Availability
Objective: The objective of this final project is to help you better understand your areas of career interests, and whether you should consider the role of supervision one day. A career is a chosen pursuit; it is all the things you are doing at any given point to create a satisfying life while setting and working toward goals. Career satisfaction is likely to increase if you:
Consider how your personality fits with others in your areas of career interest
Conduct a current skills inventory
Identify employment trends in your areas of career interests
Browse available jobs in your areas of career interests.
Instructions: Develop a 3-5 page, double spaced, 12 point, paper. Divide your paper into four sections based on the following subheadings below.
Personality Profile. The first step in finding the right career path is to have a solid understanding of yourself. Discuss the following:
What do you like to do?
What do you do well?
What motivates you, e.g., money, opportunities for advancement, control of your time, etc.?
After you’ve discussed the questions above, take the Jung Typology Self-assessment, being sure to report the scores in your paper (see below for instructions and website):
Career Development and Personality. Those who aspire to have a successful and satisfying career, need to understand themselves first. One of the key factors in career development is job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is at its highest when the job engages the strongest personal qualities of an individual, and when the job is in line with an individual’s values and attitudes. The fit between the employee and the organization, directly affects an employee’s career development, performance, and chances to succeed. Leadership skills are one of the key factors in career development, especially if you seek a supervisory or management position one day. Ability to cope with stress effectively is another important factor in career success. By taking the Jung Typology Seal Assessment, you will come to better understand your preferred activities, work style, ways in which you learn best, and ways in which you work best with others.
Visit the following Web site and take the Jung Typology Self-assessment, it is free. http://humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm
After you have received your score, click through the different links at the top of the page, you’ll enjoy reading about yourself!
Summarize the results, be sure to report your scores. Do you agree with the assessment? Why/why not?
Skills Inventory. On the basis of your education and job experience, compile a list of all the skills you have acquired. Discuss them in terms of the following Supervisory Skill Categories:
Technical skills – knowledge of particular techniques/procedures
Human relations skills – ability to communicate, motivate, and understand people
Conceptual skills – ability to see relationship of parts to the whole
Decision-making skills – ability to analyze information and make good decisions
Knowledge skills – ability to use e-mail, voice mail, fax, intranet, and Internet to manage data
Also, discuss your skills in terms of Characteristics of a Successful Supervisor:
Personality-related skills – These are skills that reflect your personal capabilities, talents, and general areas of interests. These would include strengths such as being detailed oriented, a good listener, artistic, or athletic. These tend to be broad and applicable to a variety of occupations.
Experience/education-related skills – These are skills that you have acquired through education or experience and reflect your abilities. These skills would include things such as balancing a budget, speaking a foreign language, typing more than 100 words a minute. These also can include very specific skills such as understanding a complex computer program or operating specific kinds of equipment.
Employment Trends. Where will the jobs be in the future? Making informed career decisions requires not only that you conduct a careful personal self-assessment, it also requires that you conduct an assessment of the job market and that you gain an understanding of the employment opportunities that interest you. For example, you may decide that a career in manufacturing sounds intriguing, but knowing that overall employment in this sector is expected to decrease over the next 10 years may affect your pursuit of a career in manufacturing. The U.S. Department of Labor produces an Occupational Outlook Handbook that can give you insights about what the future likely holds in your area of interest.
On the left hand side of the menu, you’ll find an Index of Occupational Groups. Click on a Group that’s of interest to you. A list of Occupations within the Group will appear. Review the list of Occupations and the short summaries. Be sure to look at the other columns of information as well, e.g., Entry-level Education, Median Pay.
Click on a minimum of two or more Occupations that you think you might like for yourself. Read the information provided and briefly report on:
Quick Facts (at the top of the page)
Job Information (there are several links below Quick Facts that provide additional information
Tell me, after identifying two Occupations and reading about them:
What were the two or more Occupations you clicked on and why were you interested in them initially?
After reading about the two or more Occupations, are you still interested in them?
Job Availability. Now that you’ve targeted an occupational interest, and you’ve learned something about career projections/trends in this area, look at specific job announcement.
Look through the postings for jobs in the areas you’ve targeted. Reviewing job postings and considering the occupations and industries available should lead to a fairly targeted list of jobs and careers that match your personality and skills. At CareerBuilder.com, you can even enter a specific skill as a keyword and conduct a search; you’ll receive a listing of jobs that require that/those particular skills.
On the basis of your personality profile, your skills inventory:
Why do you think that these two or more jobs are a good fit for you?
What new knowledge, skills must you still acquire?
What is your plan for acquiring this new knowledge and skills?
