Know yourself
Every year, KJB International Aid advisers work with over 50,000 job seekers to help them discover and develop their skills. We help them find suitable and satisfying employment, also on the global markets. They come from all walks of life: students, graduates, retirees, experienced professionals who want to retrain or look for new professional challenges.
Before you find a job created for yourself, you need to know what to sell and how. We present you with this guide that will help you discover your strengths and show you how to effectively give them to a potential employer, distinguishing you from candidates for a job. Would you mind taking a moment to answer the following questions? Let's start!
What are my abilities? What can I do?
Honest and objective evaluation of your strengths is a complex art. Before you can fully concentrate on looking for a specific job and preparing an effective cover letter and CV, you need to know what exactly you have to offer your potential employer and what extent it matches your ideas about your planned career path. If you skip this step, it may turn out that dozens of applications sent by you underestimate or inflate your competencies and qualifications. It will save time - both for you and your potential employer. Besides, as is well known, failure to achieve success can be demoralising. Therefore, it is essential that you clearly define your strengths and how you want to develop them.
Let us consider a typical example. Perfect command of spoken and written English is required for a job advertisement. You do not check your level of knowledge with any test (e.g. online). You rely only on diplomas obtained in the course of education. In your application documents, you write that you are fluent in it. What if, during the interview, the recruiter starts the discussion in a foreign language? Will you be able to carry it out at the level you declared in your CV? If not, your credibility will be immediately your credibility, and you will most likely lose your chances of being employed. Even if the interview is conducted in your native language, your employer will put your language skills to the test more than once during your employment.
What if during an important business meeting with international clients you are unable to start a conversation? In such a situation, the employer will automatically see that you have provided false information and have abused their trust. In the worst-case scenario, you can lose a client that is important to your employer! In your cover letter, you should describe your linguistic weaknesses honestly, for example: "My reading and listening comprehension of English does not reflect your expectations. However, I am convinced that I can achieve the required level within three months. I actively participate in courses improving my English language qualifications".
Of course, you can also honestly state your level of sophistication while lowering your chances of interviewing and hiring. Conclusions for the future - make a linguistic text and display the actual level of advancement in your application documents. Also, explain your plans for improving qualifications in the future.
Remember. Be based on the actual state of affairs, not on intuition.
There are many language tests available, even online, which will objectively test your competencies in many areas, such as foreign languages or technical knowledge, as well as in the field of factors that are difficult to measure, such as creativity, teamwork, independence, interpersonal abilities etc.
Psychological tests can show that you are a personality capable of working in a team and not in an independent position. Based on the results of these tests, it will be easier for you to narrow your job search to positions that suit both your skills and personality type. The better you get to know yourself, the more credibly you will present yourself to the potential employer.
It is equally important to analyse your own experiences and achievements, both in professional and private life. Don't be afraid to ask your relatives, friends and colleagues about your strengths and weaknesses. Their objectivity and constructive criticism will be of great help to you.
Who am I?
Many of us, taking our first steps on the career path, do not realise how important it is to analyse our strengths and weaknesses. How important it is to define a goal and diligently strive to achieve it. By having a clear direction and knowing your strengths, you will put yourself at the centre of the success map.
Recognising and honing your own strengths makes you a better 'product' for future employers. If you are unaware of your abilities, how do you want to convince your employer to hire you?
Let's do some exercises to help you get to know yourself better. Let's start with the SWOT analysis.
EXERCISE 1:
SWOT matrix is one of the primary methods of analysing strengths, weaknesses, potential opportunities and threats existing in the environment. The SWOT analysis identifies:
strengths that need to be fostered;
weaknesses that you must avoid;
opportunities to be exploited;
potential dangers to be avoided.
Let's conduct a SWOT analysis. We have provided some sample questions in the matrix below. But remember - everyone's matrix is unique. Think about your personal strengths and weaknesses, potential opportunities and actual threats.
Conclusions
After completing the SWOT matrix by answering the questions above, you might discover the truth about yourself. And as you know, the truth can be brutal. You may realise that international corporations employ hundreds of graduates, and the competition in the labour market is fierce. You may conclude that you appreciate projects with a clearly defined deadline more than rigid working hours. You can realise that you prefer to work at night and on weekends rather than coming to the office every day at 9:00 am just to attend the next meeting. You may decide to focus on job search around small and medium-sized companies.
As you can see in the example above, doing a personal SWOT analysis is highly recommended. Honest reflection on your competencies is as essential as the work experience itself. It is also a valuable source of information and allows you to take specific actions on the way to self-development. It will be easier for you to determine in which position and in what field you have the most excellent chance of success by knowing your strengths and weaknesses as well as opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis will help you find out and understand what valuable qualities you have and why you should highlight them in your CV and cover letter.
If your lack of practical work experience prevents you from distinguishing your strengths from your weaknesses, consider starting your career with temporary employment and gain valuable experience.
Now, you can get to know yourself much better if you finish the tasks below. You might find it tedious or unnecessary, but I can assure you that it will help you get to the job you were always dreaming of:
EXERCISE 2:
Compensation for personal and professional goals is significant to achieving complete job satisfaction and the career path you want to pursue.
Answer the following questions honestly and check if your personal and professional goals overlap.
What do I want to achieve in my personal life that is not directly related to my job?
What motivates me to act, to achieve personal and professional goals?
What personal and professional goals do I want to achieve in the next six months, one year, five years?
How am I going to achieve the goals?
Have I developed a specific plan to achieve my goals?
Which of my personality traits could benefit my career, and how can I develop them? What are my strengths? What do I like to do, and do I really do it well enough, with enthusiasm?
What is my most significant professional success? What skills helped me to implement it?
EXERCISE 3:
In this part, I am asking you to create your mission.
The most successful companies in the market create the so-called company's mission, which presents the company's values, goals, and aspirations concisely and understandably to employees and customers. The company's mission is the leitmotif of the company's activity. It presents the basis of all actions and strategic decisions.
Now that you know yourself a little better, it's time to develop a life mission to help you achieve your long-term plans. In a situation where you are looking for new life challenges, you will quickly check if you are on the right path to your dream job. If not, you will be able to take a different direction quickly. Remember to keep the balance mentioned in Exercise 2, and try to answer your last question.
What do I want
The shortest way to achieve complete professional and private success is to set a goal that you will consistently pursue carefully. Without knowing what you are really looking for and expect, it will be difficult for you to assess whether you have a chance to work in the desired profession and whether it corresponds to your competencies, strengths and personality.
In today's labour market, there is a widespread belief that due to the high competition in the market, you should accept every excellent job offer. Even if it does not meet your expectations and is 'out of the way' to achieve the set goals, there is some rightness in all this, because no job is a disgrace and each one provides us with new experiences and challenges, regardless of whether it suits us or not.
Nevertheless, you should be fully aware of the consequences of what it means to work in random places. Most likely, you will be disappointed and leave, and the employer will once incur the costs of recruitment looking for a replacement for your position. Carefully review the results of the above exercises and choose the job that best meets your expectations.
There are those for whom finding a job is an end in itself, and no matter where they find employment, they will be happy. However, you have a choice. You can work on your dream job in a company to which you bring something new, and the employer will be happy to hire such an employee! The job search phase gives you the freedom to choose to find an industry, environment and corporate culture that you feel confident in and where you want to work.
Now that you know your strengths and ambitions in life, you need to decide what is most important to you in terms of personal satisfaction. What factors play the first fiddle besides salary? Will you follow the company's mission? Will a career in a company with an established market position give you more satisfaction than building a new enterprise from scratch? Are you ready to earn less but work in a pro-family company that provides care and personal development? Are you hungry for new challenges and continuous development, or do you just want to improve in one profession? Will this particular job help you fulfil your personal mission for the next 5 or 10 years? Will you be fulfilling professionally and doing what you like to do and what you do best?
Classifying your personal values and comparing them to your job offer is essential in choosing a job that will satisfy you and help you achieve your goals.
Now that you know how to analyse your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats - you probably have specific goals and know which profession you will fulfil - you can move forward with us and let us classify potential employers for you in the following sessions.
Alternatively, you can contact us via email at info@kjbinternationalaid.com
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