Champlain College, Established 1878

Explore through Self-Assessment

Most of us feel that we know ourselves quite well, yet spend too little time taking an inventory of our skills, abilities, values, needs, and goals.
Greater self-knowledge will come into play as you:

  1. Analyze different career options to determine how well they fulfill your needs, goals, values, and whether you possess the skills required for the careers.
  2. Investigate specific job openings and companies based upon the same criteria.
  3. Articulate to employers why they should hire you; your qualifications for the job; what you are looking for in a career; and how you feel about yourself, the employer, and the career.

It's all about the V.I.P.S. :

  • Values: Make a list of what you want and need in order to have job satisfaction. Think about your ideal work environment, geographic region, salary, etc.
  • Interests: Identify activities you enjoy doing or used to enjoy doing and then begin to think about why. Explore your interests to see if any patterns show up.
  • Personality: What are your preferences? How do you react in certain situations? What are your strengths. It is important to know your strengths and areas of weakness in order to apply for positions that will bring out your best attributes.
  • Skills: Skill is defined as "an ability to use one's knowledge effectively to accomplish a task and produce a result." A skill is usually expressed in an action-oriented statement with a subject and an object (e.g., I play the guitar; you persuaded him to accept the compromise; she fixed the carburetor).

Which assessments do we have in-house?

  •  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) identifies 16 personality types based on how you process information and make decisions. It can help you identify your strengths, natural talents, and preferred ways of doing things. This information can help you make appropriate career decisions, help you understand and communicate better with others, both on the job and in your personal relationships. The College contracts this instrument through an online resource and offers it free-of-charge to all currently enrolled students. Please contact our office for instructions.
  • Career Exploration Inventory (CEI) identifies interest clusters that will help you identify potential hobbies, majors, and careers. Interest clustered are determined by indentifying activities you enjoyed doing in the past, activities you currently enjoy doing, and activities you think you may enjoy doing in the future. You can take it at home and process the results with your career advisor in person, via email, or over the phone.
  • Knowdell Card Sorts: Career Values indentifies your top value after taking about twenty minutes to shuffle through the stack of cards and ordering them. These values should be a consideration when considering the environment of a future place of work.
  • Elevations Card Sorts Package identifies your values, skills, personality and career interests after going through an intensive sorting procedure. The package can be separated if you just want to review one portion. Please stop by if you would like to complete the assessment!
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