You Need to Understand More Fully Who You Are : Petals 1-4

Hello Everybody,

This post is the second post going into detail about What Color is Your Parachute, chapter 7 : You Need to Understand More Fully Who You Are : Petals 1-4. If you would like to read my introduction to this please click here. If you would like to proceed to the next post, petals 5-7, click here.

I am a Person Who Knows These Particular Things

First Petal: My Favorite Knowledge or Friends of Interest

Goal: Summarize all that you stored in your brain, subjects you already know a lot about.

Look For: Guidance to what field you would most enjoy working in.

Form: Nouns

Begin making a worksheet, treat it like a gathering place

1. What you know from your previous jobs. Even if it seems obvious, list it, it could help you see the bigger picture (hiring, bookkeeping), then pick your favorites.
2. What you know about, outside of work (like stuff you learned in high school, training seminars, or studied at home).
3. What fields, careers, or industries sound interesting to you. Start broad then drill down. The job market consists of 4 broad arenas: agriculture, manufacturing, information and services.

I am a Person Who has These Favorite Kinds of People

Second Petal: My Preferred Kinds of People to Work with

Goal: Avoid past bad experiences. The people we work with are either energy drainers or energy creators.

Look For: 1) What people will help you 2) Who you want to serve

Form: Adjectives describing different kinds of people.

Fill out the columns by using the help of the Prioritizing Grid. This will be used for several exercises for our petals so try to make a note of it.

These are the instructions for using this grid

1. Write down all the factors from the second column. (Focus on the 10 you dislike the most)
2. Compare 2 items at a time. Circle the one you dislike the most. Go diagonally down the list, so as to not be biased.
3. At the bottom of the gride write down how many times each number got circled. Resolve any 2 way ties by going back to when you compared these 2 and give the winner (the one you dislike more) half a point. 3 way ties mean you contradicted yourself, pick the worst one and then give 3/4, second worst 1/2 and then none to the last one.
4. Recopy the list in order of most disliked to next most and so forth.

Then you can go back to the first chart and copy first 5 factors from section D into the 3rd column. Write opposites in the 4th column of the first chart. By putting your negative list in the exact order of what you want to avoid you now know what you want to find by writing their opposites.

There is also the Party Game Exercise. Basically there are 6 people environments.

1. R=Realistic. These people like nature, animals, athletics, tool and machinery and being outdoors.
2. I=Investigative. These people are curious, investigate and analyze.
3. A=Artistic. These people are artistic, imaginative, innovative and don't like time clocks.
4. S=Social. These people who are bent on trying to help, teach or serve.
5. E=Enterprising. These people who like to start up projects or organization, sell things, influence and persuade people.
6. C=Conventional. These people who like detailed work and like to complete tasks or projects.

Everyone has 3 preferred people environments. So look at the party game exercise. Think about which corner you'd go to first. Then if those people left, which one would to head to. Then if those people left which group would you head to next for the rest of the party. This way you know your 3 preferred people environments.

I Am a Person Who Can do These Particular Things

Third Petal: What I Can Do and Love to Do (My Favorite Transferable Skills)

Goal: Discover  your transferable skills.

Look For: Not just what you can do, but what you love.

Form: Verbs

Here is a crash course on "Transferable Skills". Understanding the word will help you put yourself ahead of most other job-hunters. These are the most important truths you need to keep in mind about transferable skills.

1. Your transferable (functional) skills are the most basic unit - the atoms - of whatever career you may choose.
2. You should always claim the highest skills you legitimately can on the basis of your past performance. Look at this chart below, simple skill at the bottom with the more complicated ones at the top.
3. The higher your transferable skills, the more freedom you will have on the job. The higher the skills you legitimately claim, the more discretion to carve out the job the way you want it.
4. The higher your transferable skills, the less competition you will face for whatever job you are seeking, because jobs that use such skills will rarely be advertised through normal channels. If you can legitimately claim higher skills, you may approach any organization that interests you , whether they have a known vacancy or not. You will find fewer job-hunters to compete.
5. Don't confuse transferable skills with traits. These are the style in which you do your transferable skills.

In order to try to recognize your skills

1. Write a Story (the first of seven). Human beings are "a writing people" we only need a topic we have passion for or interest and Bam! This will be your office blog. Each story should have the following Parts
   a) Your goal: what you wanted to accomplish
   b) Some kind of hurdle, obstacle, or constraint that you faced (self-imposed or otherwise)
   c)A description of what you did, step by step (how you set about the ultimately achieve your goal, above, in spite of this hurdle or constraint)
   d) A description of the outcome or result
   e) Any measurable/quantifiable statement of that outcome, that you can think of
2. Analyze your story to see what transferable skills you used. Look for patterns.
3. Write six other stories, and analyze them for transferable skills. Even look for skills outside of work.
4. Patterns and Priorities
   a) Patterns because "once" proves nothing, "again and again" is a way of convincing.
   b) Priorities (skills most important to you) because the job you chose may not be able to use all of your skills. Know what you're willing to trade off and what you can't. Use the Prioritizing Grid to get scientifically your priorities. Copy the top 10 on to building blocks diagram (above) and favorite transferable skills petal. The virtue of breaking down "who you are" into building blocks is that the top will help you define the kind of job or career you're looking for. But the rest show the other possibilities you have also.
5. "Flesh Out" your favorite transferable skills with your traits.

I Am a Person Who Has Favorite Working Conditions

Fourth Petal: My Favorite Working Conditions

Goal: State the working conditions and surroundings that would make you happiest

Look For: Avoid past bad experiences

Form: Descriptions of physical surroundings your physical setting where you work can cheer you up or drag you down. We do our best work under certain conditions start with what you disliked in previous jobs chart.

Utilize the Prioritizing Grid above. This time when comparing, ask yourself, "if I were offered 2 jobs, 1 had 1 bad thing but not the other and vice versa, which one would I take? Write the opposite. Copy into the favorite working conditions petal.

Until next time,

Caitlin Campbell