Understand your own Career Aptitude | Preparing the Resume | Interviews

Getting ready for employment – Understand your own career aptitude

All the successful people are doing things that are suitable for them. However, what are the things that are “suitable” for a person? There are 2 definitions for a “suitable thing” – things that you would like to do and things that you are capable of doing. Wanting to do something does not mean that you are capable of doing it, the 2 are equally important, and we have to understand the differences in between. 　Lesson 1 – How to find a right person and put the person in the right position? 　 You can teach a turkey to climb a tree, but it's easier to hire a squirrel. 　Does having studied related subjects make you suitable to take on jobs in the same fields? This has always been a myth though the answer is not positive. The conditions of evaluation for suitability to a job include not only professional knowledge and skills but also the self-concept or role, and the motives. More detailed explanations on the 3 concepts are shown in the drawings in Appendix I. 　Now how to understand your career aptitude? This is a very abstract concept that could be analyzed through career aptitude tests. This type of services are provided by NTU Student Counseling Center, National Youth Commission, or other large-scale job hunting websites where students are welcome to make use of these services. 　4 key points should be considered in planning your career paths : motives/interest, personal quality and flaw, market and industry trend, and professional knowledge and skills. You have to find a balance among the 4 key points in the process of your career planning. 　The first 2 key points involve personal features that are more difficult to judge from but have however become the priority for companies in seeking talents today. As opposed to that professional knowledge seems to be more objective and easy to judge. For market trend one has to understand the industry that the company is set in rather than following the popular industries, which may be highly risky. 　Furthermore, you would probably hear this often : “this job is different to what I had imagined for it to be”. You could find out more on the job requirement and job reality for this type of jobs through different channels before applying for it, such as asking the seniors. You could also browse through the company websites before looking for jobs and try to understand their operation philosophy and their talent requirements.