Self-Awareness: a sharp realization of your personality, including your strengths and weaknesses, your thoughts and beliefs, your emotions, and your motivations. - Develop Good Habits
I once coached a recent grad who was determined to land a job in the finance/banking industry. She came to me after almost giving up hope as she just could not land a job.
She (let's call her Sarah for the sake of this article) was a straight-A student with a spectacular GPA, who was actively involved in student-run organizations throughout her college career yet, she just could not land a job after she graduated. She had applied to multiple job openings and sent her resume to numerous recruiters and would often hear nothing back. If she did get to the interview round she was never called back or chosen.
Something was wrong.
The first thing I asked Sarah to do when we began working together was to tell me her strengths, weaknesses, passions and dislikes. This was difficult for her to articulate and in that instant I recognized the problem. Sarah was not self-aware. I proceeded to have her do some self-reflection and hone in on what she was really good at and the areas which she was not as skilled.