A good way to find out what kind of person/employee you are and into what company you’d fit is ask your friends and colleagues. If you have questions about how you come across to others or dealing with self-perceptions, then it’s those individuals you should address to better your results.
In the 2009 Edition of What Color Is Your Parachute?, the author answers a readers’ question concerning self-perceptions and the ability to trust them. He references his friends’ free to individuals’ website and Company, Checkster. I personally have not used the program software, but it looks rather inviting and well thought out. Basically it is a reference request service (job-seekers tab on site) whereby it sends a questionnaire on your behalf to those that know you and your work well. You give the site the contact information of your close allies (hopefully) and it does the dirty work for you. Now I’m not sure how this occurs or looks like to each recipient, but the upshot of it all is you get back a tabulated summary report listing what each person thinks of you; strengths, uniqueness, perceptions, etc. The kicker here is it’s completely anonymous; I gather the recipient is aware they are commenting about you, but you, and only you, receives the summary not knowing whom said what about you.
What’s the benefit? Tons, if you think about it! If you asked a friend in person to give you a reference, what are they going to do…shoot you down? Lots of employers hate references for this reason; who’s going to submit a poor reference? This format though is not for the employer, it’s designed to see how others see you for purposes of determining for yourself if what you are looking for is a genuine fit. You might believe you’re superior at putting together spreadsheets and power point presentations, but if four of six of your contacts have to rework them, chances are you have self-perception issues. On the positive flip-side, you might discover through this blind process that your group thinks you’re ideal at something that never occurred to you opening up a whole new world for you to examine and explore. If you are honest and fair with yourself when you submit the names to the website, you can gain tremendous insight about whom you really are. It’s a good way to validate or eliminate certain behaviors; and it’s free and of great value as the respondents will know you will not have access to their contact information when reading the results.
Here is where I counter the conclusion given by Mr. Bolles: He states you can use this information or discard it as you wish…maybe pick other people and do the survey all over again. Huh? What? I would encourage this only to expand the data, never to discredit what people think of you if, in fact as I suggest, you are selecting those that know you well and judge you equitably. In reading and interpreting the results you think one thing about yourself and believe everyone is “way off base” as the author puts it, then what’s the point of this exercise? He does give you other options using equally engaging tools to come to realize who you are and what you think you can or can’t do, but to throw this one out because you don’t like what you see is self-defeating – talk about self-perceptions…open your eyes and let constructive criticisms and loving opinions in.
That’s just my opinion…lovingly, of course.
Again, thanks for surfing my wave!
Why Just Look For A Job? Create One!™
TheUnemployMENTOR – email@theunemploymentor.com
