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Think about your strengths. What are you good at?

Your strong points, skills, and interests can help you decide where and how to look for a job.

Are you good with plants, animals, or music? Very detailed with checking numbers or looking up facts? A friendly person?

Image with the subject: Think about your strengths. What are you good at? You could have strong mental skills, for example are you good with numbers? or good with details? You might have strong physical skills, for example are you very strong or fast or coordinated? You might have strong people skills, for example are you friendly, funny or outgoing? Or are you quiet, calm and a good listener? You might have special skills, for example can you type fast? or play music?

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Remember there are different ways to be smart!

It used to be that “intelligence” was described by a number called your I.Q. It stands for Intelligence Quotient. (This is measured by tests and is still used to assess people’s needs for support.)

But now they have found that different people can be smart in different ways.

In fact, there are many types of “intelligence” that people now value.

Chart showing different types of intelligence. 'spatial: visualizing the world in 3D, naturalist: understanding living things and reading nature, musical: discerning sounds, their pitch, tone, rhythm, and timbre, logical-mathematical: quantifying things, making hypotheses and proving them, existential: tackling the quesitons of why we live and why we die, interpersonal: seeing people's feelings and motives, bodily-kinesthetic: coordinating your mind with your body, linguistic: finding the right words to express what you mean, intra-personal: understanding yourself, what you feel, and what you want.

Here's what you can do:

Look at this list and think about the things that you do well, even if they are not the typical things that they test in school.

  • Are you good with plants, words, numbers or music?

  • Can you learn physical movements easily?

  • Are you good at sensing other people's moods and feelings?

You may find that you have some "smarts" that will make you a good candidate for a certain type of job!

Sources: Work of Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligence Theory; Graphic from Funders and Founders

Now think about your interests:

What makes you happy? What do you like to do? You won’t always be able to find a job that fits with your favorite things to do, but it’s worth looking at. If you’re happy, you’ll be a better worker!

Social Needs:

Do you like doing things on your own, or being around a big group of people? Or would you do better with one or two people? Think about what kind of social situation works best for you.

 

Sources: Works of Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligence Theory