In your career, it’s important to plug into your strengths—to recognize what you do well and to use those skills to your advantage. It’s particularly critical during a career transition. But what’s more important is the ability to separate what you do well from what you love to do. You can be very good at something that sucks the life out of you.
A career transition offers an opportunity to take a look at your skills and experience, and figure out what strengths you want to use going forward.
Obviously, your strengths need to align with what an organization is looking for, but it’s a good idea to start with yourself. How do your skills and goals (both personal and career) align? You might be great at what you do, but does the idea of doing it for the rest of your life fill you with energy or with dread? A career transition is the perfect time to figure out if you’re in the right department—or even the right field.
If what you love goes hand in hand with what you do well, you have a higher chance of career success and overall fulfillment. And operating from our strengths improves engagement and performance.
Try this quick activity: identify a handful of ‘peak’ work experiences – projects, tasks or situations, where you were at your best. Take each one apart looking for what energized you and what skills you used. See if you can find 3-4 different strengths from the collection of experiences that capture you at your best and what you love to do. For example – solving complex problems, leading teams, developing innovative solutions, knowledge sharing, etc. Use your findings to come up with options for your next career step.
The more you do to identify your core strengths and embody them, the easier it will be to find a truly good fit; a role in which both you and the organization are getting what you need and want.
You can’t be good at everything (or love to do everything), so use your skills and energy as a guide to uncover your core strengths. Then use them to get your dream career! Looking for a change? Reach out to the experts at TalentBridge today.