Self Evaluation and Steps in Planning a Career

Evaluate Yourself

• Recognize a few key characteristics about yourself so that you make choices that are well suited for you.
• Is important to clearly understand what you are interested in, what your strengths and abilities are, what your personality type is, and what is valuable to you.
• The self-awareness about these attributes will help you choose a major, career, or advanced degree program that will bring a sense of satisfaction.

What I will recommend is is to use self-assessment tools. They are designed to help you identify your interests, skills, personality type, and values and how they can be best matched with school or career pursuits.

Self-assessment allows you to think about your:

• Skills and abilities
• Interests
• Personal Priorities
• Training and Education
• Life Experiences

Career Planning

The career planning needs of high school students differ from those of college students. You should get to know yourself during this high school years. It is the best time to become aware of and recognize who you are, and what you are good at.

How do you do that? You may try this activities that allow you to expose yourself to many types of experiences:

• Take a variety of classes to learn subjects, strengths and interests.

• Learn to develop new skills through classes, clubs, activities, etc.

• Begin to explore career options. Talk to career professionals, advisors, counselors, teachers, parents, and friends. Do some research into careers that are of interest to you.

• Find summer or part-time jobs or voluntary experiences which allow you to try different career areas. These are real-life experiences.

Getting Started

Here are five components for career planning, for each step you will find in the next publications the way of action that may be very useful for you:

1. Asses yourself - learn about your interests and preferences

2. Generate Options - identify majors and general career options that relate to your interests and preferences

3. Gather Information - learn more about specific majors, such as academic requirements and jobs related to each major. In this step you may focus on how to obtain career information such as job descriptions, salary, and outlook

4. Make a Decision - review the decision-making process and determine the status of your decision

5. Take the Next Step - identify the steps you need to take to implement your academic and career plans

GOOD LUCK :)