The Key to Landing Your Next Opportunity: Storytelling

Learning how to tell your story helps you make sense of your experiences, reflect on what is important to you and explore meaningful career options. Understanding your VIPS – or Values, Interest, Personality, and Skills – is one way to craft your narrative and identify what is most important to you during the job search.

Identify Your VIPS Using Focus 2:

Take a variety of assessments in each of the VIPS areas on Focus2, an online career tool available to all UT Austin students.  Create an account here and register using the access code: longhorns.

V – Values: What you find important in decision-making

• Examples: Helping Others, Financial Reward, Variety
• Resource: Your Work Values Can Help You Find the Right Job

I – Interests: The activities or topics you are naturally drawn to

• Examples: Sports, Politics, Health and Medicine, Reading
• Resource: O*Net Interest Profiler, My Next Move

P – Personality: The different traits that define you and your behavior

• Examples: Risk-Taking, Adaptable, Compassionate
• Resource: 16 Personalities Assessment

S- Skills: The abilities you possess currently or would like to develop

• Examples: Math and Data Analysis, Planning and Organization, Negotiating
• Resource: Career Readiness, In-demand skills

When taking career assessments, remember that their primary purpose is to help you learn more about yourself and to consider possibilities, but it is ultimately you who will know yourself best.

Connect with your college/school career center where career professionals are experts in the career journeys and industries most common to your major,  schedule an appointment with a Texas Career Engagement career counselor for assistance if you are still exploring major or career options.