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SWOT Analysis for Individuals

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Abstract

A SWOT (an acronym for Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) framework is

commonly used by organizations as part of their strategic planning process and assists firms in

their decision-making, strategizing, and goal setting as they evaluate their internal strengths and

weaknesses vis-à-vis external environmental threats and opportunities they face. Because of the

success of SWOT analyses in business, this article encourages human resource professionals and

employment counselors to consider SWOT analyses in which workers identify their strengths

after evaluating their skills, knowledge, abilities, and experience. Persons are then asked to do

the same for their weaknesses and which may place them at a disadvantage relative to others.

They are invited to also examine career opportunities and then consider anything which might

threaten such opportunities and list these separately. Factors to consider in using this popular

organizational analytical tool with individuals are presented followed by a discussion of some

misuses of SWOT analyses.

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SWOT Analysis for Individuals

Those with keen understanding of their strengths and needs are in

much better position than those with limited or faulty self-knowledge.
In such circumstances, I would hazard, accurate self-knowledge is
worth at least 15 to 25 IQ points – and that’s a lot!

—Howard Gardner, Author of Frames of Mind

In a personal context, individuals in their personal or professional life must also plan and

consider what strategies will help them be successful and ensure their occupational survival. This

is particularly important as researchers have noted that employees must take more control of

their careers and look out for their employability (Callanan & Greenhaus, 1999). This emphasis

has given rise to the protean (derived from the Greek god Proteus, who could change shape at

will) or boundaryless career that is person driven (Briscoe, & Hall, 2006). Such a career is said to

be reinvented by employees from time to time, as they and the environment change. Pursuing

this career requires a high level of self-awareness and personal responsibility as suggested in the

paper’s opening quote.

One strategic management planning technique widely used in industry and extensively

taught in business schools is SWOT analysis which stands for strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities and threats. It is a simple yet powerful model managers and business students use

to analyze the strategic positions of companies, products, or business situations which enables

proactive thinking, rather than relying on habitual or instinctive reactions. Unfortunately, this

key tool in the strategic planning process has not been extensively used in career planning even

though its self-assessment feature is an important step in most career development efforts.

Hence, this article provides an in-depth review of this common organizational strategy

framework and illustrates how this technique can be utilized by career development

professionals.
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SWOT and Career Development

While SWOT is a powerful and oftentimes highly successful technique with respect to

organizations, it may also be valuable when applied to individuals and their careers (David,

1997). Careers have increasingly become boundaryless (Nauta, Van Vianen, Van der Heijden,

Van Dam, & Willemsen, 2009); more boundaries (e.g. occupational, departmental, and

organizational) are crossed in comparison with earlier and more predictable hierarchical careers

(DeFillippi & Arthur, 1996; Gunz, Evans, & Jalland, 2000). Hence, employees need to be

focused on their adaptability for attaining a job within or outside their organization. As such,

employability has been considered an alternative to job security (Forrier & Sels, 2003) and refers

to the likelihood of obtaining and retaining a job (DeCuyper, Van Der Heijden, & Wittekind,

2012). It is considered a critical requirement for individuals who aim for career success (Fugate,

Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004; Van der Heijde & Van der Heijden, 2006).

More and more career development systems focus on employability (Bernardin, 2003)

and individuals are advised not to worry about holding onto a specific job, but rather they should

make sure they have developed the competitive skills needed in the marketplace. They need to

have portable competencies (Arthur, 1994). One way to help ensure that this happens is to

implement a strategic management process at the individual level.

Self-assessments are usually among the first techniques implemented by organizations

and individuals in their career development efforts (Gutteridge & Otte, 1983). A personal SWOT

analysis involves a combination of a self-assessment tool and a strategic planning activity.

For an individual, this process means matching their strengths and weaknesses with

occupational opportunities. In other words, the person wants to pursue occupational jobs, and a

career that capitalize on his or her interests, aptitudes, values, and skills. He or she also wants to
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choose occupations, jobs, and a career that make sense in terms of projected future demand for

various types of occupations. The consequences of a bad choice, or of no choice, are too severe

to leave to others or luck. Luck, as someone once indicated, comes to those who are best

prepared.

Personal SWOT Self-Assessment

The SWOT analysis is performed in light of an individual’s personal mission statement

(see Douglas, 1994; Rabow, Wrubel, & Remen, 2009) and his or her strategic vision of where

they see themselves headed and what they hope to become in the future. The vision clarifies the

long-term direction the individual would like to pursue. A discussion of these four areas is now

presented.

Identify one’s strengths

Here individuals should ask themselves which personal attributes will help them to

achieve their objective, in other words, what are the things that set them apart from other job

applicants? Strengths can be viewed as a resource that allows individuals to achieve their defined

goals and should be carefully weighed in light of the current and expected work environment.

Strengths identify what one does better than others in the workplace/school.

These strengths could include one’s work experience, academic background, specific

technical competencies, personal characteristics (e.g., ability to work in a team, one’s

communication skills, and the ability to work under deadline pressure), one’s business contacts,

one’s language skills, etc. Here it is important to see oneself through the eyes of the prospective

employer.

Once a person has identified these key attributes, they should figure out how they will

help them to make a success of this specific position. The idea is then to sell these strengths
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during an interview. According to management guru, Peter Drucker (1995), the only way to

discover one’s strengths is through feedback analysis. He suggests that whenever a person makes

a key decision or takes a key action that they write down what they expect will happen. Nine to

12 months later, compare the actual results with one’s expectations. Practiced consistently, this

simple method will show a person within a fairly short period of time where your strengths lie—

and this is of utmost importance to know. The learning point here is for one to concentrate on

their strengths. Drucker (2005) suggests, “Put yourself where your strengths can produce results”

(p. 102).

Identify one’s weaknesses

Now individuals should ask themselves what they could improve and what they should

avoid and what others are likely to see as weaknesses. They are limitations, faults, or defects in

the person that impedes progress toward defined goals. Weaknesses are critical in that these are

areas in need of improvement—those areas that should be addressed in training opportunities or

future job positions where these skills are needed might be acquired or fine-tuned.

Weaknesses are matters that a person can control. Examples of weaknesses include lack

of work experience, an inappropriate academic background, lack of technical skills, lack of

interpersonal skills (e.g. lack of leadership skills or team-management skills), and negative

personal characteristics (e.g. impatience, lack of empathy, or lack of discipline).

If a person finds it difficult to identify their weaknesses, it could help to go through their

previous performance appraisals. A colleague that they trust and respect might also be able to

help—even though this could be a painful exercise.

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Once a person has a picture of their weaknesses, they can start working on ways to

improve on them. It may be too late for this specific interview, but enrolling for that computer or

project-management course may be just what might be needed to get the next job they apply for.

The more challenging analysis of opportunities and threats requires an examination of major

external forces that may impact the individual (e.g., the scientific, technological, marketing,

cultural, and attitudinal trends). Some of these changes represent opportunities, and some of

them represent real threats to the person.

A caveat, however, was noted by Drucker (2005) with respect to strengths and weakness.

He suggested that individuals focus little effort on improving areas of low competence. “It takes

far more energy and work to improve from incompetence to mediocrity than it takes to improve

from first-rate performance to excellence. And yet most people-especially most teachers and

most organizations concentrate on making incompetent performers into mediocre ones” (p. 102).

Energy, resources, and time should go instead to making a competent person into a star

performer; i.e., work on improving one’s strength’s.

In summary, the best answer seems to be to build competencies and rehabilitate

weaknesses, as neither approach alone suffices. Indeed, McCall (2009) may have the final word:

“Developing leaders with the breadth and experience to handle the complexity of organizations

in today’s global world simply requires an investment in helping those with talent shed what no

longer serves them (both strengths and weaknesses) and continually acquire the new skills that

they need” (p. 54).

Identify the external opportunities

Which external conditions are helpful in achieving one’s objective? Opportunities are the

possibilities that an individual might take advantage of and pertains to forces in a person’s
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operating environment that might increase demand for what the person can provide or allows the

individual to provide it more effectively. For example, reading about future likely trends in the

industry might help to recognize which direction one might move in.

These are opportunities that an individual does not have any control over, but which can

be to their advantage. A person may find that a certain career field is particularly in need of their

set of skills, that few people are willing to work in the specific geographical area where they are

applying for the job, that the country’s affirmative-action strategy counts in one’s favor, etc.

Potential opportunities are evaluated in terms of how well they “fit” key concerns of the

individual such as prejudices, preferences, lifestyle considerations, risk inclinations. This will

involve “due diligence” on the part of the person.

It may be also helpful to attend to the following key trends (Snell & Bohlander, 2013):

 Economic factors and development information, including general, regional, and

global condition;

 Industry and competitive trends including new processes, services, and

innovations;

 Technological changes, including information technology, innovations, and

automation;

 Government and legislative issues, including laws and regulatory changes and

administrative rulings;

 Social concerns, including child care, elder care, the environment, and educational

priorities; lifestyle modifications, and

 Demographic and labor market trends (e.g., labor shortages), including the age,

composition, and literacy of the labor market, and immigration.

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Individuals should start working on ways in which to exploit each opportunity. It might

even be a good idea to discreetly point out these facts in a job interview.

Identify the external threats

External threats are conditions, barriers, or constraints that limit or those that are harmful

to achieving a person’s goals or objective/s. These are things that a person doesn’t have any

control over. However, if one is clever, they may be able to lessen their negative effects.

Examples of external threats include a market saturated with candidates who share a

person’s set of skills and competencies, competitors with superior skills, experience, knowledge,

competitors who went to schools with better reputations, affirmative-action strategies that count

against a person, downsizing in one’s field due to obsolescence of the profession (e.g. factory

workers that are replaced by machinery), etc. What has typically been found to be effective,

based on SWOT input, is a strategy that takes advantage of the person’s opportunities by

employing his or her strengths and by proactively addressing threats by correcting or

compensating for weaknesses. It is important to recognize strengths can be viewed as

weaknesses and opportunities can contain hidden threats as well. Therefore, it is helpful to ask

questions such as: ‘How might this threat also be an opportunity?’ and ‘Does this opportunity

contain threats as well?’ Also, ‘How might this strength turn out to be a weakness?’ Answers to

such questions may give individuals new insights into choosing appropriate strategies and

promote innovative ways of thinking about known issues in new ways (Thompson, 1993).

Additionally, it is advised that individuals engage significant others in performing a SWOT

analysis for themselves. It may be helpful for individuals to ask key people in their lives (e.g.,

spouse, partner, boss) to complete a SWOT analysis evaluating them.

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Overall, the intent of SWOT is to capitalize on the strengths, address weaknesses, take

full advantage of opportunities, and minimize the impact of threats. SWOT should therefore be

used to identify issues that are considered key to the individual’s present and future performance

(Hill & Westbrook, 1997). These critical issues must be clear and followed carefully through the

planning, development and review of any program, plan, or decision (Koch, 2000; Thompson,

1993).

Discussion

A SWOT analysis is a strategic business tool that can be applied equally powerfully to

individuals. In some ways, completing a personal SWOT review is to ask a person to treat their

career as a business and themselves as a competitive product. A SWOT analysis will be most

helpful if it is used to support the vision, mission, and objectives a person has already defined.

The SWOT will at least provide perspective, and at best will reveal connections and areas for

action. Hollingworth (2002), for example, has encouraged individuals to undertake a SWOT

analysis of themselves as managers and found that individuals developed an improved level of

self-awareness and often real change in their attitude or behavior. SWOT is not the only self-

assessment technique a person can use, but it is one with a long track record of effectiveness.

The comfort level of many workers and business students with using SWOT analyses in

their firms often lowers their resistance to doing some interesting self-analysis and legitimized

their decisions and new lifestyle and career choices. A personal SWOT analysis should be taken

into consideration when creating a career development plan. The input from the SWOT analysis

can be used to match one’s strengths with opportunities in the future workplace and to identify

those areas where training and development are needed. This should be conducted on a regular

basis to ensure that one’s portfolio of competencies is constantly being updated to meet the
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challenges of the changing business environment. Another excellent time to utilize a SWOT

analysis is every time an individual applies or interviews for a new position. Going through this

exercise can help a person be prepared for the interview and get them ready to answer tough

questions from interviewers (e.g., “Describe your biggest weakness”). Following this process

also allows one to anticipate areas that could be potential issues during the interview. Yet another

time to initiate a SWOT analysis was suggested by Steve Jobs, in his 12 Rules of Success (n. d.).

He recommended that people perform a SWOT analysis when they join/start a company to take

control of their own career development. Nevertheless, SWOT may have some drawbacks.

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Figure 1. The strategic management process adapted from Bateman and Snell (2004).
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Figure 2. SWOT Analysis Pattern for Individuals.