This blog post is the second in a three-part series exploring how the Highlands Ability Battery (HAB) can help you successfully navigate early career transitions and turning points. Missed the first post? Catch up here: Launch—or Refine—Your Early Career with the Highlands Ability Battery.

Whether you’ve recently graduated, are exploring an early career, job change, or trying to find your professional footing, taking the Highlands Ability Battery is a profound investment in yourself.

So, you’ve completed the HAB, gone through the debrief session, and read your reports. You’ve gained remarkable insights about yourself—what drives and energizes you, how you learn, work, problem-solve, and communicate effectively. But you’re not done yet! The journey has only just begun.

Ready to put your HAB insights into action? Here are four powerful strategies to keep the momentum going and set the stage for a successful, fulfilling career.

1. Let Yourself Feel the Feels

The HAB experience is personal. It sheds light on how your brain works in ways that can evoke strong emotional responses. Maybe your results validated what you’ve always suspected, or perhaps they surprised you.

Take time to reflect. Why are certain feelings arising? Approach them with curiosity, not judgment. Processing your emotions helps clear the path for strategic next steps.

A healthy mindset will ensure you maximize the HAB experience as you navigate your early career.

2. Get Up Close and Personal with Your Results

Feeling overwhelmed by all the terms and data? That’s normal. Developing a clear understanding of the 19 abilities measured by the HAB is key to applying them in your life and career.

• • Observe Patterns: Notice how your natural abilities and personal style preferences show up in work, school, hobbies, and social interactions.
  • Reflect on Satisfaction: How have your abilities and style preferences influenced your satisfaction (or lack of) in past roles or activities? Where have they energized—or drained—you?
  • Maximize Strengths: If you are in the high range for any of the Driving or Specialized Abilities, find ways to express them in your daily life. They are a source of energy and fulfillment. Get creative! Since you might not be able to use some of these abilities at work, look for opportunities to express them elsewhere—e.g., in a hobby, extracurricular activity or volunteer setting.
  • Bridge the Gaps: Identify areas where you’re less naturally inclined and strengthen them with effective tools and strategies. Develop compensatory skills or leverage resources like calendars, project management apps, and auditory aids to support your success.

The more you integrate your results into your daily life, the more meaningful they will become.

3. Spring into Your Career Exploration

The HAB isn’t a prescription for a specific job; it’s a roadmap highlighting roles that align with your natural abilities and style preferences. Use your Career Exploration report as a springboard to investigate intriguing professions.

• • Spot Trends: Do certain industries or roles appear repeatedly in your results? Consider these as potential areas of interest.
  • Learn More: Select 3-5 occupations you think you might want to explore on a deeper level. Learn as much you can about these jobs by clicking through to their descriptions and detailed information on My Next Move, an interactive tool maintained by O*Net, the U.S. government’s database of jobs.
  • Talk to Professionals: Take it a step further and talk to people who work (or have worked) in those roles. Learn about their experiences, challenges, and career paths. Ask about their training, what a typical day at work is like, what they enjoy most or find challenging about their work. Try to find a few people to interview so you get a balanced mix of firsthand stories!

Through exploration, you’ll gain clarity about the roles and environments that suit you best.

4. Create Your Career Compass: The Power of a Career Journal

As you uncover more about yourself, you’ll also explore industries, careers, roles, and companies that could be potential fits for your future. And remember, this is just the beginning. A career journal is a powerful tool to help you capture and build upon this valuable information.

Your journal is uniquely yours—make it work for you!

• • Not into traditional journaling? Call it a career tracker, career database, or anything that resonates with you!
  • Prefer handwritten notes? Choose a notebook that suits your style. A simple spiral notebook works, or you can splurge on a special journal that inspires you to keep it updated regularly.
  • Love digital tools? Use what fits your workflow best. Whether it’s a project management app, a spreadsheet, or a document, pick the format that aligns with how your brain works (now that you understand your natural abilities!).

Consider dividing your journal into these sections:

1. 1. All About Me – Capture your natural abilities, skills, interests, values, goals, and priorities.
   2. Career Research – Organize information about industries, careers, and job roles.
   3. Job-Search Activities – Track your progress with to-do lists, submitted applications, interview notes, and follow-up tasks like thank-you notes.
   4. Networking – Keep a list of connections, including key details to help you stay memorable and build relationships.
   5. Professional Development – Log webinars, certifications, books, podcasts, workshops, and reviews that enhance your growth.

Don’t let your journal gather dust once you land your first job!

Make it a habit to revisit and update it regularly, adding new experiences, reflections, goals, and dreams.

Think of your journal as a dynamic roadmap, guiding you through your career now and helping you navigate transitions and turning points in the future.

Related: The Highlands Ability Battery: A Lifelong Tool to Guide Career Decisions

The Highlands Ability Battery is more than an assessment; it’s a powerful tool to help you harmonize your strengths and thrive in your early career and beyond. By thoughtfully applying its insights, you’ll be prepared to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and create a rhythm of success with confidence.

Stay tuned for the final installment in this series: “Use Your Natural Abilities to Fuel Your Job Search”, where we’ll explore how you can maximize your natural talents to comfortably and efficiently pursue your best-fit career, job and workplace environment.

Mardee Handler is a career exploration and Certified Career Transitions Coach (CTCC) specializing in helping students, recent grads and young professionals find their early career footing.

“Your natural abilities are gifts that combine to make you uniquely you. Recognizing, understanding and appreciating them are key to unlocking your full potential.

Early career transitions can be exciting. They can also feel overwhelming. By deepening your self-awareness, you empower yourself to explore your career options with greater confidence, find work that’s rewarding and meaningful to you and, ultimately, achieve your professional and personal goals.

As a Highlands consultant certified in the Highlands Ability Battery and Don’t Waste Your Talent Personal Vision Coaching, I take a holistic approach to supporting individuals planning, launching or refining their early careers. One of my greatest joys is witnessing the shift in my clients as they move from confusion to clarity. From self-doubt to self-confidence. From discouragement to excitement.”

Mardee Handler Coaching & Consulting  ·  Mardee@MardeeHandler.com