Applied Organizational Studies—Knowledge,
Skills & Attitudes (KSAs)
Your best option is to visit the Career
Development Center
at MSU in Mankato
(http://www.mnsu.edu/cdc/resources/
). They have a library of general
resources, files of information on current and projected job vacancies, and
really helpful people. In addition, as a
registered student you can take the Strong Occupational Interest
Inventory. The Strong Inventory asks you
a series of questions, and then matches your interests with those of people who
are already employed. It will give you a
number of possible matches, some of which will match and some won’t. But it will get you thinking.
By the way, don’t be too quick to dismiss options that
strike you at first as “No way!” Check
them out first. When I took the Strong
Inventory (you don’t want to know how long ago), I had just left the Catholic
Seminary. The Inventory came up with
three likely matches: The Ministry (“Tried
that. No dice.”). Librarian (“Huh?”). And Psychologist (which is what I went after, earning
my BA and my MA in Psychology). In the
end, I did none of those—rather than a practicing psychologist, I became a
College teacher. But, curiously, now
that I know more about what librarians do (I thought they just shelved books
and shushed rowdy boys)—having worked with many of them in my career in the
University—I think I could have been a really good reference librarian (not
meaning that I’m not happy with what I’m doing—just that it wasn’t as much of
an off-the-wall suggestion as I had first thought).
If you can’t get to campus, there are still a number of good
resources online. The University of Waterloo (Canada) has a good (and free)
one-stop occupational inventory site at http://www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca/step1.asp
For a good (free) skills inventory, look at http://www.careerinfonet.org/acinet/skills/default.aspx?nodeid=20
. There also are a number of fee-based
skills inventories online.
So, here’s the assignment:
- Set up
a spreadsheet (on paper or digitally; preferably digitally) that lists the
7 competencies for the AOS degree down the left column, plus a last row
for “Other.” Then review your
transcript(s) and place each course in one of the 8 rows. This will be a starting point for
meeting with your advisor (and then your committee) to plan the courses
you will still need to take.
- Take
one or more of the occupational inventories, and identify at least 5
potential careers. For each one,
write a one-page analysis (bullet-points are fine)—what are the KSAs for each career?
How do your KSAs fit the profile? What additional work would you need to
do to excel in this career? And how
does this career “feel” or “fit,” from your point of view?