Discover your interests

Learning objectives and the skills developed

• To find out more about professional interests
• To learn about personality types

Materials:

Pens, markers, flipchart paper sheets, A4 sheets

Presentation:

1. Ask the participants to draw on a piece of paper what they like to do / what they enjoy to do, and then, after they finish, ask them to present themselves as “My name is and I like to…”.
2. After the presentations are done, initiate the discussion on interests by asking the participants about how they know / how they discovered what they like
   For instance, they might say “I like to.. because I am good at it” or “I like to… because I am doing this since I was a child” or “I like to… because it is easy for me to do it” or “I like to.. because I feel happy when I do it”, etc.).
3. Starting from their answers, explain what interests are (what you like to do) and why these are important in choosing a career. Explain them that interests are coming from various sources: heredity, learning experiences, preferences, specific abilities, previous successes obtained, etc. And these can be identified by factors such as: how much time one spends in one activity, how often one returns to that activity, how involved is one person in an activity, how much often one speaks about a specific activity, how much happiness one feels when performing an activity, how long one person keeps the hobby, etc.
4. Mention that there are tests to discover an own personality type. Example can be the Holland test (you can find more below, in a fact box). The participant can find out more about the test at home, at this link: http://personality-testing.info/tests/RIASEC/. The test licence allow you to use it only for educational purposes (learning about Holland’s theory), and not as psychological advice.
   Majority of the people have one of the six personality types, in regards to their interests: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.
5. Finally, explain the differences between: traits (how you are), values (what is important to you), skills (what you learn to do), interests (what you like to do). These could help young participants to redefine their CVs/resumes.

Follow-up questions:

• How do you understand / explain now the “interests” you present at the beginning of the meeting?
• What type of jobs do you think will suit you?

Possible Variations:

For step 1., you could ask the participant to talk about the job they want to have in the future, instead of their interest / hobby. Then, starting from the jobs they mention, you will start the discussion on interests.