SELF-KNOWLEDGE IN TERMS OF OCCUPATION SELECTION

One's self-knowledge in terms of occupation selection means that one can evaluate himself/herself clearly and accurately in terms of personality traits that play a role in occupation selection. Here below, personal traits which are effective in determining the occupation selection decision such as talents, interests and values are briefly explained.  These explanations are considered to be helpful in understanding what the scores in the Self-Assessment Inventory mean.

Talents

Talent can be defined as learning ability or the ability of benefiting from a particular education. Talent refers to the part of the hereditary latent ability which is nourished by education and environmental impact. Therefore by considering at the skills that a person has developed up to a certain age, how much s/he can benefit from a new education process can be estimated.

There are many professions in work life that require various skills at different levels. When choosing an oocupation or a training program, one should think about what type of skills s/he has and how s/he can effectively use the skills that s/he has the most.

The easiest and most well-known way for anyone to recognize their ability in a field, that is to say, the learning ability, is to consider the success s/he has achieved with the work it has done in that field.

Interests

If someone undertakes some activities and is satisfied with it, even though this person is not under any compulsion or is not given any word for a reward; it can be said that this person has an interest in such kind of activities. If someone enjoys listening to music and dealing with music without expecting any other reward, then it can be said this person has an interest in music. In cases where the individual has the freedom to choose, it is more likely to detect real interest.

An activity field that someone is interested in is usually a field which s/he is capable of. A person can perform successful works only in the field which s/he capable of. The success of a person in a job or work area that s/he attempts, provides satisfaction to the person and the person desires to be in the same job, to work in the same field again. On the contrary, if her/his attempts fail, s/he will be discouraged and not be willing to do that job again.

There can be many factors that affect the success. However, the talent is the most important of these factors. If someone works in her/his skilled area, it is likely to be successful. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that people will be interested in the areas they are talented. Interest is, in a sense, the pleasure of using skills and developing them.

Values

The purpose of human behaviors is to satisfy some needs. People expect satisfaction from occupational activities covering about a third of their lives. Expected satisfaction at the end of occupational activities is often called as "Occupational Value". The interest includes the satisfaction with the self of the activity but the value includes the satisfaction with the environment in which that activity is carried out and the social rewards it brings.

Interests are our personality traits that mostly play a role in our orientation towards one of the profession areas. Values, on the other hand, are generally effective in choosing a job or position in a certain profession area. As it is known, there can be many different jobs and positions in a particular profession area and they can respond to different needs of individuals at different levels.

A person who knows her/his values ​​well can head towards the professions where s/he can easily find jobs and positions suitable for them and can train themselves during the education according to the requirements of those positions.