Career Instrument Results

The RIASEC hypothesis was developed by John L Holland (1997) to address themes linked to vocational concerns for persons living in America during the twentieth century. He established the theory despite the fact that American values are centered on independence and independent decision making, as well as the importance of the immediate family system. The RIASEC hypothesis has been used to study a range of workplace actions as a means of gauging individuals' psychological behaviors based on their values and personality attributes. In the online profile test, I took from the O*NET profile revealed that I have a set of RAISEC theory traits that revealed my strongest personality trait is the investigative personality. The Investigative trait was scored at 34, while the enterprising trait came in at second place at 25. The Artistic trait was scored at 24, and then the conventional and social traits were scored at 15 and 14 respectively. The scores reflect different attributes about an individual and in this case the highest score was the investigative trait. Holland’s theory is solely based on four key assumptions that are supposed to indicate the unique occupational interests about an individual and their point of development. In the first assumption it argues that a person’s traits and personality can be categorized in six types (Tracey, 2002). They include the Realistic (R), Artistic (A), Enterprising (E), Investigative (I), Conventional (C), and Social (S). From these categories there is a second assumption that asserts the notion of the effect of environment like places of employment that the six personality traits exist. There is a third assumption where he suggests that the individuals have the ability to choose the environments in which the personalities are congruent. It virtually states that behavior is dominated by the type of the personality placed in an individual’s environment (Holland, 1997). In the personality tests conducted on O*NET site revealed that the highest personality rating was that of the Investigative attribute and Holland discusses this personality to have several characteristics in the way they relate to their jobs. The investigative personality is an attribute that relates to a person who likes to study science or math problems. The individual also avoids selling, leading or even persuading people in any way. The people with this personality are interested in ideas and thinking and avoid any forms of physical activity.

Different types of personalities all have their own attributes and personality and in this case the different personalities all were tested and the scores returned automatically from the online platform. For the Enterprising personality I scored 25, which was the second highest personality score. Holland discussed this personality trait and gave it a few different characteristics. He suggests that people with this personality tend to have strong attraction to business start ups and also carrying out business projects. It is a character that seems to reflect on me and how I operate. People with these character traits are able to lead and also persuade people, to either sell ideas and things. These are characteristics that would suit my career choices in the future and ensure that if I follow my career choices that were suggested by the online platform then I would be able to achieve success. Personality traits are also affected by the environment in which an individual operates and have distinct differences from one environment to the other. In this case, Holland characterizes the different personality traits as a way of increasing the odds of getting an employment which is central to the goals of an individual. An individual main goal would be to create wealth through employment while also taking in to consideration their personal values. It goes hand in hand with the personality of an individual and how they perceive the job environment. Every individual has a set of values that they may seek to employ when they are on the job and in an effort to ensure that I have my own personal values I had to choose between 10 personal values that could help me when applying and working in a career environment. It is crucial to identify why this is an aspect of the job as it provides an individual with the correct form of services delivery while also achieving personal goals and demonstrating personal values in the job environment.

In my categorization of values my two most important personal values are loyalty and personal development. They rank highest as they are fundamental to my goals; so as to gain the most in my career. Personal values are supposed to be guides for an individual to establish their own identity and also have some kind of personal gain from their career. Loyalty is a key contributor to the way an individual is viewed by others and how they remain committed to their job environment. Loyalty for me is crucial to attaining the respect of the company I may be working for and also to my colleagues. Loyalty remains to be at the top of my core values as it has always worked well for me and has also allowed me to discover my talents and also develop my personal goals. It has been a word that allows one to remain loyal to something or someone whether an individual or a company. It comes from a sense of discipline and is very profitable when used in the right environment. The next ranked value is personal development. In the career environment I value personal development as a way of ensuring that I gain the most out of the career I choose to pursue. When choosing a career, everyone has their own goals and success measurement points for growth. Personal development in a career is supposed to ensure that this is achievable. Personal development is about the growth of self in any environment and has to be supported by the environment one is in to actually work. There is no way one can have personal development in an environment that does not allow this to happen.

Personal Reactions

The results from the online tests were very interesting and did not know that I would have such a strong suit to some of the career options provided by the Job zone section of the online survey tests. It was a remarkable feel as it also captured new career interests that I had not been able to see myself opt for in the future. The instrument allowed me to know what interests that I have when it comes to jobs and what I should look for in the future when applying for jobs. The personality test tools were also a bit shocking and at some point I almost doubted that I would have such a personality type and that It was not my own personal best fit for a personality. Holland suggests that these interests can help one in their careers and so I do not mind the results and I am willing to try and see whether it will work in the future as a way of ensuring that I can be able to handle the different cluster of jobs that were described to me in the job zone section of the online test instrument of personality and job type tool.

In the first section of the instrument there is a sense of disbelief in relation to the results of the online instrument. It helped me gain knowledge of my strong points as a way of identifying the most descriptive indicators of my own personality. It clearly doesn’t match my own self perception as I for many years thought I was a social person and that I had my strengths in being laid back with no sense of leadership in any position at all. The investigative personality was not even in my mind as it was not my first choice when I was considering taking the test in the first place. The most applicable personality type that I thought would rank highly is the social and conventional personalities as those are more my kind of traits as a person and strongest suited to me as an individual. The job zones also came up with new jobs and careers that I also never thought would come up in my future. An actor and a singer were two of the job zone careers in the section “some preparation needed” which do not have a strong suit to me as well. I have never thought of becoming a singer or even an actor.

In the Holland’s codes, the top 3 codes for my personal description were investigative which scored 34, then enterprising came in second with a score of 25, and third as artistic which scored a total of 24 points. These are descriptive elements that I have never thought of possessing as personal traits and do not coincide with what I believe in as a person. I am not a person who can be described as investigative in nature. But sometimes I find myself to be curious about how the world works so that could have been a major contributor for that assumption in the Holland code instrument for my personality. Another aspect of my personality that I am not aware of is the enterprising trait. Even though sometimes I find myself thinking about business ideas it is usually not a main thing and do not have a constant thought of being enterprising in any way. I have also never thought about being in any position of leadership which is one of the characteristics of having an enterprising personality. Artistic is also not my strongest suit but I have always been fascinated by art, which could explain the score.

The other half of the personality trait score seemed to be well balanced as most of the scores averaged 14. The two lowest ranking Holland codes were Realistic at 14, and Conventional at 14 as well while Social came in at 15. This is a contrast to what I believe my personality to be like and how I perceive myself. I always thought I had strong suit in being a social person and don’t understand how this was in the bottom three of the score report for the Holland code. I have also always considered myself to be a realistic person and hence thought that the same would apply in this format. The scores also showed that I ranked lowly in my conventional trait and that I do not possess the ability to work with the information provided by rather work with ideas. It is a very unique situation and that I had a rather shocked reaction to the perceptions of how I ranked in the Holland personality traits and the scoring that was awarded for each personality trait. It still remains unclear to me whether I should feel confidence in the test instrument or not.

External Influences

I was skeptical about the tests at first and had to read through the Holland theories to understand exactly what the tests are all about and what is needed for the test. There have been so many studies done on personality and behavior and different sites on the internet have come up with ways of measuring and analyzing an individual’s personality. This was however a much different kind of test and hence needed to try and see whether it could assess my personal characteristics and my personality based on my career interests. The questions seemed to be ideal and were practical in nature hence there was nothing surprising about the questions asked in the test instrument. Some of the test questions however were a bit weird and had to think long and hard before answering them. I got to learn about so many things I never thought I would be able to do on any test anywhere. The questions challenged my way of thinking as some of the job environments and conditions asked seemed to be very interesting and expanded my scope of things to do in any job setting as a way to correspond to the tests questions that were being asked.

I seem to be a bit hesitant whether the test would apply to all racial backgrounds as some of the job recommendations could have strong suit for people of a specific race. Racial bias is not as evident in the test itself but there is an element of difficulty when it comes to conducting the research when one is from a different racial background. Like for example, designing a fashion statement outfit would not be disliked by most people of the African decent and hence would be bias to the test tool. Being a firefighter would also not be appealing to some women and hence would also be hampering the results based on gender bias in the test questions.

In the case of external factors having an impact on my overall results then there would be one major threat in relation to that. Being a student I don’t have to think as long and hard about the tests questions, meaning that I would not be in a position to be accurate on my test score. I was holding back as well as I also was skeptical of the test tool and my friends were taking the test with me so it was not being taken as seriously as it should have been.

Some of the questions on the assessment list were very interesting at some point and I had to take a serious look at the questions which seemed to favor my interest only. In some questions like being an engineer or discovering the cure to some disease I found those to be very trivial questions in my point of view as I wanted to feel like I have some kind of important contribution to society. Hence, I was compelled to think long and hard when answering such serious questions.

Conclusions

There seem to be a connection to the results that were taken from the tests and assessment recorded in each section of the evaluation. They all seem to lead to a specific area of notice and that can be used to outline a formal career choice for any individual willing to participate in the online instrument. The results from the Holland code of personality assessment were a result of the answering of the test questions in the online assessment. They output results provided test scores that attributed each Holland personality type and showed the highest to the lowest. From these scores the job zone extrapolated the results from the first section to get an idea of the career choices that one may seem to take based on the individuals preparedness, which was an interesting dimension to look at and also interpret as the results were very well defined in that manner.

As one of my career choices described to me in the job zone, Architecture has been one of my favorite career choices. This however was categorized in the high preparedness section meaning I have to prepare really hard to achieve this career goal. My hobbies have always been surrounded by the notion of wanting to be an architect. I love designing and being creative in my own time. This could also be the reason why in the personality type section I scored highly in the artistic personality trait. I have a way with shapes and how they form and that has always been my passion to become an architect or an interior designer.

The results show that I have been on the correct path when it comes to my career choice and would seek to increase the level of knowledge I have to ensure that I am able to achieve my future career choices. This is important as a way of ensuring that I am capable of having the right mindset to prepare me for my own personal development and also seek to create impact on society through my work. It has been a long life dream to become an influence in the society through conducting proper work ethics and values in the way I perform my duties to society. I am also a very good team worker and work within the rules. It means that all the attributes that were scored in the personality scores were correct and that I should have more belief in the online test instrument. The jobs suggested in the job zone section have a strong association to investigation and artistry, which could mean I associate myself with new discoveries and ideas and that I like a sense of originality which is very true and that is why I also scored highly on the enterprising personality.

References

Explore Careers. (2014, November 10). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from https://www.careeronestop.org/ExploreCareers/explore-careers.aspx

Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices (3rd ed.). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

O*NET Interest Profiler at My Next Move. (n.d.). Retrieved May 09, 2017, from https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip

Tracey, T. J. G. (2002). Personal Globe Inventory: Measurement of the spherical model of interests and competence beliefs. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60, 113-172.