Home
Student Support
StrengthsQuest

Applying Talents in Career Discovery

In This Section

CliftonStrengths
Students: Discover More About You
Take the CliftonStrengths assessment
Faculty/Staff
Families and Guests
Strengths in Action
Using Your Strengths
Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
Contact a Certified WT Strengths Coach

Applying Talents in Career Discovery

The Chinese philosopher Confucius said, "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life". You will work approximately 90,000 hours from the time you graduate college to retirement at age 65. That is a lot of time to spend doing something if you dread getting up every morning. Choosing a career is about finding the right fit. Think about the following questions:

What would I love to do, if I didn't have to worry about making money and if I knew I could not fail?

What energizes you and gets you out of bed in the morning?

Where do you find deep gladness in your life? Are there things you like to do? Things that come fairly easy to you, and when finished, you have more energy than when you started?

Is there a need that catches your attention? What part of the world's deep hunger moves your heart?

What brings you great gladness? What things bring energy to your life?

Below is a list of the 34 talents. Find those in your top 5 and click on each one to review the tips for exploring career opportunities. Contact Office of Career and Professional Development to schedule time to visit with one of their Gallup Certified CliftonStrengths Coaches.

Achiever

Applying Achiever Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Achiever talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Take time to extablish clear and relevant objectives that will guide your intense efforts.
Make a list of the steps to take in choosing a career, beginning with a visit to Career Services. The list - and being able to cross items off it as you follow through on them - will give you a sense of direction as well as a deep sense of accomplishment.
Choose work environments that challenge you. Opt for situations where your success is measured each day.
Work environments that provide incentives for quality and productivity are likely to bring out your best efforts.
Find a place where your productivity, stamina, intensity, and drive for completion will make you a valued team member.

Activator

Applying Activator Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Activator talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Look for part-time jobs, work-study on campus, or volunteer opportunities where you can "try on" a career that looks interesting to you.
Identify formal or informal leadership roles where your talents can flourish. Persuade coworkers or organization members that they can increase productivity, solve problems, launch programs, overcome obstacles, and bounce back from defeat.
Activators are good at the starting line. Look for work environments that will reward you for getting people out of the blocks quickly.
Consider becoming your own boss. Make a list of possible businesses you could start, grow and well once they show a profit. Understand that you may lose interest once an enterpirse is so fine-tuned to the point that it runs on its own.
Understand that some supervisors and managers may feel threatened by your insistence on making decisions and acting without delay. You will do best in an environment where quick decision-making is valued and there is not a lot of hierarchical structure.

Adaptability

Applying Adaptability Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Adaptability talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Shadow people in careers that are attractive to you and watch how they continually respond to the varied requests of their customers or clients.
Identify three to four occupations that reward those with an ability to live in the moment. Avoid professions that require rigid adherence to rules, operating procedures, and time controls. You may thrive in chaos.
Interview individuals who have jobs that demand flexibility and a comfort with rapid change. Possibly those who work in an organization where the work is experimental or discovery-oriented. Ask how each day assumes its own life.
Gain part-time or seasonal employment in organizations where the demand for flexibility exists hour-by-hour and day-by-day. Pay attention to ways in which your Adaptability talents benefit you in these settings.
Reflect upon "wrong fit" jobs you have had in the past. Determine whether your Adaptability talent was viewed as a plus or as a liability. Start a "right fit" career file. Each week, add an insight about how you used your Adaptability talent. Draw upon this information when writing resumes and preparing for job interviews.

Analytical

Applying Analytical Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Analytical talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a job that requires a lot of analysis or weighing evidence. Obvious career fields such as accounting, finance, law, forensics, engineering, sciences, business management, computer technology, and journalism are worthy of consideration.
Explore jobs that allow you to make decisions based on your evaluation of facts, data, tangible evidence, and research findings.
Working with data and systems analysis, engaging in research, and critiquing ideas tend to bring out your best.
Select careers that permit you to sharpen your ability to determine the existence of cause-adn-effect relationships on a daily basis.
Ask good questions of people who are currently in careers that interest you. One hallmark of Analytical talents is the quality of your questions. Put that to good use in selecting a career.

Arranger

Applying Arranger Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Arranger talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

People who are especially talented in the Arranger theme often arrange and rearrange bits and pieces until a pattern emerges. This talent can be useful in career planning. Map out a success plan for your education - arrange and rearrange it to accommodate all possible scenarios as your think about careers that interest you.
Environments that give you contact with people and allow you the freedom and flexibility to work with others and plan events will allow you Arranger talents to flourish.
Talk to event planners, travel agents, human resource directors, city managers, or case work supervisors. Ask them what they enjoy most about their daily work.
You may be a whiz at juggling schedules and people. Environments that call upon these talents may often be very rewarding to you.
Consider being an agent of change. Interview individuals who regularly turn around bad situations by redeploying resources, readjusting timelines, and realigning priorities. Ask them how they know it is tie for them to move to another role.

Belief

Applying Belief Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Belief talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Seek employment in companies and organizations that exhibit a strong sense of mission - that is, a commitment to positively impacting the quality of people's lives.
Compare an entity's mission statement to what it produces or the services it provides. Verify that its guiding princples and its outcomes are in sync.
Research opportunities in helping professions such as medicine, law enforcement, social work, refugee relocation, teaching, ministry, and search-and-rescue. Talk with people who provide those services.
Have a mentor, and be a mentor. Understand that this increases your chances for your behaviors, decisions, and beliefs to remain constant.
Workplaces that respect your commitment to your family and allow for a balance between work and family demands will enabel you to thrive.

Command

Applying Command Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Command talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Leverage your persuasiveness when choosing a career. Consider fields such as law, entrepreneurship, sales, politics, education, medicine, and ministry.
Explore opportunities in sales. Determine what kind of products and services you would and would not enjoy selling.
Assume a role that permits you to create and control your own and others' work. Environments that encourage your leadership will bring out your best.
Hone your Command talents by filling formal and informal leadership roles in organizations. Ask for feedback from others in the group.
Your comfort in "calling the shots" can be especially useful in crises. Environments that regularly deal with crises or rapid decision making will allow your Command talents to flourish.

Communication

Applying Command Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Communication talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose careers that will allow you to do a lot of talking, such as teaching, broadcast journalism, consulting, politics, public relations, and ministry.
Explore opportunities to serve as the spokespeson for an organization, product, political candidate, compay, school district, hospital, or elected official.
Explore sales positions that require making presentations.
Opt for a career as a professional storyteller, a motivational speaker, trainer or librarian who reads stories to children.
Look for environments that allow for significant interaction on a daily basis. Steer clear of environments that do not offer this as they might drain your energy.

Competition

Applying Competition Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Competition talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose work environments that challenge you and in which your success can be quantified with scores, ratings, and rankings. Avoid situations lacking meaningful, objective measurement criteria.
Decide whether you prefer to compete as an individual or as a team member. Select employment that matches your preference either for total or shared control over final results.
Positions that reward your achievement and offer status or prestige are liely to bring out your best.
Talk to sales reps, politicians, lawyers, athletes, and business leaders about what they enjoy most in their work.
Search for jobs that offer incentives for best performance, financial bonuses, trophies, trips, promotions, rings, cars, or learning opportunities to enhance your performance in ways that ard work and long hours cannot.

Connectedness

Applying Connectedness Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Connectedness talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Use service learning opportunities on campus to explore possible careers that interest you. Spend your summers volunteering or working for humanitarian causes to determine the best fit for your talents.
Consider dedicating a couple of years after graduation to serving with a group such as Habitat for Humanity, the Peach Corps, Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), AmeriCorps, or Teach for America.
Working in fields and for organizations whose values mirror your own will enable you to feel the deep sense of meaning that is important to you.
Envrionments that allow you to interact with others and help them find meaning and purpose will bring out your best. Avoid environments that emphasize routine procedures or rote skills as they may drain you.
Talk to a mentor about the connections you see between volunteer opportunities, your values, and your mission in life. This relationship can provide a valuable sounding board through which you can articulate the connectios that you see so naturally.

Consistency

Applying Consistency Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Consistency talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Work in environments that have regulations, policies, procedures, and guidelines firmly established. Realize that you are most effective and efficient when everyone, regardless of status, must follow the same rules.
Environments that are structured, predictable, and detail-oriented are likely to appeal to you. Search for environements where loyalty is valued and equally applied policies are the norm, as this emphasis on consistency will enable you to get more done.
Research roles in quality assurance, risk management, safety compliance, law enforcement, and human resource analysis.
Gravitate to careers in fields such as accounting tax law, manufacturing, and government service.
Explore positions where careful monitoring of the bidding process, contract specifications, and open meetings laws are critical to success.

Context

Applying Context Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Context talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Talk to your mentor and those in jobs that interest you. Ask them to tell you about their job searches. What led htem to choose their particular careers?
Specialize in geneaolog. Help people trace their family's lineage for purposes of membership in an organization or to prove their relationship for historic or legal purposes.
Join the National Park Service and specialize in giving guided tours of historic sites. Oversee the ongoing maintenance of hte property and its collection of artifacts and documents.
Your Context talents are likely to flourish in environments that allow you to explore how things came to be the way they are.
Collegial environments with strong traditions, rituals, and a sense of organizational history will ofte bring out your best efforts.

Deliberative

Applying Deliberative Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Deliberative talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Collect as much information as you can about the careers that interest you. Search occupational handbooks, lists in occupational guides, and online sources. Take the time to think things through, possibly listing the pros and cons of careers that interest you.
Environments in which you can independently conduct thorough analyses are likely to help you be most effective.
You likely are a good questioner of actions, helping others to think through their decisions before moving ahead too quickly.
Work in organizations and in roles where you can be independent.
You are a good questioner of actions, helping others to think through their decisions before moving ahead too quickly.

Developer

Applying Developer Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Developer talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

You will be most satisfied in a career that provides some type of service to people or in which organizational success is based on interpersonal relationships and your ability to help people be successful.
Choose a job in which you can work in teams or partnerships so that you can help others grow and develop.
Consider a career in counseling, human resources, teaching, or management. you have a talent for noting people's progress and for helping them become even better at what they do.
Talk to counselors, teachers, speech therapists, athletic coaches, acting coaches, life coaches, and those who work in Career or Advising Services to find out what they enjoy most about their work.

Discipline

Applying Discipline Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Discipline talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Collect all the information you might need about making a career choice. Use your natural discipline to organize it as you prepare to make a decision.
Lay out all the steps of the career planning process and follow them one by one. Put the steps on a timeline, as timelines often motivate you.
Take on a career in which you can maintain order for yourself and others.
You will be appreciated in most work environments because you follow through and you work systematically.
In may ways you are a perfectionist. While some may criticize your perfectionism,just think of all the professions in which you wouldn't want someone who wasn't a perfectionist (e.g., airplane pilot, brain surgeon, accountant).

Empathy

Applying Empathy Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Empathy talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Environments that provide regular social interaction and opportunity to collaborate with others will allow your Empathy talents to flourish.
Look for a job in which you need to work as part of a team. You will understand team members, support them, and help them work together.
Listening is one of your greatest skills. By listening to the feelings of others, you help them become clearer and less conflicted.
The "emotional tone" of your work environment is important. You might find that surrounding yourself with others who are positive and upbeat is highly rewarding.
Seek work environments in which emotions are valued and not repressed.

Focus

Applying Focus Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Focus talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Set specific goals for your career planning. What do you want to achieve by the time you graduate? This attention to your destination and how you will get there will be very engaging and will provide great benefits.
You will be most satisfied in a career that has identifiable goals, purposes, and objectives, and one that provides opportunities to meet your own loger-term goals.
You are capable of prolonged concentration and persistence, which flourishes in environments with few interruptions and little need to multi-task.
Structured environments that are predictable, detail-oriented, and reward your dependability and follow-through are likely to bring out your best.

Futuristic

Applying Futuristic Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Futuristic talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Dream big. Write down your dreams and continue to make pregress toward your biggest dreams.
Find an organization where you can create the fuure, painting vivid pictures for those who work there, helping them see the role they will take in making this vision become reality.
Choose a career in which you can help others envision their future and define their goals to reach it.
Evironments that reward vision and creativity, allowing you freedom to dream and invent, are likely to enable your Futuristic talents to flourish.
Talk to architects, designers, commercial artists, city planners and others whose careers provide the opportunity to envision the future. Ask them what they most enjoy about their work.

Harmony

Applying HarmonyTalents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Harmony talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Look for environments where consensus is the preferred strategy for decision-making and where you can work your magic behind the scenes.
Collaborative environments in which you can surround yourself with others dedicated to win-win solutions will allow your Harmony talents to flourish.
You work well and are helpful in team project environments. You help others work together even more productively. You help promote emotional stability and calmness in the group.
Environments that lack structure or are unpredictable from day to day, or that demand high levels of creativity, are not as likely to be comfortable for you.

Ideation

Applying Ideation Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Ideation talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Ideation talents are all about creativity. Freely imagine yourself on graduation day - and five years after that. What are you doing? How did you create the opportunity?
Build on your creativity to find a career that encourages you to think freely and express your ideas.
Environments that reward your creativity and give you the time, space, and freedom to experiment and dream will bring out your best. Often these environments are fast-paced and freewheeling, allowing you to run your ideas past others on a daily basis.
You will be able to find new and better ways of doing things within the organization and may be of assistance in strategic planning exercises.
Select an organization where the leaders encourage and solicit your divergent thinking, stimulating them to consider some new approaches.

Includer

Applying Includer Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Includer talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a career where you can supercise or lead a group of people because you will build a sense of team and belonging.
Environments where you can play a welcoming rold, such as in orienting new employees or recruiting minortiy staff, can allow your Includer talents to flourish.
Working with a group that is not always included by others, such as physically or mentally challenged children or the homeless, will allow you to use your talents to help others.
Talk to youth workders, occupational therapists, social workers, special education teachers, and missionaries to learn what they find most rewarding about their work.

Individualization

Applying IndividualizationTalents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Individualization talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Your talents can be useful on search committees and in recruiting processes, as you are able to see ways in which people's talents can fit particular roles.
Careers in which you could work one-on-one with people would allow your individualization talents to flourish, as you see each one as a distinct person and empower them to grow.
As a supervisor or manager, you would help individuals determine what they could do what they do best on a regular basis. Your evaluations would be based on who the person is and on what he or she had accomplished.
Environments in which you can mentor others or provide feedback to individuals about their performance may bring out your best.

Input

Applying Input Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Input talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Collect as much information as you can about the careers that interest you. Go online, read books, collect all the brochures at career fairs. The more information you gather, the better your decision will be.
You will enjoy a career where you are always on the cutting edge of knowledge and where you are stimulated by ideas and creative approaches to problems and issues.
Environments that give you the freedom to pursue threads of information and that focus on informed decision-making are likely to bring out your best.
Choose jobs that require you to be an expert collector and consumer of research. This type of environment will energize you.
Being a media coordinator or someone with access to large amounts of information that you can locate for people would be rewarding for you.

Intellection

Applying Intellection Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Intellection talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

A work environment where you have time and space to think and reflect before responding will bring out your best. A fast-paced environment where there is pressure to sell or to follow routine procedures will not be as comfortable for you as one that allows and rewards thought and reflection.
Choose a work environment that matches your most productive thinking environment. If working with others stimulates your thinking, choose to work in a team environment.
Select work in which you can share ideas and pose questions. Avoid environments where you cannot challenge the status quo or where operating procedures are completely rigid.
Environments in which you can interact with colleagues and have philosophical debates will be most satisfying to you and enable you to be productive.

Learner

Applying Learner Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Learner talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a work environment that encourages constant learning or where study is a way of life.
Many college and university professors have exceptional Learner talents. Interview your favorite professors about what they find rewarding in their work.
Select work where competency is valued and where you will have opportunities to keep developing your competencies.
Consider work that allows you to move to the next subject that greatly interests you.
Go to Career Services and take several different career inventories. What does each on tell you about your interests? What career possibilities do they suggest for you to explore? Your enjoyment of this self-discovery can motivate and guide you.

Maximizer

Applying Maximizer Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Maximizer talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a career that allows you to improve on the qualities you already have.
You are someone for whom "talent talk" comes naturally - it's the way you see the world as you capitalize on your own and others' talents.
Find environments that encourage "best practices" and in which you can work collaboratively with others to continually improve the organization.
Find work in which you can help others see their talents and how their talents make a difference.
Interview business leaders and athletic or executive coaches, and ask what they find most rewarding about their work. Find out how they bring out the best in others.

Positivity

Applying Positivity Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Positivity talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

You will thrive in work environments that are fun, fast-paced and people-oriented.
Choose work for which you have a passion.
Choose a career where you can encourage and help others be more effective, like coaching, selling or managing.
Relaxed, social, pleasant environments where your optimism and sense of humor will be appreciated are likely to bring out your best.

Relator

Applying Relator Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Relator talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Careers in which in-depth, meaningful relationships are valued are likely to be most rewarding for you.
Find a workplace in which friendships are encouraged and you can continuously learn about your clients and associates.
Stable work environments where you can work with people you trust but also develop multiple levels of relationships probably will bring out your best.
Consider coaching, teaching, managing, supervising, and caregiving as possible outlets for your talent.

Responsibility

Applying Responsibility Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Responsibility talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Select work where you can be given more and more responsibility as you progressively achieve.
Managing others could be a frustrating experience for you as their standards of responsibility might not match your own.
Choose a work environment that focuses on outcomes rather than processes.
Ensure that future employers know how much they can count on you. You often take the initiative, and you always follow through, so you do not need a lot of supervision.

Restorative

Applying Restorative Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Restorative talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a profession where deficits are remedied.
Consider a service position where you can help others solve their problems.
Volunteer your time in an organization that needs someone to "breathe new life" into their work. This is often what you do best.
Look for work opportunities that allow you to fix whatever is wrong, from restoring art objects to cars to inadequate phone service.

Self-Assurance

Applying Self-Assurance Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Self-Assurance talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Workplaces and tasks that challenge you and provide you with freedom are likely to energize you.
Environments that focus on prominent or critical projects that could intimidate others seem to bring out your best.
You don't have a great need for direction or support from others which makes you particularly effective in situations that call for independence of thought and action.
Don't be afraid to trust your instincts and take risks in your career.

Significance

Applying Significance Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Significance talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Environments in which you and your significant contribution are visible to others and in which you receive recognition for a job well done are likely to bring out your best.
Seek opportunities to work with people you respect because they are professional, credible, and successful.
Consider work that puts you in the public eye.
Environments in which you are given flexibility to do things your own way are likely to bring out your best.
Identify the specific talents which will help you make an extraordinary contribution to your organization and create opportunities to build on them.

Strategic

Applying Strategic Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Strategic talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Environments that are flexible and encourage creative thought and strategy will bring out your best. Opportunities to see the big picture and plan new approaches will energize you.
Your ability to create new programs and generate multiple alternatives will be an asset to any organization you join.
Consider careers which allow for understanding situations, effective problem solving, and the use of logic to build support. Fields such as psychology, law and consulting might be good options.
Environments that allow originality and focus more on teh outcomes than on specific procedures will allow your Strategic talents to flourish.

Woo

Applying Woo Talents in Careers

These observations and suggestions will help you consider careers that could best suit Woo talents. As you think them over, select those that appeal to you most.

Choose a career in which you can constantly meet new people.
Consider environments that value the ability to persuade or sell.
Select a career that requires you to quickly form relationships and draw people to you.
Talk to entertainers, corporate trainers, sales reps, attorneys and public relations specialists to see what they enjoy most about their work.

Notice

This page contains copyright content from Gallup, Inc. Used with permission. Gallup®, StrengthsQuest®, Clifton StrengthsFinder® and the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder theme names and descriptions are trademarks of Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.