Market Yourself

GS6203

Learning about myself

Having a clear picture of your unique talents, interests, values and skills will be the base of your
career-planning journey.

Tips for completing self-assessments:

• read instructions carefully

• be honest
• remember it’s not a test – there are no right or wrong answers. If you do not answer self-
assessment questions honestly and accurately, you will end up with information that will
not be helpful to you in your career planning.

1. Work/Life Experiences

Your work and life experiences help shape who you are and may include:

 hobbies
 sports or other leisure activities
 volunteer work
 paid work
 travel
 unpaid work

When you review these activities, you may begin to see patterns or themes. These patterns can help to
set you apart from other job seekers with similar work experience or education. For instance, you may
notice that your life /work related experiences, involve a high level of challenge, or problem solving, or
dealing with people, or customer service, etc.
Activity
Use the space provided to list your work/life experiences (ex: management training, customer service,
soccer coach, volunteering, etc.). Look at your list – do you see any patterns or similar roles (ex:
leadership roles)? If yes, use a variety of coloured highlighters to identify patterns (ex: highlight all
leadership roles in yellow).

Regarding my life experience and work, I traveled to many places as I like exploring new cultures,
histories and meet new people. This made me generate new information related to different
cultures and religions through visiting museums and read more about the country history. What
is more, traveling gave me the opportunity to develop my English through communicating with
people from different cultures where I had to use my English language effectively to ask
questions, deliver my opinions and had the chance to know people in depth. Moreover,
concerning my work experience, I worked in a voluntary job within the youth society as a teacher
for a summer program. Such experience strengthened my time management skill, where I had to
be on time before the students arrive to prepare the material I want to teach.

Think about how the experiences you listed could relate to your career. Are there any experiences that
could lead to paid employment? Highlight those in a different colour.

2. Learning Experiences

Your education and learning experiences shape the type of work that you are able to do. These
experiences could include formal schooling (ex: general education development, high school, college,
university). They could also include informal education and training (ex: professional development,
courses, seminars, workshops). Be sure to consider learning you’ve done through your life experiences
(ex: volunteering, on-the-job training, family life).

Activity
Use the table provided on the next page to list your education experiences (courses completed,
professional development workshops).
Formal  I have a high school
learning diploma in scientific
studies (chemistry
and biology).

 Currently studying
logistics
management
degree.

 CILT certificate
holder as it is part
of my studies.

 Took the ICDL

course.
Informal  Took English courses in
learning the British Council.

 Went to an art
institution.

 Develop new language

Learning goals? through conducting
courses in the summer
break.

 Develop my knowledge
in the logistics field by
attending conferences
or workshops in the
summer break.

3. Personal Attributes
Everyone has characteristics and personality traits that make them unique. These form their personality
or personal style. Knowing your style preferences will help you to choose an occupation or work
environment where you can be yourself and be appreciated for who you are. Although you may
sometimes need to work in situations where you can’t totally be yourself, it’s hard to keep this up long
term.
There are lots of different assessments available to help you determine your personality preferences or
personal style. Some common assessments include:

• Personality Dimensions®
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®

Activity
Use the space provided to list five to 10 of your strongest personal attributes.

1. Adaptable
2. Cooperative
3. Easy going
4. Flexible
5. Good listener
6. Organized
7. Understanding
8. Ambitious
9. Enterprising
10. Genuine
 4. Work Values
Knowing and understanding what’s important to you about work will help you to choose an
occupation and a work environment that matches your values. Are you most concerned with earning
enough money to pay your bills or advancing your skills and experience?

Based on the work values activities you have done in class list below your top five work-related values.
Explain briefly why they are important to you.
Based on the work-value test, I prefer working in structured framework as I want to know clearly
the important tasks to complete and the organization rules. Moreover, like other people I want
to have a permanent work contract to ensure having financial security, also I prefer having clarity
about the future of the job. Furthermore, I like showing my enthusiasm toward my work;
whereas, it is important to get a reward or influences for my efforts in completing the work tasks.
Nevertheless, good salary is equally important for my chosen job as I prefer earning good money
based on my working efforts and the tasks I am required to fulfil. Besides, balancing between my
personal life and my work is essential. I require having a flexible working hours, breaks, and
vacations when it is needed as it is important to me that my personal life does not get disrupted
by my work. Additionally, the social atmosphere at work is important to me because some tasks
required working with other people as group. Having pleasant colleagues and positive
interactions is required for the feel and belonging and to make the required job done in an
efficient way.
5. Skills

Skills – or abilities – are things that you are able to do. Some skills are job-specific and can be used in
only one line of work. Skills that can be used in many occupations are known as transferrable skills.
You may have developed these skills in school, on the job, volunteering or through life experiences. In
your career journey, you might hear about “soft” skills and “hard” skills. Soft skills are sometimes called
“employability” skills. These are the skills you need to enter, stay in and progress in the world of work.

Activity

Access this link https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/skillsinventory.html to analyze our employability

skills and follow the instructions to complete the table below:

1. Choose 5 skills that you currently have and provide a brief statement as evidence of your claim

2. Choose 3 skills that you need to develop and that are relevant to the job you would like to do in
the future. Explain briefly how you plan to develop those skills

Skills I have Evidence Skills I need to develop Development plan

1. Using body Concerning the 1. Keeping calm Taking courses in how to
language/dress/conduct/sp presentations I have in the face of deal with difficulties
eech effectively complete during my difficulties through thinking of the
 university years, I have problem and find
gained such skill. Using solutions other than
body language getting panic, I have to
effectively while doing learn to get a deep breath
presentations in order to boost my thinking, and
communicates with the I have to develop
audience besides the communicating with my
verbal communication family and the people
and to show confidence. close to me to calm me
Wearing appropriate down and to find a
clothing is another solution to the problem.
important skill I have to
give professional
background. Speech
effectively to make the
audience understand
the message I want to
deliver in order to make
them comprehend the
aim of the presentation.

2. Listening to others' Conducting group 2. Responding to I have to develop my

opinions. assignments in one of sudden ability in being flexible to
my university degree changes in face any changes and
requirement. Several circumstances thinking positive toward
people I had to work the change through
with from different prioritizing the positive
cultures and thoughts over the
backgrounds helped me negative ones.
to develop and gain this
skill. Consequently,
every person should
share an opinion so I
had to listen to
everyone in an effective
way to complete the
project based on the
tutor requirement.

3. Taking a share of the As I mentioned 3. Organizing & I have to learn how to

responsibility. previously about the
group projects, I have
gained sharing
responsibility skill. In
order to complete the
motivating motivate others by
others. stimulating their positive
thinking and showcasing
their abilities and the
good sides of their
 tasks, we had to divide personalities. However,
the work between the provide them with
group members based rewards in order to make
on their abilities and them motivated is
understanding. another important point I
Therefore, everyone should develop it.
should be involved in
completing the project
in effective manners.

4. Understanding the needs of Based on the group

the person you are with. project, some people
need high grades to pass
the subject. In this case,
I had to understand
their needs and
complete the work
based on the rubric in
order to get higher
grade to make the other
person pass the subject.

5. Working cooperatively I set a SMART goal to

towards a common goal complete my
assignments, read the
requirements of the
assignment and
complete the tasks
based on it, and
prioritize the work
based on the important
ones and non-important
ones and based on the
due dates of the
assignments.
 6. Career Interests

Paste below your Career Voyage Interest Profile.