Map your skills and competencies
Understanding who you are and what you are good at is the basis for your career planning. Even if you have an education and have worked for a long time, reviewing your resources and putting them into words is important. Get help from our guides.
Find your strengths and interests
We often know more than we think. It is therefore important to not only look at your formal education and the work you have done when you think about your strengths. You also learn through things you have done in your leisure time, perhaps in a club or a hobby. Remember that your strengths could suit many different occupations. For example, if you are very careful and precise, this is a strength for truck mechanics, cleaners and economists. Your interests can be a good starting point for identifying who you are and what you are good at. And which occupations could suit you.
Your strengths are your greatest assets and of course it is an advantage to work with something where you can use what you are good at. So identify and use your strengths instead of trying to improve your weaknesses.
What to do
- Get started with finding your strengths by thinking about these questions. Write down two or three things for each point. (five minutes)
What are you enthusiastic about? What is something you do when everything goes smoothly and time seems to fly by? What makes you feel full of energy and enthusiasm?
Strengths and personal qualities. What are you like as a person? What role suits you and in what contexts do you feel comfortable? When are you most successful in what you do? When do you find it easy to learn new things, both facts and practical tasks?
What experience do you have? What have you already done in your life that you can build on? It doesn’t need to be something you have done at work, it can be something you have done in a completely different context. When you reflect on experiences in a wider perspective, you will find that you know lots of things! Perhaps you just haven’t thought of them as valuable experiences? - Make an Interest guide (in Swedish). Answer some simple questions and find your interest profile or occupational profile. You can also work on your profile yourself. What types of occupations did you get? What are your outstanding qualities? Reflect on the results. What was it in the interesting occupation – specific working tasks, the work environment or something else? Write down the tasks and the profile that match you best.
- Analyse your best times. Think about a special occasion when you did something that made you really feel satisfied and that you perhaps also received praise for. (10 minutes)
- Write a list of things you are good at. Use Find your hidden skills as an inspiration to get started. (five minutes)
When you have finished all the exercises, summarise what you have come up with. Enter your skills, experience and interests in the Me at work-template.
Find your values and driving forces
A value is your fundamental perception of how you want things to be, what is good and bad and what is important in life. Your values influence your choices, often unconsciously. They are an important part of your identity and act as your driving forces. To make a smart choice of occupation, you need an understanding of what your values look like. This will increase the chances of finding an occupation you can thrive in. We give you some tools here to find out what your values are.
What to do
- By thinking about these questions, get started with finding your values and driving forces. Write down the values and driving forces you come up with. Be sincere and avoid choosing values that you think you should have. (15 minutes)
Do you have a dream job that you might have fantasised about for years? What is it about this job that attracts you?
What values do you have? What is important to you in life? What is it that steers your choices?
What are your driving forces? Could it, for example, be earning lots of money, being able to influence, helping other people – or something else? - What is important in a job? Which factors are most important to you in a job, and which are least important? Choose between 10 different factors and give reasons for your choice. (five minutes)
- When you have finished all the exercises, enter your skills, experience and interests in the Me at work-template.
Occupations and the labour market
Take a look at occupations and what the labour market looks like. What occupations are there actually? Which ones suit you? And what do the future prospects look like?