Not Your Mother's Career Guidance
Not Your Mother’s Career Guidance
A humorous tale (as reposted from LinkedIn)
(3-5 minute read)
Have you ever had a conversation with a parent or grandparent about what you want to be when you grow up? It’s kind of fun to think back on ‘how we got here from there’ or to reminisce about our growing years. While writing this article, it was nice to reflect upon going to the hairdresser with my grandmother as a kid and wanting to be a stylist, and later visiting her at the high school where she was an English teacher and a counselor. Another recollection involved visiting my mom at the hospital where she scheduled surgeons and later joined them as an operating room (OR) nurse. I’ll always remember having lunch with her in the hospital cafeteria, or what was called the ‘basement’ located adjacent to the elevator and next to the morgue. It still gives me chills—no pun intended…. And my dad, well he was always away as a Veteran but did make me a cool desk one time when he was on leave--likely to encourage my learning. At least that’s my analysis. Perhaps these occurrences describe, via triangulation of course, why I dedicated my life to learning and helping/counseling others and treating PTSD.
Maybe you’ve decided you too would like to embody qualities of a parent or a relative and pay some characteristics forward. But life does offer twists and turns as does our development with each candle on the birthday cake. Age development stages are discussed by many scholars and are available in the empirical literature of Piaget, Kohlberg, and Erickson. With these concepts in mind, these theorists outline growth milestones, like ‘to do’ check boxes, we achieve growing up and revisit, albeit subconsciously, until all the boxes have been checked—no matter what the age. And if a checkbox is missing, we as humans will unknowingly make decisions striving to check the incomplete milestone of personal development. (A link to these empirical development maps is found at the end of this article.)
Telling factual stories is one of my favorite pastimes much like narrative story telling. So onward, as Microsoft-types would say. I’ll pivot in the lifetime capsule to earning a M.S. degree in professional counseling. Aside from the amazing content/context, this journey also gave me a Spring Breaks again, which to paraphrase my kids and favorite marketing genius, Guy Kawasaki, ‘does not suck’. Spring Break involved taking a long drive to San Diego. Which while looking in the rearview mirror, I recall my kids playing on their cell phones with anticipatory glances. Certainly, this was and still is a lifelike behavior representative of fun growth and expectancy. At any age, taking kiddos for a car ride, whether to help them sleep or to give them time to complete a fun opportunity is a great bonding opportunity.
Car rides may also afford life projects, such as the Holland Career Guide, which can be completed on a cellphone or a desktop. Upon completion, the Holland Career Guide provides job interest guidance. Its model details work personalities and is represented by the acronym RIASEC (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional). Students or in this case family members can take the RIASEC test to best determine what career types suit them best. Additional information for job types is also found on the BLS or Bureau of Labor Statistics website.
What RIASEC job type best describes you? Are you:
- Realistic-Describes individuals who are usually competitive and assertive and are interested in activities like soccer or computer games which require motor coordination, strength, and skill. Individuals slanted toward reality typically prefer to solve problems by taking action—rather than sitting idly by and talking about it or ruminating about it to the point of exhaustion. Realistic people take concrete approaches to solving problems rather than applying abstract theory. Realistic types hold interests in mechanical or scientific issues and are less focused on aesthetic or cultural ideals.
- Investigative-Indicates people who like to observe and assess rather than individuals who take immediate action. Investigative types seek to understand information rather than use tactics of persuasion. Investigative individuals can typically rely on qualitative and quantitative structured methods of data assessments which include interviews, observations, and empirical assessments that provide structure to the data for analysis and potential indication of outliers. Investigative types like data and problem solving, and often prefer individual work but as a team player.
- Artistic-Describes individuals who are typically open, creative, inventive, perceptive, original, sensitive, emotional, and independent. Artistic types are presumed to not appreciate ground rules or structure, and like activities where they can make use of their physical skills or interact with other people. They do not like structure and rules, per se, and like tasks involving people with whom they can express their emotions or participate in activities that make use of their physical skillsets. They like to understand areas of culture and art, and enjoy organizational activities which afford opportunities to think.
- Social- Defines individuals who are empirically known to satisfy their needs by helping or teaching others in like environments. Social types are presumedly different from ‘R’ and ‘I’ types as they gravitative more naturally toward close relationships with friends and loved ones, and are less likely to desire physical or intellectual attributes. Social people appreciate other individuals and like to work with teams.
- Enterprising – Describes characteristics of individuals who are great communicators and leverage this skill to persuade or lead others. Enterprising people also value their reputation, power, status, money, and will typically go after these attributes. Enterprisers too like data and people. Malfeasance of jealousy is an artifact opposite enterprising individuals designed to disrupt Maslow elevation. For example, manifestations of intellectual capital compromise, theft, or identity theft.
- Conventional – Describes people who appreciate rules, regulations, and interpersonal boundaries. This career type puts emphasis on one’s ability to exhibit self-control and interpersonal regulation while articulating interpersonal boundaries. Conventional sorts appreciate order, structure, and dislike interpersonal disengagement or ambiguity. They place value on status, power, self-perception, and data.
If you or someone you know would like to learn more about their career type, and what job could be a good fit for him or her, please direct them to the Holland Codes first and then the Bureau of Labor Statistics . Additional information about Piaget, Erickson, and Kohlberg development is available via this link.
Best of luck and onward!
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