Be Aware of your Strengths when Changing Careers
Our greatest satisfaction comes from doing what we do best – using our natural strengths and enjoy using them. Identifying your strengths when changing careers or going through a more profound career transition improves self-awareness and allows you to recognise the various situations where you shine and where you do not. It may make it easier to decide what to focus on or where to start looking for a new career. Better awareness of your strengths increases your self-confidence and helps you understand your uniqueness. You may also be surprised that not all people are like you and most of them do not have the strengths you have!
The easiest and quickest way to find out about your strengths is to ask your friends and colleagues. Ask them to tell you what they believe are your greatest strengths. The results may surprise you!
Another way is to take a test, like the VIA Inventory of Strengths. Character strengths are the positive part of personality that impact how we think, feel and behave. In the early 2000s, the VIA Institute supported crucial work on positive character. A study led by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman culminated in the landmark text Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification and the creation of a measurement tool—the VIA Inventory of Strengths (also known as the VIA Survey) for adults. By taking a test you will discover your own strengths profile.
Marcus Buckingham, author and co-creator of the StrengthsFinder Tool, defines strength as “an activity that strengthens you. It draws you in, it makes time fly by while you are doing it, and it makes you feel strong.” He has continued his work and, together with Harvard Business Publishing, further developed an assessment tool called StandOut, which you can find here and take the assessment. It measures how well you match nine roles and reveals your primary role and secondary role. The top two roles reveal how you show up to others, which may be different from how you see yourself.
Identifying your strengths in career transition:
allows you to recognise the various situations where you shine
makes it easier to decide what to focus on or where to start looking for a new career
increases your self-confidence and helps you understand your uniqueness