I finally spent some time doing a “career exploration” exercise that had been on my to-do list forever.

Here are the results. Could this be my new resume? :)

My world view

There is a good reason for every action and opinion. It is worth investing in understanding actions and opinions that contradict your own beliefs, and being open to changing your mind (or at least respecting that other perspectives are valid). Assuming good intentions is a good way to approach this.

What I’m good at

• Maintaining a positive attitude, and helping others to do the same
• Helping to improve and maintain cohesion within teams, groups, and broader networks of people
• Helping people to feel understood, and to recognize and celebrate their accomplishments
• Keeping myself and others organized; keeping track of details
• Planning, developing strategies, and figuring out how to get started on a new project or problem that has a lot of uncertainty
• Recognizing when something isn’t working, and proposing new approaches

What I want to do in my career

I want to help people understand each other better, and formulate plans to tackle challenging projects, so that we can solve difficult problems together.

People I want to be around

I work hard, but I’m not perfect and I don’t know everything. I want to be around people who appreciate my hard work, and work hard themselves. I also want to spend time with people who have opinions and perspectives that differ from my own, and who help me to learn, grow, and improve.

Some things I’m interested in

• Software Development (risk management, strategies to improve quality)
• Sustainability (environmental, financial, health/lifestyle)

What’s next?

Use this information as a guide to assess current and future career situations, to help me capitalize on my strengths, and to maintain focus on what’s most important to me. If I were actually to use this as a resume, I’d also want to summarize my past work experiences and things I’ve learned from them. Maybe that could be a good idea for my next blog post.