Skills and Interests

Identifying Your Skills and Interests
Skills are proficiencies, talents, or competencies acquired or developed through training or experience. An interest is generally thought of as a natural curiosity or concern about something.  To attain a rewarding career, your work role should match both your skills set and your interests. Clearly identifying your skills and interests will help you discover the rewarding career options to pursue.

First, think of a few things you are naturally good at. These are your current skills. Education, practice and/or training can help you develop these skills and build new ones. While many skills can be acquired through formal, academic education, others can be gained through less formal and applied experiential opportunities. For example, volunteering in a community clinic may enhance your competency and ability in working across language barriers associated with diverse communities. 

Next, think about how you spend your free time. What would you choose to do on a completely free day? What kinds of topics do you enjoy reading about? What projects are most rewarding to you? These activities are most likely aligned with your true passions and interests. Ask your friends, teachers, supervisors, and co-workers what they have observed to be your strongest skills. They may see qualities in you that you may not see in yourself.

Assess your skills and interests with available tools and services. Following are some resources you can use to investigate and assess your skills and interests, and see how they match up with different occupations. This is not an exhaustive list, but a starting point:

• The Strong Interest Inventory: Available through the AHS 1101 (or 1102) Orientation to the Health Sciences course. This assessment tool measures your interests in a broad range of occupations, work activities, leisure activities, and school subjects. It is also offered through University Counseling and Consulting Services for a fee.
• Campbell Interest and Skills Survey (CISS): An assessment tool that measures self-reported vocational interests and skills, and reflects an individual's attraction to specific occupational areas. Offered through University Counseling and Consulting Services for a fee.
• ISEEK: Minnesota’s Internet System for Education and Employment Knowledge provides a simple skills assessment tool.
• Skills Profiler: Offered by America’s CareerInfoNet to help you assess your skills set and how it matches to different occupations.
• SkillScan Online: An interactive assessment of your self-reported talents, strengths, and transferable skills.
• Career Liftoff Interest Inventory: Available for a fee.

Now that you have assessed your skills and interests, ask yourself how they realistically align with your chosen health career. Here are some ideas to get you started in evaluating your skills and interests with your future career goals.

• Arrange an informational interview with a health professional. Ask questions about the skills required for their work and how they developed them.
• Register for an introductory course at the University of Minnesota and earn college credit while exploring your skills, interests and the health professions.
• Take a career inventory through the University of Minnesota’s Career Development Center to assess your interests and skills as they relate to your choice of major and occupation.
• Contact the Career Services office in your assigned college and meet one-on-one with a career counselor to discuss how your interests and skills relate to different majors and career options.
• Use the University’s electronic Portfolio tool to compile information you have collected about your interests and skills.
• Assess your skills and match them with U.S. Department of Labor occupational classifications using the O*Net Online Skills Search tool.
• Play the Career Interests Game, for a quick look at your interests and how they match with different types of work environments.
• Match your interests with different occupations using the Career Key tool.

Checkpoint: What do you do if your interests and skills do not match the profession you’re most interested in?
Assessing your skills and interests allows you to identify and evaluate areas that are challenging for you. Understand the potential barriers you face in pursuing a given career. Know that circumstances beyond your control may influence your path as well. Ask yourself these questions, before deciding on a career path:

• What are the specific challenges/barriers to pursuing my career of interest?
• How can I strategize to overcome these barriers? 
• What are possible alternate plans to my career of interest?

Examples of potential barriers may include:

• Competitive admission pools. Many health professional programs have a larger number of applicants than there are slots for admission. As a result, some well-qualified students may not be offered admission.
• Challenges with math and science courses. Almost all health professional preparation programs require strong competency in math and science.
• Emotional resiliency. Health professionals are often required to work under stressful conditions and with vulnerable people. How can you learn to remain positive and energized in this kind of environment?
• Proximity to people. Many health professions will require you to deal closely with people who are ill. This may involve handling blood, body fluids, needles, etc. Will this be a challenge for you to overcome?

Get the help you need. The Health Careers Center programs can provide strategies for application preparation, admissions statistics, and strategies for alternate plans. We also encourage you to meet early and frequently with your assigned academic adviser available through the University’s undergraduate colleges and the College of Continuing Education to successfully plan your academic preparation for a health professional program.