As a career coach, I keep a toolbox of products designed to help individuals discern where their knowledge, interests, and skills play into their career path. My hammer, the one I turn to most often, is the StrengthFinders 2.0 assessment, designed by the Gallup organization. And before you groan and tell me how many of those surveys you’ve already tried, listen up. I do not refer to the ones that tell you which Star Wars character you are, or what 80’s movie you might be, or which Disney princess you resemble since you last logged onto Facebook at 11pm. I am talking about your core personality type, the skills you really enjoy using, the strengths others see in you, the talents you’ve honed over time (maybe without knowing it!), and passions you may have buried long ago. If you have no idea what those are, or don’t remember the results, or feel confused by past tests or questionnaires, I recommend sitting down to StrengthFinders 2.0 soon, whether you are job-hunting or not.
The StrengthFinders 2.0 book, made popular by the book “Now Discover Your Strengths” by Donald Clifton and Marcus Buckingham, shines for several reasons. First, in my experience it manages to peg people remarkably well without putting them in narrow, unhelpful boxes. Second, StrengthFinders 2.0 also provides enough detail to be useful and not so much as to overwhelm. Third, it’s not time-consuming. You don’t have to read an entire book and journal for days and take endless surveys to gain useful self-knowledge. The profile survey is short and the pointed list of questions generates information about you in five terms or “themes” that, as I’ve said, may amaze you in their perspicacity. And fourth, it’s a relatively cheap way to jumpstart your job-hunting, job-changing, or vocational Jenga tower-building. You get what you pay for with the Facebook quizzes. StrengthFinders 2.0 offers serious value for your money!
But before you log in to my website and sign up, know this: with any self-understanding tool, if you do not use the information to take action, don’t waste your time and money. Self-realization done for warm fuzzies are a waste of time. Truly knowing yourself may be the most underrated and yet most critical part of discovering your life path, your vocation. And in this 4G-network, fast-food, 10-minutes-to-tight-abs, instant caramel latte culture, few of us want to take that precious downtime to assess our unique strengths and abilities. Some of us exist on autopilot, shuffling papers from inbox to outbox, ceasing to believe we have any gifts to offer the world. But I believe that you DO have a mission. When the tape plays, and it’s going to self destruct in 30 seconds, will you be ready to take the jump?
Click here to purchase StrengthFinders 2.0
