CAREER GUIDANCE BLOG #2 – START WITH YOUR OWN MINDSET
In response to my first post in the series of career selections, I received interesting feedback via comments , emails and discussions I had. It alerted me that people seem to put quite a lot of emphasis on the various assessments offered for career guidance yet don’t seem to see it as very beneficial. I remember my own assessment conducted many years ago. I had to fill in a long questionnaire followed by a cumbersome interview. I remember leaving the office after feedback from the expert with one message: “I can do everything I put my mind to”… It ‘stuck’ with me, though, as you can imagine I left the office still confused about the path to take.
Carol Dweck, a professor from Stanford University and the author of “Mindset” has dedicated years of research onto people’s belief in their abilities and talents and how it affects which paths they choose to take in life. She demonstrates that what matters most is our mindset. There are two types of mindsets: people with the fixed mindset where they believe that we were born with our abilities and talent and there is nothing that can be done to change it and people with growth mindset who believe in their ability to grow and learn from mistakes rather than seeing those mistakes as failures.
How are this types of mindsets linked to selecting your career path? I believe there is a strong connection between what you believe you can do to the path you choose. Adopting a growth mindset would help you with choosing a path that may be more difficult to pursue but at the end, more fulfilling. Having a mindset that failures are perceived as opportunities will ease your choice process towards your own development.
I wish I understood this when I did my own assessment. I would have understood the advice given to me better. Anyone at any time can adopt the growth mindset. We should start embedding this mindset into our schools from an early stage.
