Tell me honestly: are you looking for a successful career ? It’s very likely that the answer was yes, right? Even though success can have many meanings, such as being happy in your profession, working with something you love, earning a lot of money (or all of these at the same time), professional self-knowledge is essential for you to achieve your goals.
Imagine seeking success without having goals, without understanding your strengths and weaknesses: the chances of you taking a path full of curves or just going in circles are very high. Therefore, developing professional self-knowledge can make this journey easier.
Self-knowledge, in itself, greatly helps a person to understand themselves and the world around them. In the field of your career, it helps to shorten the path to a promotion or prevents you from staying too long in a position you don’t even like, for example.
In the following text, we talk more about this subject and show you some hacks to improve your search in this regard. Let’s go?
What is professional self-knowledge?
Professional self-knowledge is connected to the perception of your professional profile , helping you to develop goals and plans for a successful career. When you are fully aware of your tastes, desires, skills and knowledge gaps, you can guide yourself in the best way to achieve your goals.
An example: if you are a person who has some difficulty in undertaking, either because you lack management skills, self-management and initiative; because not having paid vacations seems like a nuisance to you; or because you feel that this idea of being your own boss seems very unstable, there will still be many choices on the horizon.
The first is to avoid careers related to entrepreneurship, and working in companies under the CLT regime ends up being a good option. Another way is, knowing that you have a lack of entrepreneurship skills, to seek to develop these skills better, whether by taking simple initiatives, such as offering ideas to your boss; or by taking courses and reading books on the subject.
How important is professional self-knowledge?
Having professional self-knowledge makes it easier for you to achieve your goals. This way, instead of insisting on something that is not good for you, you can achieve your goals in a calm manner.
Furthermore, self-knowledge can help with practical tasks in your life, such as:
- manage your time better, because you won’t leave certain tasks for later;
- have a better balance between your professional and personal life (after all, you are quite clear about what your priorities are);
- gain motivation for each of the tasks to be performed;
- not to waste too much time in a job in which you see no future;
- communicate more clearly, whether in conversations or emails;
- overcome certain anxieties and fears that may impede your growth.
How is self-knowledge related to career success?
It would be great if we could develop professional self-knowledge as a teenager, so we could choose a degree that truly fits our goals and allows us to achieve many dreams. At this stage, however, there is still a lot of immaturity — it’s no wonder so many people change colleges midway through, right?
In this sense, professional self-knowledge will give you countless arguments to be happier in your day-to-day work, whether in choosing a specialty, in your relationships with colleagues, in the time you dedicate to new courses or in motivation in your routine.
Check out some factors below on the importance of this characteristic!
Brings more conviction to career choice
Self-knowledge allows you to understand whether you should pursue an entrepreneurial career, an employee career, a consultant career, a career in the exact sciences, or a career in the humanities. It also shows you which careers make the most sense, based on your characteristics and expectations. If you like to be surrounded by people, you know that anything that involves teamwork will make you happier, right?
Promotes teamwork
It is inevitable that we work in groups, always or from time to time. And for this to work, it is important to know how to listen, give feedback, understand your limits and the limits of others. Self-knowledge gives emotional intelligence, something essential here!
Allows you to develop soft skills
When we know our limits, we understand which soft skills need to be developed, right? Like someone whose goal is to hold leadership positions, but finds it difficult to delegate tasks. No matter how professionally qualified this person is, they still need to develop their leadership skills.
By knowing your weaknesses and weaknesses, you can work on them better. On the other hand, by knowing your strengths, you can use them to your advantage, showing all your capabilities.
How to develop professional self-knowledge?
Have you come this far and realized that you are not very aware of your professional profile? We can help you with several tips!
Look at yourself
A little introspection can help you gain self-awareness. Take a few minutes to understand what you like and don’t like, and why. Therapy is also a good option.
Always seek to learn more
We learn in many ways — in this text itself, you are gaining some insights! But, in addition to reading, it is worth seeking university education (an online technology course offers you a lot of flexibility), specialization courses, online certifications; observing colleagues who inspire you; finding mentors for your career, etc.
Ask yourself where you want to go
Again, be clear about what your goal is and what success means to you. It’s common to change goals along the way, and that’s okay. What matters is being in harmony with the process and trusting your path.
Live in the present
Avoid stressing about problems that may never happen and live your day to day life, doing your best today to reap the rewards. And these rewards will always come, like learning a new tool or doing well in a presentation. That’s why focusing on the present is essential.
Embrace your vulnerability
A confident person is not perfect in everything. They know their vulnerabilities, accept them and work on them little by little, you know? That’s why self-knowledge is not about hiding your weaknesses, but rather about understanding how to grow from them.
Our final tip is to start putting all these tips into practice today, whether it’s by asking yourself where you want to go or starting a course that can help you go further. This way, you’ll be taking good steps towards self-knowledge — both personally and in your career. After all, everything is connected!
