Note from Author: Love kids? Become a teacher. Love animals? Become a vet. President of the student council in grade eight? Consider politics!
Does any of this seem familiar to the advice you received when you first started making career decisions? Often times people are streamed into a career paths based on what their interests are, or what the people closest to them are familiar with. Yes, being a teacher, a vet, or a politician are all possible career paths for the interests list above, but there are other options out there as well. This is where Carolyn Leeson and the power of career assessments come in. We sat down with Carolyn to learn more about how she supports her clients (of all ages), in answering the big question: What do you want to be when you grow up?
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I am an assessment “geek”! I think it comes from this deep desire to understand people and how I can help them to make career decisions. My favourite part of any career assessment is when I see someone light up because they start to see the possibilities of their own futures or they start to understand why certain jobs or tasks never appealed to them or they just weren’t “good” at it.
The value in any career assessment tool is how it’s understood and interpreted, not to mention verifying the results. Sure, there are lots of free online assessment tools out there, but they often just scratch the surface.
Career assessments can look at personality, interests, aptitudes, abilities, values, learning styles, and more. Sometimes one assessment is enough to give you the answers or direction you need other times you need more to get a fuller picture. This is exactly where I come in, helping to make sense of it all, verifying results and then using it to help decide or plan.
Not all assessing needs to come from a “test”. One of my favourite activities to do with people, and one I often get people to do before we do any type of assessment, is to ask them to think about when they were a kid, what did they want to be when they grew up? What was it about that “job” that appealed to you? Are those things still true today?
“For the longest time I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I grew up; setting out on adventure, searching for treasures and answers to the mysteries of the ancient world.”
I’m not an archeologist like Indy, but a lot of what I do today involves the “why” of that dream job. I am fascinated by people and why they do the jobs they do, and I love trying to figure things out and helping people figure out their next steps. To me, that’s an even better adventure! Eat your heart out Indiana Jones!
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