Many people go off to university with no clue about what they want to do or how to spend their time. And this can be a useful time to explore and experience different disciplines—and it’s an expensive way to explore.
Universities offer various kinds of introductory courses with the very intent of helping people decide what they like and don’t like. I think making good decisions about this and related questions invites a bigger picture. IF you had a clear picture of who you are, it would be easier to select a major—and a lot of other things like careers!
The thing is that by age 18 people have developed distinct patterns of behavior and preferences. Most people are relatively unaware of their own patterns—let’s call them Life Themes, recurring patterns of behavior.
At the Harvard Business School, I inherited and developed a sophisticated method of making career decisions. The core is this: people who find a good fit with their underlying Life Themes will be more successful (emotionally and financially) than those who choose jobs/careers that are a bad fit. The reason for this is that while humans are indeed “somewhat” flexible, working within one’s established patterns is MUCH easier than trying to be something one is not.
GOODNESS OF FIT between who you are (the sum of your Life Themes) and the demands of a job or career is the core concept. Think of it as hand in glove: Your Life Themes define the shape and size of your hand. The demands of each job opportunity is a glove. If the glove fits, you’ll do much better work.
So, this becomes a two step process—which can begin in high school. First, doing a self-assessment getting a list of your dominant Life Themes. Second, using that Life Themes list to evaluate every option you face—looking for goodness of fit. We do this semi-consciously with every one we date, with every purchase, with every job offer. AND the semi-consciously part can be deceiving. If you want to make BETTER DECISIONS, use your Life Themes list.
The first step is Self-Assessment. Now, NO SINGLE ASSESSMENT TOOL IS ACCURATE ENOUGH OR COMPREHENSIVE ENOUGH TO HANG YOUR HAT ON! In my courses, we used 25 different self-assessment tools to help students find the common data patterns across multiple data pools. This is “inductive logic.” If you say, “I know myself” you are using deductive logic, beginning with the conclusion and forcing it on the data. If you begin with the data and infer the patterns, you will have a much more accurate and comprehensive description of who you are. A strong, data-based list of Life Themes is literally a description of who you are.
Developing your Life Themes list can be simple (a napkin and asking yourself “who am I and what do I like and not like?”), moderately complex (taking 3–10 self-assessment tools over a weekend) or very detailed (using 20+ tools over a couple of months with careful analysis). The accuracy and CONFIDENCE you have in your self-assessment will depend on how much you put into it.
Once you have a relatively accurate and comprehensive list of your Life Themes (some strong, some weak, some central, some peripheral), YOU CAN USE THAT LIFE THEMES LIST TO ASSESS THE GOODNESS OF FIT WITH EACH ALTERNATIVE YOU FACE (including partners, college majors, jobs, etc.) Basically, one lists your Life Themes on the rows of a spreadsheet and ranks them 1–5 in terms of their importance to you. THEN, list each option you face in the columns (two columns per option). This major or that major, this partner or that partner, this job offer or the that job offer. In the first column for each OPTION rate the goodness of fit WITH EACH LIFE THEME from 1–5. Then calculate the value of that option on that Life Theme in the second option column as LT value (1–5) times Fit (1–5) and you have a value of that option on that Life Theme. Do that for all options and Life Themes and you can compare the EXPECTED VALUE of each option against who you are.
You can use your Life Themes list for other purposes: identifying which options are even worth pursuing (each one takes time and money), and forming the questions you need to ask the Others, not just waiting for them to ask you.
If you have read this far, you care about how good your decisions are. I’ve already developed a detailed spreadsheet/workbook and it’s free to download on my website. Search for the Career Option Workbook COW near the bottom on my webpage. https://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj/index.htm
Universities offer various kinds of introductory courses with the very intent of helping people decide what they like and don’t like. I think making good decisions about this and related questions invites a bigger picture. IF you had a clear picture of who you are, it would be easier to select a major—and a lot of other things like careers!
The thing is that by age 18 people have developed distinct patterns of behavior and preferences. Most people are relatively unaware of their own patterns—let’s call them Life Themes, recurring patterns of behavior.
At the Harvard Business School, I inherited and developed a sophisticated method of making career decisions. The core is this: people who find a good fit with their underlying Life Themes will be more successful (emotionally and financially) than those who choose jobs/careers that are a bad fit. The reason for this is that while humans are indeed “somewhat” flexible, working within one’s established patterns is MUCH easier than trying to be something one is not.
GOODNESS OF FIT between who you are (the sum of your Life Themes) and the demands of a job or career is the core concept. Think of it as hand in glove: Your Life Themes define the shape and size of your hand. The demands of each job opportunity is a glove. If the glove fits, you’ll do much better work.
So, this becomes a two step process—which can begin in high school. First, doing a self-assessment getting a list of your dominant Life Themes. Second, using that Life Themes list to evaluate every option you face—looking for goodness of fit. We do this semi-consciously with every one we date, with every purchase, with every job offer. AND the semi-consciously part can be deceiving. If you want to make BETTER DECISIONS, use your Life Themes list.
The first step is Self-Assessment. Now, NO SINGLE ASSESSMENT TOOL IS ACCURATE ENOUGH OR COMPREHENSIVE ENOUGH TO HANG YOUR HAT ON! In my courses, we used 25 different self-assessment tools to help students find the common data patterns across multiple data pools. This is “inductive logic.” If you say, “I know myself” you are using deductive logic, beginning with the conclusion and forcing it on the data. If you begin with the data and infer the patterns, you will have a much more accurate and comprehensive description of who you are. A strong, data-based list of Life Themes is literally a description of who you are.
Developing your Life Themes list can be simple (a napkin and asking yourself “who am I and what do I like and not like?”), moderately complex (taking 3–10 self-assessment tools over a weekend) or very detailed (using 20+ tools over a couple of months with careful analysis). The accuracy and CONFIDENCE you have in your self-assessment will depend on how much you put into it.
Once you have a relatively accurate and comprehensive list of your Life Themes (some strong, some weak, some central, some peripheral), YOU CAN USE THAT LIFE THEMES LIST TO ASSESS THE GOODNESS OF FIT WITH EACH ALTERNATIVE YOU FACE (including partners, college majors, jobs, etc.) Basically, one lists your Life Themes on the rows of a spreadsheet and ranks them 1–5 in terms of their importance to you. THEN, list each option you face in the columns (two columns per option). This major or that major, this partner or that partner, this job offer or the that job offer. In the first column for each OPTION rate the goodness of fit WITH EACH LIFE THEME from 1–5. Then calculate the value of that option on that Life Theme in the second option column as LT value (1–5) times Fit (1–5) and you have a value of that option on that Life Theme. Do that for all options and Life Themes and you can compare the EXPECTED VALUE of each option against who you are.
You can use your Life Themes list for other purposes: identifying which options are even worth pursuing (each one takes time and money), and forming the questions you need to ask the Others, not just waiting for them to ask you.
If you have read this far, you care about how good your decisions are. I’ve already developed a detailed spreadsheet/workbook and it’s free to download on my website. Search for the Career Option Workbook COW near the bottom on my webpage. https://faculty.darden.virginia.edu/clawsonj/index.htm
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