What do you think about aptitude, personality, and interests tests in helping to guide career decision making?

What do you think about aptitude, personality, and interests tests in helping to guide career decision making? (Examples: Johnson O' Connor Research Foundation's aptitude testing program, Myers Briggs, Strong Interest Inventory, etc.). How do I align my interests and background with the results of such tests? And do following these test results really lead to a more satisfying career?

In general, a higher degree of self-awareness is always a good thing in terms of career development. Aptitude, personality and interests tests can help define aspects of yourself that you may not already have a good sense of, and may save you from years of making less than ideal choices about career direction and focus, i.e. from learning the hard way. You may be more influenced by supposed-to-be's and cultural ideals or outside pressure in your decision-making, like a business manager who, because of family pressure and tradition, struggles through an MBA and runs several companies into the ground before realizing that he really is best suited for running a B&B. If you have a better understanding of your proclivities and make career choices accordingly, you are likely to be more directed, satisfied and productive.

In an interview with NYTimes career columnist Marci Alboher, Peggy Klaus, author of The Hard Truth About Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They'd Learned Sooner, groups self-awareness with other 'soft' skills: "The hard skills are the technical expertise you need to get the job done. The soft skills are really everything else — competencies that go from self-awareness to one’s attitude to managing one’s career to handling critics, not taking things personally, taking risks, getting along with people and many, many more." Self-assessment tests are a good way to boost your self-awareness as well as to identify areas you might want to work on.

The three types of tests measure different qualities and leanings, and can be useful in helping to discover strengths, weaknesses and preferences that you may not be fully aware of or perhaps assume that everyone possesses, i.e. they can help you take a more objective view of yourself. They are part of self-assessment that can help you define and articulate career goals, but are not necessarily going to give you hard and fast answers regarding direction.  You are the final interpreter and arbiter of any such tests, but going through the process will likely lead to some personally resonant and new information that can inform your career planning, areas for personal and professional development and goal setting.

To illustrate the application of self-assessment tools to career development, let's look briefly at the Myers-Briggs personality test, which is based on Jungian psychology and which identifies 16 personality types. In addition to discovering your own type, knowledge of personality types can be extremely useful for navigating interpersonal relationships when you are working on teams, collaborating with colleagues and interacting on all levels with individuals and groups.

Here is some basic information on the INTJ (Introvert, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging), a rare personality type:

Hallmark features of the INTJ personality type include independence of thought, strong individualism and creativity. Persons with this personality type work best given large amounts of autonomy and creative freedom. They harbor an innate desire to express themselves; that is to be creative by conceptualizing their own intellectual designs. Analyzing and formulating complex theories are among their greatest strengths. INTJs tend to be well-suited for occupations within academia, research, management, engineering and law. Differentiating the INTJ personality type from the related INTP type is their confidence. They tend to be acutely aware of their knowledge and abilities. Thus, they develop a strong confidence in their ability and talents, making them "natural leaders." It is this confidence that makes this personality type extremely rare. According to David Keirsey it is found in no more than 1% of the population.

How can this understanding be applied to career choices and personal development?

If you are an INTJ, you might want to be looking for positions where you have a high degree of autonomy and can work creatively on long-term strategic planning, rather than one where you are doing highly energetic short-term management as part of an interdependent team. You might want to focus on organizations that have a reputation for being extremely well-managed, as opposed to one where your role will be to efficiently create order and be a mentor to young people.  INTJ's are often "surprised when others don't see things the same way."  If this is something you newly understand about yourself, you might spend some time developing the ability to build consensus around your ideas, an area that might not come naturally to you. 

This kind of introspective work can certainly help in career development and in other areas of your life, can bring a depth to understandings you may already have about your personality, interests and aptitudes, and can be especially helpful if you find it difficult to accurately assess yourself.

Is there hope for those of us who make up our careers as we go along, without very many definite goals or clear plans?

Guest blogger Kevin Doyle, Principal, Green Economy, shares his answer to a recent question from an F&ESer who attended one of his workshops.  Kevin is a columnist for Grist and a regular presenter at Yale F&ES where he shares his wealth of knowledge on career development and environmental careers.  

Dear Kevin,

I attended one of your career workshops and came away feeling a bit discouraged. You focused a lot on the need for career goals and action plans to achieve your goals. And, you told us that having long range goals was particularly helpful. I remember that you said that people who knew where they wanted to be ten or twelve years from now had an advantage over those who didn't have that kind of clarity.

How depressing! I just can't imagine living my life that way. I can't even begin to guess what opportunities might come my way over the next few months, much less the next few years. Is there hope for those of us who make up our careers as we go along, without very many definite goals or clear plans?

Goalless

..........................................................

Dear Goalless,

No worries, goalless. Millions of people have lived happy, successful lives without ever once creating career goals or long-term plans. In fact, my experience has been that most professionals don't have goals and plans and they manage somehow without them. So, yes, there is hope and more for the goalless.

Do you sense a "but, still..." coming? How perceptive of you!

One of my favorite quotes about this subject comes from President Eisenhower, who once said that "Plans are nothing, but planning is everything."  I agree with that and I think that it applies to our careers, and our lives.

Planning is the process of thinking about where you want to end up, and how you're going to get there. Let's look at those two components separately.

For lots of people, "where I want to end up" is super clear - in all of its dimensions. They can tell you where they want to live, what kind of work they want to do (and for whom), how much money they want to make, when they want to retire, how many children they want, which parts of the world they want to see before they pass on, how tall their spouse should be, and so forth. I'm happy for them, and I sometimes envy their clarity.

For other people, "where I want to end up" is not as clear. It just isn't. There's no need to judge that reality negatively, if that's what is true for you. "I don't know" and "I'm not sure" are fine answers to the question "What kind of career do you want to have?"

However! I've never met a person who didn't have some idea of their hopes, dreams and preferences, however amorphous they may be. You can name those aspirations "North stars," "rainbow ends," "destinations," or ... goals.   The experience of career coaches is that most people have clearer aspirations than they actually admit to. Through patient, careful questioning, we can usually help you download at least some of them.

Whether you have many clear aspirations or a few vaguer ones doesn't really matter. The important thing is to find out what you do know about what you want. Even if it's only one thing, you can work with it. That one thing will give you some sense of where you want to end up. And, since you already know where you're starting from, you have two key elements of an initial road map.

For our purposes here, the key thing is to make time in your life for thinking about the question of where you want to end up. And then, to take your own answers seriously.

What about the second part of planning: "How you're going to get there?"

The planning process is basically the same.

Start with what you know. Then, identify what you don't know.

Don't worry too much if the "don't know" box is full to overflowing, and the "know" box is close to empty. Better to acknowledge that honestly - especially to yourself. Being clear with yourself about what you don't know about how to fulfill your dreams is one of the biggest parts of wisdom.

If you find that your education, life experience, and network of colleagues has already given you the knowledge and confidence to start down the road to where you want to go, then by all means get going. What are you waiting for?

If, however, you find that you don't know how to begin moving toward your aspiration, that's ok. Most of us don't. Fortunately, that's what friends, colleagues, teachers, mentors, family members, books, websites, and career coaches are for. Start gathering information and advice about how other people have accomplished what you might want to accomplish. Before you know it, you'll be filling in that big blank part of the map between "starting place" and "destination."  Or, perhaps you'll change your intended destination as you learn more. Who knows?

So, what are the takeaway lessons from all of this?

(1) Make time to reflect on what you want to accomplish with your life and career.
(2) Listen to the answers and take them seriously.
(3) When the answers are detailed, that's your reality. Good. When the answers aren't so clear, that's your reality. Also good.
(4) Reflect on what actions you need to take to get where you want to go.
(5) If you come up with answers you feel pretty good about - take action.
(6) If you end up with more questions than answers, go looking for answers. The search for answers is your action.

So shake off the discouragement, goalless. The act of planning is much more important than having "a plan." And planning is something that anyone can start - and restart - and restart again - at any time. Give it a try and see what happens.

Keep the questions coming, FESers. I'm glad to help if I can.

Kevin

Can I work on campus at Yale University as an international student during my studies?

This question has been answered by guest blogger Monica Weeks, Assistant Director of the Yale Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). OISS is the key resource on immigration matters for international students and scholars studying and researching at Yale University.

Yes, F-1 and J-1 students are eligible work up to 20 hours a week on the Yale campus, when school is in session. During periods of recess, such as winter and summer breaks, the number of allowable work hours increases to 40. No special permission is required for on campus employment by F-1 students. J-1 students will receive a letter authorizing them for on campus employment when they check in at the Office of International Students and Scholars.

As an international student, do I need special permission from immigration to work in the United States after graduation?

This question has been answered by guest blogger Monica Weeks, Assistant Director of the Yale Office of International Students and Scholars (OISS). OISS is the key resource on immigration matters for international students and scholars studying and researching at Yale University.

Yes, students both in the J-1 and F-1 categories do need permission to work and are eligible to apply for permission for employment that is related the program they have completed.

One of the most important things to consider if you plan to work in the US is ensuring you will have eligibility to work per immigration regulations.

Students in F-1 status need to apply for Optional Practical Training through the Office of International Students and Scholars. You can apply for up to a 12-month period. It is advised to begin the application process in February of the graduation year as it will take immigration several months to process your application. Full information on the application process can be found at http://www.oiss.yale.edu/visa/f1opta.htm You will be reminded weekly when it is time to apply in the OISS weekly email announcements.

J-1 students also need permission but don't need to apply until later in the Spring of graduation year. Information on J-1 Academic Training authorization for students under Yale J-1 sponsorship is located at http://www.oiss.yale.edu/visa/j1atraining.htm The J-1 student can apply for an 18 month period. If you are sponsored by Fulbright, or another outside organization, you will need to seek this permission directly from the Sponsor.

I'm an international student just starting to look for work in the US. Where do I begin?

This question has been answered by guest blogger Zheng (Martin) Ma, a Yale PhD in Computer Science who is currently a Consultant at Boston Consulting Group, Beijing.

First, start with the career office in your school. You may want to use a top-down approach to see what options are out there. The career office can direct you to the best related websites/books/people.

Second, ask the senior students and professors in your department about their career interests. What kind of career path have they chosen? How have they prepared for it? You will be amazed by the variety of choices people have made.

Third, do not feel frustrated in the lonely job search process. Try to talk to other international students with similar backgrounds as you. When you meet other people in a similar situation, you can get tremendous support from your peers.

Last but not least, remember you are the only driver and passenger in this journey. Be proactive and take the initiative to find the job that fits you well.

My resume is in great shape and I have a list of target employers but I don't know where to start in selling myself. How can I work on this?

When you are working on your resume, completing coursework, working on a long-term vision statement and making short-term career decisions, there's not a lot of time left over for developing a personal 'brand.'  But all the work you are doing informs this important piece of personal research that will uniquely position you in both existing and emerging environmental job markets.

Quintessential Careers has a whole toolkit of resources for exploring the question of how to best sell yourself, including a self assessment quiz (Career Branding: What's the Value of Your Personal Brand?), a how-to for developing your elevator or promotional speech (The Elevator Speech is the Swiss-Army Knife of Job Tools), developing your storytelling ability for the job search (Career Storytelling Tools for Job-Seekers) and more! 

At the end of my interview, I was asked what my salary requirements are and didn't know what to say. How do I answer this?

A rule of thumb for salary questions and negotiations: Try and get the employer to give you a salary range first.  If your figure is too high, you risk being seen as unaffordable.  If it's too low, you may be seen as less than serious.  

If you can get the employer to offer at least a range initially, you can start working on negotiating an offer that falls (ideally) in the upper part of that range by backing it up with data from general salary surveys, F&ES salary data, geographical cost of living considerations and your personal bottom line, i.e. what is the minimum you are willing to accept so that you can maintain or afford your life?  

If the job is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that will benefit your career in other ways or has an ideal schedule with the kind of flexibility you want, you may be willing to accept less.  If it is one of several offers all equally attractive, you may want to select the position that satisfies more of your personal work/life needs, is in the ideal location or will offer you the most professionally.

This is a common question!  In her blog column, The Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk addresses the intricacies of this type of negotiation/discussion in The answer to the toughest interview question.  Check it out!