Testing, Testing
The Career Development Office asked first-years to take a test to determine which career we were best suited for. We got the results back in a personalized report. As it turns out, I "have a high interest in creative production." Not surprising. Several pages later, I read that marketing and/or entrepreneurship were the best career options for me.
A two hour test to tell me what I already knew? At first, I wondered if the test just told people what they wanted to hear . . . until I heard some of my classmates complaining that they were advised to enter the Human Resources profession. A fate worse than death, judging from their laments.
Last week, a new diagnostic tool was launched as the Career Development Office is completely restructuring its approach to the placement process. (Thank you, Dean Podolny!) This tool tells you not what career you are best suited for, but who you are and what motivates you professionally. My results were spot-on and consistent with the previous test. I am, according to this new test, a "Reformer." I look for ways to make myself, people, processes, etc., better. As my original test results explained, my approach to life is: "If it isn't broken, see if you can make it better anyway."
My only quibble about the new test is how it tends to frame things in extremes. For example, I supposedly have "flash[es] of creative brilliance." Yeah, mmmmmm, not so much. In its recommendations on how people should approach me, it advised them to neither stand nor sit too close to me. Or what, praytell? It's true that I don't like it when someone is so close that he/she is practically on top of me, but who does?
It's always interesting reading about yourself. And these tools were useful in that they brought some of my strengths and weaknesses into focus. But there isn't an algorithm in the world who can capture who you really are. Just ask a classmate of mine, whose results from the second test we took literally read, "You leave chaos in your wake." Can we ease up on the hyperbole? She's not exactly Pandora, people. In fact, she's one of the nicest and most sensitive people I've met here.
A two hour test to tell me what I already knew? At first, I wondered if the test just told people what they wanted to hear . . . until I heard some of my classmates complaining that they were advised to enter the Human Resources profession. A fate worse than death, judging from their laments.
Last week, a new diagnostic tool was launched as the Career Development Office is completely restructuring its approach to the placement process. (Thank you, Dean Podolny!) This tool tells you not what career you are best suited for, but who you are and what motivates you professionally. My results were spot-on and consistent with the previous test. I am, according to this new test, a "Reformer." I look for ways to make myself, people, processes, etc., better. As my original test results explained, my approach to life is: "If it isn't broken, see if you can make it better anyway."
My only quibble about the new test is how it tends to frame things in extremes. For example, I supposedly have "flash[es] of creative brilliance." Yeah, mmmmmm, not so much. In its recommendations on how people should approach me, it advised them to neither stand nor sit too close to me. Or what, praytell? It's true that I don't like it when someone is so close that he/she is practically on top of me, but who does?
It's always interesting reading about yourself. And these tools were useful in that they brought some of my strengths and weaknesses into focus. But there isn't an algorithm in the world who can capture who you really are. Just ask a classmate of mine, whose results from the second test we took literally read, "You leave chaos in your wake." Can we ease up on the hyperbole? She's not exactly Pandora, people. In fact, she's one of the nicest and most sensitive people I've met here.
posted by Jerry Blank at 10:34 PM
2 Comments:
JB, my test results on what i took were similar to yours - my best career option is 'advertising account executive', followed very closely by entrepreneur. go figure.
Come back!!!!
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