Counseling Services

Self-Assessment—Learning About Yourself

Self-assessment is the first step of the career planning process. It is the process of gathering information about yourself in order to make an informed career decision. Begin by asking yourself:

Who am I? What are your personal characteristics, your personality, activities you like, skills you may have and what do you value?

Using a Discovery Wheel, you can begin thinking about who you are and what you want. Ask yourself what each of the words located on the wheel means to you.

Learning more about your personality, your individual talents, and your "likes & dislikes" is important. After all, you don't want to start a career that will ultimately make you unhappy because it doesn't fit your personality.

Take a personality inventory:

• The Big Five Personality Test - This test measures what many psychologists consider to be the five fundamental dimensions of personality. (provided by UC Berkeley psychologist Oliver D. John, Ph.D.)
• Jung-Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - Take a quick test to determine which of 4 personality types you are: introvert, sensing, thinking, or judging. The full Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an in-depth test designed to help people choose careers that will be interesting to them and will call on their natural preferences.
• Talk to a Counselor - All college campuses have qualified counselors to help you find resources for learning about yourself and planning for your future

Career Assessment

Pellissippi students may use the Planning Your Dreams Career Assessment program to learn about yourself, explore career options, make a plan for education, prepare for the world of work, develop a personal portfolio and apply for jobs. Make an appointment to see a counselor for an assessment pin number, instructions and make an appointment for interpretation of your results. TN Planning Your Dreams

Your Dream - What does your dream job look like?

CareerBuilder Dream Job Quiz

What are your interests?

O*Net Interest Profiler discover your interests

What are your skills?

Taking time to evaluate and make a list of your skills is important so that you are prepared to inform others about your strengths.

• Take a Skills Assessment -iSeek.org provides an assessment that lets you rate yourself on 35 different skills and then see which occupations are a match for your skills.
• Skills Profiler - provided by the U.S. Department of Labor's CareerOneStop website. The Skills Profiler is designed to let users create a list of their personal skills and match them to job types that use those skills.

What are your values?

What is important to you? What do you care about? These answers are your values. Values, such as lifestyle, work environment, and family relationships can influence some of your most important career decisions. Identifying your values will help you decide which careers fit best.

• Career Values Test - Explore the relationship between your personal values and your career values - from Stewart, Cooper & Co.
• Consider Your Values When Choosing a Career
• Identify Your Work Values