What Color Is Your Parachute? Part 12

I summarize this as: R = people who like nature, or plants, or animals, or athletics, or tools and machinery, or being outdoors.

2. Investigative People-Environment: filled with people who prefer activities involving "the observation and symbolic, systematic, creative investigation of physical, biological, or cultural phenomena."

I summarize this as: I = people who are very curious, liking to investigate or a.n.a.lyze things, or people, or data.

3. Artistic People-Environment: filled with people who prefer activities involving "ambiguous, free, unsystematized activities and competencies to create art forms or products."

I summarize this as: A = people who are very artistic, imaginative, and innovative, and don't like time clocks.

4. Social People-Environment: filled with people who prefer activities involving "the manipulation of others to inform, train, develop, cure, or enlighten."

I summarize this as: S = people who are bent on trying to help, teach, or serve people.

5. Enterprising People-Environment: filled with people who prefer activities involving "the manipulation of others to attain organizational or self-interest goals."

I summarize this as: E = people who like to start up projects or organizations, or sell things, or influence and persuade people.

6. Conventional People-Environment: filled with people who prefer activities involving "the explicit, ordered, systematic manipulation of data, such as keeping records, filing materials, reproducing materials, organizing written and numerical data according to a prescribed plan, operating business and data-processing machines." "Conventional," incidentally, refers to the "values" that people in this environment usually hold-representing the central mainstream of our culture.

I summarize this as: C = people who like detailed work, and like to complete tasks or projects.

According to John's theory every one of us has three preferred people-environments, from among these six. The letters, above, for your three preferred people-environments gives you what is called your "Holland Code." The question is, Which three?

Back in 1975 I invented a quick and easy way for you to find out, based on John's system. It's turned out it corresponds to the results you would get from the SDS, 92% of the time.6 So if you want a much more certain answer, you should take the SDS. But when you're in a hurry, this is close. I call it "The Party Exercise." Here is how the exercise goes (do it, please): Below is an aerial view of a room in which a party is taking place. At this party, people with the same interests have (for some reason) all gathered in the same corner of the room. And that's true for all six corners.

To download a printable PDF of this image, please visit http://rhlink.com/para14014 1. Which corner of the room would you instinctively be drawn to, as the group of people you would most enjoy being with for the longest time? (Leave aside any question of shyness, or whether you would have to actually talk to them; you could just listen.)

Write down that letter on a separate piece of paper.

2. After fifteen minutes, everyone in the corner you chose leaves for another party crosstown, except you. Of the groups that still remain now, which corner or group would you be drawn to the most, as the people you would most enjoy being with for the longest time?

Write down that letter on a separate piece of paper.

3. After fifteen minutes, this group too leaves for another party, except you. Of the corners, and groups, which remain now, which one would you most enjoy being with for the longest time?

Write down that letter on a separate piece of paper.

The three letters you just chose are called your "Holland Code."7 Now, copy that code on to the petal, My Preferred Kinds of People to Work With. And we are done (with that petal).

Time now to move on to another side of Who You Are.

I Am a Person Who ...

Can Do These Particular Things

And loves having these transferable skills. Or gifts. Or talents. Or abilities. (Or whatever you want to call them.) There is a trend these days toward speaking of your gifts in terms of categories like "action verbs," or "communication or people skills," "technical skills," "research and a.n.a.lytical skills," "management, supervision, and leadership skills," "clerical and administrative skills," "problem-solving and development skills," "financial skills," etc. I prefer breaking transferable skills down into simpler categories: are they skills with information, data, and the like, or are they skills with people, or are they skills with things?" And now, to the Petal: Third Petal WHAT I CAN DO AND LOVE TO DO (MY FAVORITE TRANSFERABLE SKILLS).

My Favorite Transferable Skills Petal

Goal in Filling Out This Petal: To discover what your transferable skills are, that can be used in any field or interest. These are your skills with people, or your skills with data, or your skills with things. They are things you probably were born knowing how to do, or at least you began with a natural gift and have honed and sharpened it since.

What You Are Looking For: Not just what you can do, but which of those skills you most love to use.

Form of the Entries on Your Petal: Verbs, usually in pure verb form (e.g. a.n.a.lyze) though they may sometimes be in gerund form (ending in -ing, e.g., a.n.a.lyzing).

Example of a Good Petal: (These stories show that I can) innovate, manipulate, a.n.a.lyze, cla.s.sify, coach, negotiate; OR (These stories show that I am good at) innovating, manipulating, a.n.a.lyzing, cla.s.sifying, coaching, negotiating.

Example of a Bad Petal: Adaptable, charismatic, reliable, perceptive, discreet, dynamic, persistent, versatile.

Why Bad: These are all traits, that is, they are the style with which you do your best, favorite, transferable skills. They are important, but they are not transferable skills. Incidentally, there is a new category floating around in the past ten years, called "soft skills." These are really just another way of speaking about traits, because examples typically given are things like "a good work ethic," "a positive att.i.tude," "acting as a team player," "flexibility," "working well under pressure," and "ability to learn from criticism."

Here, you are looking for what you may think of as the basic building-blocks of your work. So, if you're going to identify your dream job, and/or attempt a thorough career-change, you must, above all else, identify your functional, transferable skills. And while you may think you know what your best and favorite skills are, in most cases your self-knowledge could probably use a little work.

A weekend should do it! In a weekend, you can inventory your past sufficiently so that you have a good picture of the kind of work you would love to be doing in the future. (You can, of course, stretch the inventory over a number of weeks, maybe doing an hour or two one night a week, if you prefer. It's up to you as to how fast you do it.) A Crash Course on "Transferable Skills"

Many people just "freeze" when they hear the word "skills."

It begins with high school job-hunters: "I haven't really got any skills," they say.

It continues with college students: "I've spent four years in college. I haven't had time to pick up any skills."

And it lasts through the middle years, especially when a person is thinking of changing his or her career: "I'll have to go back to college, and get retrained, because otherwise I won't have any skills in my new field." Or: "Well, if I claim any skills, I'll start at a very entry kind of level."

All of this fright about the word "skills" is very common, and stems from a total misunderstanding of what the word means. A misunderstanding that is shared, we might add, by altogether too many employers, or human resources departments, and other so-called "vocational experts."

By understanding the word, you will automatically put yourself way ahead of most job-hunters. And, especially if you are weighing a change of career, you can save yourself much waste of time on the adult folly called, "I must go back to school." I've said it before, and I'll say it again: maybe you need some further schooling, but very often it is possible to make a dramatic career-change without any retraining. It all depends. And you won't really know whether or not you need further schooling, until you have finished all the exercises in this section of the book.

All right, then, if transferable skills are the heart of your vision and your destiny, let's see just exactly what transferable skills are.

Here are the most important truths you need to keep in mind about transferable, functional skills: 1. Your transferable (functional) skills are the most basic unit-the atoms-of whatever career you may choose.

Below is a famous diagram of them, invented by the late Sidney A. Fine (reprinted by his permission).

To download a printable PDF of this image, please visit http://rhlink.com/para14015 2. You should always claim the highest skills you legitimately can, on the basis of your past performance.

As we see in the functional/transferable skills diagram above, your transferable skills break down into three families, according to whether you use them with Data/Information, People, or Things. And again, as this diagram makes clear, within each family there are simple skills, and there are higher, or more complex skills, so that these all can be diagrammed as inverted pyramids, with the simpler skills at the bottom, and the more complex ones in order above it.

Incidentally, as a general rule-to which there are exceptions-each higher skill requires you to be able also to do all those skills listed below it. So of course you can claim those, as well. But you want to especially claim the highest skill you legitimately can, on each pyramid, based on what you have already proven you can do, in the past.

3. The higher your transferable skills, the more freedom you will have on the job.