Professional strengths assessment

New grads with limited work experience are some of my favorite people to coach. And here’s why…

You have no bad habits yet. You have no preconceived notions. You don’t have a long list of demands that you want from a job. If anything, you’re just trying to figure out what kind of work would work for you.

Does that sound familiar?

This is why I love working with new grads. And if you’re a new grad looking for your first job out of college, these are the best job search tips I give all my clients who are in the same boat as you…

The Best Job Search Tips For Recent College Grads

@j.t.odonnell Replying to @swoopchirp New Grads Job Search Tips! 👍🍀❤️ if you are a new grad then you have a competitive advantage in that you have no bad habits. however at the same time you haven’t been taught how to position yourself with employers. you need to leverage your intrinsic motivation. that is what will get you up every day to go do the job. the best thing to do is to identify companies where you feel a deep connection to the work that they do and then you want to leverage your unique skill sets to match them to jobs there. companies love hiring people that they can mold into high performing employees. that’s one of the advantages of hiring a new grad. so you want to make the most of that by being able to Showcase how your personality and your workplace personas will be a great fit for their organization. the first place to start is to take the two free quizzes linked in my bio and then if you want help decoding the results I’ve got an awesome new tiktok series here that you can purchase where you can listen to me explain the results. but most importantly if you’d like to get some career coaching to help you with all of this I hope you’ll head over to workitdaily.com where we help new grads all the time just like you. we’ve got a great 7 Day free trial! #newgrad #collegegrad #collegegraduate #newgradjobs #howto #jobsearch #howtofindajob #findmeajob #jobsearchtips #jobsearch #jobsearching #jobsearchhelp #careeradvice #careercoach #careercoachontiktok #careerhelp #careerquiz #careerdecoder #workplacepersonas #personalityquiz #communicationstyles ♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

1. Understand Your Unique Combination of Professional Strengths (Communication Style & Workplace Persona)

My first piece of advice for you is to understand two major components of your professional strengths. The first is your communication style (how you interact with others in the workplace). This plays a huge role in the type of jobs you’d be a good fit for. For example, if you’re a contemplator, you’re more introverted. You’re not going to want a job that requires you to be really extroverted with a lot of people. Whereas if you were an energizer, you would actually feed off the energy of others.

The second thing you need to learn about yourself is your workplace personas. This is how you create value on the job. Companies pay you to create value, right? You need to save or make them enough money to justify the cost of hiring you. This is something they never teach us in school. So, there are eight workplace personas, and you should find out what your top three workplace personas are. Are you a builder, mentor, super connector, educator, visionary, optimizer, or researcher?

Take my free quizzes below to discover your unique combination of professional strengths:

• Communication Style Quiz (ISAT)
• Workplace Personas Quiz (Career Decoder)

2. Use The Information In Step 1 to Create an Interview Bucket List

Once you know your communication style and top workplace personas, you can weed out a whole bunch of jobs that aren’t a fit for you and dial in on the kinds of roles that would be a fit for you. Then, we can teach you how to take that information and use it to reach out to employers and introduce yourself to them. This is a technique called an interview bucket list where you come up with a list of companies that you feel connected to. It’s called intrinsic motivation. That’s the fancy term. And when you are a recent grad, that’s all you got, my friend.

As a new grad, you don’t have a lot of experience to share. But companies love recent grads who have an intrinsic motivation to work for them and who understand their personality (their communication style and workplace personas) and how they’ll create value for them. That shows a self-aware recent grad, and that’s the kind they love to hire and mold, which will help catapult your career.

It’s a really great time for you to be looking for work if you understand your unique combination of professional strengths and how to create an interview bucket list.

If you would like us to coach you on all of the things I’ve discussed, sign up for Work It DAILY’s seven-day free trial of our career coaching platform that is literally going to teach you everything you need to know to land your first dream job.

Good luck, and go get ’em!

Work It Daily has an amazing library of free resources for professionals at any age or job level. No matter if you’re looking for help with your job search, career change, or professional development efforts, Work It Daily has the career resources you need.

Here are Work It Daily’s top six free career resources, plus a few additional resources you might find helpful:

1. Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp

Today, if you want recruiters to call you, your resume and LinkedIn profile need to stand out.

Our Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp is a free workshop hosted by J.T. O’Donnell, founder & CEO of Work It Daily, and Christina Burgio, Director of Training Development & Development, that can help you write and optimize your resume and LinkedIn profile to get noticed by recruiters.

In this free bootcamp, you’ll learn:

• What recruiters want your resume to look like
• How to make sure your LinkedIn profile is optimized
• Tips for making sure BOTH tools are set up correctly

2. Career Decoder Quiz

Are you ready to take the first step toward unlocking your true professional potential?

The Career Decoder Quiz will help you determine what your workplace persona is. That means you’ll get a sense of who you are as a working professional and what makes you thrive at work. You’ll find out how you like to create value and what your professional strengths are, which will help you find the right career for you.

Knowing who you are as a working professional and what makes you happy on the job will help you be successful in your career or job search.

Don’t waste another day not knowing your professional strengths.

Take our Career Decoder Quiz today!

3. Workplace Communication Style Quiz

Have you ever wondered about how you communicate with others?

How you interact with others plays a major role in both your career and life in general. It can be hard to categorize yourself, but it’s extremely helpful to have an idea of how you communicate with others and get a sense of how others perceive you.

The Communication Style (ISAT) Quiz allows you to understand your communication style so you can work more effectively with others. It has 18 questions about your personality and how you handle certain situations.

Take our Workplace Communication Style Quiz today!

4. How To Choose Your Career (In 5 Simple Steps)

Do you feel stuck in your career and don’t know what to do next? You are not the problem. Thousands of people (just like you!) feel professionally stuck because school never taught us what career best suits our needs.

In this 60-minute workshop, J.T. O’Donnell, founder & CEO of Work It Daily, and Christina Burgio, Director of Training Development & Development, break down step by step how to choose a career that suits your unique combination of professional strengths.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How to choose your next career path
• Why working “in” your job is hurting your career
• How your unique personality is impacting your success
• How to determine which strengths to use to build your dream career
• And so much MORE!

Get instant access to “How To Choose Your Career (In 5 Simple Steps)” today!

5. Professional Strengths Bootcamp

Understanding who you are as a worker is the key to achieving career satisfaction.

Our Professional Strengths Bootcamp is a free workshop hosted by J.T. O’Donnell, founder & CEO of Work It Daily, and Christina Burgio, Director of Training Development & Development, designed to help you learn how to unlock your professional strengths so you can get what you want from work.

• Why working “in” your job is hurting your career
• How your unique personality is impacting your success
• How to determine which strengths to use to build your dream career
• And so much MORE!

6. How To Break Through Career Burnout

Want to learn how to get unstuck and feel happy in your career again?

In this 60-minute workshop, J.T. O’Donnell, founder & CEO of Work It Daily, and Christina Burgio, Director of Training Development & Development, will teach you why burnout occurs and what you can do to motivate yourself to get back on track so you can regain the professional happiness and satisfaction you want and deserve.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How burnout occurs and why it’s so common
• The path you’ll want to take to overcome burnout
• What high-payoff activities will make you successful
• The steps you’ll need to take to get the right results

Get instant access to “How To Break Through Career Burnout” today!

Additional Free Resources

7 Mistakes You Can’t Afford To Make On LinkedIn

In this free training, you will learn:

• The 7 mistakes executives can’t afford to make on LinkedIn anymore
• How to avoid looking like a narcissist on LinkedIn
• The one change in your LinkedIn settings that will get you more profile views
• How “curating” the content you share on LinkedIn impacts your reputation
• The 3 places on your LinkedIn profile you need to care about the most

No. 1 Way To Get A Job Without Applying Online

In this free training, you will learn:

• Why an “interview bucket list” is the secret weapon to securing a good job
• Which tools you need to update and use to get noticed by recruiters
• The right way to network on sites like LinkedIn to get in front of hiring managers

8 Reasons TikTok Will Be The Hottest Way To Hire (And Get Hired) In 2023

In this free training, you will learn:

• Why not just Gen Z but all generations are finding their next employer on TikTok
• How using TikTok will make it easier (yes, easier!) for companies to recruit on other social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter
• How talent searches for employers on TikTok and “discovers” the best places to work nobody knows about
• How companies will use TikTok to recruit without having to start a company TikTok account

Get instant access to “8 Reasons TikTok Will Be The Hottest Way To Hire (And Get Hired) In 2023” today!

Want More Help With Your Job Search & Career? 

Sign up for our Daily Newsletter or check out our Premium Resources today!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret about successful career changes. So many people spend years not being able to pivot their career into a new industry or a new skill set because they haven’t done the most vital part of the process.

The most important part of the career change process is the professional strengths assessment. That’s the secret to successfully changing careers. Without going through the professional strengths assessment, you won’t know which career direction is right for you.

Discovering Your Professional Strengths Helps You Understand Your Intrinsic Motivation

@j.t.odonnell Replying to @luciahawleynutrition No. 1 SECRET to changing careers, or finding a new, better job is to do proper professional strengths assessment. #strengths #strengthsandweaknesses #knowyourworth #knowyourstrengths #careers #jobs #career #job #careertok #jobtiktok #careertiktok #jobsearchtips #jobsearch #workitdaily #howto #work ♬ original sound – J.T. O’Donnell

School never taught you this. They never taught you how to properly assess your professional strengths. And, just so you know, employers will never teach you this either. And that’s because when you understand your intrinsic motivation (how you like to create value and what makes you feel insanely productive on the job), when you tap into that and understand your unique combination of professional strengths, you will be able to identify careers that are a fit for you. You will know what to say during interviews. You’ll be able to market yourself. And, better yet, you will be much happier on the job, which leads to career growth and success.

Ask anyone who’s dialed into their career. They’ll tell you they have a very clear sense of their intrinsic motivation and the value they create through their professional strengths.

Now, how do you inventory this? How do you discover your professional strengths and understand your intrinsic motivation?

You use a set of FREE tools:

• Workplace Communication Style Quiz
• Career Decoder Quiz
• Professional Strengths Bootcamp

If you’re serious about changing careers, take the free quizzes above and sign up for my Professional Strengths Bootcamp. In this bootcamp, I walk you through the professional strengths assessment so that you can take a step back, understand your strengths, and then translate those into what you want to do next. When you can do that, everything gets easier—job search, career growth, networking, everything.

You can do this. You can successfully change careers. And it starts with unlocking your professional strengths. So, I hope you follow my advice above. Go get ’em!

Need more help with your professional strengths assessment?

Become a member to learn how to UNLEASH your true potential to get what you want from work!

Whispers about a possible recession have been in the air for a few years, but those whispers grew a lot louder recently with many economists highlighting various economic indicators pointing toward a possible recession in the immediate future.

Recessions can impact everyone differently, but history indicates that there will be mass layoffs, fewer jobs, more competition for jobs, and less job security.

Here’s what you need to know about a potential recession’s impact on your career:

Common Situations People Find Themselves In During A Recession

As stated above, a recession impacts everyone differently. Any issue with the economy will impact consumers’ wallets in one way or another but things can become particularly painful when it impacts your livelihood.

From a professional standpoint, the most common situations people find themselves in during a recession include:

Feeling trapped in a job they hate – Perhaps you were looking to leave your current job and make a career change, but the recession put the brakes on that. A person trapped in a job they hate can be less productive and many times the unhappiness from their professional life bleeds into their personal life.

Getting laid off from a job – This is the most painful consequence of a recession. It has a significant impact on a person emotionally. It also forces them to pick themselves up and enter into a competitive job market. And the awkward and uncomfortable fact is that if you are laid off, you’re better off being involved in a company’s first round of layoffs. Those let go in a second round of layoffs must enter into an even more competitive job market where their former co-workers already have a head start on them.

Being forced to accept a job they don’t want – People have bills to pay and it’s not uncommon for some to become so frustrated with the job search process that they eventually settle for any job offer they get. This is especially painful for anyone that may have been laid off from a career they loved. Going from a career you love to one you don’t could make you a less productive worker and could also have major emotional impacts.

Struggling to land a job at all – This is the worst-case scenario. Not only is the job market ultra competitive, but those who have lost a job are interviewing for new ones with an urgency that sometimes comes across as desperation. The more times a person gets rejected from a job, the more desperate they become and the more it impacts them during job interviews. The unfortunate truth is that those who are laid off during a recession are at a disadvantage because recruiters are more likely to hire people that are already employed.

How To Know If A Recession May Impact Your Career

There will be some common sense signs such as the state of your industry and the overall health of the company you work for, but beyond that, there are typically six strong indicators that your job is at risk during a recession.

The biggest indicator starts with doing an honest self-assessment about yourself because if you don’t have a long-term career goal in place, you are vulnerable to losing your job during a recession.

If you’re currently just getting by at your job but can’t define what you do particularly well or the value you provide the company, that’s a major red flag.

A solid long-term career goal involves a 2-5 year plan that highlights the skills and expertise that you provide to a company and what the company’s return on investment would be if they hire you. This is all about creating and maintaining your personal brand. Your career goal should also include a plan for how you want to continue to grow professionally.

While having this plan in place doesn’t make you recession-proof, it will put you in a better position if the worst-case scenario does occur!

How To Prepare Your Career For A Recession

Nothing in this world is foolproof but there are certain steps that you can take now at your current job that will make you less vulnerable during a recession.

It all starts with being an engaged employee who strives to always exceed expectations at work.

You should be the type of employee who has career goals in place. You know what value you provide the company and how you’re going to provide it.

You should also be the type of employee who reaches out to management from time to time to see what you can do to increase your value to the company. An engaged employee is a valuable employee!

It’s not a matter of if a recession is coming; it’s when. Make sure you’re prepared!

Need more help preparing your career for a recession?

We’d love it if you signed up for Work It Daily’s Event Subscription! Get your career questions answered in our next live event!

This article was originally published at an earlier date.