Who I am paper free essay sample

According to the assessment, my highest score of 34 was in the category Artistic, next was Social with 32 and my last 2 categories tied at 11 in the categories Investment, and Enterprise(National Center for O*NET Development). In tying this into my Job zone assessment, my results show that I am willing to add more education in order to have a specific career. By choosing to add more to my education, I found my top career choices to be a Mental Health counselor, Marriage and Family Therapist, and a Counseling Psychologist(National Center for O*NET Development). This does not surprise me considering I have been pursuing a career in mental health. It is a good exercise to keep your plan in focus. This is important because as many career-counseling theorists suggest, a career path can often change as life changes (Niles and Bowlsbey, 2013). After reviewing John Holland’s personality descriptions, I felt my evaluation with the O* NET profiler was correct. I am artistic based on my interests, need to be expressive, independent, open, and original (Niles Bowlsbey, 2013, p. 70). After reviewing this list from Holland’s description of Artistic, I realized I fit this group in more ways than I had first understood. My list of traits could easily incorporate all of Holland’s examples. This was also the case with the social category according to Holland. I relate with traits like social, cooperative, sympathetic, and helpful. I think this grouping incorporates my interests and passions towards my goals for Clinical counseling (Niles Bowlsbey, 2013, p. 71). . The Enterprising personality type is one of my two lowest groups according to my profile. This personality, according to Holland, focuses on leaders who are energetic, domineering, and impulsive (Niles Bowlesbey, 2013, p. 71). At first, I considered this group to be focused on the sale driven personality who easily can persuade or influence another person. If this is the case, I agree with my profile that I do not fit in this category. After looking at Holland’s grouping, I see that his view includes a more vivacious character who is more of a free spirit. I can relate that I do not match with this description. Although I did score high in the area of Conventional on the O* Net profiler, I do feel I can relate with Holland’s version of a conventional personality. I do find strands of my personality that focus on order and sysmatic approach. I enjoy learning about the research side of Counseling and would consider adding this to my career. A Type A personality would not be a fitting title for me for I rarely show traits of perfectionism in my daily routine. However, I enjoy organization, task related goals and efficiency (Niles and Bowlsbey, 2013, p. 71). Being a Christian, or religion, is my number one value. I try to use this as my filter for all my decisions in life. My second most important value is influencing. I think it is next of importance because if I am constantly reminding myself that I want to be in a place that I am of good influence, than I feel I am doing what I am called to do with my life. I believe this pushes me to keep accountable to my idea of happiness and accomplishment. Personal Reflection I was a bit shocked when I read the highest profile area was Artistic. I knew that it would be high, but I did not think it would the top category. I tend to focus my life around the social grouping, rather than what is found in an artistic grouping for the career focus. I enjoy artistic hobbies, like photography and crafts; however, I have not focused my career in an artistic area. I do feel I need to use my artistic talents for stress relief and enjoyment more often than I currently do. I also thought I would see more of a connection to my interest in business. I was surprised that there were only a few questions about business. I found the values assessment to be more revealing than I would have expected. I was challenged to decide what was truly important. I had a hard time prioritizing with the many choices. I also felt it was difficult because some were similar. I think this would have accomplished more if they were developed within context. For example, I think it would have helped to put the values into sentences, not just the general words. I assumed that Counselor would be on my list of suggested career choices. I was disappointed that I could not find a career focus with counselling and professional speaking tied together. In searching for this career, I did realize that I tend to focus many of my interests around the amount of income they will provide. I realize that this does not determine a person’s happiness, but it does become a realistic expectation if you are going to invest financially into your career. With that, I am going to avoid focusing on financial gain and remember to just be happy. External Influences Although I do not like to admit to it, I am aware that I have my own prejudices. With that, I know that when I am viewing my career through this selfish lens, I tend to think that some vocations are better for me because I am a middle class American, from a middle class American family. With this assessment, I can tell that I may have allowed this ignorant prejudice to influence my decision making slightly. I see this as I consider the different vocations and how they rate according to my scale of best income, amount of time needed to achieve this vocation, and the overall standard I have set for myself. I can imagine that my gender also plays a major role in my decisions for my career. I am reminded of how I felt when I noticed the different jobs that include physical labor. My first reaction is to immediately assume I would never fit in these roles because I am a female. It is my goal to not keep this perspective and make sure my children do not carry it either. I did not think about how my age influences my decisions for my career until now. I am aware that if I were at an older age, I do not think I would be pursuing a new level of education or a new field for a career. I hope that as I go further in my counseling education, I can better understand how to help others who feel this same discouragement. I do not like thinking that my age would influence my happiness or success, but truthfully, it could determine major steps for my life. Even more than the intrinsic factors, I believe the external factors had a large effect on my assessment. Prior to the assessment and learning about career counseling, I studied how these variables can influence many different research tests. Even knowing this information, I still allow stress to influence me. I took the tests knowing that I probably should have given myself a better setting. With my home busy with children, I may have responded better had I felt more relaxed. With this in mind, I do not feel as though my analysis of the test was incorrect. I do however, wonder if my results would have changed had I not been distracted by back ground noises. Another factor that I was surprised to have was technology. I consider myself rather comfortable, but with this test, I felt the need to rush through as if it were timed. I had to keep reminding myself that I could take my time. This may be from the tests I take online. I think if I take a personality assessment in the future, I will take the time to think this over before beginning so that I do not rush anything. There were times when I think I may have been â€Å"over thinking† my answers. I think this is due to the nature of the assessment. I also think that this is natural to a student who is pursuing an education based on Psychology. I have learned that the more I gain in understanding how assessments and personalities work, the more I notice the details while I am taking them myself. I notice the different groupings of the assessment and want to figure it out, instead of waiting until the end. This is not something I stop and spend time doing, I just find myself intrigued with the how and why of these tests. Conclusions When considering my vocational personality type and the environment in which I will work, I feel I have a perfect match. My personality leads me to desire structure and the ability to have independence to enjoy other people. Without even realizing it, I chose counseling to fulfill that need. I prefer working with an open schedule. In clinical practice, a counselor does have the ability to make their own schedule, and determine how much they want to work. With this environment, I think this vocation allows the counselor to focus their attention on helping others and meeting the need for their client. I look forward to this in my future. Although I have never thought about what I wanted in my regular schedule for my career, I can see a trend in my past job experiences. I have also leaned towards working with others and for others even if it was outside of the mental health field. I also notice that I enjoy a relaxed environment. I enjoy being able to get to know the people I work with and as I do, I usually become more productive with my responsibilities. In looking back at my job history, I have more grace for my mistakes considering this job profile. I now realize that I did not work well when I was in an environment that focused on sales, numbers or a position that did not positively affect another person. Before looking at this assessment, I criticized myself for not making positions like a bank teller or billing specialist keep my interest. I now look at my criticisms and realize I am not entitled to a great paying job because I work hard to achieve my education. My values and Christian faith remind me that we are sinful creatures. I do not truly deserve the blessings I have, but God has graciously bestowed them upon me. I have not done anything to earn them, but rather God gave them to me. I also see how God has created me in such an amazingly intricate way. I am thankful for this assessment because I see where my failures in the past were leading me to finding my true calling.