Integrating Your Self-Assessment and Developing Implications A successful life is one that is lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, not chasing after the dreams of others. —Chin-King Chuhe critical next step in the self-assessment process involves taking all the information you have generated and making sense of it—not an easy task. The process of self-assessment that we have outlined begins with the notion that career satisfaction and career success depend on many factors. These factors include most importantly a clear sense of oneself, and developing this is a complex task. To this point we have asked you to develop information that will provide you with a clearer sense of your identity. This self-awareness is derived through no single source but rather through an understanding of your experiences, values, goals, interests, skills, and motivations. The instruments you have used and the informa-tion they have generated now must be integrated into a comprehensive picture.Integrating Your Self-AssessmentThe idea of using career data in a structured fashion to achieve greater self-understanding is hardly new (Bolles, 2007; Clawson, batter, Faux, & McArthur, 1992; Hall, 1976). Many writers in the career field have out-lined a process of using summarized self-assessment data as a filter or focus for identifying appropriate career options and for managing one’s 47
