Journeys cannot begin without first identifying where you are.

This is true in navigation, it's true on websites.

And it's especially true when it comes to careers.

But this is more than just figuring out what you're doing right now.

Self-assessment is an important first step,

to determine if your personal goals align with the direction you have in mind.

What's more, it can help you assess your current job situation, and

if you should consider a change.

In some cases, you might not need any sort of test to

tell you that your current job is not the one you want to have.

But where do you go from there?

Self assessment can help provide a direction.

Including ideas on where you can go, and a range of job opportunities,

once you make the decision to move on professionally.

But if there were ever a time to be honest with yourself about what you want to do,

that time is now.

Self assessment forces you to be honest about any responses you offerto

personal questions.

These tests will only work if you provide accurate answers.

A number of tests are available online that gauge your interests,

personality, and potential fits for various jobs in industries.

These tests can be helpful to confirm some of the things you already

know about yourself, just as much as they reveal new information, and

perhaps some ideas you haven't considered before.

However, some self-assessment exercises can be completed with just a notebook

and a pen.

Author CC Chapman has one activity you can try on your own.

So, in terms of applying a degree of focus to a career.

One of those things that can really help put a lot of things in focus

is self-assessment.

>> Right. >> Now self-assessment is, it's so

important, and it's not something that you just do at the beginning of a career.

>> No. >> Like when you're getting out of, or

you're going in high school.

>> [LAUGH] >> And

I know plenty of people have probably taken these self-assessment tests in high

school or, maybe at some point, in college.

But self-assessment is important throughout your career, isn't it?

>> Oh, without a doubt.

If you're not looking at where you are and what you're doing on a regular basis,

you're never going to be happy and you're never going to get anywhere.

I try to. You know a lot of companies will do it,

as far as if you're working for somebody, it's the year end review.

That's when you look at it and someone judges you.

But honestly, don't wait for other people to assess your career.

You know, look at yourself, figure out am I on the right track,

am I getting where I need?

You know, should I take more classes to learn a new language?

Should I take more here on treehouse, to take my skills to a new level?

The more you do that self-assessment, and

don't just wait, don't do it on a calendar.

Everybody does it in December, you know, looking for the new year.

Figure out what works for you and be looking on a constant basis.

>> Now one of the activities in Amazing Things Will Happen.

Is the three-word exercise.

>> Mm-hm. >> And, and I know that you,

you talked about this exercise sort of being inspired by the,

New Year's resolutions.

>> Yeah.

>> That you saw online.

Can you explain how that activity sort of came about?

Yeah sure, so

the three word exercise is something that I learned from another writer, and

what he always did, was instead of new year's resolutions, which I'm not a fan of

either, he would figure out three things for the year, three things to focus on.

And what the exercise is, is really simply, is you lay out all the words,

you kind of do a brainstorm, kind of a mind map, of

all the terms you're focusing on for, you know, you want to achieve in the new year.

>> Mm-hm. >> And then you start looking for themes.

You narrow it down, you simplify, you focus on it,

and then you get down to 3 words that you're gonna focus on for

the year, and you attack and you make >> Mm-hm.

>> It happen.

>> That seems like, it seems like something that would be especially

helpful for personal philosophy, a personal, professional direction.

I bet you could even apply it towards,

you know, the types of projects, the types of clients that you wanna seek out.

When it comes to careers, how can we take the three-word exercise and

apply it towards the career search?

Sort of directing our career path, so to speak.

>> Sure, so let's step through the exercise as if we were looking

for a new job.

That a designer or developer is looking for a new job.

Now one of the things that where we start is, of course you wanna make more money,

you want more flexible hours, you want a work shift, all those things.

Those things are what we all want.

Those are not the things to focus on because we know we need those.

So what you would do first, is you would actually write down all the things that

you really want out of this new job.

Maybe it's more challenging, maybe it's more responsibility,

you wanna start managing people, you wanna learn a new programming language,

you wanna expand your portfolio.

Write all those down and do not be held back.

Just write them down.

Take, take the time, take a notebook, take a whiteboard, wherever it is, and

write everything that comes down, and take a week.

Take some time to really focus on it,

because this is your master list you're gonna work from.

Once you've got those, what you should start doing is actually,

when I do it on a whiteboard,

what I do is grab different color markers start circling if there are any themes.

Oh, look this kind of focuses on the sort of responsibilities I want.

And over here is maybe the locations, maybe I want to move.

>> Right. >> I want to uproot my family and

do something new.

>> Or creativity.

>> Or creativity.

>> Right. Yeah. >> There are so many different themes.

It's up to you if there is any themes that are grouping them together.

Because your next step is to actually take it and start chopping them down,

because the goal is to get down to three phrases or words.

In this case, we're doing a career search, maybe it'll be individual words,

maybe it'll be phrases.

>> Right.

>> Managerial responsibility, sronger creativity, but

you want to narrow it down, so that way at the end of it,

what you're hoping for, is that you've got these three really

important things that you want out of the next job.

When that becomes important is, when you start interviewing with people, if your

not asking questions in an interview, then you're not going to get the job.

That's one of the rules of interviewing for jobs.

When you've got these three things that you go you know what,

these are the really important things.

You can sit there and ask those specifically and

say, hey, is there a chance for me to do this here?

>> Mm. >> Because that's gonna show that you've

focused on what you really want.

This isn't just another job.

This is actually something you want, and it sets up for that career path.

And if you go in, and you've taken the time to go through this exercise, and

you go in and you get no's on all those three things?

That's not the right job for you.

>> Yeah. >> And too many people jump

based on the salary, or

based on something, you know, that short term is great, don't get me wrong.

But long term, eventually you're not going to get what you need out of it, and

you're going to be back at these words again, so.

>> So I bet you could take these three words that you come up with for

the activity.

And if you've really been honest with yourself and

you're really focused on what it is that you want,

you could apply it not just towards the interviews but take it a step back.

You can look at the companies.

You can do your research, you wanna do research anyway,

before you go out and even submit a cover letter or resume.

But when you're looking at job opportunities and

you see what's out there,

This is almost like doing personal keyword research on yourself, on what you want.

Yeah, and you should be investigating companies.

If you're not looking at the companies,

if you're not going out to both their websites, their social media profiles,

their Linkedin company pages, which now companies have.

If you're not taking the time to actually research the companies,

you're going to find out the culture doesn't mix, and

granted you can only find out so much before you're actually there on site.

But, when you know what you want, it makes researching these companies a lot better.

You gotta get beyond the name.

Ooh, that's a great company.

That sounds awesome.

May not be a great fit for you.

>> Try these tests out for yourself.

Whether you are laser-focused on a specific career, or

you have no idea where your path might take you.

Identifying opportunities and learning more about yourself is incredibly

valuable, as you take your first steps toward the next stop in your career.