By: Tricia Bacon
The Focus 2 assessments really are useful tools for determining where I should focus my attention in my job search. In the last post, I briefly described my results and determined what was accurate to my perception of myself and what was eye-opening to me. Now, I am able to delve even deeper into these results and find out what Job Families (or groups of similar jobs) I might be interested in researching more. My first step is to determine how each of my work interest areas are seen in my everyday life. As I have already mentioned, my creativity lies for the most part in my hobbies; I love playing the violin, singing, and daydreaming. My ability to help others is especially seen in my volunteer work. From middle school to about halfway through high school, I would help my church out with children’s camps, and I often helped tutor my peers in high school. I also have a lot of experience with Appalachian Service Project, an organization devoted to rebuilding homes in the Appalachian Mountains. Last but not least, my aptitude for thinking and investigating can be seen in my scholarly interests and talents, such as all of the calculus, chemistry, and biology classes I have taken.
While all of this is important to take note of, the more important question here is what impact these experiences have made on my life. Well, my creative interests have taught me to think outside of the box. I am now able to pay attention to the overall musicality of a piece rather than just hearing it note-by-note, and I am able to pursue the “what ifs” I dream up on my own time. My interests as a thinker have caused me to have a systematic way of thinking and to constantly ask questions: how does x affect y, what steps do I need to take to understand this, what effect can I have on this relationship, etc. And while volunteer work obviously impacts others, as they get a better understanding of course material or a warmer, safer, and drier home out of my service to them, it also impacts me, as I learn how to work with others and accommodate their needs in the process.
These impacts are not just noticeable to me; Focus 2 was also able to determine them in my personality assessment. Most of the comments it gave me were very similar to the ones I have just listed. It says I am innovative and love discovering new ways to learn things, both of which correspond to my creativity. It also states that I am intuitive or perceptive, a quality needed to help others. By far the results point towards my investigative nature, with my independence, systematic order, and goal-oriented behavior being defining characteristics.
Since Focus 2 was pretty spot-on with my personality assessment, the Job Families that occurred most frequently were for the most part ones I would have expected: Life, Physical, & Social Sciences, Architecture & Engineering, Computer & Mathematical, and Legal. All of these require an investigative nature of some kind and can be traced back to the very scientific course load that I have taken throughout high school and college. I am not so much interested in Legal careers, as those may put me in a more social spotlight than I would like. None of the fields relate exactly to my experiences with creativity and helping, but at least Architecture & Engineering and Computer & Mathematical jobs require some degree of creativity, and all of them can help others out in the long run. While there are still tons of Job Families out there that I may enjoy, these are a pretty good start for determining where I want my career to go.
Tricia Bacon
EDUC 131 Career Exploration