by Joyesha Chesnick

edge@tucsoncitizen.com

Maybe you’re a hair stylist allergic to the chemicals in hair dye. Maybe your bad back makes standing all day behind a counter torture. Maybe you’re a people person stuck in front of a computer in a tiny cubicle.

Too many people take jobs they aren’t happy with because the pay is good, the job is easy to get or because they’re desperate for work. But finding the right job takes a self-awareness and discipline that many find difficult to master without help.

“Usually when I see people, they have trained in areas that haven’t worked out because they haven’t researched well enough. There’s not enough knowledge of the job itself and the job market,” said Rebecca Peters, a supervisor at One-Step Career Center, part of Pima County Community Services. “The other thing is lack of self-knowledge. They don’t realize their values are in conflict with the values of the job.”

Understanding and identifying your skills are also critical, said Debra Stevenson, a work force development specialist and trainer at the career center.

“If you don’t know your skills, you jump from one job to another,” she said. “It makes you restless and uncomfortable.”

After two years working as a financial adviser with UBS Financial Services, Dan S. Martin hit a plateau. He had been interested in the industry for some time but didn’t like the traditional way newcomers had to round up clients – sitting with a phone directory and calling people.

“I wasn’t being as proactive and obtaining new clients as I should have been,” he said.

Martin needed help clarifying his missions and focusing his efforts. He went to Jana Beutler Holland, a career coach and director of Life in Motion Coaching.

“I try to generate most of my business from networking. I’d be out in a social situation and somebody would ask, ‘What do you do?’ How do I answer that question? That’s what Jana has helped with,” he said.

Anyone looking for a job should do an honest evaluation of his or her skill and passion, and whether those two things collide or match, Beutler Holland said.

“A lot of us are good at things we might not like doing, or we may not have a skill that matches our passion,” she said. “Look at your abilities, not what you want to be good at.”

Someone may want to be a novelist but doesn’t write a word in three years, she said. “Following a dream is very good. But give yourself a deadline for moving on, leaving open the opportunity for reassessment without self-judgement.”

Beutler Holland encourages job searchers to look at their successful experiences, careerwise – things former employers might note about them regarding their strengths.

Stevenson said there are three general categories of skill: job content skills such as typing, teaching, writing, truck driving or building construction; self-management skills that incorporate your personality and values, such as the fact you are a multitasker, punctual, a person of integrity or you’re organized; transferable skills including education, employment and life experiences, as well as hobbies that can transfer into employment opportunities.

“My transferable and self-management skills are really what moved me into the job I’m in now,” said Stevenson, who worked in a warehouse for more than seven years before switching careers. “That was not my primary skill set. When I began to reflect, I recognized I wanted to work with people.”

There are plenty of assessment tools that can help, Peters added. The One-Step Career Center offers tests that help pinpoint values. And for researching potential careers, there are three-day career exploration workshops and twice weekly networking meetings where employers come in and talk about job openings and the best way to get hired.

Martin said what helped him most was having an unbiased third party listen to what he was saying and the way he was saying it.

“Why does Tiger Woods have a coach? Because he can’t see himself swing,” Martin said. “I’m still doing it. It’s an ongoing thing because you can’t see yourself swing.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 12:01 am and is filed under Edge. Tags for this post: Edge-Government, Government, Joyesha Chesnick. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.