Work Experiences Quiz
This exercise is meant to help you organize who you are and what you like. It is very important that you complete this exercise with thoroughness - detail is a definite plus. Include anything and everything that comes to mind no matter how big or small the experience.
PART A
Categories representing the various types of experiences you may have had are found below. Make a chart with the following headings: what you did, when you did it, what your role was, what you liked and what you disliked about each experience. Looking through your autobiography may trigger some ideas about some of the experiences you've had. Just skip any section that doesn't apply to you.
Remember to list as many activities and experiences that come to mind!
CATEGORIES TO INCLUDE:
1. PAID EMPLOYMENT ( full-time, part-time, casual, summer, contract, seasonal )
2. VOLUNTEER AND CLUB ACTIVITIES (Outside a School Environment: community work, group or board memberships, political action, club involvements, etc.)
3. SPORTS/RECREATION/HOBBIES/SPECIAL INTERESTS
4. EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ( Within a School Environment: clubs, committees, sports, student's council, teams, etc)
5. COURSEWORK (subjects, research projects, major papers, special training sessions, seminars, thesis, practicum, co-op, field work, etc.)
PART B
The next step is to organize all this information into interest patterns. Interest patterns are clusters of experiences that when grouped together fit a general category heading. These headings are defined by you and summarize a grouping of your interests. In determining your interests, it is helpful to focus on the aspects of your jobs and experiences that you liked.
EXAMPLE
Kate picked out the following activities from her personal inventory:
• Dale Carnegie Course
• Supervised 2 people in a summer job
• President of the aquatics club
These activities and discussion of the elements she preferred indicated to Kate that she had a strong interest in "leadership".
To help get you started some examples of interest patterns are listed below. This is only a sample of interest patterns and there are many more groupings that may relate to your experiences. Be creative and develop your own headings that make connections among your experiences.
Examples of Interest Patterns
Helping
Written Communication
Verbal Communication
Selling
Managing
Teaching
Mechanical Orientation
Learning
Problem Solving
Creativity
Supervising
Autonomy
Leisure
Academic Subjects
Nature/Outdoors
Program Development
Travelling
Scientific and Technical Work
Business
Social Welfare
Repetitive/Defined Tasks ...and so on!!!
Now, list your interest patterns and include validating experiences that confirm each interest for you..
EXAMPLE
INTEREST PATTERN VALIDATING EXPERIENCES Managing
- trained and supervised employees at restaurant
- organized the junior
soccer league in my neighbourhood
PART C
Using the ideas you listed, choose your top five interest patterns and rank them from most important and most exciting, to least interesting. Keep this list to help you as you continue the career planning process.
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