Self-Discovery–Job Search Lessons Learned: 12 Key Take-Aways (02)

So, your social media is cleaned and primed to go. But who are you? When I started the self-discovery process, I had an idea. The problem with ideas in your head is that they shift or get re-worded, so I decided I wanted to write them down. This included core values, vision statement, mission statement, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities for improvement, and personality profiles. You can learn about me and see examples as you work through the process, here.

Strengths / Opportunities for Improvement / Weaknesses

Get to know yourself a little more. What are you good at? What are you not good at?

Let’s work backward. In my opinion, an interviewer asking an interviewee “what is your greatest weakness?” is the old way of thinking. Also, let’s be honest, a little insulting. Who’s to say you have a weakness that relates to the job you are interviewing for? For example, one of my many weaknesses is brain surgery; therefore, I avoid work that would involve that.

Now, an opportunity for improvement is different. These are things that relate to the job, but you have yet to master it. You want to ensure you have a plan in place to improve those you have identified. If you have been working on it for a while, tell a story about the improvement. For example, sometimes I find myself striving for perfection rather than excellence or continuous improvement. I consciously must take a step back from the situation for some time and then re-evaluate.

What makes you shine? Marcus Buckingham said, “Don’t push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Push yourself in your strengths zone.” Keep improving what you are already naturally good at. Is there anything that makes you unique? I have purchased the book Strengths Finder 2.0 and took the assessment on http://strengthsfinder.com. There is another, more recent assessment, that I have yet to take at https://standout.tmbc.com/. For example, I love to think and learn.

Personality Profiles

The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an introspective self-report questionnaire designed to indicate psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. There are 16 different personality types. If you are using this for your team, to have a better understanding of how they work and interact, it can get quite complicated. If you are using the test for you individually, I have found that it is quite accurate. You can take the assessment for free at http://www.16personalities.com.

DISC is a behavior assessment tool that centers on four different personality traits: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. This one is not as complicated as Myers-Briggs from the perspective of others understanding and interacting with each other. You can take an assessment for free at one of the following:  https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/index.php or http://www.onlinepersonalitytests.org/.

Fascination Personality Test is different from the others because it measures how others perceive you at your best. You can make a better first impression, with your most influential traits. There are seven different personality types depending on the combination of the 49-different archetype. You can take the free personality test at http://www.howtofascinate.com/.

Core Values

According to the Oxford dictionary, Value is “a person’s principles or standards of behavior; one’s judgment of what is important in life.” What defines you and why? What are your convictions? When were you happiest, and what was the situation? When were you not?

Core values help you guide your decision-making process and a lot of times tie into your ‘gut feeling’. They are guiding principles and can help you understand the difference between right and wrong. They can also help keep you on the proper path to achieve your goals.

I aimed to come up with five core values, and it ended up being ten. I just could not get rid of the others. Written out, the value is one or two words and I added a personal descriptor to each of them. I also ranked these values with one being the most important to me.

5-year Plan

I already had a 5-year plan prior to this journey, and it helped me feed into the Vision and Mission statements. I wrote an entire article on the process, so I won’t take up too much space here.

Outline what you want to do in the next five years. This can include categories such as financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, career, personal, and more. Once you get the outline, then utilize SMART Goals to go into more detail. If you haven’t done that yet, you should. It helps not only with this process but really helps to put things in perspective and clear your mind. You will become more focus on what you want out of your next opportunity and the company culture you are looking for.

Vision Statement

According to BusinessDictionary.com, a vision statement is “an aspirational description of what an [individual] would like to achieve or accomplish in the mid-term or long-term future. It is intended to serve as a clear guide for choosing current and future courses of action.”

What is your vision for your future in the next five to ten years? Where do you want to be in all aspects of your life? If you have a significant other, discuss this with him/her as well.

I started this out as a bullet point list, pulling things from the 5-year plan, prior to it turning into a short statement. To me, the vision statement is more simplistic and more powerful than the 5-year plan. The plan can get really detailed and have several items under each of the 8 categories in the 5-year plan. By being a little bit more general, I was still able to touch on the majority of what was in my plan over the next 5 years. Not only did I pull from the 5-year plan, but I tried to pull in as much as my core values as possible. This ensures the statement is genuine to who you are and where you are wanting to go. If there are discrepancies, you know you need to go back to the drawing board.

Mission Statement

According to BusinessDictionary.com, a mission statement is “a written declaration of an organization’s core purpose and focus that normally remains unchanged over time.”

As opposed to a vision statement, a mission statement is concerned about the here and now. What do you want now and how will you achieve it? A mission statement can remain the same, whereas, the vision will change at a minimum of when you meet that vision statement. You can still update your mission as needed. I kept mine to one sentence. This can also be considered a purpose statement.

Elevator Pitch

An elevator pitch is a brief (30 seconds), persuasive speech that you use to spark interest in what you have to offer an organization. The goal of the speech is to have the conversation go further. Typically, you want this prepared for in-person networking events.

How do you build it? I am going take this queue from Simon Sinek. Start with ‘why’, move into ‘how’, and end with ‘what’. That’s weird, why would we do that? Go check out the video, you won’t regret it. I’ll wait here….

I also attempt to plant descriptors from my results of previously mentioned self-discovery items.

It can also be lengthened to answer that statement everyone seems to get stumped on during an interview, “Tell me about yourself.” It can be used in your social media profiles, in your LinkedIn summary, cover letters, and at the beginning of your résumé.

You did not know there was that much to do with self-discovery, did you? Some of the ideas might seem silly or unnecessary at first, but if you really get to know yourself, you can set yourself apart from the competition. In my experience, you will also gain confidence in yourself and what it is you have to offer.

So here is a question to the community:

“Did your personality profile results get you right?
Did your descriptors just fall into place?”

I had so many ‘ah-ha moments’, and I want to see if that happened to you as well.

Thank you for your time,