Introduction: You're in depth descriptions of accomplishments furnish a wealth of information about your skills, personal characteristics, and preferences in terms of rewards and interpersonal context. This exercise is designed to help you extract and organize this information and to express it in terms of transferable assets qualities meaningful in almost any position in almost any organization.
Objective: To create an inventory of assets. This inventory will help you define the perfect job for yourself at this point in your career. It will also prepare you to write and talk about yourself in terms that will be compelling to potential employers.
Materials: A sheet of paper, list of transferable skills, and your detailed descriptions of accomplishments.
Approximate time to complete: 2 to 4 hours.
Method: Read through each of your descriptions of accomplishments and pick out the information needed to create your inventory of assets. List as you read, and don't worry about repetition: every time you come to a task that required you gather and analyze statistical information, for example, note "ability to gather and analyze statistical information" in the "skills" column. Repetition supplies valuable clues about your major areas of strength and experience. Many people surprise themselves as they do this exercise precisely because of the themes revealed by repetition.
To get you started. Know kinds of things you wish to list under each category. In addition, present a collection of transferable skills to identify skills and characteristics that are useful in any organizational setting, from your own consulting practice to a huge, bureaucratic, multinational conglomerate.
Don't worry if something you want to list does not fit neatly into a single category: list it somewhere and go on. View the four categories personal characteristics, skills, preferred rewards, and preferred interpersonal context flexibly. They are meant to stimulate your thinking, not to restrict your imagination. If you want to add some categories or rename the ones I've suggested, go to it.
Most of the things you list will probably be positive attributes because you are drawing from your major accomplishments. If, however, you recall some negative attributes, put them in your lists, too. At this point, you shouldn't be striving to disguise weaknesses in hopes of making yourself more marketable. Remember: you're still engaged in the process of self exploration and discovery.
Exercise: Preparing Personal Balance Sheets
Introduction: Like an accounting balance sheet, your personal balance sheet will include both assets and liabilities. In addition, it will include a column for "compensating qualities," in which you will record skills and characteristics that offer each liability you identify. This exercise should be repeated several times during your job search because it provides a good way of preparing for each selection interview. Assets and liabilities are context sensitive: an asset in one setting may be a liability in another. A balance sheet has most meaning, therefore, in reference to a particular job in a particular organization.
At this point, however, you will be striving to create a comprehensive balance sheet that reflects your own sense of the strengths and weaknesses you have exhibited in work settings.
Objective: To identify, and articulate your major vocational assets and liabilities and to become familiar with a tool useful in preparing for specific interviews.
Materials: The inventory of assets you have created. Keep your descriptions of accomplishments nearby in case you want to refer to them.
Approximate time to complete: 1 to 3 hours.
Method:
- From your inventory, select 10 to 15 items that you feel represent your most valuable assets and put them in the "assets" column of your balance sheet. Next, identify characteristics and preferences that might be seen as liabilities. If, for example, you are older than many other people who will be seeking the same kinds of positions, "age" might be a liability in the eyes of many potential employers. Or, if you prefer to work alone, "impatience with group work" might be a liability in many work settings.
- In generating a list of liabilities, you will probably find it helpful to consider the inverse of each personal characteristic, preferred reward, and preferred interpersonal context noted on your inventory of assets. Suppose, for example, that "novelty and opportunities to learn new things" are among your preferred rewards. The inverse might be, "dislike of routine activities," which would be a liability in a great many jobs.
- After generating 5 to 10 potential weaknesses for the "liabilities" column, you should begin thinking about how you have compensated for them in the past or how you could compensate for them in the future. If age is a liability, for example, compensating characteristics might include an ability to work well with younger people as demonstrated by the fact that you have worked well with superiors who were your chronological juniors. Another compensating characteristic might be a breadth and depth of experience that would enable you to contribute more sooner than a younger candidate, thus justifying your higher price tag.
