Assessing career knowledge is an important part of beginning the process of pursuing a career goal. This can be done through performing several assessments which will help you better understand where you are and where you should be placing your energies to secure your next career.In the Sauder Career Success Cycle located through Connect, you will find a Career Management Quiz. This assessment will help you understand your competency in managing the many facets of career progression and will leave you with areas to focus on to gain the knowledge you may lack. How well do you know yourself? How well do you know the marketplace you will be looking for work in? How well do you know what is expected and required by employers in your targeted field? These are just some of the areas that must be addressed through self evaluation, followed by research and efforts to make concerted efforts to strengthen where you lack.

Can you tell someone right at this moment what your three tops skills are? What about your three tops skills in relation to accounting? Can you tell someone what your three top attributes are? The answers to these questions give you an ability to form your wording for networking, resumes, cover letters and interviews. Without this kind of preparation your hopes to make a good first impression could be deterred and your opportunity with an important individual lost.

Can you talk about the relevant skill set you are bringing forward from your previous education and work experience? Firstly, knowing what skills are sought after and which ones are needed will give you a skill foundation to compare to what you have done. Reviewing your past positions and the skills used from the time you “took off your coat” until you left the workplace each day will provide you with the actions you took and skills you used to accomplish your tasks. Then reviewing the list and earmarking the skills that are specific to accounting will really help you compile a valuable resource of skill to communicate when needed.

Can you give a quality answer when someone says, “What do you want to do?” When presented with this question, it is not the time to waffle even though you may be in the process of figuring things out. A response that talks about the strengths that you have, options of where they fit and the efforts you are making to find further clarification within the accounting field only comes from knowing yourself well, knowing the available options and identifying what areas interest you even before you experience them first hand.

Have you thought about what kind of time commitment is involved to get you from where you are to where you need to be to accomplish your goals? Have you considered how much more effective it is for you to engage in a job search while you are participating in DAP rather than looking for work independently after you have completed your courses? Have you dedicated the time needed to move forward and achieve your career goals? Assessing your schedule and planning time into each week to focus on your career is a great investment.

All of these areas can be solved with Assessing Yourself, which is covered in Step One of the Sauder Career Success Cycle. Here you will find many resources to get you going. In addition, you can attend the Career Workshops specifically designed for DAP students. The last session on January 22nd covered this very topic and was the first of seven sessions to help DAP students create a momentum that will help them have career success. The next session on January 29 is on Researching Options and will give information on how to locate what is needed to work towards securing a successful career. You can register on COOL.

Good luck!

Russell Garrett is the Owner of Protocol Business Solutions a Certified Career Consultant and your DAP Career Coach. He is currently delivering one hour workshops from January to April and is applying the steps of the Sauder Career Success Cycle specifically to DAP students along with other advanced concepts. He can also be reached at dapcareersupport@sauder.ubc.ca to arrange an online career appointment.