If you’re an adult job seeker, you might be tempted to rush into action, frantically answering job ads or posting your resume online. Don’t. Your job search has a better chance of succeeding if you step back and assess yourself first.

What’s in it for you?

There are many reasons to do a self-assessment. Here are four:

• Understanding what you can do and like to do helps you target jobs and employers.
  
• Self-assessment alerts you to skills that need brushing up.
  
• Knowing your strengths will help you answer questions calmly and confidently in job interviews.
  
• For career changers, assessments can point to other fields where you can put your skills to work.

What to assess and how:

Assessments can be grouped into several broad categories:

• Skills—your ability to perform a task or to carry out a responsibility. You can either write down your skills yourself or check them off from a list. Skill assessments let you easily match your skills with the jobs that require them.
  
• Interests—topics or fields you that interest you or in which you like to participate in a work setting. Interest inventories measure the fit between particular interests and specific jobs.
  
• Personal Characteristics—how you process information, make decisions, and interact with others.
  
• Work preferences—what you think is most important or worthwhile in a job. Values assessments help you decide the type of work environment you prefer.