All About Me
Introduction
Discovering the talents, passions and interests of a young person on work experience is the starting point for turning it into a work inspiration. But talking about yourself is always difficult. When you’re at school, and trying to put it in the context of a world of work that you have had no experience of, it is almost impossible.
The ‘All About Me’ Insight ensures each young person is given the time, one on one, to talk about their passions and interests.
It’s our job as employers to listen and to translate what we hear in terms of strengths and opportunities and to relate them to job competencies and skills, within our own business and the wider world of work.
To avoid the common pitfall of turning this into a mock interview - where employers are often seeking evidence or qualification to prove someone can do a job - this is about employers guiding young people irrespective of employment opportunities and making the connection between what they are learning in the classroom and the world of work.
How to make the most of the ‘All About Me’ session
Arrange for a one-to-one conversation with the young person. The objective of this session is to helpyou or your colleagues bring out their true character and passions. By the end of this session, you shouldhave established an idea of what makes them tick and what type of person they are. It is really important tothink how best to start and maintain the conversation in a way that positively engages them.
We have developed a simple framework which will help you use the discussion to begin to understandwhat sort of person they are. You may already have a structure or personality profiling tool to help youdo this which you may be able to adapt. However, what we have developed is a gentle and simple wayto create a situation where inspiration can come through. It is not a personality test or a tool for generalcareers advice, it is simply a prompt to enable you to discuss different opportunities in your business.
There are four groups of questions to use. We have provided some examples of questions in each group.Work through each set and tick the relevant word at the end to remind yourself which of the optionsbest apply. At the end of the discussion you will end up with four characteristics which will allow you tomatch that person to a list of character types.
Use the questions to draw out as much as possible about the person they are, so that you can relatethose qualities to skills and talents that are used in the workplace.
Once you have your character type you will find it again in the framework in Insight 2: Look Behind theScenes. Using Insights 1 and 2 together will enable you to show how the characteristics of the person youare talking to can relate to the roles in your world of work.
Disclaimer: The Insight is loosely based on one developed for the BBC television programme ‘What Am I Like? The Personality Test’. It is a simplified andvery loose profiling tool developed by Sheryl Karpel for Career Moves Group with Business in the Community . It is based on but in no way a replacementfor, or a part of, the full Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® questionnaire and the results are not intended to be the psychometric or practical equivalent toMBTI® questionnaire results.
You want to know if they are
/ Planners or spontaneous peopleAsk them
/ Questions that might lead you to come to a conclusion as to whether the young person is a planner or more spontaneousFor example:
•You’re going on holiday – how do you prepare for it?
•What do you do at the weekends? Tell me about your last weekend and what you did?
•Tell me about your approach to homework?
•If your teacher decided to change a lesson suddenly how does it make you feel?
Tick which best applies
/ Planners or spontaneousYou want to know if they are
/ Facts or ideas peopleAsk them
/ Questions that might lead you to come to a conclusion as to whether the young person works on facts or prefers to come up with ideasFor example:
•How do you usually give directions to your house? (detailed map or general directions)
•When you buy something new, are you an impulsive shopper or have you researched and compared prices?
•When you are asked to make a presentation at school do you enjoy doing it? Tell me about one that you’ve given recently and how you prepared for it.
•What sort of TV/films/books and magazines do you enjoy?
Tick which best applies
/ Facts or ideasYou want to know if they are
/ Head or heart peopleAsk them
/ Questions that might lead you to come to a conclusion as to whether the young person is driven more by the head - thinking - or heart - passionFor example:
•What would be the most important to if you had to decide on two schools togo to? Friends and teachers or building and curriculum?
•When you need to make a difficult decision what are the things that are mostvaluable to you in making that decision?
•If, with a group of friends, there is a disagreement, what role do you take onthis situation?
•Do you do anything in your spare time? Eg. volunteer, campaign on greenissues, care for someone, run anything, regular sports activity etc
Tick which best applies
/ Head or HeartYou want to know if they are
/ Extrovert or introvert peopleAsk them
/ Questions that might lead you to come to a conclusion as to whether the young person is an extrovert or introvertFor example:
•When meeting a new group of people how do you respond – are you the first to introduce yourself or do you wait for them to come to you?
•Give me an example of when you have found yourself being the centre of attention. How did it make you feel?
•Can you give me an example of a presentation you have given at school? Did you prepare and do it on your own or with a group of people?
•Have you ever been involved in a school production – a play, a sports day, a fund raising activity? What part did you play and why?
Tick which best applies
/ Extrovert or introvertWrite in this box the result of the categories you have ticked to identify a ‘personality type’ which will be four wordseg. Spontaneous/Ideas/Heads/Extrovert
The following groups are all the possible options you could end up with from the All About Me questions / The titles that appear here give you a simple and top line summary of the possible type of personality of the young person you have been talking to. These are the same titles used in Insight 2 that will help you link people to different types of jobsCharacteristic groups / Personality types – these same titlesand numbers appear in Insight 2
Planner/ Facts/ Heads/ Introvert / Realist (1)
Planner/ Facts/ Hearts/ Introvert / Nurturer (5)
Planner/ Ideas/ Hearts/ Introvert / Counsellor (4)
Planner/ Ideas/ Heads/ Introvert / Mastermind (8)
Planner/ Ideas/ Hearts/ Extrovert / Advisor (10)
Planner/ Facts/ Heads/ Extrovert / Supervisor (13)
Planner/ Facts/ Hearts/ Extrovert / Contributor (14)
Planner/ Ideas/ Heads/ Extrovert / Leader (16)
Spontaneous/ Facts/ Heads/ Introvert / Analyst (2)
Spontaneous/ Ideas/ Heads/ Introvert / Strategist (3)
Spontaneous/ Facts/ Hearts/ Introvert / Peacemaker (6)
Spontaneous/ Ideas/ Hearts/ Introvert / Idealist (7)
Spontaneous/ Facts/ Heads/ Extrovert / Go Getter (9)
Spontaneous/ Ideas/ Hearts/ Extrovert / Trendsetter (11)
Spontaneous/ Ideas/ Heads/ Extrovert / Big Thinker (12)
Spontaneous/ Facts/ Hearts/ Extrovert / Entertainer (15)
Once you have identified the possible type of person you have on your work placement, you can use itas the basis of a general discussion. Bear in mind that nobody is entirely one personality type only andmay exhibit attributes from others.