What is self-assessment?
Self-assessment is a process involving a set of self-administered tests and activities that will help you ascertain your best skills, attributes, values, goals and needs.
Will self-assessment reveal a list of ideal jobs for me? Probably not, but self-assessment will help you focus on what your priorities are in the job search process, and will provide you with a much better idea of the kind of work and work environment in which you would find fulfillment. Self-assessment helps even the most insightful law student discover things about him or herself that will aid in the job search process. In addition to helping you focus your job search efforts, self-assessment provides the foundation for the honest enthusiasm that greatly impresses potential employers. If you are confident that a particular job is right for you, you will be more naturally able to sell yourself for the position. Self-assessment is a fascinating, enjoyable process that yields invaluable information.
The best time to begin self-assessment is while you are in law school, preferably sooner rather than later. Many people who are unhappy in their professional lives only conduct self-assessment after they become unhappy. Take charge of your career and do your self-assessment now, before you have committed to any major legal career choices.
How do I do self-assessment? There are several resources in the Career Development Office that contain tests and exercises you can do at your convenience. When you are finished, consider meeting with a career counselor to discuss your discoveries and decide how you might best use the information in your job search process. We also suggest that you do self-assessment with a friend, since several of the exercises recommend that you discuss your results with someone who knows you.
What does a sample self-assessment technique look like?
One of the more frequent and useful self-assessment techniques helps you identify the skills you possess that you enjoy using. Here is a sample exercise:
- List twenty accomplishments or achievements from your life [including jobs, school, personal life, etc.]. (Accomplishments can be as simple as the first time you cooked a complicated dish or taught a child to ride a bicycle, or as intricate as winning a trial.) The only rule is that the achievement had to be satisfying to you.
- Select seven accomplishments to examine in greater detail. For each, write a paragraph describing what steps you took, from beginning to end, to achieve the result. . . .
- List all the skills that were utilized for each of the seven stories. [One famous author/counselor] suggests that skills be described not only with a verb but also an object of a verb. Hence, "writing" is not nearly as descriptive as "writing performance manuals."
A pattern should emerge from the seven stories. Which skills appear several times or consistently in every story? . . . Because of the practice you have had in the exercise of these competencies, you have become proficient in them, possibly noticeably better than your peers. . . . It is especially helpful to have another person listen to the stories and tell you the skills he or she notices. . . . Out of humility or lack of observation, you may take your own skills for granted, especially the ones that come easily to you. (From
Changing Jobs: A Handbook for Lawyers in the 1990's, Chapter 2: "Career Self-Assessment: An Overview," by Maureen A. Provost, at p. 22, 23.)
Other self-assessment exercises will help you recognize personality traits. For example, are you a "sensor" or an "intuitor"? A "judger" or a "perceiver"? Someone who prefers to work alone, or in a group? Still other self-assessment exercises will help you recognize your core values that will influence your choice of careers and help you decide which work environment will be most fulfilling for you. Are prestige and power especially important to you, or are you most interested in furthering a social cause? There are several other types of self-assessment tools and techniques.
How long will it take?
About one to three hours.
Where do I find these self-assessment tools? As noted, there are a number of tools in various resources in the Career Development Office.