, “You will never amount to anything,” “You’re stupid,” “Why can’t you ever do anything right?” or “You need to get real and think about a real job, not this pie-in-the-sky stuff.” Regardless of the message you received or interpreted, you made it this far, and if you are an adult you have the ability to choose, so take the opportunity to actually make a new choice as you work through this chapter. Remember: Your past does not equal your future.
For many of you it was implied that you should do what is/was sensible and predictable instead of pursuing a dream that will/would fulfill you. For example, some of you became doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, scientists, chemists, or professionals of some kind. Some of you let life push and pull you into a career and, as though on auto pilot, the terms of your careers were dictated for you. Others of you have floated from job to job with no sense of purpose, or have found it hard to retain a job.
Some of you may have received very supportive messages from your parents, but were led astray by peer pressure or other influential people in your life who conveyed negative messages about the dreams you shared with them. You started second-guessing your dreams. You became fearful and started believing you were not good enough, pretty enough, strong enough, tall enough, smart enough, or whatever else enough, to go after your dreams. Eventually you broke down and followed the path your parents wanted for you, or a path that provided food and shelter and allowed you to be normal, get married, have 1.2 children, and take 0.73 trips per year—the path of least resistance.
Many of you have received great fulfillment until now from your careers, regardless of the message or path you took, but now you feel something has changed, you have changed, or something is missing and you don’t know what to do next because you don’t know who you are and what your capabilities truly are. In other words, it has been a long time since you evaluated yourself. You have not taken the time to do an inventory of your interests, skills, and competencies. It has been my experience that most professionals would prefer to grate their fingers on a cheese grater (ouch!) than sit down and do a thorough personal inventory.
Perhaps the wrong job or career choice is leaving you unfulfilled. Feeling unfulfilled leads to inner conflict, and it builds as you watch your life pass you by. If you do not deal with it, one day this inner conflict will surface, and manifest itself through frustration with your identity and/or your career or job. You may be frustrated with the path your life has been taking, and the path that lies ahead. What you thought was the easy and sensible thing to do with your life turns out to be the thing that has you sinking in the quicksand of despair.
Faced with this discomfort, some deal with it by pseudo-medicating with prescription drugs, or medicating with illicit drugs, alcohol, or other destructive behaviors.
Others just grin and bear it, believing this is their lot in life. You say to yourself, “What can I do now?” or “I am too old,” or “I do not have the education or the smarts to change.” Or you may kid yourself and say, “I am content.”
Are you really?
If you choose to stay on the same path, you will eventually retire, shop at warehouse outlet malls throughout the southern United States, buy a Snuggie from a shopping channel and a warehouse pack of Preparation H per year from Costco, then die. If you recognize the frustration for what it is and you actually decide to do something about it before it becomes a crisis, you are truly blessed.
As mentioned earlier, perhaps a job termination, a break-up, or a tragedy triggers full-blown frustration. Maybe a simple question you ask yourself can be the trigger, such as, “Why do I do this, day in and day out?” or “Why do I live an ant’s life?” Get up, scurry around getting ready for work, line up in traffic jams, line up to park or line up to get on the subway. Scurry to line up to get coffee and then scurry around at work, just to line up again for lunch and after work for the subway home. Get home exhausted, fall asleep, and dream about whether you are the next one in line for a promotion or the next one in line to get fired. Just before you wake you dream about how your next thrill will be lining up your bills in the evening so you can pay them. You get to wake up and start all over again. Yeah! Is this the way to live? There has to be a better way.
Discovering your passion is critical to putting your passion to work. In order to discover your passion you need to be aware of or discover your interests and driving forces. Passion is the combination of your interests and driving forces (the things that motivate you). When you choose work that you are passionate about, and that matches well with your competence, you set off a transformation: Your work is not work anymore; it’s what you do to get your kicks.
How do you discover what you are passionate about? By answering these questions for yourself:
What are my interests?
What are my driving forces?
When it comes to choosing work one of the chief complaints I hear is this: “I don’t know what I am interested in.” In the following sections you will uncover your interests.
The goal is to uncover what fascinates and intrigues you. What interests you? Ultimately, if you can find what interests you, and incorporate those interests into a job or career, you have a key piece of the puzzle figured out.
Take the time to remember when you were a kid. What did you want to be when you grew up? What jobs interest you now? Did you follow that career path? If you did, do you still like it? Perhaps you did, and felt fulfilled for many years, and now it’s time for a change.
What other jobs or careers appeal to you? What parts of the job or career were fun?
Look over your work life:
Enumerate your accomplishments. Include some volunteer accomplishments or coaching sports teams. Don’t be shy; fill up 30 pages if you want to. Now you should feel better when you review your list. In many cases you should be amazed at what you have achieved. What accomplishments from this list gave you a sense of pride and success? This will tell you what is important to you.
Go over the people you worked with in your mind. Write down answers to the following: Whom did you like working with? Whom did you hate? What bosses did you like and what were their styles? This will give you insight into the type of people you like to work with, or the type of manager you get along with. What was the work environment like? Was it structured? Was it fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants? Was it slow-paced or fast-paced? Was there lots of people interaction or none? What type of environment did you like most, and why?
You now have, through this primer, a cursory understanding of what your dreams were, what type of work might interest you, the type of people you like to work with, and the work environment you like. If you did not get much from this exercise, hang in there.
You now need to dig much deeper.
It is well worth it to get a more in-depth profile of your interests, for free from O*Net OnLine (www.onetonline.org). O*NET OnLine was created for the U.S. Department of Labor. By following through you will indicate your liking for 180 job-related activities. Your answers will then be put into “Holland” scores reflecting the preferences for careers described as Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). Dr. Holland’s research demonstrated that people and jobs can be described in Holland scores or RIASEC scores. The occupations in the O*Net database are organized into RIASEC categories, so scores from the O*Net Interest Profiler can be easily matched to careers worthy of exploration. You can download the O*Net Interest Profiler software at www.transitiontohired.com/resources.
I highly recommend that you use the O*Net Interest Profiler, but I know some of you will never get around to it. Alternatively, put a check mark beside the things that are of interest to you in Table 2.1 (on the next page). Add to this list by jotting down all your interests, above and beyond this list. Jot down everything that comes to mind: dressmaking, windmills, poultry, horticulture, erotica, you name it—get it down.
Adapted from ADV Advanced Technical Services Inc. Candidate Profiler.2
Now that you have a good list, see if you can group the list into categories or themes to uncover your work interests. If you have not done so yet and you believe you have a great grasp of your RIASEC Interest Area or score, and you prefer to scan the list of occupations classified by major interest area, then you can get a comprehensive list at www.transitiontohired.com/resources.
Is there a predominant theme? Are there any jobs or careers that are available or that you can create that would match the theme? Is the theme a job interest or a hobby interest? Make the distinction by asking yourself, “Would I like to have this theme as the predominant factor in my work?” Even if you are using the RIASEC results from the profiler, the occupations that show up in the different categories may point you to a different interest or occupation that is not on the O*Net list. Be open and think beyond the list. For instance, at the time of writing this book, “social media coordinator” was not listed as an occupation on the O*Net list.
Let’s say you chose biology, boating, criminology, forensics, falconry, gardening, law, ornithology, security, and wilderness from Table 2.1. Upon review of these interests, a matching job or occupation that would meet most of these interests is not apparent. However, did you consider a conservation officer? As you can now see, this would meet most of the interests chosen and would most likely touch on all these interests. Do the same with your list and review the RIASEC results to see what other inspiring occupations you can discover or even create, or which occupations from the O*Net list excite you. Jot down all the possibilities that appeal to you.
The other component of passion is your driving forces. Your values have a corresponding driving force. Your values are molded by upbringing, role model(s), heroes, experiences, and your inner compass. A value is a concept that describes the beliefs you have. The sum total of your values forms your personal blueprint. The blueprint, formed by your values, is the map that guides you. When your blueprint is aligned with your actions, you feel comfortable and together. When your compass is scrambled and it leads you off course or away from your blueprint, you start to manifest behaviors that are not empowering. A few behaviors exhibited could be anger, anxiety, irritability, depression, and despondency. When you are aligned you demonstrate positive behaviors, such as enthusiasm, humor, consideration, charm, pragmatism, and ambition, among others.
Your values are the motivators that drive you; these are your driving forces. If your work is not aligned with your driving forces, you are very likely miserable. Here are a few examples so you can get a better understanding of driving forces being misaligned with one’s work.
If one’s dominant driving force is to make a lot of money and that person’s prime source of income is working at a volunteer-based association, he will be in conflict with his blueprint or inner compass and most likely be miserable.
If one’s blueprint included being programmed with “thou shall not kill” and this person is recruited by Tony Soprano to be a hit woman, this person has a problem. She will be terrible at her job, and most likely the outcome for her would be to eventually be dressed up by Tony’s henchmen with cement boots, and be invited by Tony to visit the “fishies” in the Hudson River.
TABLE2.2: DRIVING FORCES
Created from concept from TTI Performance Systems Ltd.3
We all have some degree of each value in our makeup. This means if we measure our values on a gradient scale by, say, using a test for this purpose, we will score in one of three areas: near, above, or below the population norm for each value considered. The extent to which we are above or below the norm on a particular value determines how dominant that corresponding driving force is for us. For example, if someone has a high Utilitarian score, money is very important to him. If he has a low score, it is unimportant.
Your driving forces are not easily uncovered; I suggest relying on testing to help you out. Go to www.transitiontohired.com/resources to find information on assessments including a free Driving Force Assessment.
Having a strong Traditional value means a strong drive for systems and regulations, rules, laws, and codes of conduct for living.
Having a strong Theoretical value means to learn, to be curious, and to be intellectual.
Having a strong Social value means you love people, you are kind, you are unselfish, and you like to help others.
Having a strong Individualistic value means you like to use your power to influence others.
Having a strong Utilitarian value means a passion to gain return on investment of time, resources, and money.
Having a strong Aesthetic value means you get delight from the beauty in life, the beauty in life’s processes, and the harmony and the grace in the flow of life’s events.
The combination of your driving forces and your interests determines your passion. In other words, make sure that the occupation you choose from your O*Net work matches up with your values/driving forces. This is where in my experience I see the biggest mismatch. Everyone concentrates on their interests and do not consider their values and driving forces. By doing this they end up choosing a job that makes them miserable. Here is an example. I had a client who was an immigration lawyer working for the government on a refugee board. His job was to deny entry to people to his country. His strongest value was Social. Because he fell into the job after graduating and it paid well, he did the job for 20 years and was miserable until he coached with me. I pointed out that his values were not lined up with the job he was doing. It did not mean quitting as a lawyer; rather, it meant switching sides, to where he would represent the immigrants and help them get citizenship. This was a life-changing realization for him. Are you in a similar situation? You may love the skills you use in your job but are just doing the job from the wrong side of the fence. (Tell us what you have uncovered. Share it with us at www.transitiontohired.com/resources.)
In order to get hired in a job you want, you need to feel confident that you have the potential ability or capability to perform. Your fit for a job is no longer measured by your strengths and weaknesses. Your fit is measured by how your skills, knowledge, style, and behavior match up with the performance standards established for the position you want. These performance standards are often called competencies. (Competencies are described in great detail in Chapter 6.)
Having a passion and getting hired in a job you are passionate about are two very distinct things. You have to be able to express your passion and skills for a particular job or occupation to an employer in his language. In other words, you must be able to demonstrate your passion, as well as demonstrate you have the skills, knowledge, and style required to do the job at an acceptable level. It is imperative, therefore, that you do an inventory of your skills, knowledge, and style.
The sum total of your skills, knowledge, and style is your competence.
Your competence is your potential ability or capability to perform. Knowing this comes in very handy not only in terms of career progression but also when transitioning from one industry to another, or from one occupation to another. It should also be noted that competency development is a lifelong progression of doing, experiencing, and thinking. In other words, building your competence is a lifelong pursuit.
How do you determine your competence? By getting the answers to the following empowering questions:
What are my skills?
What knowledge do I have?
What are my distinct operating styles?
Take the time to write down your answers to each of the questions by using the following guidance.
This refers to professional or work skills. Write a list of your skills. Include in this list your education and certifications, as well as your technical skills. This includes qualification or experience in any processes, systems, or programs. Do the same for your functional skills.
Two examples of functional skills for an administrative assistant would be word processing and knowledge of MS office applications. For a chemist they would be use of HPLC systems, method development, and so forth.
Your knowledge is different from your professional job skills and education. It encompasses everything: information you have gathered; understanding of cultures, languages, challenges, activities, places, ideas; anything else you can think of that may be remotely valuable. It includes special knowledge of industries, competitive knowledge, product positioning, ability to call on your network for help, and ability as a speaker, presenter, or trainer. Remember— anything you can think of.
Characteristics and behavioral styles are brought to your work, as well as your style of interaction with others at work. You will know your dominant characteristics, whereas others may be difficult to assess. In general these behavior traits are difficult to assess on your own. A good strategy is to take a behavioral assessment. You can find a good behavioral assessment at www.transitiontohired.com/resources.
Some examples of behaviors are: assertive, self-confident, entrepreneurial. Independent, venturesome, risk-oriented, competitive. Direct, blunt, authoritative, skeptical, reserved. Analytical, technical, task-oriented. Impatient, sense of urgency, thrive on change. Results- and goal-oriented, hard driver. Driver for achievement, work-oriented, bottom-line oriented. Generalist, multitasker, need variety. Disciplined thinker, very logical decision-making, analysis-paralysis, procrastination, sociable, patient, dependence, low emotional control. Add as many behaviors as you see fit to your list.
Your style encompasses work style, thinking style, stamina/toughness, communication style, supervisee style, and supervisory/management style.
Work style: Are you flexible, rigid, goal-oriented, planner, team player, wishy-washy, decisive, perfectionist, generalist, scattered, ambiguous, direct, confrontational, accommodating?
Thinking style: How do you solve issues and problems? Are you optimistic, pessimistic, realistic, strategic, analytical, instinctive, perceptive, steadfast, visionary, creative, or focused?
Stamina/toughness: Are you able to take the heat, work under pressure, and work for long hours? Are you an explosive streak worker or consistent plodder, achiever? Pessimistic or optimistic? Can you deal with physical exertion, loud environments, or lots of distraction?
Communication style: Are you direct, influential/persuasive, reserved, enthusiastic, humorous, slow to answer/a thinker?
Supervisee style: How do you like to be supervised or managed? Micro or macro, structured, detailed, told what to do? Are you loyal or a rebel?
Supervisory/management style: Are you democratic/inclusive or dictator, micro or macro, figure it out yourself or step by step, risk-taker or cautious, rule-breaker, or toe the line?
Once you have gone through the previous exercise, evaluate your list with the list of occupations you selected previously. Do your interests and competence match up well? If not, then in what areas can you improve or gain the necessary skills? Would taking courses or going to school be a solution in order to pursue an occupation of interest? Often our skills determine what we are interested in. Does your competence elicit new occupations or interests? If nothing comes shining through just yet, that is fine. Clarity will come when you combine your passion, interests, and driving forces with your competence to describe your Sustainable Competitive Advantage.
How do you combine everything you have learned about yourself, your interests and driving forces, and your skills, knowledge, and style so that it becomes an advantage in your job search? You do this by defining your Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA).
Image 2.1 Sustainable Competitive Advantage
You may have encountered SCA referred to as a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) or your competitive advantage. The key word here is sustainable. In other words, it is part of your core; it is built on your competence and the things that excite you—your passion. Your SCA is resilient no matter the situation you are in.
When you combine your competence, defined by your skills, knowledge, and style, and your passion, defined by your interests and driving forces, you have discovered your Sustainable Competitive Advantage. Once you have a detailed understanding and grasp of your SCA, you are way ahead of your competition, because you know what you are good at, what you are not good at, what you are capable of, what excites you, and what drives you.
Your SCA is what makes you uniquely special. Armed with your clearly defined SCA, you can target the ideal job you want with passion and confidence. Take a sheet of paper and make a visual representation of your SCA, as in Image 2.1. Make it big enough so you can enter the predominant attributes for each circle.
Now that you have a good grasp of your SCA, it is time to articulate it and give it a voice by summarizing it into a few paragraphs.
Here is an SCA summary as an example:
I’m a successful entrepreneur with extensive experience in the international recruitment business, supported by the fact that I have won many awards for outstanding achievement in this field. I am a coach who has trained and mentored many to achieve success in business. I am a burgeoning writer with a zany style, and I am extremely passionate about writing. I am a dominant leader of leaders, with great vision and the power of great influence over others. I am at my best when faced with troubleshooting or finding solutions to problems by using my well-developed strategic thinking style and my instinctual ability to predict upcoming events. I am extremely creative and have a wild imagination that gives me a gift for innovation. Management is of negligible interest to me, but when the situation requires I am a macro manager who empowers people to take risks and to learn by doing. One of my challenges is I am not good with detail. As a leader I am confident in the face of adversity, and I get my followers to “loosen up” by making the work environment fun. What I espouse and live by: “You can do anything you want to do. All you have to do is do it, and the money will come.”
In Chapter 6 you will learn how to incorporate your SCA into your resume. It is very important that you complete this exercise.
Now that you are armed with your SCA, do any additional occupations or ways to make a living come to mind? Make sure you consider jobs, careers, or opening a new business that matches your SCA.
As you can see, having the competence to do a specific job does not mean you will be passionate or happy doing that job. You need to be interested in and be driven to do the job, or your values must be well matched to the job or career you choose. In order for you to excel at a job, you must be capable of doing it and you must be passionate about it. You do not need to make any concrete decisions just yet on what you are going to pursue in an occupation or your dream job, but knowing why you want to make the effort to find a better job or satisfy your dreams is critical. First ask yourself: Am I willing to make the effort?
If you feel as though it all sounds like too much work, and you have just glossed over everything up to now and you have not really put your heart into it, there is a reason why. This exercise will turn things around for you. Answering “What is my WHY?” will get you unstuck and motivated to follow through. Your WHY must be big enough to power your will. Will is the product of your WHY; it is your best friend—your wing man that gives you the strength to follow through and get the job that is right for you. If your WHY is not motivating you, you need to find a bigger WHY. Your WHY is a combination of all the:
People you love (your family, children, friends)
Things you want to do
Places you want to go to or travel to
Things you want to achieve
Causes you support
Impact you want to leave
What your WHY is not, is money; rather, it is the end result of what you want to do with your money.
If you would like to bring your WHY to life and create your WHY video, go to www.transitiontohired.com/resources to learn more.
