If I’m going to be useless today anyway…

I might as well take some quizes. Oh, but wait, these are job-hunting-tastic quizes, so maybe they aren’t so useless after all. I think more than anything else, not knowing what I really want to do is crippling my job hunt.

---

Enneagram

First categorization: Romantic (4), with Thinker (5) right on its heels, followed at a moderate distant by a Peace-maker(9)/Motivator(3) tie. Interesting to note, I have a big fat 0 as my Leadership (8) type score. And who is really surprised by that? Helper (2) and Reformer (1) were really low (which surprised me, though in truth, it kinda fits), while Questioner (6) and Enthusiast (ie bon vivant) (7) were there. So, to digest this crap into english (not entirely unlike reading tarot cards):

I jump into life heart first (see earlier bad poetry), and I’m majorly intellectual/analytical/curious. I dislike direct conflict, and work to promote harmony while having a strong competitive streak, and the desire to excel. I hate to tell others what to do, and will go along with others so long as it doesn’t conflict with anything important to me. I do not spring to help neediness on my doorstep, and I will not fix your problems. Nor am I concerned about what I ‘ought’ to be doing.

How this relates to prior employment experience: All my computer/technical jobs had nothing to do with the heart. And thus, I failed to care about them. Maybe not that cut and dried, but close. Tutoring and peer counseling were good for me in that they were more human-based, but still they weren’t quite it. I was an especially poor match to tech support, given that I had no direct drive to help people. (and it showed as can probably attest, to my chagrin.)

What this suggests that I should be looking for: Something that speaks to the heart. Something that requires intelligence and thought. Something where harmony/connection is important. Something where accomplishment and progress is valued.

More on this can be found at: http://www.9types.com/

---

Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator

Okay, so I’m cheating. I know this one so well that I don’t actually need to take the quiz. Surprise, this is more an examination of memememe, as this narcissistic medium demands. Or, at least, how I should go about the job hunt, as my wallet demands.

INFP – Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perciever
as opposed to
ESTJ – Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, Judger (the type most represented in corporate america, according to some source)

Introverted: (abstract, as opposed to concrete) I’m actually pretty borderline on this one, which surprises me. I tend to deal in abstract stuff all the freaking time. Though I guess liking exercise and assembling ikea furniture and the like displays my closet extrovert side pretty clearly.

Intuitive: (pattern, as opposed to detail) So intuitive, it’s not even funny. Stick my nose up against the bark, and I will still say ‘forest’ rather than ‘tree’. I am pattern-tastic. Details, not so much.

Feeling: (motivated by emotion or deciding via reason) Again, fairly borderline, but unwaveringly so. This was the biggest surprise for me the first time I took the test. And I have never had it turn up any other way. I’m used to thinking of myself as pretty rational. I think I make my decisions based on both, though, in general, emotion navigates while reason pilots.

Percieving: (observe or organize) As anyone who has seen my room can attest, order is not my strong suit. Very prone to observation, exploration, experimentation. Better at starting things than finishing them.

My technical jobs have pretty uniformly been heavily abstract (so much so that I would find myself in other people’s offices, juggling their koosh balls to do something mindless, thanks and ), with a need for both attention to detail and a sense of pattern. Very much reason-based (they’re computers, like this was unexpected), and generally a mix of organization and observation. For coding, higher on the organization, for tech support, higher on observation.

So, overall, not a terrible match, but still a little lacking. Otoh, my tutoring/counseling jobs were pretty I, though more balanced than the programming, was more pattern than detail oriented, though it certainly employed both. Heavier on interpersonal relation than on reason, though using both, and a mix of organization and exploration. A much better match, and I’ve loved those jobs, though the pay always sucked.

This stuff suggests that I look for jobs that are more balanced in physically/socially interactive, v abstract challenges, dealing with more big picture issues than detail. Other desireable traits include something with emotional importance, and an investigative bent.

---

Career Quiz

Your interest color is: BLUE

People with blue Interests like job responsibilities and occupations that involve creative, humanistic, thoughtful, and quiet types of activities. Blue Interests include abstracting, theorizing, designing, writing, reflecting, and originating, which often lead to work in editing, teaching, composing, inventing, mediating, clergy, and writing.

Your usual style is: BLUE

People with blue styles prefer to perform their job responsibilities in a manner that is supportive and helpful to others with a minimum of confrontation. They prefer to work where they have time to think things through before acting. People with blue style tend to be insightful, reflective, selectively sociable, creative, thoughtful, emotional, imaginative, and sensitive. Usually they thrive in a cutting edge, informally paced, future-oriented environment. You will want to choose a work environment or career path in which your style is welcomed and produces results.

http://www.review.com/career/careerquizhome.cfm?careers=6 for the source.

---

Career Key & Career Interests Game

This is just a list of types of work, and ideas within those types, and combinations of sub types. Given that I’d say my orientation is towards, Social, Investigative, Artistic/Realistic, (Enterprising, and Conventional are other options). The ones that struck my fancy off those lists were….

Before reading any further, if you want to take the which-am-I test yourself, check out http://www.careerkey.org/english/

Community Planner (SEA)
Counseling (SAE/SIA)
Registered Nurse (SIA)
Sociologist (SIA)
Teacher’s Aid (SIC)
Technical writer (IRS)
Nurse practitioner (ISA)
Economist (ISA)
Ecologist (IRE)
Writer/Editor (ASI)
Journalist (ASE)

http://www.missouri.edu/~cppcwww/holland.shtml

---

“Summary & Analysis of Results”

By and large, I agree with these personality tests, and, when you put it all together, this has provided me with a great deal of encouragement for pursuing the field that my shrink and I hammered out over the course of 3+ years of counseling: try for work in sociology, a research assistantship if at all possible. This will almost certainly involve grad school. (Oh no, anything but that. Where do I sign up again?). She suggested I look up interesting professors in the berkeley department and see if I could find a professor looking for a research assistant _now_. (well, actually, she suggested I do it as soon as I moved out here. Small detail.) Every time I think about this, I fail to convince myself that I have a better chance of convincing a professor, than of discovering life on mars.

It will also almost certainly take a great deal of time, probably more time than my current finances allow. If I accept those statements as fact, I need a stopgap job. Which means my situation hasn’t changed tremendously. If I surrender the battle before a shot is fired. Hmmmm.