Crazy Good Interviewing: How Acting A Little Crazy Can Get You The Job

Chapter 4

Everything from Soup to Nuts

Your Strengths and Limitations

When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you dream of being a big-time singer, like Frank Sinatra, Elvis, The Beatles, Cindy Lauper, Tina Turner, George Michael, Michael Jackson, Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, or Katie Perry? Or were you more idealistic, seeking to serve humanity as a surgeon, teacher, scientist, firefighter, or a police officer? Perhaps you wanted to use your hands, and you envisioned working in construction, carpentry, plumbing, or landscaping. If you liked to tinker, you probably thought about becoming an auto mechanic or an inventor. Or did your daredevil spirit give you aspirations of being a race car driver, an astronaut, or a pilot?

How does what you are doing now differ from what you wanted to do?

No matter what your career dreams were then or now, you need the right tools—talent, education, skills, aptitude, experience, or a combination thereof—to be successful. How do you know you are even cut out for your dream job? In the Assess step of the ACT Out process, you will learn how to identify your strengths and weaknesses; some are easy to determine while others are not.

To put this in the proper context, consider the analogy of being approached by a carnival barker inviting you to Test Your Strength. In this game, participants use a mallet to strike a board with all their might, forcing an object to fly upward and ring a bell. If you ring the bell, you win ...