Assess abilities before making career changes

Do you feel that you have hit a dead end in your career? Are you experiencing job burnout? A natural response to this dilemma is to look for completely different careers or to seek retraining in a new job category. Before you make such a drastic step, realize that you probably already have the skills needed for many different satisfying jobs.

Many people limit themselves because of a lack of imagination and a lack of confidence. There is more flexibility in matching your skills and aptitudes to available jobs than most people realize.

John, a tax attorney, had blurred out in his practice of law. He dreaded the thought of having to look at another caser. After assessing his sills and talents, he found that he had a natural talent for planning and skills for statistical analysis. Capitalizing on these skills and talents, he has secured a job as a financial planning consultant.

It is not just a person’s academic degrees, specific training or even job experience that will determine success and satisfaction in a job. Rather, it is whether a person is utilizing his or her natural talents and whether they are motivated to use those talents in a work environment.

Emphasis on academic degrees is often overblown. Many college graduates are finding out that a college degree is no free pass to a successful career. Employers know that a talented and motivated person is not easy to find. When they are convinced that they have found one, they often will set aside college and experience requirements.

However to be successful in making such a transition, a person needs to discover where they are naturally talented, as opposed to what they have learned through training and experience. You may have a natural talent in a certain area, but have never had the opportunity to use and develop that talent.

Many people are trained in areas for which they really have little natural ability. A good example of that is a recent business graduate who has knowledge of all the newest management techniques, but finds out that he or she lacks the natural talent for working with and leading people.

Mary, on the other hand, has decided to re-enter the job market after spending 20 years raising her children and sending them off to college. Even though she worked in a clerical position before she started raising the children, she is not sure where her natural talents lie.

She contacts a career counselor to aid her in this process. Through an assessment process, she is able to see all her abilities rather than just those she had used in her earlier job. By looking at her involvement in civic clubs and church work, she realized that she had a talent for organizing and managing others.

With a knowledge of these abilities, she also explores her interests. She realizes that even though she might be able to do a job, if she is not interested in it, her natural talent will be wasted.

A third area that she explores is what she values in an occupation such as income level, flexibility of time, importance of promotion and work environment.

Based on this career self-assessment, Mary begins contacting local companies and organizations to inquire where a person with her innate talents might be utilized. Even though her job search is time consuming, she feels a sense of satisfaction that she is learning about the world of work and how she might fit into it.

Many people choose their careers based on what their parents or significant others expect them to be. After a period of years, they find that they are frustrated with their jobs and they simply begin marking time until retirement.

Both John and Mary found through a career assessment process that they truly did have career alternatives to explore and that these alternatives matched with their natural talents and abilities.

Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1985