Choose a Career-Unit 1

4.1 Get to know yourself
4.1 Get to know yourself
Goals:
Describe life and work values that
you hold.
 Identify interests, aptitudes and
personality traits that might influence
your career choice.

Get to know yourself
Key Terms:
 personal interest
aptitude
 skill
 transferable skill
 personality

What are values?
Your
principles – standards you live by.
What are the two types of values?
Life values
 Work values

Life Values
 The
life.
most important principles in your
Work Values
 The
principles that are most important
to you in your work.
Life and Work Values
Income and wealth
 Security
 Independence
 Physical risk
 Recognition
 Creativity
 Personal growth
 Family
 Community
 Location

Life and Work Values- a closer look.

Income and wealth:
 How much money is enough for you? How high
a priority do you put on wealth?

Security:
 Do you want the security of keeping the same
job for many years? Would you rather change jobs
and do new things throughout your work life?
 Independence:
 Is it important to you to be able to choose how
you do your job? Or would you rather have a set
of company rules to follow when working?
Life and Work Values cont…….

Physical Risk:
 Would you take a job with little physical risk, or
do you like adventurous jobs that require you to
take a chance?
 Recognition:
 How important is gaining other people’s
respect?
 Creativity:
 How important is developing new ideas and
ways of doing things?
Life and Work Values-almost done....

Personal Growth:
 Do you prefer jobs that give you an opportunity
to gain additional skills, training, or education? Or
would you rather become the best you can be in
the skills required in one job?

Family:
 How important is it to have regular time with
your family? Would you stay close to your family
or establish your life elsewhere?

Community:
 How important is sharing time with other
members of your community?
Life and Work Values-last one….

Location:
 How important is the place where you live? If
you could live anywhere, where would you
choose? What locations would you avoid?
Key Question
Why is understanding your values
important to career planning?
To be a good choice, a career must
closely fit with your life and work
values. When your career matches
your values you are likely
to be happier in your work.
Rank your Life & Work Values
Take
5 minutes to rank the life and work
values 1-10 (1 being the most important
value to you and 10 being the least
important).
 Do you think you will be able to find the
perfect career that reaches all of your
most important life & work values?
 Life is full of TRADE-OFFS
Interests, Aptitudes & Personality
Suppose you accept a job when you are 18
and work 40 hours a week until you are
67. If you do, you will work more than
100,000 hours!
This is a long time to do something that
doesn’t interest you.You will be happier if
you choose a career doing something you
enjoy!
Interests
Personal interests are activities you find
rewarding over an extended period of
time.
 What is the best way to determine your
interests?

 To identify things you do that hold your
attention
 What
interests you?? List 5 of your
favorite personal interests.
Aptitudes
 Your
interests made lead you toward
particular careers, but success in a career
requires aptitudes and skills!
 Define Aptitude?
 An aptitude is a natural talent for learning
some skills over others.
5 Types of Aptitudes
 Verbal
aptitude: is the ability to write in a clear
and interesting manner and to explain ideas so
that others can understand them
 Numerical aptitude: is the ability to work with
numbers quickly and accurately.
 Spatial aptitude: is the ability to “see” what
something will look like from a verbal
description, a flat drawing or photograph.
 Manual dexterity: is the ability to fix and build
things and to do other physical work.
 Physical coordination: is the ability to execute
precise muscle movements.
Aptitudes
Everyone has different aptitudes, you just
have to figure out yours are!

Why
is it important to identify your
aptitudes?
Success in a career requires
developing an aptitude into skills.
Turning Aptitudes into Skills
A
skill is an aptitude developed through
training and experience.
Example: Mrs. Whelan
Interest
Aptitude
Skill
Career
Sports
Physical
Coordination
HS & College
Basketball Player
(years of practice)
Basketball Coach
 Example : Jodi Piccoult
Aptitude
Interest
Skill
Career
Verbal
Reading & writing
Years of education
English degree
Author
Transferable Skills
A
transferable skill is a skill that allows
you to complete specific tasks in various
careers.
 People are generally more successful if
they develop transferable skills.
 Example:
Transferable
Skill
Career #1
Career #2
Career #3
Learning to write
well
Lawyer
Business Manager
Police Officer
Have you ever met two people who
are exactly alike?
What makes them different?
Personality
Your personality is the blend of qualities
that defines you as an individual based on
what you think, feel and believe.
Personality types
Personality
Type
Description
Realistic
people
Like to know what’s really going on
around them. They like to know
what is true, even if the truth is
unpleasant. They make lists and
put people, events and objects into
groups.
Investigative Like to know why things happen.
They enjoy gathering information
people
to find solutions.
Creative
people
Like to be involved in free,
unrestricted activities. They like an
atmosphere free of rules so they
can be inventive.
Successful
career options
Personality types cont……
Personality
Type
Description
Social people Like to work with other people
and prefer group activities over
solitary activities.
Enterprising
people
Like to lead and direct others in
achieving a goal. They enjoy
taking risks and like to develop
plans to carry them out. They
often use leadership skills to gain
success and public approval.
Successful
career
options
Career Planning Summary
What are the 5 factors to consider about
yourself when planning a career?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Values
Interests
Aptitudes
Skills
Personality