career choice
Many people don't get a chance to fully explore their career options. They don't have enough information about careers or stop to reflect on who they are and what they want.
Usually all that is needed is to look through the different kinds of jobs, think through the options, visit workplaces and chat with people in the job and explore how it feels there. Generally if someone gets on with the people and likes the workplace they will like the job and be good at it.
Holland Self Directed Search
The Holland Self Directed Search is a chance to do this by oneself. It generates a profile from a self-administered assessment of skills, experience, preferences and interests and lists occupations that most people with that profile enjoy, are good at and fit in with their co-workers.
The profiles correlate with personality tests and are a reliable description of the personality of people and occupations. It shows the unique ways each career/personality type prefers to respond to events - by doing something practical, relating to people, thinking it through, ordering things, creating a show or taking control.
Career success requires a lack of aptitude and interest in things not relevant to the job as well as the skills and interests of the job. For instance someone communicative and sociable could be socially out of place and frustrated in a typical machine workshop, and someone with highly developed mechanical interests and skills might not be satisfied working in an office.
It is more difficult for those with diverse skills and interests but no clear preferences to build up specialist skills and find a job that uses enough of their talents to be satisfying. Hobbies can fill the gaps.
Holland’s research shows that people with advanced clerical skills tend to be poor artistically and vice versa. You can't be everything. Some things are mutually exclusive.
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The Self Directed Search |
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Australian Gvernment – Job Outlook |
copyright (C) John Brasted 2008
updated 20. Dec. 2011
