転職で役立つ自己分析の方法を紹介|自己分析をする理由や注意点についても解説Introduces methods of self-analysis that can be useful in a career change - explains the reasons for self-analysis and what to look out for.

By gaining a deeper understanding of your strengths, weaknesses and values through self-assessment, you can find the right workplace and make the most of your job search. However, many people may not know where to start when they want to carry out self-analysis.

This article therefore introduces methods of self-analysis that can help you in your job change. The article also provides detailed information on the reasons for self-analysis and points to consider during self-analysis, so if you are considering changing jobs, please refer to this article.

Self-assessment is the process of analysing your personality, values, abilities, experience and interests to understand your strengths and appeal points. Self-analysis will help you to clarify what kind of work you are suited to, what kind of work you find rewarding and what kind of company culture and environment you fit into.

If you do not carry out sufficient self-analysis, you are more likely to jump into a new job that does not match your own desires and requirements. As a result, you will be at increased risk of not being satisfied with your job, not fitting in or not performing well in the workplace. This is detrimental not only to yourself, but also to the company and those around you.

There are three main reasons for carrying out self-analysis when changing jobs
 

• To clarify your appeal points
• To find a suitable new job
• To be more specific in your interview answers.

Let's look at them one by one.

To clarify their own appeal points

One of the reasons why self-analysis is necessary when changing jobs is to identify your appeal points. Your appeal points are those aspects of your skills, experience, personality and values that you consider superior to others.

In order to make the hiring manager want to work with you in a situation where there are many rivals, you need to be able to concretely communicate these strengths and show how you are "a necessary human resource for the company".

To this end, it is important to conduct a thorough self-analysis, understand your strengths and clarify how you can play an active role in the company you are changing jobs with.

To find a suitable new job for themselves

Self-analysis is essential to find the right job for you. There are two perspectives on choosing a job: the job you want to do and the job you are suited to.

It would be good if what you want to do and what you are suited to are equal, but this is not always the case. For example, if you change jobs in pursuit of what you want to do, but then actually start working, you may find that your skills do not match the job description, or that the way of working is different from what you had imagined, creating a gap between your ideal and reality and forcing you to change jobs again.

To avoid such gaps, it is important to carry out a thorough self-analysis and understand exactly what kind of job you can make use of your skills and experience and in what kind of environment you can make the most of your strengths.

In addition, as a result of your self-analysis, you may realise that a job you had never considered before is actually suited to you. To avoid suffering from gaps after you join a company, make sure you carry out a self-analysis beforehand.

To be more specific in their answers during the interview

Self-analysis is important so that when the interviewer asks you a question, you can explain your experiences and achievements with specific episodes, rather than giving vague answers.

To begin with, the interviewer wants to know the following about the applicant
 

• Who the applicant is.
• What strengths does the applicant have?
• Why the applicant wants to work for the company
• How the applicant can contribute to the company

In order to provide concrete answers to these questions, you must have an accurate understanding of yourself and be able to put it into words.

Citing specific stories will make your story more believable and persuasive, and will also help you to gain a clearer understanding of your abilities.

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Self-assessment in a career change generally involves the following steps
 

• Take stock of your own skills and career
• Identify your interests and concerns
• Analysing your own personality
• Objectively summarise your strengths and attractiveness
• Clarify your vision for the future

From this point onwards, each step will be broken down into specifics.

1. take stock of your own skills and career

First, reflect on your own skills and career that you have developed. List your past work duties, projects you have worked on, skills and qualifications you have acquired, etc.
 

• Past work history
• Qualifications held
• Skills (e.g. technical skills, business skills)
• Strengths/achievements
• Weaknesses/challenges

The purpose of this inventory is to systematically organise the skills and experience you have developed and to clarify your strengths and areas of expertise. However, many people with limited working experience may feel that they have no special skills or experience.

However, a career inventory does not only look back on experiences in which you have achieved any results or engaged in any special tasks, but also includes the tasks you perform on a daily basis.

Even if you are working on the same tasks, the way you approach them, the ways you devise them and the lessons you learn are different for everyone. Therefore, it is important to dig deeper into the type of work you were doing, how you carried it out and what you learnt. By digging deeper, it is easier to discover abilities you may not have realised you had and what you are suited to.

2. identify confident interests and concerns

The next step is to identify your own interests and concerns. The purpose of this is to delve deeper into your personal hobbies and activities, as well as your work, to find skills that you may be able to utilise in the workplace.

For example, interpersonal skills gained through interaction with peers who share similar interests, or knowledge pursued through personal interests, may be a valuable resource in taking on new roles and responsibilities in the workplace. In this way, skills learned from your own experiences and hobbies can often be applied to work in unexpected ways and can open up new career paths.

When conducting a self-assessment, make a detailed list of what you have spent your time doing and what activities you have found interesting in your life, and consider how these relate to your business skills and future career goals.

3. analyse your own personality.

Once you have organised your skills and career, the next step is to analyse your personality. Each job requires different personalities and abilities. In addition to skills and experience, companies also look at the applicant's personality and values during the recruitment process.

Whether you fit into the organisation's culture and whether you can work well within a team is also a factor to be evaluated, so you must be able to explain in detail how your personality will positively affect the job during the job interview.

To this end, it is important to understand what kind of work you are suited to, what kind of work you find rewarding, what kind of environment or team structure you can best demonstrate your abilities in, and what areas need improvement.

Specifically, reflecting on your personality from the following perspectives will make it easier to find the right job or workplace for you.

4. summarise objectively your own strengths and attractiveness

Once you have analysed your own personality, the next step is to objectively verbalise your strengths and attractiveness based on the information you have identified so far.

For example, if your strength is that you can keep taking action without giving up, flesh out specific episodes in which you utilised this strength, and write down the learnings and achievements you gained from these episodes.

In an interview, simply stating that "my strength is 00" will not be convincing. It is important to be specific about how your strengths can be utilised in the company you are applying to.

5. clarify the vision for the future.

As a final step, remember why you started thinking about changing jobs and be clear about where you want to be in the future and what you are trying to achieve by changing jobs.

It is important to consider not only negative reasons such as "I don't get on with my boss" or "I've been working here for a long time and my salary hasn't increased", but also positive reasons such as "I want to utilise my skills and take my career to the next stage".

By setting as specific a goal as possible, you will have a basis for deciding what kind of industry or position will lead to the future you want.

There are four main points to pay particular attention to when conducting a self-analysis
 

• Avoid abstract expressions
• Convert negative aspects into positive expressions
• Try to do a self-analysis of other people
• Brush up regularly.

Explain each one in detail.

Avoid abstract expressions.

When conducting a self-analysis, you are required to delve deeply into and understand your own strengths and experiences. The key here is to avoid abstract expressions and to describe your personality and abilities in a specific and unique way.

If you rely on generic phrases or commonly used expressions, you will not convey your value and, as a result, it will be difficult to differentiate yourself from other applicants. For example, when describing yourself and your motivation for applying for a job, it is effective to clearly state your specific goals and what you want to achieve, rather than just saying 'I want to develop my career'.

In terms of your own strengths, you should not just say that you are 'cooperative', but also show how you have actually worked together in a team to achieve results, and if you want to show that you have a 'sense of responsibility', you can make your words more convincing by showing how you have fulfilled your responsibilities in specific situations.

The following are examples of abstract and concrete expressions that can be used to demonstrate that you have good problem-solving skills.

[Abstract expression.
I am a good problem solver.

[Concrete expression.
In my previous position as a project manager, I quickly and accurately resolved problems that arose during the course of a project, leading the project to a successful conclusion. When a problem occurred, I gathered all relevant parties to analyse the situation, and considered and implemented a solution.

Convert negative aspects into positive expressions.

A self-assessment can reveal not only your strengths, but also your weaknesses and disadvantages. In doing so, you may be able to turn a negative point into a strength by converting it into a positive expression, rather than simply viewing the weakness or disadvantage as negative.

Examples of converting weaknesses into strengths are as follows.
 

Also conduct a self-analysis.

Self-analysis is an objective analysis of your own personality, strengths and weaknesses by those around you.

Self-analysis is conducted from your own perspective and tends to be subjective. On the other hand, in a self-analysis, you can obtain objective opinions from the people around you, which enables you to discover new strengths and weaknesses that you did not notice in the self-analysis.

When conducting a self-analysis, it is effective to ask people who are as close to you as possible. For example, friends and family members who have known you for many years have a good understanding of your personality and are likely to give you an accurate opinion. You can also ask your boss or colleagues to find out about your strengths and weaknesses at work.

Brush up regularly.

Self-assessment is not a one-off event and needs to be regularly reviewed and updated. As you gain experience in the working world, many changes occur in your surroundings, your relationships and your own career development.

Along with these changes, your own values and thinking also change on a daily basis. It is therefore important not to stick to the results of past self-analyses, but to regularly analyse yourself based on the latest information. By taking into account your most recent work experience and the evaluations of those around you, you may be able to discover new strengths and appeal points.

Brushing up on these new points of appeal on a regular basis will enable you to get an up-to-date picture of yourself and clarify the direction of your career. You will also be able to accurately express your 'present state' and express yourself with confidence when updating your CV and presenting yourself at interviews.

In this article, we have introduced a method of self-analysis that can help you in your career change.

Self-assessment is essential for gaining a deep understanding of your strengths, weaknesses, values, interests and career goals, and for identifying the right job and industry for you. Deepening your self-understanding will also help you to use it in the preparation of your CV and resume, and in your personal PR during interviews, so take the time to reflect on yourself carefully.

At United World Inc., dedicated career advisors work closely with each individual to support their job search. After carefully listening to your detailed requirements and career plans, we will introduce you to the best job opportunities that suit you, so please feel free to contact us if you want to move forward with your job search efficiently.

Talk to United World about 
career change.