Self-Assessment

 

Throughout your career it’s important to stop and reflect on what you have learned, how you have changed, and what is important to you. The better you understand what interests and motivates you, the easier it will be to make informed decisions about your career. Self-assessment information will also prepare you to confidently describe yourself to employers and explain what makes you a good candidate for a particular job.

What is a self-assessment?
Self-assessment tools (questionnaires and exercises) provide opportunities for you to reflect on yourself and pull together data that help you build a picture of how you work. This information will help you to make career decisions and set criteria for determining your career path.

Self-assessment includes:
Inventory of your interests and passions
Description of your personality traits
List of your accomplishments
Identification of your relevant and transferable skills
List of your lifestyle preferences
List of your work values
Description of your preferred work environment

How can I do a self-assessment?
There are a number of self-assessment instruments available to help you. CDL has subscriptions to the most common personality tests, including the DISC Flex and Career Leader. Your career coach can give you access to these instruments. In the Career Design Lab Course on your Canvas/Courseworks dashboard, you will find links to a number of free self-assessment tools and workbooks in the Self-Assessment section. There are exercises to help you assess all the areas of your work life that you should consider. Other free assessment tools for master’s students include:

My IDP – create a free account and profile and complete the assessment
Imagine PhD – useful for master’s students, too; create a free profile and complete the assessment
MBTI – free version

What will I do with the self-assessment results?
Your career coach will be glad to review your results and help you analyze and understand the information. Together you can identify the most important characteristics to help you clarify your career direction and decide how to use your results to build your personal brand.

Who should do a self-assessment?
A self-assessment is a good place to start your career planning at any time in your career. Whether you are in a degree program and preparing for post-graduation or making a career transition, you will find a self-assessment a good way to get started. Contact your career coach for access to the free assessments available at CDL or use the free online tools mentioned in other sections on this page.