I’ve been talking to a few people about their career plans and thoughts about where they go next, and I realised, I might not have told you about an exercise I did last year that really opened my eyes and switched on a lightbulb.
I worked with the brilliant Mike Roarty to draw out what my strengths and values were. You can read Mike’s book which will help you work out yours.
Once I had a list of my strengths and values, I listed the roles that sounded like they might interest me… chief of staff, director of operations, director of corporate governance and director of organisational development.
For each role, I scoured the internet and found three job descriptions for each role, in different types of organisation, across different sectors in different parts of the country. In total I had 12 job descriptions.
I set up an excel spreadsheet with my strength and values listed and I systematically worked through each job description and ticked off whether they met my strengths and values.
I discovered that the role that was most suited to me wasn’t actually the one that I thought was best for me. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment and has helped me steer my career path since.
You might think it’s a bit labourious and a bit of a faff, but if you really want a role that meets your values, let’s you work to you strengths and gives you the passion to get out of bed every morning, then it’s definitely worth the investment!
Let me know what you’ve done to help set your future career path and help you set your direction!