Personal SWOT Analysis
Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008This particular article will focus on the “what” of a SWOT analysis. In later articles I will discuss the “how-to” of the specific components of the Personal SWOT and bringing it all together, along with some examples.
Much has been written about SWOT analysis, and how it can be used in when you are embarking on the job-search journey. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats. It has been used for years by companies as part of their strategic planning process. Individuals can also use this concept when planning their own lives and most importantly, their careers as well.
This is not strictly an interview skill as such, but as I have said elsewhere, will impact greatly your abilty to handle yourself in the interview, as you will know how best to answer particular questions, tailoring these to the specific circumstance. Incidentally, a really good article recently on a related topic “Knowing your Product” might be of interest as well.
What will SWOT Analysis do for you?
Performing a SWOT analysis will help you to identify what your good at and not good at, and what you might be best suited to. It’s is probably best performed after you have done other career planning, testing and (maybe) research, as this is very soul-searching. If you’ve not done anything like this before, you may end up with erroneous answers, which may set you down a career or job path that you didn’t real want.
This article comes with a warning: this is most applicable if you already have a general skill set and/or career type (eg accountant or lawyer). In these cases, the skills are highly transferrable/applicable to a fairly wide range of related occupations, not necessarily accouting or legal. If you don’t possess these things, the book What Colour is my Parachute is highly recommended (see below). Go through the text, complete the exercises, then either come back to SWOT analysis or go onto actually getting a job.
So, how do you do a SWOT analysis on yourself?
Simply, you do a review of yourself to find what are your “SWOT” components, using a variety of questions.
The strengths and weaknesses are essentially internal - these are what help (or hinder) you to peform particular tasks. For example, you might be really good at programming microsoft excel in visual basic, so this might have specific appeal to an employer (who needs someone to build some applications), or general appeal (shows your really proficient with using excel). Conversely, you might be really really bad at any sort of selling, so jobs that require this are out, as might be those that require you to do any dort of influencing.
Conversely, opportunities and threats are external circumstances, perhaps trends that you might be able to capitalise on or hitch your wagon to, and the threats are those things that might happen in the outside world that might de-rail your career and job goals.
Until next time - good luck!
P.S as mentioned above, have a look at the book “What Colour is Your Parachute?“.
This book helped shape my life! I used to drift from jobto job, not knowing what I wanted to do in life, now I hold a senior position in a large consulting firm. “What Color” offers practical tools for getting jobs, and exercises in self-reflection that will help you find what you like doing and where you want to be. It will change your life!
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