Getting to know yourself better is the best way to figure out what you want in life. I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but I swear it is true! In this article, I am going to give you some advice on how to get to know yourself better to know where you are heading to or at least get some ideas on your future career. And even if one never knows what the future holds, I am sure these few tips will turn out to be quite helpful for you!
STEP BACK, TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND FOCUS
How can you make the right choices without being aware of what pleases you or what motivates you? Following your experiences, you surely have an idea of what you like and what you want to avoid on several levels. This judgment, whether positive or negative, can already serve you to rule out certain options.
There are also personality and orientation tests that aim to help you in your decision-making. If some are very thorough and offer you a fairly precise vision from a psychological point of view, others remain a little generic. We will therefore ask you to inform yourself well before proceeding and to put the results into perspective. This applies especially to tests concerning jobs and career paths.
On the one hand, they rarely take into account the diversity of existing role (knowing that, in addition, some job positions do not yet exist) and, on the other hand, they ignore that each profession varies according to the company. It is therefore complicated to find precise answers by relying solely on an algorithm
In this article, we are going to focus on the professional aspect of our tool which is truly at the heart of our service since. As a reminder, My Job Glasses is the first mentoring tool in Europe that aims to put people back at the heart of career guidance. In short: we want to give you all the information you need and consider all your desires and ideas when it comes to your professional path for you to face the future as calmly as possible. By connecting you to our community of caring mentors, you will be able to ask all your questions in complete transparency and make more conscious decisions afterwards.
Before encouraging you to chat with professionals, let us give you some advice on how to know yourself better.
TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOURSELF BETTER
LET’S DO SOME INTROSPECTION
It might sound obvious, but the first thing you need to do is to question what you really enjoy doing in life. What is driving you? Do you have any passion? Any hobbies or interests? Do you enjoy writing or reading? Are you an outdoorsy person or do you prefer staying indoors? Do you like sports? Do you fancy working with people or would you rather stay on your own? Are you volunteering at any association? If so, which one and why? Once you start questioning yourself, you will find interesting leads!
THEN, GRAB A PEN AND PAPER!
If you want the experience on our mentoring tool to go as smoothly as possible, there are some steps you need to go through before your first meeting with our professionals. Of course, our mentors are here to help you, they are well aware that you do not know everything and that you are here to learn. However, you still have to prepare every meeting to keep things relevant and interesting for the both of you!
Here are some suggestions that might be useful for you: grab a pen and paper and start writing down whatever might help you during your meeting. Here are a few ideas:
What’s your current situation? What’s next for you? Do you plan on going to college? Are you done with studying? Or maybe you are you looking for a job or an internship?
Then, list your current leads: Are you interested in a specific industry? Do you think you would enjoy working in the automotive world? Catering ? Chemicals ? Is it the sports industry that appeals to you the most?
If you do not have any favourite area but still have an idea of the job you want to do, write it down!
At first, it might look like all of this is a waste of time, but trust me when I tell you that this exercise will help you. The goal is to open up your mind to new possibilities. And the good news is you will be able to check all your theories and leads by talking with the mentors registered on our tool.
For example, let’s say you are really interested in the health sector, but you don’t know what your options are. Meeting with our mentors can definitely help you figure this out!
Also, keep in mind that, even if you already know the job you want to do later, talking to our mentors can still help you. For example, let’s say you are certain that you want to be a Communications Specialist. Talking to different mentors who are currently occupying this position can be a good way for you to really understand what their day-to-day work looks like, and also to explore the differences between working in a large company versus being part of a startup.
Finally, you can also talk to people doing the same job but working in different industries (cosmetics, date processing, human resources, etc.).
Last but not least, don’t forget to make a list of all the things I’ve just mentioned, but also your technical skills, soft skills, your passions, and hobbies.
All these different elements will help you write a good presentation of yourself, which will definitely be useful! Getting ready to introduce yourself to others will not only help you address personalized and hard-hitting contact requests towards our mentors, but also to make the most out of each hour spent together. You will also be doing yourself a favor: you’re more likely to feel comfortable during the meeting if you already have an idea of what you want to say and ask!
IT’S SHOWTIME!
All right, now you’re all set up! Next up, you need to sign up on My Job Glasses and fill in your profile!
