Career Interests, University Planning and Personality Types

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Career Interests, University Planning and
Personality Types

• The Myers Briggs Type Indicator, the STRONG
  Interest Inventory and Univerisity and Career
  Planning
• A Presentation by
• Malcolm Rennie
• University Advisor and
• Qualified Career Interest Administrator

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Presentation Outline

• A Matching your Interests to Possible Careers
  and University Programs
• B Matching your Aptitudes to Potential Careers
  and University Programs
• C University and Program Selection,
  Application and Scholarship Advice

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PART A - Your Interests !

• There are many ways to assess and build your
  career interests, and many of the tools available
  to help you in this process are based on
  discovering your personality and interests and
  matching them to the best suited career fields.

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Interest Assessments

• There are many online and readily available
  career tests but two of the tools to help you
  discover your interests and personality type that
  are among the most trusted, most reliable and
  most often used in business and education are
• THE MYERS BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR
• THE STRONG INTEREST INVENTORY

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The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MTBI)

• One of the most widely used business and
  personality assessments
• Research confirms that the MTBI has high internal
  consistency, test-retest reliability and
  excellent validity as a measure of personality
  type
• The MTBI searches for equally valuable groups of
  personality types, rather than categorizing
  people according to positive or negative
  personality traits

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Myers-Briggs

• This well known instrument (it is never called
  a test), when properly understood, helps you
  find your personality preferences.
• There are no right or wrong answers and no
  personality types that are better than others
  but knowing your type might help you select a
  suitable career or university program

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Personality

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
• Based on the theory of Carl Jung and the research
  and application the mother and daughter team of
  Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers
• The theory is that we all possess personality
  traits in pairs of opposite characteristics.
• Extroversion (E) versus Introversion (I)
• Sensing (S) versus Intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P)
• Note Myers Briggs is often seen as labeling
  but everyone has some of both of each of the
  above choices (we just prefer to be one or the
  other most of the time)

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MBTI and Energizing ScaleFrom Where Do You Get
Your Energy?
Extroverts -Aware of surroundings -Talk things
out, then think -Like attention, being at
centre -Broad interests and sociable -Expressive,
like talking and doing -Take initiative at work
home -Communicate by talking
Introverts -Most comfortable with self -Works
out ideas then talks -Prefers privacy, behind
scenes -Has fewer but deeper interests -Takes
initiative if issue is key -Prefers communication
by writing
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MTBI and the Perceiving ScaleWhat Do You Pay
Attention To? How Do You Gather Information?
Intuitive -About 35 of the population -Looks to
future possibilities -Imaginative and
creative -Looks for patterns and
meanings -Remembers patterns, not other details
uses inspiration -Moves quickly to
conclusions -Wants theory to be thought through
before testing it -Likes fiction trusts hunches
Sensing -About 65 of population -Focus on the
present, the now -Likes details, the factual -Can
remember specifics -Works step by step to
conclusions -Understands through practical
applications -Likes non-fiction trusts experience
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MBTI and the Deciding ScaleOn What Basis Do You
Make Decisions?
Feelers -Solves problems based on
feelings -Empathetic personal values count -How
do decisions affect people? -Compassionate,
tender-hearted, and seek positive
interactions -Fair is treating everyone as an
individual
Thinkers -Solves problems by reason,
logic -Looks at causes and effects -Looks for
objective truth -Tough minded, may seem
insensitive -Prefers to be fair, a just treatment
applied equally
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MTBI and the Living ScaleWhat Lifestyle Do You
Have? How are you Oriented to the Outside World?

• Judging Perceiving
• Scheduled, Organized Are spontaneous
• Makes lists, are serious Are more flexible,
  playful
• Like to take charge Are good at
  adapting
• Like to make decisions quickly Puts off decisions
• Express strong opinions Are more tentative
• Are often in a hurry Like a slower pace
• Methodical Open-ended
• Are driven to finish projects Prefer to start
  projects
• Like rules, structure Find rules limiting

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The MTBI Report and Profile

• If you answer the Myers Briggs questions you can
  receive a report which will note where you placed
  on each of these four scales a personality
  profile
• Note It is important to remember there are
  no good or bad profiles i.e. you may have a
  judging orientation but that does NOT mean you
  are judgmental you may be thinking rather than
  feeling in terms of decision-making, but that
  does NOT mean you are insensitive to feelings
  rather, your decisions tend not to be based on
  them

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The MTBI Profile and Careers

• There is a great volume of research and
  information about MBTI types and the careers in
  which they tend to be satisfied and successful
• But there is also data on activities within
  careers that match MBTI personality types (this
  is how business organizations often use
  Myers-Briggs)

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MTBI and University Planning

• Looking at the possible matches of your
  Personality to Career Fields and University
  Faculties is one broad overview to consider
• Using your type to match to preferred activities
  and build needed areas of skill is another
  approach
• Always use these findings to help make informed
  decisions along with other information gained in
  your planning never rely on any assessment or
  profile solely to make final decisions

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The STRONG Interest Inventory

• The STRONG is the most widely used career
  interest inventory in the world
• It is the best-researched measure of occupational
  interests, based on surveys of over 20,000 men
  and women in over 200 occupational fields
• The STRONG has an excellent reliability rating.
  It scores well for both internal consistency and
  in test-retest reliability. (This is NOT to say
  that someone should base their career decision
  SOLELY on this or any single test - that decision
  should be based on many factors and made over a
  period of time)

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Why does the STRONG work?

• Your selected interests are matched with a
  massive sample of research collected over the
  years from thousands of individuals in a wide
  range of careers who have indicated they like
  their work and are contented in their careers
• This can help people search for career
  environments that let them exercise their skills
  and abilities, express their attitudes and
  values, take on problems and roles they find
  stimulating and satisfying
• The STRONG is based on theory of John Holland a
  typology of persons and work environments that is
  a major force in career psychology - Hollands
  RIASEC vocational types and brief definitions
  appear on a later slide

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What the STRONG tells you

• Helps you assess your career interests
• Helps you determine possible career directions
• Provides some indication of appropriate education
  and training
• Helps you realize your personal and recreational
  interests (perhaps outside of your career)
• Helps you find a balance between your work and
  leisure interests

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RIASEC Hexagon of Six Occupational Themes

• R Realistic often well suited to Engineering,
  etc mechanical, athletic, outdoors focus on
  things
• I - Investigative perhaps your Faculty of
  Science, research students idea people,
  problem-solvers
• A - Artistic imaginative, creative, original,
  artistic, focus is on new ideas and formats over
  things
• S - Social people people, interest in social
  relationships, helping people solve problems
• E - Enterprising leaders, speakers,
  influencers, political and economic interests,
  people focused
• C Conventional clerical and math skills,
  indoor organizers, like words numbers over
  people/ideas

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FOUR Parts of the STRONG

• 1. General Occupational Themes (GOTs) these
  summarize your interests and tell you into which
  of six general career areas you seem to best fit
• 2. Basic Interest Scales these are 25 broad
  types of careers where your interest or lack of
  -is rated
• 3. Occupational Scales these are your ratings
  of interest in over 100 specific occupations and
  compared to over 200 different career groups
• 4. Personal Style Scales These four scales
  suggest work styles and environments that suit
  you

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PART B Your Aptitudes!

• Once enough interest and personality information
  is gathered to give you some guidance in career
  and university direction, the next step is
  looking at your aptitudes and skills, to ensure a
  good match in university and program choice

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Aptitude Tests

• Aptitude tests such as the PSAT or other academic
  skill tests may provide an indication of your
  relative areas of strength compared to others
  your age
• Of course schools provide aptitude data
  continually through their exams, and Diploma
  exams give standardized results for you to
  consider

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PART C University Advising

• Taking your interest and aptitude data, the next
  step is to research appropriate university
  programs and plan both a series of target
  faculties and some back of plans that bracket
  your anticipated university entrance average

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University Advising

• Finding the most suitable university programs,
  ensuring entrance qualifications are met, working
  out a plan to finance your post-secondary
  education (scholarships, bursaries, other
  income), and applying effectively and on time for
  universities, residences and scholarships are all
  steps in the process of getting into university