Don’t tell! Keep quiet. Keep it under your hat.
Most people know that when you are thinking about applying for a new job, you don’t tell your plans to every one. The trouble is that, if you really do keep things secret, you can’t gather feedback from managers and colleagues about your readiness and suitability for posts you may be considering and posts for which you seriously want to apply.
There are things you can do without broadcasting your hopes and intentions. You can do these things without needing to tell people in your organisation or in your interest groups what you are thinking about. Almost always the most useful of these things to do is effective self-assessment
Assess Yourself
If you think about self-assessments as opportunities to confirm your perception of your excellence, think again. Self-assessments can be useful and valuable guides to identifying areas where you currently achieve and areas where you need to improve, if you want your career to progress.
Here is a list of ten self-assessment activities. People who complete them all gain a better idea of their current situation in their careers than do those who just try one or two tests.
- Are you working too hard?
- Your performance at work: How good are you?
- Do you have a strong online presence?
- Are you creating your personal brand?
- How well do you manage yourself?
- Are you a time waster?
- How well do you deal with stress?
- Should you ever work from home?
- Are you a lifelong learner?
- What do you want from your career?
All of these self-assessments can be found in:
Are You Ready To Succeed At Work?
In the guide noted above are statements about particular questions in specific tests, what someone needs to do to improve his or her performance at work and how to set about getting a better score in these tests in six months’ time.
You can complete these tests, assess yourself by comparing your scores with the model of excellence in the guide and plan for your future.
You will know if you are ‘good’ or ‘not so good’ at the issues covered, once you have completed these tests.
You Need Privacy
What is really important is that you can complete self-assessments in private. You can use self-assessments to give you an idea of where you stand with reference to excellence in a particular subject. You can also choose some particularly difficult questions and ask colleagues how they would answer, without revealing anything about your own plans.
Example:
“I saw this question in something I was reading, (State the question.) What do you think about it? Do you know the answer?”
The Real Benefit Of Self-Assessment
When you are serious about taking your career forward, self-assessment is a great place to start. Completing self-assessments will either reinforce or demolish your views about your own prowess.
Take a look at two quizzes or self-assessments on this website to get you started:
How did you do?
Before you make any more job applications, think seriously about self-assessment. It makes a lot of sense to do so.