Nowadays, almost all people know that SWOT analysis is a milestone in any strategic management and business planning. You can analyze Apple, Amazon, McAfee or, for instance, PC Matic businesses to know their strengths and opportunities - by the way, we can recommend you to check on Nathan Collier's review of PC Matic. However, a few know that SWOT analysis can also be applied for some life situations and one’s personality study. The universal method of such analysis is very conveniently presented in a SWOT table and perfect, and also quite applicable in everyday life and gives an excellent opportunity to understand where to move further in career development.
Strengths
Assessing your own strengths is usually based on a number of issues that include not only your subjective opinion but also the view of others.
The questionnaire includes the following points:
- What advantages do you have compared to other people?
- What do you do better than the others?
- What virtues do other people see in you?
- What are the achievements that make you proud? What values elicit a response from those that ignore others?
An example of SWOT analysis on itself in this block: proficiency in a foreign language in a group of translators will not be considered a strong side, but the ability to find a common language with a person will become a serious advantage.
Weaknesses
Assessment of weaknesses is essential for you to know which case is best not to take up and in which situations you should ask for help.
Questionnaire to identify weaknesses:
- In what tasks do you feel uncertain and therefore try to avoid them?
- What weaknesses do people around you see?
- Do you have confidence in the completeness of your education? If not, what areas do you not own enough?
- What negative habits do you have? For example, late for important meetings, distractions, and so on.
- What features of character can be considered your shortcomings?
Examples of SWOT analysis of an employee: when the moment comes where the talent of persuasion and speaking is required, you seek the help of another person.
Opportunities
For personal SWOT analysis, opportunities are identified by the following points:
- What innovative technologies can be expected to help? What data can you find on the Internet?
- What benefits do you get from this?
- Do you have contacts with other people that benefit? List the benefits you get from dealing with them.
- What trends do you see in the future for yourself?
- What are your partner or customer issues? How can you solve the situation?
Always evaluate your strengths in conjunction with the opportunities that can be opened with it. Also develop new strengths with different workshops, courses, and so on. For example, you can train cognitive skills (memory, attention, thinking, and intelligence) using specially designed games.
Threats
The TOWS threat matrix assumes a fairly important section - risks or threats. The questionnaire of this category consists of the following questions:
- What difficulties haunt you at work?
- Do you have serious competitors?
- Are the requirements for you or your work changing?
- Is technological progress a problem for your profession?
- Are your weaknesses a threat to success?
It is necessary to study possible threats to eliminate them in time or prevent their appearance.
Bottom Line
Detailed SWOT analysis will help you before taking a job in a real assessment of all your professional knowledge and individual capabilities. It will also allow you to determine which various factors to emphasize and which not to take into account at all. In addition, in interview interviews, some difficult and tricky questions can be clarified with this analysis and very well and thoroughly prepared for their future answers in advance.
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