If you want to find and develop a satisfying career, you need to create a solid strategy and an important part of that is your personal SWOT analysis.

What exactly is a SWOT Analysis? It’s just an (honest) evaluation of your own strengths, your weaknesses, the opportunities which present themselves and finally the threats which might just get in the way of your success.

Once you are clear about your career goal, you can start your personal SWOT analysis by getting hold of applications for jobs which interest you. Take out the job descriptions and the person specifications and use them as a starting point to help you work out your strengths and weaknesses which elte to this particular career area. You can do this with the details of just one job, but using several will give you a broader view of the industry or the career.

Strengths

List all of the strengths which you have and which relate directly or indirectly to the requirements for each job. This will cover skills, talents, experience and qualifications and don’t forget to include soft skills such as communication skills and teamwork, as well as personal qualities like patience, tenacity and attention to detail.

You should also write down at least one example of a situation in which you used each of your strengths. This will be invaluable when it comes to writing applications.

Weaknesses

Now go through your job packs and list your weaknesses, that is, the areas where you lack experience or your skills are poorly developed. You don’t need to write down examples this time – you are probably all too painfully aware of them anyway. And you certainly don’t want to draw attention to them. You will come back to this list later, when you start to move from analysis to action.

Opportunities

You can look at this in two ways: opportunities for yourself to develop and progress in your career and also opportunities for you to add value to the employer.

For yourself, does this job offer what you want from a career? Will it provide training, opportunities for progression, the chance to travel or whatever else is on your wish list?

Employers are much more interested in what’s in it for them and so being aware of the opportunities you will give them for development and improvement of their products and services is important and will be very closely linked to your strengths.

Threats

These are difficulties and obstacles which could prevent you from getting the job in the first place or hamper your progress when you do get it. For example, problems in the economy as a whole or this specific sector could lead to cutbacks or a reduction in training budgets.

You can also look at your competitors – other people who are likely to be applying for the same jobs. Are they better qualified than you or do they have more relevant work experience?

As part of your career change strategy, your personal swot analysis will help you take action to improve your prospects of getting the job you want.

Before you create a SWOT analysis, you need to have clear career goals. If you are having difficulty setting good career goals, read our tips and articles to help you choose more effective goals.

Improve your career change strategy with our job interview tips: http://jobseekerssuccesskit.com/

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