Leaving the Law -- Part 3/6
Strategy #3
The Power of Your Talents
Quick. How many of you know what your talents are? Most people don’t know what they’re naturally good at. The fact that you’re not using some of your talents has a lot to do with how miserable you’re feeling at work.
So, how do you figure out what your talents are? There are two ways: the easy way and the cheaper, creative way.
Way #1: The Easy Way: Take an abilities assessment—a test that shows you your natural abilities. There are lots of them out there but my favorite is the Highlands Ability Battery. Here’s a link you can go to for more details: http://www.highlandsco.com/battery.php I’m happy to recommend folks who are certified to administer it.
Way #2: The Cheap, Creative Way: Remember those short essays you used to write in grade school called “How I Spent My Summer”?
Write 2 or 3 essays about your personal triumphs, like “How I Creamed the Competition at the Church Fundraiser” or “How I Made it to Hollywood on American Idol.” Volunteer opportunities, extracurricular activities, family events you planned. Those are all fair game for your personal triumph stories.
Write 2 or 3 more essays about your academic triumphs. Think about law school, college, high school, whatever. Write an essay about how you mopped up the floor with your opponents at your middle school championship spelling bee.
Write 2 or 3 essays about your professional triumphs as well. Previous careers, summer jobs, internships—that’s fertile ground as well. “How I Became King of The Paper Clips The Summer of ’89.”
Read your essays aloud and make a list of all of the talents you see there. You can use a buddy if you need help. You should be able to extract at least 5 – 10 talents from each essay.
Once you’ve got a list of your talents, you’ve got a challenging task. You need to select your 5 – 10 talents from that list that you enjoy using. If you just identify your talents and then go find a job using some of them and it turns out you don’t like using those particular talents, you’re back at square one.
Once you’ve selected the 5 – 10 talents you enjoy using from the list, you’ve got the ultimate task. Prioritize them. You won’t necessarily be able to find work that lets you use all of these talents so you want to make sure that you find work that at least allows you to use the ones you enjoy most.
Strategy #4 on the way!
The Power of Your Talents
Quick. How many of you know what your talents are? Most people don’t know what they’re naturally good at. The fact that you’re not using some of your talents has a lot to do with how miserable you’re feeling at work.
So, how do you figure out what your talents are? There are two ways: the easy way and the cheaper, creative way.
Way #1: The Easy Way: Take an abilities assessment—a test that shows you your natural abilities. There are lots of them out there but my favorite is the Highlands Ability Battery. Here’s a link you can go to for more details: http://www.highlandsco.com/battery.php I’m happy to recommend folks who are certified to administer it.
Way #2: The Cheap, Creative Way: Remember those short essays you used to write in grade school called “How I Spent My Summer”?
Write 2 or 3 essays about your personal triumphs, like “How I Creamed the Competition at the Church Fundraiser” or “How I Made it to Hollywood on American Idol.” Volunteer opportunities, extracurricular activities, family events you planned. Those are all fair game for your personal triumph stories.
Write 2 or 3 more essays about your academic triumphs. Think about law school, college, high school, whatever. Write an essay about how you mopped up the floor with your opponents at your middle school championship spelling bee.
Write 2 or 3 essays about your professional triumphs as well. Previous careers, summer jobs, internships—that’s fertile ground as well. “How I Became King of The Paper Clips The Summer of ’89.”
Read your essays aloud and make a list of all of the talents you see there. You can use a buddy if you need help. You should be able to extract at least 5 – 10 talents from each essay.
Once you’ve got a list of your talents, you’ve got a challenging task. You need to select your 5 – 10 talents from that list that you enjoy using. If you just identify your talents and then go find a job using some of them and it turns out you don’t like using those particular talents, you’re back at square one.
Once you’ve selected the 5 – 10 talents you enjoy using from the list, you’ve got the ultimate task. Prioritize them. You won’t necessarily be able to find work that lets you use all of these talents so you want to make sure that you find work that at least allows you to use the ones you enjoy most.
Strategy #4 on the way!
posted by Monica Parker @ 2:26 PM
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