I really like Marci Alboher’s Shifting Careers blog over at the New York Times, and this week, she shares a great self-assessment exercise from career coach Michael Melcher.  Since people are always asking me where to start when considering a career switch, I think Melcher’s “Zagat Approach” is worth mulling over. 

Melcher suggest that you begin by doing structured interviews with five to 10 people who know different facets of you.  You can ask friends, family members, colleagues, and people whose views you respect but whom you rarely speak to. Create a short questionnaire (six to eight questions) with questions like:

·         What are three things I do really well?

·         What are three things I don’t do so well?

·         Based on what you know about me, what job or experience have I liked the best in the past?

·         Based on what you know about me, what job or experience have I liked the least?

·         What are three things you can imagine me doing?

·         What’s something you can’t really imagine me doing?

·         How do I get in my own way?

If you casually ask people in your circle for advice about your career, they will probably give some helpful feedback. But if you use a questionnaire and go through items one by one, they will give answers that are more balanced and far more insightful. People give better answers when they are trying to be good interviewees than when they are trying to be good friends.

When you’re done, write up the results. When he undertook the process for himself, Melcher created a Zagat’s-style review of his potential coaching future, with entries like, “My best skills are ‘creative thinking’ (Henry R.) and my ability to ‘articulate hunches’ (Tom H.), combined with ‘balanced right- and left-brain thinking’ (Tania T.).”

By interviewing a number of people and summarizing the results, you use the collected subjectivities of your respondents to create an overall objectivity that can give insight to your questions and help you get unstuck.