Introduction
Discovering the talents, passions and interests of a young person on work experience is the starting
point for turning it into a work inspiration. But talking about yourself is always difficult. When you’re
at school, and trying to put it in the context of a world of work that you have had no experience of,
it is almost impossible.
The ‘All About Me’ Insight ensures each young person is given the time, one on one, to talk about their passions and interests.
It’s our job as employers to listen and to translate what we hear in terms of strengths and opportunities
and to relate them to job competencies and skills, within our own business and the wider world of work.
To avoid the common pitfall of turning this into a mock interview - where employers are often seeking
evidence or qualification to prove someone can do a job - this is about employers guiding young people
irrespective of employment opportunities and making the connection between what they are learning
in the classroom and the world of work.
How to make the most of the ‘All About Me’ session
Arrange for a one-to-one conversation with the young person. The objective of this session is to help
you or your colleagues bring out their true character and passions. By the end of this session, you should
have established an idea of what makes them tick and what type of person they are. It is really important to
think how best to start and maintain the conversation in a way that positively engages them.
We have developed a simple framework which will help you use the discussion to begin to understand
what sort of person they are. You may already have a structure or personality profiling tool to help you
do this which you may be able to adapt. However, what we have developed is a gentle and simple way
to create a situation where inspiration can come through. It is not a personality test or a tool for general
careers advice, it is simply a prompt to enable you to discuss different opportunities in your business.
There are four groups of questions to use. We have provided some examples of questions in each group.
Work through each set and tick the relevant word at the end to remind yourself which of the options
best apply. At the end of the discussion you will end up with four characteristics which will allow you to
match that person to a list of character types.
Use the questions to draw out as much as possible about the person they are, so that you can relate
those qualities to skills and talents that are used in the workplace.
Once you have your character type you will find it again in the framework in Insight 2: Look Behind the
Scenes. Using Insights 1 and 2 together will enable you to show how the characteristics of the person you
are talking to can relate to the roles in your world of work.
Download the question framework and profiler (PDF)
Disclaimer: The Insight is loosely based on one developed for the BBC television programme 'What Am I Like? The Personality Test'. It is a simplified and very loose profiling tool developed by Sheryl Karpel for Career Moves Group with Business in the Community . It is based on but in no way a replacement for, or a part of, the full Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® questionnaire and the results are not intended to be the psychometric or practical equivalent to MBTI® questionnaire results.