By: Schuyler Eldridge
After taking the FOCUS 2 self-examination tests, most of my results seemed like old news to me. However, there were some things that I found out that have caused me to think about my major at UNC, as well as the career paths I might take. Focusing on the work interest assessment specifically, my results did not surprise me here. My Holland code is ICR, or investigative, conventional, and realistic. Investigative are “the thinkers,” which definitely sounded like me after I read where investigative people prefer to work independently with minimal supervision. Conventional people are “the organizers,” and the part of this category that stood out to me was that they enjoy working with computers.
While I’m not really considering anything to do with computers as a potential major at the moment, I definitely have an interest in computers, and would like to take classes to further expand my knowledge. My third highest category is realistic, or “the doers.” I would say that of the three categories I got, I am more realistic than anything else. The description for realistic people says that they enjoy playing sports, working outdoors, and being physically active in general. I definitely relate to all of those activities. Therefore, I agree with the Holland Code that I was given as a result of the tests.
As I said earlier, for the most part, the work interest assessment results didn’t surprise me. What did surprise me however, is the variety of the recommended occupations that I got after taking all of the FOCUS 2 tests. The field of work that was most common was by far engineering. I have always been successful in math, however, continuing my pursuit of math in college and then working a job that involves dealing with math every day had never occurred to me before. I have always thought that I’ll either pursue a career in business or perhaps in medicine. Never before had I seriously considered becoming an engineer, but now seeing the results of this test, I am going to take them into consideration when deciding my major. Some careers that were recommended to me were careers that sounded interesting, but after reading the description of the job, I determined that it may not be the right career for me. For example, zoo veterinarian came up as a potential career for me. I have always been interested in animals, but after reading some of the specific duties that zoo vets have to perform, I don’t think that it is a potential career for me anymore.
All in all, taking the FOCUS 2 test has been an eye-opening experience for me. It confirmed some things that I already knew about myself, as well as presented new ideas that I hadn’t previously considered, but will now. Deciding what career/major path I want to pursue has proven to be a difficult task, and taking assessments such as this one are very helpful in me gaining an understanding of what steps I want to take next in my journey.
Schuyler Eldridge
EDUC 131: Career Exploration