Chapter 1: Interests, Aptitudes, Skills, Values

and Attitudes

While watching, consider: What do I think the overall message is? What interested me about what Steve Jobs

says about finding a career? Was there anything I didn’t understand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkaTHZQ5MVY

Watch the video:

Knowing what you are interested in is critical to

finding a job!

To make a wise career choice, you must first get to know yourself. Who are you? What do you want in life? What are your

• Interests• Aptitudes• Skills• Values • Attitudes

Interests are things you like to do orlearn about. These may include your favourite school subjects, hobbies, sports, or even movies. Finding a career field that interests you is important. Otherwise you may become bored or unhappy.

What are interests, aptitudes and skills?

Take the Interest Inventory! (Provided by me)

Aptitudes are things you are naturally good at. For example, perhaps you have an aptitude for drawing. You could learn more about it and work to develop your drawing skills.

Write down three of your aptitudes

Skills are things you have learned over time. In a lot of cases (but not always) these are things you have learned in school or in the workplace. For example, I have learned how to write a proper essay and do some yoga.

What are three of your skills? Write them down

From a cross-Canada study of people’s values, a list of values important to teenagers was developed. These values are: friendship, freedom, privacy, being popular, recognition, excitement, being loved, success, a comfortable life, and family life.

On a sheet of paper, write these values in order of their importance to you.

Determining Your Values

VALUE % VIEWING AS “VERY IMPORTANT”

Friendship 91

Being Loved 87

Freedom 84

Success 78

A Comfortable Life 75

Privacy 68

Family Life 65

Excitement 58

Recognition 71

Being Popular 21

Compare your list with the chart

Complete Values Worksheet

Lastly, attitudes are how you view things. Where values determine what is important to you, attitudes are simply how feel/think about something.

For example Attitude – I hate math class. Value – I do not have friends who are not trustworthy. – TRUST being something you deem important

Attitudes