We need to understand ourselves, how we make decisions, and our skills, values and career influences. Knowledge of ourselves helps us to make effective career decisions. There may be times when we know things about ourselves, but we don't know how this relates to who we want to be, what we want to contribute and our career. The following activities will help you to identify what you know and don't know about yourself, and how this is important in terms of your career development.
As you complete the following activities, make notes of the aspects that stand out, so that you can keep track of what you are learning about yourself.
You make hundreds, if not thousands of decisions, each day. These decisions range from what to eat for breakfast, to what to wear today. Other decisions require more thought, such as which school your child should attend or for which qualification you should apply. One important thing to keep in mind with making career choices (such as choosing a qualification) is that while you may ask others for information about your decision, in the end, it is your responsibility to evaluate the information you have and to make the final decision. It is, therefore, important for you to be able to distinguish between facts and opinion.
There is no right or wrong way to decide and each one of us makes decisions differently. Some prefer to gather a lot of information and then weigh all the options in terms of positives and negatives. Others solve problems by eliciting others' opinions.
Uncertainty can be created by sudden events such as a pandemic or any other natural disaster, for example: The Covid-19 pandemic has created havoc with the local and global economies, strained health services, caused small businesses and bigger companies to close, made certain jobs redundant overnight and made what seemed to be a menial job before, become an essential job such as truck drivers who distribute food across the country. Doctors and psychologists consult their patients online. Teachers across the world are the heroes who have adjusted their work environment from face-to-face to online immediately. Parents have become teachers and communities have had to rally to look after each other. People now think about how they can live more self-sufficiently and consume goods and services differently.
Making decisions during times of uncertainty requires self-awareness in terms of your interests, skills, abilities and values. Even though you may not have the flexibility to make decisions that are closely aligned with these, you can still consider how your current opportunities may align with your future goals. Also, closely consider how fear and anxiety about the current circumstances may be affecting your decisions and how you could start thinking differently about future opportunities. It is more effective to focus on the aspects you can control, such as deepening your skills, and choosing experiences that will help you to do so.
Skills are abilities you've developed and can use effectively. You learn skills from your experiences (eg voluntary, paid or unpaid work, and family and community responsibilities). Basic skills that are important when working within a fast-changing society include
You will learn new skills in each module of your qualification. These can help you be employable and improve your contribution to your community. You need to connect what you learn at university with what you can contribute to the workplace and your community. As you study and develop your skills, your frame of reference will expand and you will become aware of more opportunities.
Think about your life experiences (work, volunteering, school, studies and personal) and then answer the following questions:
Further exploration: Use the O*Net website (http://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Skills/) to identify job titles related to the skills you have identified.
Your values show what is important to you and can have a significant effect on your career choices. Values are shaped by your family, community, work environment and life experiences.
Below are some common values (you can add your own if you prefer). Read through the list and take note of the five that are most important to you:
Can you link your values to specific occupations? How will your values be supported by the career choice you are making? How will your career choice support your values? To what extent do your values overlap with the values of your profession? The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, for example, expects chartered accountants to comply with principles such as integrity, objectivity and professional behaviour. If you want to qualify as a chartered accountant, how are you starting to "live" these values in your day-to-day life?
Complete the following sentences to understand how your values influence your studies:
Further exploration: Use the O*Net website (http://www.onetonline.org/find/descriptor/browse/Work_Values/) to identify job titles related to specific values you have identified as very important.
Who and what influences your career decisions?
Where do your career influences come from?
Think about how other people, events and things have influenced you.
Now think about the choice you are making now (what to study) and make some notes about the following:
Also, consider that chance events have a huge influence on careers. Think about the times when something happened that you did not plan for and could not control, but that impacted your career direction, such as how you heard about Unisa or got your first job. Think about and make notes about a chance event that influenced your career decision.