Your Life and Career Reassessed

How would you fight for the career you love? How do you be the best in school? Ever wondered how you can succeed in life? If you look at the mirror, the answer is just staring back at you. You are your best asset, and it is best that you know who you are and what you are capable of. Now that that has been taken care of, its time to make the most of your skills.

Having your abilities and interests formally assessed, especially under the supervision of a trained career counselor, may lead you to a more satisfying career. A well-structured abilities assessment will ask you dozens of questions about everything from your ability to visualize objects to your interests in music to your ability to remember and reproduce a two-dimensional graphic or design. All of these questions are asked in an effort to help you understand your next career move.

You may have abilities that you take for granted that are actually very useful in another profession that you have not even considered. You may actually be good at spatial arrangements, or have the uncanny talent of mixing unlikely color combinations that will be perfect for interior design.

Some assessments also measure the style with which you respond to people and work environments. If you're a specialist, for example, you will prefer to work alone and develop your "own thing." If you're a generalist, on the other hand, you will prefer to work as part of a group. If you're an extrovert, you will be gregarious, outgoing and uninhibited; if an introvert, you may be introspective or reserved. Again, a good assessment can tell you how these qualities combine in you. There are nine possible combinations on the generalist-specialist scale. You will find it helpful to know where you fit.

Of course, as multi-faceted as you are, the professional assessment doesn't end there. A good assessment will also take into consideration your current situation, like your interests and even your hobbies. Maybe the doodling on that scratch pad at work that you do during your downtime can make you the next Picasso, or the photography classes you've been taking just for the fun of it may start paying off. You may even have an idea on a new invention that will revolutionize the power industry.

Some companies offer assessments of work values too. People do not usually catalogue or rank their values, and they are not usually discussed in employment interviews, but ignoring them can be the source of great stress and strain on the job. Suppose that you cherish the work values of honesty and integrity. Won't you be unhappy working for a firm that ignores those values and encourages its employees to cut corners in consumer satisfaction?

However, you go about it, a personal reassessment is vital at this point in your life when everything appears so grim and challenging. For an investment of about $500, you can purchase every assessment you need and discuss your results with a certified career counselor. It's the best investment you can make.