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Beth Person

7. Reviewing Strengths & Boosting Job Search Readiness

Organization Demo

Introduction 00

By now you very likely have had some experiences with on-campus interviewing (OCI) and are developing a better sense of what sort of legal professional you hope to become. Yet getting this into sharper focus would help you feel better prepared and more at ease as you plan the next steps in your career plan. Reviewing the sort of thinking, working, motivational, and business development style you possess, as well as digging into how these qualities intersect with the sort of work environments and core values that feel right for you, will foster greater self-awareness and support your overall job search readiness. Utilize the material in this report and the accompanying activities to assess your job “fit-factor” and to better align yourself with those career possibilities that will bring out your best.

01 Authentic Career Alignment

This section uses your personality type to help illustrate what sort of work aligns you

In this section, you will see how your personality type represents the values you hold and how that coincides with which working environments will fit you best. Finding a career that aligns with your values and provides a suitable environment for your personality type will lead to a more fulfilling and productive career.

Based upon her personality type, Beth should consider these industries and professions:

There are several opportunities to demonstrate competence
The work allows you to utilize your natural ability to analyze and make objective, logical decisions
The work involves theory and speculation
The work involves creativity, imagination and a creative approach to problem solving
The work involves looking beyond the present i.e., future possibilities, future products, future actions
The work is not limited to what exists today but involves "what may be" and "what could be"

Those with Beth's personality prefer careers in which:

Management allows people to be self-directed
The culture appreciates fair but tough decision-making
The work offers the opportunity to rapidly change direction and to respond to problems as they arise
The work is fun and allows for some spontaneity
You can apply your natural ability to focus and concentrate, rather than multitasking
The environment allows for freedom and flexibility and is loosely structured without too many rules
The environment, culture and pace allow you to consider things fully before having to respond
The work allows you to work at a careful steady pace
The work allows you adequate private time to work alone and to concentrate
The environment allows for freedom and flexibility and is loosely structured without too many rules

Authentic Career Alignment Authors
Original work by: Michael Robinson © Step Research Corporation

02 Four Styles of Working as a Lawyer

This section takes a look at your Thinking, Working, Motivational, and Business Development Styles to highlight your natural abilities, core values, preferred work environments, and how these fit within the practice of law.

This section details a person's natural abilities, core values and preferred work environments, including the cultural factors and management styles that will lead to a good fit.

A list of the natural talents and abilities common to individuals with this person's personality type is listed below; any new job, career, or work setting that they are considering will hopefully leverage many of these natural talents and abilities.

Thinking Style

Comfortable in the abstract and concrete: Beth is comfortable working through complex, multidimensional issues as well as simple, more concrete problems.
Straight-forward: She prefers to work on matters that follow a straight-forward path or fall within a pre-defined, predictable scope.
Habitual, routine: Beth exhibits comfort in following a predictable or routine pattern over seeking new experiences.
Logical: Beth defaults to logic and critical thinking when analyzing an issue. She is adept at pattern recognition and reasoning.
Optimistic: Beth tends to have a positive outlook towards life and events and she focuses in on the good in people or situations. This disposition is helpful for getting along with others and often leads to general happiness with one's career and life. Caution: Beth must remember to consider what might go wrong (play devil's advocate) when advocating legal issues or working on business transactions to ensure she is properly representing the client fully. Focusing only on the positive outcome will negatively affect one's representation of the client's best interest.
Risk averse: Beth tends to prefer conventional or well-established methods that will produce an expected outcome to a matter or transaction as opposed to methods that may potentially lead to failure.
Skeptical but not jaded: She tends to be somewhat skeptical, particularly when considering the motives of opposing parties/counsel. This is an important trait for making informed judgments in client situations.

Working Style

Can perform with or without direction: Beth is able to get the job done with minimal input but will not resist direction or guidance.
Respectful debater: Beth often enjoys the challenge of convincing others but will tolerate others maintaining their point of view. She does not necessarily need to believe in their arguments, but it helps.
More sympathetic than empathetic: Beth is capable of intellectually appreciating another person's experience, but is less adept at genuinely connecting with another's experience emotionally. She may not recognize more subtle aspects of communication.
Can solve problems in group or alone: Beth is comfortable solving problems in either a group setting or alone, depending upon the situation and availability of others.
Collegial: Beth performs well as a teammate but can also step away from the group and continue to perform well on her own.
Prefers closure on tasks before changing gears: Beth is capable of multitasking but her preferred work style is one or two important initiatives at a time. Beth can demonstrate urgency, but prefers to work at a steady pace.

Motivational Style

Strong facade: Beth is capable of handling criticism or rejection but may question her convictions and experience some feelings of insecurity.
Goal-setter: Beth frequently sets goals for planning purposes or for measuring personal or organizational success. For her, goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about the future, and for motivating herself to turn this vision of the future into reality. Multiple studies have shown that goal-setting has been found to be common among highly successful people.
Diligent: She tends to persevere through difficult circumstances in life and career. This is an important trait in the practice of law and especially for working in the large law firm environment.
Confident: She is confident in her abilities but occasionally will seek validation from others.
Proactive: Beth frequently takes initiative on tasks without requiring instruction or supervision of others. A lawyer with strengths in this area will typically recognize the need to complete a task, develop a plan for completing the task, and begin executing towards completion of the task all on one's own.

Business Development Style

Client sympathetic when focused: Beth is capable of recognizing and understanding another's experience but does not always leave them with a genuine sense of having been understood. She can adjust her behavior based on the interpersonal situation, but this tends to require a conscious effort.
Can listen well when focused: Although Beth listens to others and may pick up the facts in a conversation, she may miss the subtleties and may be inclined to fill in any gaps with her own assumptions.
Poised, commanding: Beth exhibits a sense of ease, poise, and self-assurance. She can "turn it on" to command a room or conversation with a compelling energy and attitude. When used purposefully this can be a highly effective tool for professional interactions.
Sociable when needed: Beth is comfortable in social situations and she appreciates the benefit of networking, but both require effort.

Four Styles of Working as a Lawyer Authors
Original work by: Sterling Bates Mark Levin Karl Schmitt © Step Research Corporation

03 Practice Area Detailed Fit Analysis

This chapter shows how you fit in different practice areas based on your scores from the Sheffield Assessment

To help you assess how you might fit in different practice areas, this chapter shows how your results on the Sheffield Assessment compare to those of our sample of satisfied attorneys working in 24 different practice areas.

The Practice Area Detailed Analysis summarizes your results by comparing you to our sample in two key ways. Highlighted are the three traits where your scores are most similar to our practice area samples and the three traits where your scores are least similar. In addition, the right side of your display takes into account your scores on all 22 traits on the Sheffield Assessment, ranking your potential fit across the practice areas from most to least similar.

Many factors contribute to success and satisfaction in a practice area. Use this ranking of practice areas, and the top three matching and mismatching traits, as a starting point for investigating which practice areas might offer you the best fit for your future career.

Click the list of practice areas on the right to examine each one.

As much as we seek to measure everything perfectly, that's not actually possible. Indeed, no matter how good the Sheffield is, it is not able to predict whether you can or will be successful or satisfied in any particular work setting. Therefore, it's still incumbent upon you, as the expert on yourself, to look at the qualities and determine how important the opportunity to exercise them at work is to you.

For qualities you don’t place much weight on, knowing that they are less likely to be represented in a particular setting may not have much of an impact on how eager or interested you are to explore that work setting further. But for those you do care about, knowing how likely it is that these qualities will be well-represented can be useful information in helping you to prioritize which work settings to investigate first. Moreover, when there is a mismatch between the qualities that are important to you and what’s representative in an otherwise appealing setting, this information can help you anticipate the need to “sell” the value of these qualities, as well as to look for other avenues in which you can gain the satisfaction of using them.

Personal Injury

Satisfaction Score: 73

Where Beth fits with Personal Injury

Below are the three traits from the Sheffield Assessment on which your scores are most similar to those of satisfied attorneys working in this Practice Area. Although there are multiple profiles of successful and satisfied attorneys working in each Practice Area, your scores on these three traits may make working in this setting more comfortable.