Match Your Skills and Interests to a New Career

Identifying your skills and Interests can help you put together a career plan.

1.  Start by taking the Interest Profiler​​ to get ideas of possible careers to pursue. Once you have identified fields you might like, you can start exploring different careers.​

• Interest Profiler Guide (PDF​)​
  

2.  Make a list of your transferable skills.  This will give you some direction when you are exploring careers.   Transferable skills may be "soft" skills (motivating, negotiating) or technical skills (operating machinery, repairing cars). They are the skills that you have learned through:

• past jobs
• volunteer work
• hobbies
• other life experiences​

Many people don't know where to start, but you can come up with a great list if you think about how you've helped other people and groups in the past.  For example, think about your role in extracurricular activities:

• If you were the treasurer for a school club, you have skills in financial management.
• If you debated an issue in front of a group, you have public speaking skills.
• If you've organized large parties, you have event-planning skills.

Be creative, and ask friends to help you identify your skills.  You may have skills that you don't recognize because they come to you naturally.   For example, not everyone excels at substituting recipe ingredients (problem-solving) or caring for a home-bound grandparent (elder care).  Your friends and family can help you identify those skills.

When you have created a list of skills, it is important to look at whether or not you actually like using them. You may have lots of experience answering phones, but resent having to do it. When you identify the work you can do that also energizes you, you're more likely to find a long-term fit.

3.  See how they match up with the careers in which you're interested. Look at the related job information​ such as:

• Interests
• Knowledge
• Skills and abilities
• Physical Demands
• Working Conditions

After reviewing the information, ask yourself questions like:

• Are you comfortable sitting at a desk all day?  Do you need to be moving around?
• Do you enjoy a flow of new people?  Do you like working with a small team of co-workers?

When you narrow down your options, talk to people in the career field.  See what abilities are necessary for the jobs you might like. Keep in mind that the industry may use different terms to talk about the skills you have. If there are some skills listed that you don't have, you may be able to learn them from a class, internship, or apprenticeship.​

 *Source: Illinois Career Information System (CIS) brought to you by Illinois Department of Employment Security.​