Tool assists in career planning

The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) provides many tools and resources as young professionals develop their careers. One such tool is the ASHE Career Map Self-Assessment Tool, a self-directed assessment process that will help users identify their greatest strengths, largest gaps and learning needs.

The ASHE Career Map allows users to evaluate their strengths based on two factors: 1) performance in a particular skill and 2) importance to the user’s role. After rating themselves in several areas, users will be able to see a report showing their strengths, gaps and resources. The tool will help:

• Identify which skills users performed strongest and weakest in and identify which skills and attributes users rated as critical or very important to their positions.
• Look for areas of agreement between the user’s performance and importance ratings. For example, if the user performs well in an area critical to their position, that is a strength that can be leveraged.
• Assist in concentrating on areas of discrepancies between the user’s performance and importance ratings. For example, if users need to develop their understanding of regulatory awareness and this is a critical portion of their job, it should be a primary focus of career development.

Information from the self-assessment should be used to create a development plan. ASHE recommends selecting two or three development goals each year and regularly updating the plan. Users should focus on how they might leverage the information they gained to increase their effectiveness within their current role. 

Also, users should consider how this information might help them prepare for additional, more complex responsibilities or other positions to which they may wish to advance.