• Post category:Kindness
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Why should you do a skills assessment

You are currently viewing Why should you do a skills assessment

I’m really glad to pass my pen to Isa K who, just like me, had a skills assessment and is happy to share with us her journey.

Isa K is a French Mum of a little boy. After a decade working in sales and marketing for a multinational company, she has changed career to be an Eco-advisor. She is the co-founder of La Cuisine de Demain, a delivery catering of vegetarian, organic, seasonal and local meals delivered in Strasbourg.

« I'm quite lost right now, I wonder if I should do an assessment skill ?"

It’s obvious if you are thinking about it, it’s you have the professional retraining in mind and you really have the desire to change or evolve. 

The big question you have in mind is usually :

“Do I listen to my inner voice and do I try to understand what is happening to me? “

From my point of view, that’s the reason I’m writing to you today, my answer is YES. A big YES. I can only advise you to think about it and to take some time to look inside you and examine what has changed inside or around you, to make you desire assessment skills.

That’s a great gift you are offering to yourself.

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But if we think about it all by ourselves, do we need to do that assessment skills?

From my point of view… Another BIG YES ! 😊

Talking with a professional coach about your deep yearnings and your real motivations is a great luck. That’s a big task and hard to cope alone. It is so easy for us to hide yourself, to consider yours some desires which are not really yours.  And don’t underestimate your capacity to undermine yourself. Either about your competences, “ I won’t be able to do it”. Or about your preconceived ideas about professional reconversions: “that’s too late, there is no professional training for people my age” …

Even if you say “ OK, let’s do it, no limit” you will always find some somewhere !

Potential trigger warning

Beware, a skills assessment isn’t a magical test.Unlike the tests you can find in magazines, it won’t give you a job by ticking boxes. It won’t give you your perfect dreams job either. It doesn’t work like that (even if I have to tell you I thought it would be that easy).

This is really a deep and personal quest and everyone will experience it differently. You have to be ready for a personal and professional self-examination.

You have to be ready to face your success and failures. You’ll also have to examine what you liked and disliked in your previous professional experiences. Be also ready to think about which kind of compromise you are ready to make.

Of course, you’ll be shaken and emotional while doing all this.

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That's not a sprint but a marathon

To talk to you about my personal experience, you have to know I was totally available for doing my skills assessment. I had zero obligations. I could have seen my coach everyday if I had needed it.  When I asked her if it would be done in 2 months, she laughed at me. Of course she was right. It isn’t about the hours spent in her office but it is all about the time for my reflection to evolve and get mature.

It took me 6 months for my skills assessment with an appointment every two weeks. This is the average my coach told me about. But sometimes it can take longer, even some years. That’s not even important.

This rhythm suited me and we could adapt it to my needs if necessary. Two weeks between each appointment to work, thinking about it and preparing some new information wasn’t too much.

Each time, my coach provided grist to my mills, just enough for me to feel an end to the road.

Peaks and troughs

I will not conceal the fact I was fed up with it such as “Well, if it’s like that, I stick to what I do and that will be all”. Or “I’d better stay at home to take care of my family”.

But after a time, it gets better. I also had the opportunity to meet a lot of people changing careers at some meetings or workshops. The only fact to talk to them from time to time helped me to realize how much my peaks and troughs were the same as theirs and perfectly normal. 

 

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Some deep changes

I really felt a difference between the beginning and the end of my skills assessment. I was much more self-confident.

As proof, I had to complete the same document at the beginning and at the end of the skills assessment. I had to write down what was most important for me in my job. Of the dozen I had written, there were only 2 or 3 similar between the 2 versions. I had totally changed. That’s what made me realize, I found myself at the end of this assessment. At the beginning I was a person conditioned by 10 years spent in a multinational company. The image I had of myself was the one people gave me and my needs were not really mine.

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There is many more professional retraining you can imagine

Of course, if you are 40 years old and you realize you’d like to be a neurosurgeon, it might be a bit difficult to deal with the 10 years of studies…  But in reality, nothing is impossible. From my personal experience, the job I’ve chosen was considered at the beginning as “limitless crazy dream project”

I wanted to work in ecological transition counseling but without being an environmental engineer. And I haven’t a clue how to do that. And in the end, after many interviews and meetings, I found a training in 1 year for professional retraining  in my town. Finally, I’m where I couldn’t dream to be 2 years ago. And all this thanks to my skills assessment and my coach (and  thanks to my personal work too😊). All this made me discover this professional journey we have no idea.

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A successful skills assessment doesn't depend on career changing.

Sometimes, it can be the fact to work in another structure or company or to launch your own business. Sometimes, it’s just finding some balance working less or part-time. In the end, this is not a radical change which can make you happy.

That’s the reason why if you ask yourself what kind of future your career is heading or if you will stay in this scheme forever, you need to pause and think about it.

 

Stopping and thinking before going on or changing  direction has never hurt anyone.

That’s why I’m sure all these questions come from our unconscious which try to make us aware and stop. That’s so pleasant to know we are on track and we have sturdy boots in our feets.

I wish you that they are the most comfy as possible for the most beautiful and fulfilling journey !

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