Full cover:Layout 1 4/8/2008 8:29 AM Page 1

CAREERS

C AREER QUIZZES
C AREER QUIZZES
A COMPLETE CAREER PLANNER FIND A CAREER YOU’LL LOVE
CAREER
QUIZZES
This book is your personal career counselor, This unique, step-by-step system guides you
helping you not only find a career but toward a career you’ll love. Career Quizzes
manage it. You’ll get shows you how to
• Activities, worksheets, and checklists to • Move from just finding a job to
discover what you love to do discovering your calling and living it
• A dozen easy-to-take quizzes • Manage that dream career so it doesn’t
• Guidance in pulling together quiz and become a nightmare

12 Tests to Help You Discover and Develop Your Dream Career

activity results to see the big picture • Discover what makes you unique and
• Help through every step of your career how to apply that knowledge to finding
planning journey, from initial exploration
to job success
your perfect career path
• Create a balance between your work and
12 Tests to Help You Discover and Develop Your Dream Career
• Advice from one of the nation’s leading leisure time
career counselors • Know where you are, where you want
to be, and exactly how you will get there
• Discover work that makes you want to get
out of bed in the morning.

• Uncover jobs that perfectly fit your interests,

ABOUT THE AUTHOR skills, values, and personality.
John Liptak, Ed.D., serves as Director of Career Assessment and Counseling at Radford University in Virginia; is the
president of the Center for Career Assessment, Inc.; and has more than 20 years of experience as a career counselor. He is a • Develop a career path that you’d stay on
leading developer of career assessments and the author of several best-selling instruments, including the Career Exploration even if you won the lottery.
Inventory, Barriers to Employment Success Inventory, and many more.

Liptak

800-648-JIST | www.jist.com $14.95 Higher in Canada

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CAREER
QUIZZES
12 Tests to Help You Discover and Develop Your Dream Career

John J. Liptak, Ed.D.

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Career Quizzes: 12 Tests to Help You Discover and Develop Your Dream Career
© 2008 by John J. Liptak
Published by JIST Works, an imprint of JIST Publishing
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Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Liptak, John J.
Career quizzes : 12 tests to help you discover and develop your dream career / John J. Liptak.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-59357-444-4 (alk. paper)
1. Vocational interests--Testing. 2. Vocational guidance. I. Title.
HF5381.5.L568 2008
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2008010829
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, or stored in a database
or retrieval system, without prior permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in
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We have been careful to provide accurate information throughout this book, but it is possible that errors and
omissions have been introduced. Please consider this in making any career plans or other important decisions.
Trust your own judgment above all else and in all things.
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registered trademarks of their respective owners.
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Acknowledgments

Writing this book has been an extraordinary and rewarding experience. First and foremost, my
deepest gratitude goes to my career clients, who have granted me the privilege of working with
them. I want to thank them for letting me be a part of their career journeys and for trusting me to
share their stories, dreams, hardships, and successes. They have taught me most of what I know
about the skills necessary to manage a career. I will be forever grateful.
I want to thank the following people for their generous contributions during the writing of this
book. Most importantly, I would like to thank my editor at JIST Publishing, Dave Anderson, for
his attention to detail, advice, and steadfast devotion to this project. I am grateful for his skillful
editorial direction, friendship, and intuitive insights.
I would also like to thank Sue Pines, publisher at JIST Publishing, who understood the promise of
this book from the beginning. Without her encouragement and support, this book would not have
been possible. I am indebted to my agent, Jill Marsal of the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency, for
believing in me, wisely advising me during this project, and for inspiring my very best work.
Finally, I would like to thank my wife, Kathy, who has supported me during the writing of this
book. I love her very much, and I owe her a special debt of gratitude for her support, patience, and
encouragement.
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About This Book

In my work as a career counselor, I have helped people resolve a wide variety of career-
related problems. I have helped stay-at-home parents transition to new careers with little
or no work experience, ex-offenders looking for their first job out of prison, and hundreds
of people who had recently been “let go.” The most difficult type of client, though, has to
be the person who, as Henry David Thoreau puts it, “leads a life of quiet desperation.”
These are people who feel trapped in work that doesn’t excite them, fit their interests, use
their skills, or fulfill their needs—who while away the hours wondering if there isn’t some-
thing better.
People like James, who at age 32 was experiencing a career crisis when he came into my
office. James was a district manager with a well-respected fast-food franchise. He was
rewarded with a respectable salary, good benefits, and a nice pension.
And he was miserable.
When I sat to talk with James, I began to understand his situation and the situation of all
the other quiet, desperate souls like him. His work provided little opportunity for real
leadership, initiative, or creativity. It had become tedious, repetitive, and mechanical. He
wanted work that fit his personality and contributed to his self-esteem—work that was ful-
filling and—dare he say it—enjoyable. And he’s not the only one. Only about 10 percent
of people report loving the work they do; the vast majority of people work at jobs where
they experience limited career satisfaction or no satisfaction at all.
James needed to find his purpose, to develop a career that would be more gratifying, and
to take action to make it happen. Most people put little or no time into planning and
managing a career. Left to their own devices, most people find themselves in jobs that don’t
match their interests or talents or that don’t fulfill their needs or bring them any closer to
reaching their lifelong goals. They need guidance. They need a plan.
That was how the idea for this book was born. For the first time, the assessments that I
use to take my clients through the career-coaching process are available to you in this
book. A successful and rewarding career is possible, but you must take the time to do some
self-reflection and self-exploration to get there.
If you have dreamed about work in which you are motivated, inspired, respected by col-
leagues, and paid well, you are not alone. By taking the 12 easy tests in this book, you take
the first steps toward discovering and developing a fulfilling career and living the life you
deserve.
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Table of Contents

Introduction: Achieving Career Satisfaction ......................................................xi

Part I: Define Your Purpose 1

Chapter 1: Making a Change ............................................................................3
A World of Change ..........................................................................................................4
Making Career Transitions ................................................................................................5
The Career Transition Scale ..............................................................................................6
Making Your Career Transition..........................................................................................9
Which Style Is Best? ........................................................................................................17
Tying It All Together ......................................................................................................18
Chapter 2: Meeting Your Needs ......................................................................19
Satisfaction, Motivation, and Needs ................................................................................20
Maslow’s Theory of Motivation ......................................................................................20
The Career Needs Inventory............................................................................................22
Meeting Your Needs ........................................................................................................25
Tying It All Together ......................................................................................................36
Chapter 3: Being the Boss................................................................................37
The Truth About Success ................................................................................................38
The Entrepreneurial Readiness Assessment......................................................................42
The Makings of an Entrepreneur ....................................................................................44
Where to Learn More......................................................................................................49
Tying It All Together ......................................................................................................50
Part I Summary: Define Your Purpose ............................................................52

Part II: Discover Your Ideal Job 55

Chapter 4: Discover Your Skills and Interests ..................................................57
Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here? ........................................................................58
Taking an Interest in Interests ........................................................................................59
The Career Interest Inventory ........................................................................................60
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viii Career Quizzes

What Are Skills? ..............................................................................................................64

The Career Skills Inventory ............................................................................................66
Matching Your Interests and Skills to Occupations..........................................................70
My Ideal Job....................................................................................................................77
Tying It All Together ......................................................................................................77
Chapter 5: Identify Your Values ......................................................................79
Work and Values ............................................................................................................80
The Work Values Scale ....................................................................................................81
Understanding Your Values..............................................................................................83
Tying Values to Occupations ..........................................................................................85
Prioritizing Your Values ..................................................................................................89
Tying It All Together ......................................................................................................90
Chapter 6: Explore Your Personality ................................................................91
What’s Your Type? ..........................................................................................................92
The Career Personality Inventory ....................................................................................93
Holland’s Personality Theory ..........................................................................................96
Finding a Good Fit........................................................................................................104
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................105
Part II Summary: Discover Your Ideal Job......................................................106

Part III: Develop a Career Plan 109

Chapter 7: Make a Decision ..........................................................................111
The Nature of Career Decisions ....................................................................................112
The Career Decision-Making Scale ..............................................................................114
One Step at a Time ......................................................................................................116
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................126
Chapter 8: Plan Your Work—and Work Your Plan ........................................127
Taking Responsibility for Your Career ..........................................................................128
Goals: Stepping Stones to Achievement ........................................................................128
The Career-Planning Assessment ..................................................................................131
The Four Characteristics of Effective Career Planners ..................................................133
Developing Your Career Plan ........................................................................................137
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................142
Chapter 9: Keep Your Balance........................................................................143
Balancing Work and Leisure ..........................................................................................144
Your Career Is a Combination ......................................................................................145
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TABLE OF CONTENTS ix

The Work-Leisure Balance Scale....................................................................................146

Exploring Your Work-Leisure Balance ..........................................................................147
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................154
Part III Summary: Develop a Career Plan ......................................................155

Part IV: Take Action 157

Chapter 10: Improve Your Job Search Strategy ..............................................159
How People Traditionally Find Jobs ..............................................................................160
The Job Search Proficiency Scale ..................................................................................161
Improving Your Job Search Strategy ..............................................................................163
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................177
Chapter 11: Make the Most of Your Style......................................................179
Understanding Your Temperament ................................................................................180
The Job Search Style Inventory ....................................................................................182
You’ve Got Style ............................................................................................................184
Improving Your Job Search Skills ..................................................................................190
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................191
Chapter 12: Ensure Your Success ..................................................................193
The Skills Needed to Succeed........................................................................................194
The Emotional Intelligence Scale ..................................................................................195
The Four Cs of Success ................................................................................................197
Leading the Way............................................................................................................207
Tying It All Together ....................................................................................................209
Part IV Summary: Take Action ......................................................................210
Conclusion ....................................................................................................212
Index..............................................................................................................213
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INTRODUCTION

Achieving Career Satisfaction

I f you’re reading this, then the odds are you’re looking for something—a new job or even a new
career, a new path and a sense of direction, or a way to make a long-standing dream come true.
And you’re certainly not alone. Studies have found that only about 50 percent of all workers
are actually satisfied with their jobs. Job dissatisfaction is widespread among Americans of all edu-
cational levels, income brackets, and ethnic groups. People want more opportunities for career
development, more ownership in decision making, greater work/life balance, and to be more highly
valued as employees. Mostly, they just want rewarding work.
Career satisfaction is possible, but it requires you to know what truly motivates you. Many people
will tell you that they’re unhappy in their current job, but they can’t pinpoint why. They talk about
being unfulfilled, underutilized, or underpaid. Many will simply say they’re “missing something.”
More often than not, a lack of job satisfaction is a matter of internal needs not being met—such as
a lack of personal growth or a lack of opportunity to be creative—rather than external needs, such
as pay or benefits. Thus, achieving job satisfaction is not simply a matter of earning a higher salary
(although most of us wouldn’t complain) but a matter of discovering the kind of work that matches
your values and personality and fulfills all your needs.
Many different factors can influence your level of job satisfaction, including pay and benefits, the
opportunity to use your skills and abilities, the level of challenge you feel in doing your job, the
quality of leadership, the quality of your social relationships, and the variety of duties you perform.
Knowing which of these is most important to you can give you insight into which direction to take
your career.
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xii Career Quizzes

How Satisfied Are You?

Before we get too far, let’s see how satisfied you are. The following assessment, or “quiz,” consists
of 25 items describing personal feelings and reactions you might have toward your current job or
toward past jobs. Respond to each item using the following scale:
Always True Somewhat True Seldom True Never True
0 1 2 3

1. I am often bored at work 0 1 2 3

In the above example, the circled 2 indicates that the statement is Seldom True for the person com-
pleting the assessment. If you are currently unemployed, think back to your last job as you respond
to the following items. This is not a test, and there are no right or wrong answers. Be sure to
respond to every statement.

Always Somewhat Seldom Never

True True True True
1. I am often bored at work 0 1 2 3
2. I watch the clock while working 0 1 2 3
3. I see no value in the work I do 0 1 2 3
4. I never look forward to going to work 0 1 2 3
5. I often think of ways to get out of work 0 1 2 3
6. I do not use all my abilities at work 0 1 2 3
7. I do not want to learn more about my job 0 1 2 3
8. I have already mentally quit my job 0 1 2 3
9. I go home immediately when the workday is over 0 1 2 3
10. I am not ambitious at work 0 1 2 3
11. I feel exhausted at the end of the workday 0 1 2 3
12. I spend a lot of time at work making personal calls 0 1 2 3
13. I use my vacation time very quickly 0 1 2 3
14. I feel unappreciated at work 0 1 2 3
15. I would never recommend the work I do to others 0 1 2 3
16. If I hit the lottery, I would immediately quit my job 0 1 2 3
17. I often miss work due to illness 0 1 2 3
18. I often feel stressed at work 0 1 2 3
19. I often worry about my work when I am not there 0 1 2 3
20. I often daydream of having a different job 0 1 2 3
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INTRODUCTION: ACHIEVING CAREER SATISFACTION xiii

Always Somewhat Seldom Never

True True True True
21. I find myself doing things that I hope will get
me fired 0 1 2 3
22. I spend a lot of time at work surfing the Internet 0 1 2 3
23. I feel like I am underpaid 0 1 2 3
24. My work is not that challenging 0 1 2 3
25. There is no room for personal growth at work 0 1 2 3
Total: __________

Now add the scores you circled and put that total on the line marked Total at the end of the
assessment.
Scores from 0–25 indicate a low degree of job satisfaction. If you scored in the low range, then you
should take some measures to improve your satisfaction at work or find a job that better meets your
needs. In fact, a complete career change might be in order. Thankfully, the rest of this book can
coach you through the process of finding and developing a satisfying career.
Scores from 26–50 indicate that you are experiencing an average degree of job satisfaction. We all
have things we like and dislike about our jobs, and these tend to balance out and make work bear-
able. But such a job will seldom reap the bigger internal rewards that lead to career fulfillment. At
the very least, you should try to find ways to enhance your satisfaction at your current job or in
your current line of work, but a career change isn’t out of the question either. Use this book to help
you make long-term career plans that will lead to more rewards.
Scores from 51–75 indicate a high degree of job satisfaction. But even a perfect score on this assess-
ment doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement. The remainder of this book can help you
enhance your job satisfaction even more!

The Quest for Satisfaction

Work satisfaction is the never-ending quest for self-fulfillment and self-actualization. And it
began thousands of years ago with a man named Socrates. Socrates was an extraordinary Greek
philosopher who made it his mission to help other people develop a deeper understanding of what
constituted a good life. He dedicated himself to discovering wisdom within himself and drawing
this wisdom out of others. His approach, called the Socratic method, consisted of a series of ques-
tions he would pose to help other people explore their true nature so they could experience success.
I’m no Socrates, but in my career-counseling practice, I have found that successful people are able
to grow personally and professionally by devoting themselves to lifelong learning, self-exploration,
reflection, and growth. Successful people constantly invent and reinvent themselves based on a
process of constant self-assessment.
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xiv Career Quizzes

Successful people have a rare ability to celebrate their strengths and face up to their weaknesses.
They make effective decisions based on self-knowledge and take action to make changes in their
lives. Research suggests that those people who significantly invest in themselves and their own
growth and development generally experience greater levels of career and life fulfillment than those
who merely wait for opportunities to come along.
The qualities needed to become successful are within each and every one of us, regardless of race,
age, class, or educational level. This book, and the assessments and exercises it contains, adheres to
Socrates’ mantra that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” It will help you examine and
explore the enduring qualities or characteristics you possess and how those characteristics affect
your career development.

The Guided Self-Reflection Approach

Career Quizzes is unlike most other career success books, largely because it does not pretend to
provide you with a magic formula for success. In reality, you have to work for it, hence the tests
mentioned in the title.
But they aren’t really tests (not in the panic-inducing, late-night-cramming sense of the word). They
are self-assessments that can help you explore your goals and values, skills and abilities, and plans
and purposes. Assessments can help you recognize patterns of behavior, identify strategies that are
productive and unproductive, and enrich your understanding of how you interact with the world.
Assessments provide a path to self-discovery through the exploration of what makes you unique. I
call this guided self-reflection.
Guided self-reflection is a unique way of learning about yourself. Each chapter of this book will
coach you through the self-reflection process. In each chapter, you will:
• Identify barriers to your career success.
• Complete assessments to learn more about yourself.
• Explore your results and find meaning in them.
• Devise new strategies and plans based on what you’ve learned.
• Commit to making the changes required to achieve more career success.

Be aware that the assessments in this book are exercises in self-exploration and not final definitions
of your character or attitudes. Still, the results of this process should help you reflect on your life,
question past behaviors, find meaning, and make connections. You will then be encouraged to set
goals and take action.
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INTRODUCTION: ACHIEVING CAREER SATISFACTION xv

The Four Steps to Success

Career Quizzes guides you through the career-coaching process as it relates to four critical areas of
career management:
1. Find Your Purpose. Most people spend a lifetime trying to find their calling in life. The
assessments included in Part I of this book can help you do just that by guiding you to
define the needs you want your career to meet and helping you discover the path that
will best lead to fulfilling your purpose.
2. Identify Your Ideal Job. Since you were a child, people have probably been asking you
what you want to be when you grow up. You might still be trying to answer this ques-
tion. Identifying your purpose is one thing, but finding the ideal job to help you achieve
your purpose can seem even more difficult. According to the U.S. Department of Labor,
there are approximately 20,000 different jobs available in the workplace. To find the best
one, you must take a serious look at yourself and how your characteristics match with
the opportunities available. The assessments in Part II will help you narrow that list of
jobs from 20,000 to a mere handful (or at least two handfuls) by taking a close look at
your interests, values, skills, and personality.
3. Develop a Career Plan. Even people who have an idea of what they want to do with
their lives lack a career plan and well-defined career goals to get them there. Part III will
help you make effective career decisions—choosing among the many alternatives you
may be considering—and then help you develop a plan to achieve your career goals. You
will also learn how to achieve the proper balance between your life and your career as
you pursue those goals.
4. Take Action. A plan is useful only if you follow it. The assessments in part IV will help
you develop an effective job search campaign and take action. You will learn more about
your personality style in searching for a job, what your job search strengths and weak-
nesses are, and ways you can improve them to reach your goals more effectively. Finally,
you will discover what you can do to ensure your ongoing career success.

A Word About the Assessments

in This Book
An assessment can provide you with valuable information about yourself, but please remember that
such instruments cannot measure everything about you. The purpose of these assessments is not to
pigeonhole you, but to help you explore your personal preferences and characteristics and how they
impact your career development. Remember that this book also contains assessments and not tests,
at least not in the traditional sense. Traditional tests measure whether something is right or wrong.
For the exercises in this book, there are no right or wrong answers. The questions require only your
opinions or attitudes about a topic of importance in your career and your life.
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xvi Career Quizzes

Keep in mind that the assessments in this book are based on self-reported data. In other words,
the accuracy and usefulness of the information depends on the information that you provide about
yourself. You may not learn much from taking some of these assessments, or you might simply ver-
ify information that you already knew. On the other hand, you may uncover the key to your dis-
satisfaction or the pathway to your future success.
Moreover, the assessments in this book are merely a starting point for you to learn more about your-
self and how you fit into the world. You may not always agree with the outcomes, so remember that
these are exploratory exercises and not a final definition of who you are or what you believe. Lastly,
the exercises in this book are not a substitute for professional assistance. If you feel you need addi-
tional help, please consult a professional career counselor.
As you complete the assessments in this book, remember to do the following:
• Take your time completing the tests. There is no time limit, so work at your own pace.
Allow yourself time to reflect on your results and how they compare to what you already
know about yourself.
• Find a quiet place where you can complete the tests without being disturbed.
• Do not answer the assessment questions as you think others would like you to answer
them or how you think others see you. Remember that these assessments help you reflect
on your life and explore some of the barriers that keep you from attaining career success.
• Assessments are powerful tools—as long as you are honest with yourself. Be truthful in
your responses so that your results are an honest reflection of you.
• Complete the exercises included after each assessment. These exercises will allow you to
explore how the results of each assessment can be integrated into your personal and
career development.
• Finally, remember that self-discovery and career planning can be fun. Don’t stress over
the assessments or the results. Just learn as much about yourself as you can. You will
enjoy taking the assessments, and you will learn a lot about yourself and your goals in
the process.

We all have our own definition of success, whether it’s having a lucrative career, becoming
renowned for our work, owning our own business, or helping other people. This book will help you
explore what success means to you and make plans to achieve that success. By taking five minutes
out of your day to complete just one assessment in this book, you take one more step toward real-
izing your dreams.
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PART I: DEFINE YOUR

PURPOSE

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams!”
—Eleanor Roosevelt
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C H A P T E R
1
Making a Change

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”
—Yogi Berra

Y our career is much more than the work you do, but the work you do plays an integral part. You
spend more time at work than engaging in any other activity. If you work 40 hours a week for
40 years, you will spend a total of 83,200 hours at your job. Of course, in today’s workplace, many
people spend 50 or more hours per week at work—more than 100,000 hours in their lifetimes. And
many people do not consider those 100,000 hours “time well spent.” If you are not happy in your
work, you will not experience much career or life satisfaction. Your career is your purpose in life—
the lasting imprint that you leave on the world. It should be worth your time.
If you are reading this book, odds are it is time for a shift in your career. Change and transition can
take many forms. It can be unexpected or planned, initiated from within or imposed from with-
out, accepted with open arms or fought against with tooth and claw. This chapter will examine
both the internal and external factors that prompt people to make a career change.
But first, consider some current statistics offered by Mikela and Philip Tarlow in their groundbreak-
ing book Digital Aboriginal:
• More than 50 percent of all workers report dissatisfaction with their current jobs.
• Twenty-five percent of all workers are actively considering changing their careers.
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4 Career Quizzes

• More than 50 percent of all workers would consider a drop in pay if their jobs became
more meaningful.
• Seventy-five percent of all workers would take a pay cut in order to have more personal
time.
• Fifty percent of all workers are experiencing symptoms of burnout.
• Between 15 and 25 percent of all workers have voluntarily accepted a cut in pay to
downscale, simplify, and engage in a less materialistic lifestyle. To some degree, they have
simply dropped out of the rat race.
• When asked what would make them happy, 66 percent of all workers said they would
spend more time with their families, whereas 47 percent said they felt they would be
happier if they could make a difference in their communities.

Workers today have reached a point where they want meaning more than anything else in their
careers. They crave purpose, a sense of direction, and a feeling that they make the world a better
place. And if you are one of them, then it is probably time for a change.
This chapter will help you identify how you respond to the ever-changing workplace, how you cope
with change, and the steps you can take to confront your career transition with the right attitude.
After all, if you don’t go into your transition with the right outlook, you might end up back where
you started.

A World of Change
Our lives consist of a never-ending series of transitions. We can expect and prepare for such transi-
tions, but that doesn’t necessarily make them easy. Even if a transition is welcome, it can still cause
anxiety and concern. When transitions are not welcome—like losing your job—the emotions and
demands placed on you are even more intense. To overcome this anxiety, you need to develop tran-
sition skills so that you can respond quickly and flexibly to new career demands.
Economists and scholars suggest that we are in the middle of a workplace revolution. The dynam-
ics of this new workplace have affected most workers at one time or another, and they are probably
affecting you. External forces—from a corporate restructuring to an economic downturn to the rise
of globalization—play a part in accelerating change in your personal and work lives. Whether it’s a
move to a new office or a move to a new state or taking a year off to write a book or five years to
raise children, change is never a question of if. It is more often a question of, “What now?”
Much of our changing landscape stems from new technology, which continually creates new oppor-
tunities and new problems in the workforce. Entire industries continue to emerge and explode as a
result of technological advances—from video games to biotechnology. Thanks to the Internet,
more workers are skipping the morning commute and instead working from home. Like most rev-
olutions, the technological one comes at a cost, expressed most directly in the loss of jobs. For
example, my mother worked for Ma Bell as a telephone operator many years ago, but she lost her
job to an automated telephone-answering service. And so it goes.
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 5

Organizations have also started to change the way they employ workers. Wages over the last decade
have steadily declined for the average worker, and this trend will probably continue. In addition,
employers often pay less toward employee pension plans and health insurance costs, which means
employees shoulder more of the burden. To cut costs and improve efficiency, most major compa-
nies have increased their use of temporary workers, like consultants or freelancers, or outsource
them to countries with lower labor costs. Experts suggest that at least a third of all job roles are in
transition, a third of all vocational-technical schools have become obsolete, and a third of all work-
ers eventually leave their jobs.
Fifty years ago, people worked for the same employer their NOTE
entire career, and the average tenure for a person in a job was 23 If you are considering a change
years. By 1996, that figure had dropped to about 4 years. If you (or if one has been forced on
are just now entering the workforce, you have at least 12 differ- you), you need to prepare for
the transition. Learning to deal
ent jobs to look forward to—and probably more. In the future,
effectively with career transi-
many workers will change jobs more frequently, will move more tions is the first step on your
often to find a job, and will require additional training as a way path to career success.
of moving into new employment opportunities. In the past,
“job hoppers” were not considered loyal or trustworthy. Nowa-
days, those same people are “savvy career managers,” building their skill sets as they search for their
true calling.

Making Career Transitions

Career change is inevitable but embraceable—provided you have a sense of direction and the right
attitude. All people experience career transitions. Depending on the circumstances, career transi-
tions may be voluntary or involuntary, desired or undesired. But the results of such changes—where
you end up transitioning to—are ultimately up to you.
Not too long ago, I found myself in the middle of a major career NOTE
transition—one of several. I had been working in a state prison Always be prepared for career
in Delaware, helping offenders prepare for transitions of their transitions. The more aware
own as part of a reentry counseling program. I had also been you are of yourself and how
working as an instructor at a local college in the evenings. When you fit into the world of work,
a full-time teaching position became available, I applied and the less surprised you will be
received a job offer. when a career transition is
thrust on you.
That was the easy part. Making the transition from the prison
setting to a college setting was the hard part. I was used to work-
ing in a very structured environment (most teachers don’t have the benefit of armed guards watch-
ing over their students). After my first few days as a college professor, one of my colleagues took
pity on me and told me that I didn’t have to sit in the office all day when I wasn’t teaching—after
my office hours, I could go home. That represented just one of hundreds of smaller changes that
came with that transition. Teaching in a prison and teaching in a college classroom are vastly dif-
ferent affairs (although some of my college students would disagree)—each with its own unique
challenges. Recognizing those challenges, accepting them, and finding ways to overcome them were
the keys to making a successful transition.
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6 Career Quizzes

Career transitions rarely happen smoothly. Even changes that you want—like that much-desired
promotion—may mean that you will have to develop new relationships, leave behind old ones,
work more hours, take fewer vacations, or learn new skills. Navigating such a transition requires
careful planning and decision making, but it also calls for an increased self-awareness. Knowing
how you are likely to react to those changes can help you better prepare for them.

THE FOUR STAGES OF A TRANSITION

Most people pass through four distinct stages during a career transition. The speed and urgency of your
path through these stages will differ from those of other people, and you may move so quickly through
a stage that it seems like you were never in it.
Stage I: Denial. Regardless of whether a transition is positive or negative, a general refusal to accept
the reality of it helps us protect ourselves from being overwhelmed. Take Mike, an accountant facing
imminent downsizing as word spreads that the corporation he works for might decide to move its oper-
ations to India. In this phase, Mike insists that it is only a rumor and that he will wait it out and things
will blow over, while his colleagues begin polishing their resumes. The longer he stays in denial, the
more he hinders his career.
Stage II: Resistance. In this stage, personal distress levels rise and we look for someone or something
to blame. We focus on the past rather than the future. Past denial but unemployed, Mike begins to
blame everyone for his situation: He blames the people of India for being willing to work for less money
than he does, he blames the corporation for being cheap and not caring about employees who have
been faithful, and he blames his supervisors for not fighting for his job. He feels depressed about los-
ing his job and can’t find the motivation to look for a new one. Such feelings can build up and have
dramatic effects on our physical and psychological well-being, from headaches to stress to insomnia.
Successfully moving on from this stage, then, becomes an exercise in self-preservation.
Stage III: Exploration. In this phase, we begin to break free of the negativity and despair and shift into
a more positive, future-oriented frame of mind. We come to the realization that we will survive the
career transition and may even be stronger for it. Mike realizes that although he liked his job, he might
like other jobs even better. He feels energized and starts to act on this newfound motivation. He begins
to clarify his goals, assess his strengths and weaknesses, and explore alternatives and new possibilities.
Stage IV: Commitment. In this phase, we begin to focus on a new course of action. Mike begins to
think about ways he could pursue a lifelong dream of entrepreneurship. He talks with people at the
Small Business Administration about how he could start his own consulting business. When Mike’s
small-business loan finally comes through, he can’t believe it—and a new transition cycle begins.

NOTE The Career Transition Scale

Even if you think you know
People experiencing career transitions are often confused about
what direction you’re going,
this assessment can still be a how to navigate them. The following assessment can help peo-
valuable tool for verifying that ple who know they need to do something but aren’t exactly sure
direction. The more you know what. It can help you determine, based on your personality,
about yourself, the easier it is to which career direction might be best for you to pursue.
make the right career decisions.
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 7

Read each statement and decide how true the statement is for you. This is not a test. Since there
are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time on each item. Be sure to respond hon-
estly to every statement.

Very Somewhat Not

True True True
1. I would like to stay in one profession my entire career 3 2 1
2. I am interested in part-time work 3 2 1
3. I am always alert to business opportunities 3 2 1
4. I get bored and lose interest easily 3 2 1
5. I do not like change 3 2 1
6. I would willingly take less pay to work fewer hours 3 2 1
7. I often have two or more sources of income 3 2 1
8. I quickly adapt to new situations 3 2 1
9. I would describe myself as very practical 3 2 1
10. I gain satisfaction from both work and leisure activities 3 2 1
11. I am a risk-taker 3 2 1
12. I do not mind changing jobs 3 2 1
13. I easily commit to my employer’s product or service 3 2 1
14. I have many different hobbies 3 2 1
15. I always attempt to find ways to meet an employer’s needs 3 2 1
16. I like to gain experience by working at different jobs 3 2 1
17. I would like to stay with the same employer my entire career 3 2 1
18. I work so I can pursue my hobbies 3 2 1
19. I am very goal oriented 3 2 1
20. I constantly network for new job opportunities 3 2 1
21. My work is my primary source of life satisfaction 3 2 1
22. I seek recognition and success from both work and leisure 3 2 1
23. I have always wanted to own my own company 3 2 1
24. When a job loses its challenge, I move on to another 3 2 1
25. I prefer a highly structured work environment 3 2 1
26. Work is not a problem—as long as it does not interfere
with the rest of my life 3 2 1
27. I have skills that I can transfer from one job to another 3 2 1
28. I believe that self-promotion is critical to career development 3 2 1
29. I feel a sense of connection to my work 3 2 1
30. I carefully balance my work and personal life 3 2 1

(continued)
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8 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Very Somewhat Not

True True True
31. Others consider me to be a visionary thinker 3 2 1
32. Changing jobs is a way to build new skill sets 3 2 1
33. I will stick with an employer through good and bad times 3 2 1
34. I am an idea person 3 2 1
35. I am highly competitive 3 2 1
36. I need to keep finding new challenges 3 2 1
37. I always worry about losing my job 3 2 1
38. I have lots of interests competing for my time 3 2 1
39. I would like to build a business from scratch 3 2 1
40. I cannot imagine staying with the same company for decades 3 2 1

Scoring
The Career Transition Scale is designed to measure how you deal with career transitions—other-
wise known as your career transition style.
Use the spaces below to record the number that you circled for each item in the assessment. Calcu-
late the totals for each column (scale) and then put that total underneath each column.
Scale I Scale II Scale III Scale IV
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32
33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40

Total Traditionalist Total Catalyst Total Opportunist Total Job Jumper

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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 9

Each section corresponds to one possible approach to career development and, thus, one way to
navigate your current transition. A low score on any scale (10–16) suggests that this is probably not
the best direction for you. On the flip side, a high score on a scale (24–30) suggests that this is an
approach that you should seriously consider, as it best matches your personality and your current
philosophy regarding your career.

Making Your Career Transition

A greater awareness of how your personality fits your career development style can provide you with
a much-needed sense of direction. The following profiles provide information related to each way
of dealing with career transitions. Start with the scale in which you scored the highest. If you scored
high on more than one scale, you may have more than one way to deal effectively with a career tran-
sition. Read each description and then explore the suggestions that follow; they will help you set
goals to better manage your career.
Some of the following types may seem to have an easier time with career transitions than others.
The real key, however, is to make a transition that fits with your own needs, goals, values, and inter-
ests. That’s the goal of this chapter and, in fact, the entire book.

The Traditionalist: Working for the Gold Watch

Traditionalists are interested in sticking with one occupation—sometimes even one employer—for
their entire career. They tend to be very conventional (some might even say “old fashioned”) in their
approach to employment and career development. They view loyalty to an organization as highly
important. Although their relationship with the company may not be perfect, it provides them with
a sense of continuity, comfort, and security. Thus, any threat of separation from the company can
seem stressful.
A traditionalist’s job is her primary source of satisfaction and identity, and she will do almost any-
thing to preserve it. She can make changes when learning to work with new supervisors and
coworkers and can make great interpersonal adjustments in times of transition by being diplomatic.
Traditionalists are most interested in growing with a job, moving up the ladder, and achieving the
highest level of success within their chosen field.

SUSIE TRADITIONALIST
When Susie was let go from her sales job because of a corporate merger, she was shaken up. Most every-
one else in the company had moved on and started to look for new jobs, but she was determined not
to leave without a fight. She put together a portfolio of her work to show the new company owners.
She made an appointment and gave them her best sales pitch. She provided sample products she
had developed, spouted sales statistics to support her case, and showed thank-you letters from satisfied
customers. Not surprisingly, the new owners decided to retain her in her old position with the new
company, with the potential to move up even higher in the organization.
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10 Career Quizzes

The Advantages of Being a Traditionalist

• Traditionalists typically believe that work can meet most or all of their needs.
• Traditionalists feel a strong sense of connection to their work and to their employers.
• Traditionalists are highly motivated and enthusiastic about the work they do. They tend
to have a great work ethic.
• Traditionalists possess well-honed political skills that allow them to function effectively
with new administrators and coworkers.
• Traditionalists understand the value of moving up in an organization and look for ways
to make an impact and get noticed.

The Disadvantages of Being a Traditionalist

• Traditionalists often pass up great opportunities in other companies because of their loy-
alty to their current employer.
• Traditionalists often live in a state of denial when faced with a forced career transition.
• Traditionalists meet almost all their needs at work. Thus, work becomes their primary
passion—often to the neglect of other life roles.
• When faced with job loss, traditionalists may have a harder time recovering and finding
new job opportunities.

Strategies for Career Development

Traditionalists facing a career transition need to carefully consider their current interests, needs, and
values. After all, if your goal is to find one occupation and even one organization that you hope to
stick with until retirement, it is important that you like what you do, that it meets all your needs,
that it provides opportunity for growth, and that it will continue to challenge you. If you are in the
middle of a job loss or face that possibility, don’t be afraid to fight for your job—tenacity can pay
off. If you desire a career change, find a company that is growing or has a record of stability. You
should search for organizations with lots of opportunity for advancement. Take your time in decid-
ing which company to work for.
Once there, the key to maintaining a traditionalist career path is to convince your employer that
you want to move up. Make yourself integral to the company’s success. The following suggestions
can help you identify ways that you can be more valuable to an organization:
• Identify problems that you can solve. Look around your organization to see where it
could operate more effectively or efficiently.
• Invent a brand-new service or product. By being innovative, you will have a better
chance of advancing.
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 11

• Learn more effective emotional intelligence skills, such as conflict resolution, communi-
cation, time management, and leadership skills.
• Identify your competitive advantage. What do you do better than anyone else?

• Set goals for yourself. Periodically reassess where you are in your job and what you can
do improve the quality of your work and get noticed.

EXERCISE

In the space below, write down some specific things you can do to ensure a traditionalist career
path (if you are so inclined):

The Catalyst: Going to Work in Order to Play

In chemistry, catalysts speed along chemical reactions; they are a means to an end. In career devel-
opment terms, catalysts are those who use their work as a means to engage in other pleasures and
fulfill other life goals. They seek out multiple paths to overall life satisfaction; they commit to many
different work and leisure activities—all of which have the potential to make them happy. If one
activity disappears, the catalyst turns to the next one for satisfaction. For this reason, catalysts do
not fear career transitions.
Although they appreciate the financial security that comes with steady employment, unlike the tra-
ditionalist, they are not “married” to a job. They tend to maintain a job so that they can discover
and engage in new and exciting leisure activities. They prefer to work less than most people and
would gladly trade more time off for less money. Because they have so many diverse interests, work
is not always—or often—their first priority.

JACK CATALYST
Jack is a bank manager who writes travel articles as a hobby. His job as a manager provides him with
the money to own a home, buy nice clothes, and eat out at nice restaurants. It offers him safety and
security for his future. However, being a bank manager doesn’t come close to satisfying all his interests
or life goals. Therefore, he turns to his other interests—traveling and writing. On the weekends, Jack
enjoys taking short trips up and down the East Coast. He writes about his travels and has even sold
some of his stories to Coastal Living magazine. On his vacations, he enjoys taking trips to Europe and
learning as much as he can about other cultures. He takes Spanish language classes at a local commu-
nity college and plans to also learn German, Italian, and Japanese. Someday he hopes to write a book
documenting his travels in foreign countries.
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12 Career Quizzes

The Advantages of Being a Catalyst

• Catalysts recognize the importance of integrating their interests with their careers.
Their leisure activities are a vital part of their career plan and provide a constant source
of satisfaction.
• Catalysts tend to focus more on personal growth and development. They view success in
terms of accumulating experiences.
• Catalysts enjoy their work and are committed to it, but it takes much more than work
for them to feel fulfilled.

The Disadvantages of Being a Catalyst

• Catalysts sometimes take on too many interests. Thus, they often cannot engage in any
of them with the depth they would like.
• Catalysts often become so attached to their leisure activities that they let their work suf-
fer. For the catalyst, a work-leisure balance is critical. They often become complacent in
a job and overlook opportunities for more challenging work. Thus, they are less likely to
move up within an organization.
• Catalysts may be too eager for career transitions in their lives. They see these transitions
as a way of starting over—to redevelop their career plan and pursue new opportunities.
The problem is that this often leads to instability; for example, moving frequently or
uprooting children from friends and schools.

Strategies for Career Development

Catalysts facing a career transition need to develop a lifestyle plan that integrates all their various
work, leisure, and educational interests. For catalysts, an ideal job will probably be one that allows
them to maintain their interests in a wide variety of leisure activities while providing some mean-
ing and purpose at work. Catalysts should be patient in searching for the ideal job that provides
them with this type of balance between work and leisure time.
Balancing work and leisure isn’t easy (as chapter 9 will tell you); however, it is crucial for people
who see their work as a means to explore their leisure interests. The key to maintaining a catalyst
career path is to find ways to integrate your leisure interests into your work or to find ways to bet-
ter manage the time you spend on each. The following suggestions can help:
• Identify at least five occupations and leisure activities that match your personality.
• Think about ways you can reduce the time you spend working so that you will have
more time for leisure activities. For example, could you ask for more time off for less
money, or find seasonal or part-time work?
• Try to turn a hobby into an employment opportunity. For example, if you enjoy playing
with dogs in your spare time, could you start a dog-sitting business on the weekends?
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 13

• Take a sheet of paper and make two columns labeled “Work” and “Leisure.” Identify all
the potential work activities you might enjoy and all the potential leisure activities you
might enjoy. Then explore ways that you could turn work into leisure and leisure into
work.

EXERCISE

In the space below, write down some specific things you can do to ensure a catalyst career path
(if you are so inclined):

The Opportunist: Ready for Whatever

Comes Along
Opportunists take an entrepreneurial approach to their work. They are risk-takers and innovators.
They are goal oriented and always on alert for new and exciting business opportunities. Oppor-
tunists concentrate on constantly improving their skills and finding ways to apply those skills to
new ventures. They are willing to start over—spending the time and effort to build a business from
scratch, for example—if the rewards seem worth it. They are highly competitive and work hard to
succeed in the enterprise du jour.
Opportunists view career transitions as opportunities to make more money, be promoted to a bet-
ter position, gain more prestige, or start a business of their own. They have an intuitive sense for
when things are about to change and often have “backup” plans. Because of that, they tend to
accept change with greater ease than others, viewing them as occasions for growth.

KARMA OPPORTUNIST
Karma’s artistic abilities have taken her down many different career paths. She studied art education in
college, and her interest in ceramics and stained glass took her to England, where she worked with some
of the best in the field. She eventually came back to the United States, where she took a job teaching
art at a high school. After six years of teaching, she had saved enough money to open her own studio.
Now she sells her pottery and stained glass in her studio and through arts-and-crafts shows. Her years
of teaching gave her the experience she needed to offer art lessons to children and adults three days a
week. Eventually, she hopes to teach her craft at the local community college while also expanding her
studio into an online business. That is, unless something even better comes along.
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14 Career Quizzes

The Advantages of Being an Opportunist

• Opportunists have a true gift for identifying career prospects, whether inside their
organization, in competing companies, or in their own business startups.
• Opportunists find challenge in doing new and different things.
• Opportunists can see the connections between things. They have an intuitive sense of
when and how opportunities in the workplace can lead to business ventures for them
personally.
• Opportunists are not afraid to take risks. However, they are usually smart enough to
have contingency plans.

The Disadvantages of Being an Opportunist

• Opportunists live in the future. They spend so much time looking for the next new
opportunity that they may have a hard time being effective in their current job.
• Opportunists can take too many risks. They like to calculate the likelihood of success in
a career transition or business endeavor; however, that can be difficult to gauge in today’s
ever-changing workplace.
• Opportunists have a harder time being content. They are always so busy thinking about
the next opportunity that they lose sight of current rewards.

Strategies for Career Development

Opportunists facing a possible career transition need to be open to innovation. They can use a
career transition as an opportunity to improve their skills, move ahead in an industry, or start their
own business enterprise. It can be helpful for opportunists to think of a career transition as a per-
sonal challenge and find ways to overcome it.
Being an opportunist in a land of opportunity is one thing, but not everyone has a new career ven-
ture knocking on his or her door. The key to maintaining an opportunist career path is to make
your own opportunities rather than simply wait for one to come along. The following suggestions
can help:
• Consider self-employment opportunities. Determine what type of business you would
like to start and research what it would take to get started (be sure to read chapter 3).
• Consider doing freelance or consulting work to supplement your income and gain more
experience.
• Continuously research other career opportunities that might offer more rewards.
• Network with people in your industry so that you can rise up the ranks faster.
• Focus on improving your transferable skills. When the right opportunity does come
along, you want to ensure you are qualified for it.
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 15

EXERCISE
In the space below, write down some specific things you can do to ensure an opportunist career
path (if you are so inclined):

The Job Jumper: Finding Satisfaction, One Job

at a Time
Job jumpers get bored doing the same work and seek out new occupations where they can learn
and use new skills. Change is a way of life for them; they rarely see it as a setback—it’s usually just
more of a shift. Like opportunists, job jumpers are always networking and promoting themselves,
but unlike opportunists, jumpers aren’t looking for the next best thing as much as they are simply
looking for something different.
Because of the transient nature of their careers, job jumpers don’t worry about safety and security.
They aren’t even really concerned about being downsized and may be the most comfortable career
development style in today’s insecure working world. They thrive on change and want to transform
the companies they work for much faster than traditionalist employees. Because they will work for
several different companies in one industry, they tend to gain a broader perspective. Their range of
experiences often qualifies them for a wide variety of jobs, but resumes full of different positions
may be a turnoff for employers looking for a stable employee.

STEVEN JOB JUMPER

Steven is a jumper. He went to college and earned a bachelor’s degree in business and then started
working in an employment agency. He worked at this job for three years and learned the business.
Eventually, he heard about a job as a career counselor in a small college in his hometown, working with
college students who are about to graduate. He convinced the hiring committee that his experience in
the employment agency would benefit their students. As part of this new job, he could make contact
with hundreds of human resource representatives interested in hiring that college’s students. Whenever
these representatives were on campus, Steven would go out of his way to meet and greet them, build-
ing his network of contacts. It wasn’t long before he scored an interview for a better-paying coaching
job with a private outplacement firm. It’s a cushy job with great benefits, but even if he gets it, he
doesn’t intend to stay there for the rest of his life. He’ll learn the business and develop new skills that
he can market to another company, building his career piece by piece.
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16 Career Quizzes

The Advantages of Being a Job Jumper

• Job jumpers have a great deal of knowledge and experience that they have gained from
working in other companies. They can often use this knowledge in product development
and in strategic planning for a new company.
• Job jumpers have access to many contacts. Those who are good at networking are always
aware of new employment opportunities.
• Job jumpers believe in having fun at work, and they invest considerable time in the peo-
ple they meet; after all, the people they meet are possible sources of employment down
the road.
• Job jumpers don’t let themselves become bored. They don’t stagnate in jobs that aren’t
good for them. Once they recognize that a job is not the right fit, they go find one
that is.

The Disadvantages of Being a Job Jumper

• Job jumpers are unreliable and are often viewed as such by employers (you can usually
tell a jumper by an eclectic resume).
• Job jumpers are so interested in meeting people and networking that they forget to do
the job at hand.
• Job jumpers show limited loyalty. They don’t expect to be around forever and don’t trust
employers to look out for their best interests. They take what they can from a job and
use it to find the next one.

Strategies for Career Development

Job jumpers facing a possible career transition need to use it as an opportunity to learn new skills.
Because they are accustomed to being in this type of situation, job jumpers will probably welcome
the transition. They usually feel a sense of relief and excitement about finding a new place to work.
They do not worry about the lack of security associated with a career transition.
At first glance, one might think job jumping is not a career development style but instead is a total
lack of career management. Fifty years ago, that might have been the case, but today, job jumping
has become the way to spend your 20s and 30s. Statistics show that the average person will hold 10
different jobs between the ages of 18 and 38. Job jumping represents a lack of planning only if you
aren’t doing it right—that is, if you aren’t making careful career decisions based on what’s right for
you. The key to maintaining a successful job jumper career path is to build on your experiences and
see how they all work together to make you more marketable. The following suggestions can help:
• Build your network. Start developing a list of all the prospective employers for whom
you might like to work. Identify a hiring official in each business and then develop a
plan for how you can meet that person.
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CHAPTER 1: MAKING A CHANGE 17

• Create a portfolio of your achievements that you can show prospective employers.
• At every job you work, learn as many new skills as you can.
• Improve your interviewing skills. Convincing an employer to hire you might take some
additional effort, especially given your unstable work history.
• Create your own Web site to market yourself. Headhunters are increasingly using elec-
tronic media to identify potential talent.

EXERCISE

In the space below, write down some specific things you can do to ensure a job jumper career
path (if you are so inclined):

Which Style Is Best?

Odds are, everyone will have an answer to this question based on his or her own preferences (or
scores). Answers may vary by generation (baby boomers are more likely to appreciate a traditional-
ist approach), by interests (fun-loving, artistic types might trumpet the catalyst approach), and
certainly based on one’s past work history or current circumstance (it’s hard to take a traditionalist
stance when you’ve been downsized three times or a job jumper stance when you have children who
need reliable health care). But the truth is that today’s economy
makes room for all types, and no single approach to career NOTE
development is better than another. More likely than not, you Look at a career transition as
will find and take more than one path through your career, the best thing that could hap-
adopting more than one approach as you go. pen to you. Remember that
transitions are an opportunity
The question is not which one is best, but which one is best for to learn, grow, try out new
you? The assessment you took helps identify your career devel- skills, and cultivate new rela-
opment style based on your personality. This isn’t to say that the tionships.
style you scored highest in is the style you should adopt—only
that it is the style that will probably come most naturally to you.
That doesn’t mean that a job jumper won’t quickly turn into a traditionalist if he or she happens to
jump into the perfect job or that an opportunist won’t suddenly uncover a deep-seated interest in
photography that consumes his or her leisure time, turning him or her into a catalyst. Circum-
stances change, and our personal preferences, goals, values, and interests change alongside them.
The key to successfully managing your career is to fully understand where you are right now, your
current aspirations, and the best way to fill them. Knowing your preferred career development style
is a first step. Many more are yet to come.
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18 Career Quizzes

Tying It All Together

Change happens to all of us, and we all adapt to it differently. Transitions force us to develop and
refine our ability to adapt and evolve personally and professionally. The purpose of this chapter was
to help you better understand your current (or future) career transition and ways you might han-
dle it.
Being a master of change requires you to be flexible and willing to experiment and explore new ways
of doing things. Now that you have learned more about how you react to career transitions, you are
ready to work your way through your own transition step by step. The chapters that follow will help
you define your career, learn more about your ideal job, and find and succeed in that job.
Remember to complete all the assessments honestly. The key to developing a successful career is
knowing who you are, where you stand, and where you want to end up. Then, it’s just a matter of
walking the path you forge for yourself.
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C H A P T E R
2
Meeting Your Needs

“A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be
ultimately at peace with himself.”
—Abraham Maslow

A career transition is an opportunity, a chance to find greater satisfaction elsewhere. Often,

people know they are ready for such a transition, but they can’t tell you why. They don’t feel
fulfilled, but they can’t pinpoint the source of their dissatisfaction. Other people do know what they
need and eagerly wait for the right opportunity to come along.
Take Rick, for example. Rick and I both worked as career counselors, helping unemployed steel
mill workers in Pittsburgh find jobs. I loved this job. Rick, on the other hand, earned a reputation
as a bad employee. He came in late for work, was not motivated to help his clients, and kept telling
me that he was not living up to his potential. He wanted to be outdoors more, not sitting behind
a desk all day. He also said that he needed to be selling something so that he could “keep score.”
Then, fate stepped in. One of our job developers was injured and needed to miss two weeks of
work. Job developers are staff who go out into the city and ask employers if they would consider
hiring any of the clients registered with a government agency. Seeing an opportunity to try some-
thing new, Rick volunteered.
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20 Career Quizzes

This seemed to transform him. He loved going out and getting employers to hire our clients. He
made it a game and saw it as a personal challenge. He discovered a natural talent for sales. He felt
like he could use his full potential, and people at the agency praised his efforts. I wondered how the
same person could completely shift his motivation within two weeks, working with the same organ-
ization and making the same amount of money. The answer was simple: He found a job that met
more of his needs. The agency rewarded Rick by hiring him as a full-time job developer.

Satisfaction, Motivation, and Needs

Job satisfaction describes how content you are with your job. It is not the same as motivation, but
the two are clearly linked. Motivation is the inner desire to take action. When you feel motivated,
you do what needs to be done because you want to, not simply because you have to. Motivation
stems from self-interest. Therefore, finding something that satisfies as many of your desires as pos-
sible is the first step in increasing your level of motivation.
We all have inner drives or impulses that motivate us. For career success, it is important that you
understand how your drives propel you to do what you do. These inner drives are called needs, and
like all people, you are driven to satisfy various needs on the job, at home, at school, or in your
community.
While we all have needs, we seek to fulfill them in different ways and to different degrees. Some
people must concentrate on fulfilling basic needs like food and clothing, whereas others focus on
higher-level needs like nurturing relationships or engaging in lifelong learning. Knowing what your
specific needs are—and the various ways you try to satisfy them—is an important step in your
career development.

Maslow’s Theory of Motivation

Many years ago, psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory that emphasized the influence
of needs on our behavior. He theorized that as needs emerge in us, they determine our motivations
and, by consequence, our actions. An unsatisfied need for companionship, for example, can moti-
vate us to ask someone out on a date, call a friend up for dinner, chat online, or adopt a puppy.
More to the point, a job that doesn’t satisfy one or more of your needs can also prompt you to take
action, such as quitting it in order to look for another one (and that emerging need for a new job
will prompt more actions, such as reading the want ads or buying a book full of career quizzes).
Maslow felt that everything we do is done to satisfy some inner need and that by truly understand-
ing our needs, we can truly understand our behaviors.
We are all constantly struggling to meet our inner needs, and we meet many of them by the work
we do. Thank goodness we all have only five basic categories of needs to meet:
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 21

• Physiological Needs: The need for food, air, drink, sleep, and sex. These needs are usu-
ally the most powerful of all human needs. They can block out or overpower all other
needs if they are not met. If we don’t satisfy them, our lives could be in danger.
• Safety and Security Needs: The need to live in a relatively safe and stable environment
and the need to feel psychologically secure. Such needs might include the need for struc-
ture, order, and limits in your life. In addition, they include the need to live free from
fear, chaos, and anxiety. Someone choosing between two job offers might take the one
that comes with a matching 401(k) to meet this need.
• Love and Belonging Needs: The need to have close relationships with others and feel a
part of groups such as family, community, or friends. While this need is often satisfied
by intimate relationships with other people or belonging to a variety of social groups, a
person’s job or career can also satisfy his or her sense of belonging. Getting along with
your coworkers is one thing, but being part of a close-knit team with a common purpose
can be one of the most rewarding aspects of a career.
• Esteem Needs: Our need for feelings of worth and adequacy. We often satisfy self-
esteem needs through individual achievement and by garnering respect from others, usu-
ally in the form of recognition, status, and fame. If needs at this level are not met,
people often feel helpless and inferior. For many of us, our career is the primary contrib-
utor to our self-esteem. It is often through our work
that we receive the most recognition. Likewise, a lack NOTE
of recognition at work is one sign that it’s time to At any given time, you are
reevaluate your career path. being motivated by your lowest
unsatisfied need. You work
• Self-Actualization Needs: Self-actualization refers to until that need becomes rea-
the realization and fulfillment of one’s potential. Peo- sonably well satisfied before
ple who can’t make the most of their abilities often moving on to additional needs.
become discontented and restless. Of course, self-
actualization is different for all people. For one, being
an excellent parent may be the goal; for another, political activism in the community
is key; for others, it might be becoming a good athlete, painter, or business executive.
We can achieve self-actualization through a variety of life roles, of course, not just
through our career. But our careers often provide the best potential for reaching self-
actualization—provided we take them in the right direction.
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22 Career Quizzes

Maslow arranged these needs in a hierarchy from the most potent needs at the bottom to the least
potent needs at the top.

Self-Actualization: Your
desire for creativity
and maximizing your
full potential.
Esteem: Your desire for respect,
divided into self-esteem
and esteem for others.

Love and Belonging: Various social needs,

including your desire for love,
companionship, and friendship.

Safety and Security: Your need to be safe and secure.

Physiological:
Your biological needs: water, food, rest, sex, and air.

You spend most of your life trying to find work and leisure activities to satisfy your needs. As soon
as you satisfy one need, however, another immediately takes its place. Maslow believed that we
all constantly strive to meet needs in order to actualize our full potential—to reach the top of the
pyramid.

The Career Needs Inventory

The following assessment helps you identify your needs and the extent to which your career does
or can fulfill them. Keep in mind that no career—no matter how wonderful—can satisfy every
need. If it did, we would never leave work. However, by better defining your needs, you can more
easily adapt your current job to meet as many of them as possible—or find a job that will.

ASSESSING THE PRESENT AND PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

Assessments can be either diagnostic (designed to describe present behavior) or prognostic (designed to
predict future behavior). Some of the assessments in this book (like the one that follows) are diagnos-
tic in nature. They seek to describe your career behaviors so that you can enhance what works and
change what doesn’t. Other assessments are essentially predictive in nature, such as the assessments in
Part II, which are designed to predict future job satisfaction based on personal characteristics.
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 23

Please read each statement carefully. Using the following scale, circle the number that best describes
how important each item is in your career.

Very Somewhat Not

Important Important Important Important
I currently need work...
1. that allows me to pay the bills 4 3 2 1
2. that is physically comfortable to perform 4 3 2 1
3. that I can do without too much pressure 4 3 2 1
4. that will allow me to buy a house or pay the rent 4 3 2 1
5. that allows me to engage in my favorite leisure activities 4 3 2 1
6. that does not cut into my family time too much 4 3 2 1
7. that provides time for lunch and breaks during the day 4 3 2 1
8. that helps me feed my family 4 3 2 1
I. Total: __________
I currently need work...
9. that allows me to make lots of money 4 3 2 1
10. that provides me with good benefits, such as health
insurance 4 3 2 1
11. where I am not afraid of losing my job if I make a
mistake 4 3 2 1
12. in which I will not be harmed or injured 4 3 2 1
13. where I know what is expected of me 4 3 2 1
14. that will still be in demand in the future 4 3 2 1
15. that has regularly scheduled hours 4 3 2 1
16. that offers a good retirement plan 4 3 2 1
II. Total: __________
I currently need work...
17. that allows me to be an effective team member 4 3 2 1
18. where I like my coworkers 4 3 2 1
19. in which I am supported and guided by others 4 3 2 1
20. where I make a valuable contribution to society 4 3 2 1
21. where I get plenty of contact with other people 4 3 2 1
22. where I am mentored by someone 4 3 2 1
23. where I can help and support others 4 3 2 1
24. where I am accepted by coworkers 4 3 2 1
III. Total: __________

(continued)
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24 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Very Somewhat Not

Important Important Important Important
I currently need work...
25. in which I am adequately paid for my performance 4 3 2 1
26. where my talents are appreciated 4 3 2 1
27. that makes me feel proud 4 3 2 1
28. where I am acknowledged for my achievements 4 3 2 1
29. where I control my own destiny 4 3 2 1
30. that my colleagues, family, and friends can respect 4 3 2 1
31. in which I can receive promotions for my performance 4 3 2 1
32. in which I feel like I make a significant contribution 4 3 2 1
IV. Total: __________
I currently need work...
33. that allows me to grow personally 4 3 2 1
34. that allows me to contribute to a worthwhile cause 4 3 2 1
35. that allows me to fully use my skills and abilities 4 3 2 1
36. that is meaningful to me 4 3 2 1
37. that helps me reach my ultimate career goals 4 3 2 1
38. through which I can achieve my full potential 4 3 2 1
39. that requires a great deal of creativity 4 3 2 1
40. in which I am continually learning new things 4 3 2 1
V. Total: __________

Scoring
Add up the scores you circled for each section. Put each total on the appropriate line at the end of
each section. For each section, you will have a total ranging from 8 to 32. Then, transfer your totals
to the spaces below:
I. Physiological Needs: __________ II. Safety and Security Needs: __________
III. Belonging and Love Needs: __________ IV. Esteem Needs: __________
V. Self-Actualization Needs: __________
A score from 8–15 on any scale is low and indicates that the work you desire does not necessarily
have to meet this particular set of needs. For example, if you scored low on the Belonging and
Love Needs scale, this probably means that you do not need to develop strong bonds with your
coworkers (most likely because you are having those needs met elsewhere—through relationships
with family or friends, for example).
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 25

By contrast, a score from 25–32 on any scale is high and indicates that your work should definitely
meet this particular set of needs in order to be satisfying. For example, if you scored high on the
Esteem Needs scale, this probably means you will not be happy at work unless you feel confident
in the work you do and earn the respect of your coworkers and colleagues.

Meeting Your Needs

The fact that you are reading this book suggests that you feel the NOTE
need to improve your career situation to better meet your needs.
Lower scores do not mean that
You should first identify your highest score; that will tell you those needs are not important.
which of the five need levels is most important to you. You It simply means that those
should then do everything you can to reach that level. needs are not as prominent for
you, that you are meeting them
The following exercises will help you explore your career needs elsewhere, or that you are will-
at each level. Concentrate on those needs that are most impor- ing to sacrifice them to meet
tant to you, but don’t neglect the others. After all, the ultimate greater needs.
goal is to have all your needs met in both your career and your
life.

The Bare Necessities: Physiological Needs

Your first level of needs is physiological and includes the need for money for basic life essentials:
food, physical comfort, a place to live, work without much stress, and work that allows you to con-
tinue to engage in leisure activities. These needs tend to be the most powerful of all human needs;
when they are unfulfilled, you experience an urgent motivation to satisfy them.

EXERCISE

Is your current job providing you with enough income to meet your basic needs? What basic
needs are not being met?
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
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26 Career Quizzes

MONEY DOESN’T EQUAL HAPPINESS

Don’t dwell on money as the “end all” of needs satisfaction. At all the needs levels, money is simply a
means to an end. At the higher levels of Maslow’s pyramid, money becomes less important and some-
times gets in the way. In fact, studies have shown that once you have enough to be comfortable,
happiness is more a matter of attitude and interests and less a matter of income. In fact, some theorists
have even suggested a dollar amount for the happiness equation: $40,000. Making any more than that
per year, they say, is no more likely to make you happy than anything else is.

There is, of course, a difference between wants and needs. Wants are those things that you desire
but that are not critical to advancing to the next stage of career fulfillment. For example, you might
want two cars and a house with four bedrooms and three baths. Maslow would say that these are
wants because they are not necessary. (Of course, if you have a family of six or more, you could
make an argument to the contrary.) This need level is more concerned with basic day-to-day living
and less concerned with long-term financial security or accumulating wealth and property. In the
following exercise, try to differentiate between your wants and your needs. This will help you focus
on what’s most important to you as you develop your career.

EXERCISE

Things I Want Things I Need

Keep in mind that a job that does not fulfill your needs at this first level is ultimately not doing its
job. At the most basic level, most of us work to “make a living,” a phrase that has much more to
do with survival (the bottom of Maslow’s pyramid) than self-actualization (the top). If you find that
your physiological needs are your most important, then perhaps a safer, less stressful, or better-
paying job is the first step toward moving up the hierarchy and realizing your larger goals.

No Guarantees in Life: Safety and

Security Needs
This level represents our need to live free from fear, illness, injury, chaos, and anxiety—no small
concerns in the face of rising health care costs and the uncertain future of Social Security. On the
job, the need for safety and security relates to many employees’ concern for a more stable work-
place. The workplace of the new millennium is unpredictable. Many companies have downsized,
restructured, outsourced work to independent contractors and foreign countries, and undergone
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 27

radical technological changes. Globalization continues to present employees with competitive chal-
lenges and loss of employment. It is estimated that up to three million jobs are lost each year due
to the increased exporting of goods from other countries.
Even the employees who keep their jobs experience changes that affect their sense of safety and
security. More and more employers are making employees pay a larger percentage of their own
health care benefits and providing fewer sick days. When I got my first job, my employer paid 100
percent of my medical expenses. Nowadays, people take jobs with less pay or worse hours for the
promise of better health insurance. Safety and security in the workplace are no longer automatic
propositions. 401(k)s can dwindle to nothing, housing prices can skyrocket or plummet, and you
never know when one company will gobble up another, resulting in a shift in policy or, even worse,
in personnel. All these changes call for employees to work with less safety and security than they
ever had to in the past.
Because corporations often have no or limited loyalty to their employees, today’s workers increas-
ingly show an “every-employee-for-himself-or-herself ” mentality. It also forces many employees to
begin their own small or home-based businesses or find part-time employment to supplement their
full-time work.
In the boxes below, please check the various ways that your current (or previous) job provides you
with safety and security:
■ Security from crime ■ Feeling that your family is safe
■ Safety from debt ■ Security of health
■ Security from injury ■ Security of retirement
■ Stability from chaos ■ Steady paycheck
■ Job security in the future

Now, in the boxes below, please check the various ways that your current job threatens (or past jobs
have threatened) your safety and security:
■ Job loss due to technology ■ Work sent to another country
■ Job loss due to poor performance ■ Health benefits cut
■ Job loss due to office politics ■ Lack of retirement plan
■ Forced retirement ■ Lack of consistent pay increases
■ Organizational shutdown

Certainly, many of the things that threaten our safety and security are outside our control. Whether
it’s a new robot, a corporate buyout, or a decision by management to stop offering a 401(k), there
are some changes we can do little about. On the other hand, there are many things you can do to
improve the feeling of security you get from your job. You can improve your performance, work
toward a promotion, or negotiate a higher salary so that you can invest more in your own retire-
ment plan, just to name a few. The key is to recognize those things you can change about the job
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28 Career Quizzes

to feel more secure. Of course, when something comes along that threatens your feelings of secu-
rity, you must be willing to take the necessary action to fulfill that need—even if it means finding
a new job.
In the first column below, list some things about your job that threaten your safety and security.
Then, in the second column, identify some things you could change about your job to feel more
secure.

EXERCISE

Current Work Insecurities How I Could Change My Current Job

People Who Need People: Belonging and

Love Needs
Human beings have a natural motivation to maintain close relationships with others and feel part
of a group. Within our careers, we can fulfill this need through relationships with coworkers and
through interactions with customers and clients. Although we may not think of ourselves as loving
our coworkers (and there may be policies against such things where you work), a sense of cama-
raderie often exists that can help satisfy this need (or a sense of hostility that can keep it from being
satisfied).

EXERCISE

Make a list of the ways your work can help fulfill your needs for belonging and love:

Because so much of our sense of belonging stems from our relationships with coworkers and
because those relationships depend so heavily on interpersonal skills, it is important for people who
have a strong need for belonging and love to develop those skills. In the list that follows, check off
anything you could do to improve your interpersonal skills:
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 29

■ Develop better listening skills.

■ Develop better conflict-resolution skills.
■ Develop more empathy.
■ Learn how to give constructive feedback.
■ Learn how to cultivate friendships better.
■ Learn to accept people’s differences.
■ Learn how to assert yourself when necessary.
■ Learn how to express your feelings better.
■ Learn to develop and maintain trust.
■ Learn how to make small talk and be more sociable.

In our highly mobile, often cubicled, and individualistic workplace, many people become frustrated
trying to meet these needs. Many people do so by working on team projects or developing friend-
ships with coworkers. Find hobbies or leisure interests that you share with coworkers and then use
these activities as a way to get to know them better. Take time during your day to stop and chat
with coworkers, and you’ll find that they will return the favor.
NOTE
Of course, you may not want to develop friendships with your
When you do make the effort
coworkers. While our careers can certainly help satisfy our need to get to know your coworkers,
for belonging and love, we usually look to relationships outside they can go a long way toward
of work for that purpose. It can become difficult to keep your fulfilling your need to belong.
work role separate from the rest of your life.
Sometimes, it isn’t a question of how your job can satisfy your need for belonging and love but how
it can keep you from fulfilling that need. The two working parents who fear they don’t spend
enough time with their children, the husband who feels his wife is away on business too often, or
the person who can’t relax around friends because she thinks about work are all examples of how
work can impact relationships and affect how well our needs are met.

EXERCISE

What impact does your work have on your relationships outside of work—with your family,
friends, or significant other, for example?
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30 Career Quizzes

EXERCISE

What are some ways you can improve this situation (more vacation time, part-time work, not tak-
ing work home, etc.)?

Good Enough, Smart Enough, and People Like

Me: Esteem Needs
Esteem needs drive us to obtain a feeling of worth, a good reputation, and confidence in the use of
our abilities. You can satisfy such needs through achievement and the knowledge that you are pro-
viding a good service, helping others, or doing your job better than other people. A salesperson may
find self-esteem in meeting her sales goals for the month, whereas a nurse may maintain his self-
esteem by helping a patient beat cancer. Thus, self-esteem is largely determined by and different for
each individual. The teacher who helps a student learn to read, the surgeon with a 97 percent suc-
cess rate, or the roofer who develops a reputation for quality work all find their own path to
increased self-esteem.

EXERCISE

In the space below, list three things that you have done in your life that you are most proud of.
They do not have to be work related.

Feeling good about ourselves is important, but the feeling often doesn’t come from within. We all
need respect from others—often in the form of recognition, prestige, status, and fame. These needs
motivate us to do our best in return for some kind of acknowledgment from the outside world. This
can be as simple as a pat on the back or as ambitious as winning a Nobel Prize. Employee-of-the-
Month certificates, private parking spaces, merit raises, honorary degrees, or a simple compliment
from a coworker in passing all contribute to fulfilling this need. When such needs are not met, peo-
ple often feel helpless and inferior, uncertain of their worth.
Self-esteem is the way you feel about yourself and your perception of your worth. People with
high self-esteem view themselves as equal to others. They do not think that they are perfect, but
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 31

they recognize their limitations and continually strive to grow and improve. I have known many
people who have a high need for self-esteem and found themselves in a job where they did not
respect the work they did or feel as if others respected them. In most of these situations, the peo-
ple had to look for new jobs where they could feel good about themselves and their work.
In the boxes below, check the various ways that your work is recognized by your supervisors,
coworkers, customers, and/or clients:
■ Bonuses ■ Notes from others
■ Certificates ■ Promotions
■ Comment cards ■ Recommendations
■ Company products or discounts ■ Referrals
■ Company stock ■ Time off from work
■ Gift cards ■ Trophies
■ Great salary ■ Verbal praise
■ Mention in the company newsletter ■ Other: ____________________
■ Merit raises

EXERCISE

In the space below, list some things you do on the job that make you feel good about yourself:

Now list some things you could do on the job to feel better about yourself:

Answering the Call: Self-Actualization

Self-actualization is the realization of your full potential—it’s you becoming who you were meant
to be. If you can’t identify and utilize all your abilities and talents, you will likely become discon-
tented and restless. Self-actualization needs motivate you to seek and find meaning and purpose, to
fully express your creativity, and to experience and enjoy the beauty in life. Self-actualization
expresses itself when you can find a job that you love and that lets you use your talents.
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32 Career Quizzes

Maslow believed that living at a higher level of needs is healthier and more satisfying than living at
lower levels. Most of us wish we had more of our basic needs met so that we could live a richer life,
pursue higher goals, or simply grow more as individuals. But it isn’t easy. The pyramid is steep
and slippery in spots. Maslow suggested that it can be very
NOTE difficult for people to reach and maintain a high level of self-
Self-actualization needs are dif- actualization. Those who do begin by knowing which needs
ficult to meet because they are motivate them the most; by having intimate knowledge of their
not as powerful. If you don’t
interests, skills, personality, and values; and then finding a way
have friends, car insurance, or a
roof over your head, you prob- to incorporate these into their careers.
ably have more urgent needs to No job will likely satisfy you all the time, of course. Instead,
attend to than expressing your self-actualization motivates you to seek out “peak” experiences
creativity.
in which you can fully grow and let your inner nature express
itself freely. Peak experience moments, according to Maslow, are
not only a person’s happiest and most thrilling moments, but also a person’s healthiest moments—
moments of great fulfillment, maturity, and individuation.

EXERCISE

In the space below, describe any “peak” experiences you’ve had in your career:

Describe how your job allows you to use all your talents and abilities. If it does not, which ones
do you not use on the job? What kind of work could you do that would help you make the most
of your talents?

Maslow felt that people could achieve self-actualization by doing the following:
• Find interests that you can devote yourself to fully.
• Take responsibility for your life and career.
• Dare to be your own person. Don’t worry so much about what other people say and
think.
• Realize your potential. Find ways to perfect your talents and abilities.
• Live for “peak experiences.” Peak experiences are moments of self-actualization when you
are truly using all your potential.
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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 33

Consider how you can begin to incorporate some or all of these into your career and your life.
Self-actualizing people are usually involved in a cause outside of themselves—a calling or vocation.
Often, they devote their lives and their work to the pursuit of higher values, such as truth, good-
ness, beauty, wholeness, transcendence, justice, or simplicity. Maslow suggested that such a pursuit
represented the meaning of life for most people.
Maslow contends that many people are “called” to their occupations, much like a spiritual leader
feels “called” to do the work he or she does. John Schuster, in his book Answering Your Call, says
that callings are invitations from life to serve—to activate your will toward a cause worthy of you
and humankind. He likes to think of callings as a purpose with a voice—opportunities to live a life
that fully uses your innate talents and adds some lasting value to the world. As Schuster says, call-
ings “turn insurance policy peddlers into advisors of needed financial security, grocery store employ-
ees into health and nutrition suppliers, doctors into healers, secretaries into stewards,
businesspeople into entrepreneurs, bureaucrats into civil servants, writers into dream weavers, and
parents into co-creators of life.”
How can you identify your calling? Answering the following questions will get you started:
• What activities do you engage in and lose track of time?
• What do you do that is not important to anyone else but yourself?
• What are you doing when you feel peace and serenity?
• What do you do that just seems to come naturally?
• What do you do that leaves you feeling energized instead of drained?

EXERCISE

In the space below, describe how your work is your calling or, if it is not, what kind of job you feel
might be your calling:

Remember that self-actualization is not about being famous, making millions, or owning a château
on the French Riviera. It’s not even about being popular or well loved. Self-actualization is
about making the most of your abilities and being the best that you possibly can. The form that
self-actualization takes differs for everyone. Perhaps you cannot answer this question until you have
read more of this book. Maybe the answer changes. (We can, in fact, have more than one calling.)
Or the answer might just come to you in time.
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34 Career Quizzes

For now, simply think about what you are interested in that seems greater than yourself. For some
people, it might be helping or serving others, establishing a business, or researching cures for dis-
eases. It might be something no one has even thought of yet. But whatever it is, it will be uniquely
yours because it will involve you realizing your full potential.

Meeting Your Needs at Work

Whether it’s the need to put food on our tables or roofs over our heads or the higher need to
become the best person we can, there is no question that our jobs play a major role in our need ful-
fillment. The vast majority, at the very minimum, must work in order to have their basic needs met.
(Those who aren’t paid for the work they do undoubtedly have other needs being fulfilled.)
Most of us spend a third of our waking hours at work—that’s a lot of time for pyramid climbing.
And for those whose jobs don’t satisfy their needs, it feels like
NOTE time wasted. Perhaps that’s why many executives quit their jobs
More often than not, your and put away their business suits to go teach or volunteer; cer-
needs will overlap. Therefore, a tainly, lower levels can be satisfied by a well-paying job, but if
job that is a great match for
your interests, personality, and
you don’t like what you do or who you work with, or if the work
skills will probably allow you doesn’t help you grow or give you a feeling of accomplishment,
to meet many of your needs. odds are you could get stuck on the lower levels of the pyramid
and feel unfulfilled.
Now that you’ve had the chance to identify which needs are most important to you and which are
being met or not met, you should have a better sense of where you stand. Likewise, if you com-
pleted some of the exercises above, you should have a better idea of how well your work fulfills your
needs.
Complete the exercise below to summarize what you’ve learned about yourself in this chapter. In
the first column, list those needs being met through your work (or that were met at your previous
job). Then, in the second column, list the needs that you have that are not being met at work.

EXERCISE

Needs Being Met Needs Not Being Met

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CHAPTER 2: MEETING YOUR NEEDS 35

What can you do to ensure that more of your needs are met through your work? In the spaces
below, list your goals for having more of your needs met and then list some strategies you will use
to meet those goals. For example, if your goal is to “Start being more creative at work,” then a strat-
egy would be to “Ask my supervisor for more challenging tasks or projects.”

EXERCISE

Goal:
Strategies for attaining that goal:

Goal:
Strategies for attaining that goal:

Goal:
Strategies for attaining that goal:

Meeting Needs in Other Life Roles

Although many of us would like our career to fill all or most of our needs, such expectations are
unrealistic. Truthfully, we all take on several roles in life, and each of them contributes to our need
for fulfillment. Sometimes, roles combine to fill one need, like a person receiving praise from both
a coworker and a family member to contribute to her self-esteem. But roles often conflict, as one
role meets a need at the expense of another. Imagine someone who quits a secure job in order to
start his own business. Such a move risks satisfying the need for safety and security for both him
and his family, but it could go a long way toward helping him reach self-actualization.
It is important to find a job and develop a career that will meet as many of your needs as possible.
But it is equally important to recognize the limitations your career has to meet all of them and to
supplement them by also letting your other life roles satisfy needs.
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36 Career Quizzes

EXERCISE

For each life role below that applies to you (and not all of them will), list the needs that role ful-
fills for you. Compare that list to your list of needs not being met at work. Hopefully, between
work and your other life roles, all your needs are being met. If not, you need to concentrate on
finding new ways to meet them as you develop your career.
Other Life Roles Needs Being Met by That Role

Student
Parent
Child
Citizen
Spouse
Friend
Volunteer
Other

Tying It All Together

Our needs drive us. They dictate our actions and behaviors. They change our plans and cause us to
draw up new ones. They help us define our goals and then push us to reach them. A successful
career is one that seeks to satisfy all your needs by pushing you to realize your full potential. Those
needs are different for each of us, so no single career path works for everyone. The key is to develop
a path that is right for you—one that gives you room to grow and satisfy higher needs until you
find your “calling.”
By identifying and understanding the needs that motivate you most in your work, you have
taken the next step toward redefining your career path so that it leads to personal success. The next
chapter will explore one potential—and increasingly common—path to fulfilling those needs:
entrepreneurship.
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C H A P T E R
3
Being the Boss

“The most successful entrepreneurs know that the greatest knowledge is self-knowledge.
They’re not necessarily blessed with a higher intellect or more charisma than others, but
they understand how to make the best of their talents and how to manage or compensate
for their weaknesses.”
—Bill Wagner, The Entrepreneur Next Door

J anice wakes up to find that she hadn’t set her alarm clock and it’s already a quarter after eight.
For most of us, this would be a problem—15 minutes late for work and we haven’t even show-
ered yet. But Janice isn’t concerned. She figures she’ll just go to work in her pajamas. She’ll work
for a few hours, and then go for a jog and shower afterward. Her boss thinks this is a splendid idea.
After all, she’s an independent Web designer working from her own home. She is her own boss.
One possible path to fulfilling the needs you identified in the last chapter could be self-
employment. Recent research suggests that nearly half of all Americans have considered
self-employment, with nearly 700,000 Americans starting new businesses each year. Of course, the
research also suggests that many of these ventures will shut down after only one year.
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38 Career Quizzes

NOTE In reality, only about 7 percent of Americans are self-employed.

Most working Americans feel they can’t afford to quit their full-
The benefits of self-employment
are obvious, but so are the time jobs to start a business. They’ve heard horror stories about
risks. One way to alleviate the number of entrepreneurial efforts that fail. They worry about
some of that risk is to keep losing the medical benefits that accompany most jobs in this age
your full-time job and start an of rising health care costs. They are afraid of uncertainty.
entrepreneurial pursuit in your
spare time. That way, you can These are legitimate concerns, and added to them is the simple
have the security of a paycheck fact that being self-employed or starting your own business
and benefits while pursuing takes a lot of resources and hard work. Yet, nearly 1 in 10 Amer-
your dreams of self-employment. icans has found a way to make it work, and almost all of them
will tell you it is well worth the risk—provided you have the
attitude and determination to make a go of it.

The Truth About Success

In their book The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko discuss the factors
that make millionaires successful. Their research is the most comprehensive ever conducted on
the people who are wealthy in America and how they got that way. Among other things, they
discovered the following:
• Self-employed people make up less than 10 percent of the workers in America but
account for two-thirds of the millionaires. Three out of four of those who were self-
employed considered themselves entrepreneurs; the others were self-employed service
providers.
• Usually, millionaires are business people who have lived in the same town for all their
adult lives. These people own a small factory, a chain of stores, farms, or a service
business.
• Self-employed people are four times more likely to be millionaires than those who work
for others.
• The personal characteristics of business owners are more important in predicting their
level of wealth than the type of business they own.

Although these millionaires undoubtedly appreciate the financial rewards that come with success-
ful business ventures, most try entrepreneurship because they enjoy the freedom of being their own
boss. By working for themselves, they can control their own destiny. Self-employment often fills
needs at multiple levels, whether it is the financial rewards, the prestige that comes from being
a successful entrepreneur, or the realization of one’s full potential as one builds a business
from scratch. Of course, this requires a great deal of time and energy, and it’s not for everyone.
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 39

The purpose of this chapter and the assessment it contains is to help you decide whether self-
employment is right for you.

IT IS NEVER TOO LATE!

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) recently released its own study that explored the
number of older Americans becoming self-employed. This study shows that older workers are quickly
joining the national trend toward self-employment. The interesting fact was that among workers age
50 and older, 16.4 percent are self-employed—much higher than the national average. In addition, one
in three of these workers made the transition to self-employment after the age of 50.

The New Entrepreneur

Choosing to become an entrepreneur is a major life decision, one that often goes against our
upbringing. After all, the American dream is built on the notion that to be successful, you have to
work your way up a “corporate ladder.” My parents always stressed that career advancement with a
large corporation was the way to attain success and happiness. This career path usually means get-
ting as much education as you possibly can, working hard, climbing rung by rung, and having a
good attitude about it all.
This path to success has been taught since the time the Puritans first came to this country. This
philosophy, based on the idea of a linear career and catering to the organizations that shape careers,
has provided the framework for the American values of individual accomplishment, competition,
personal responsibility, and success at all costs. However, notions of success are changing, and new
breeds of entrepreneurs have emerged, defining success on their own terms.
These new entrepreneurs believe that they can achieve success and fulfill personal needs and dreams
by starting entrepreneurial ventures while retaining full-time jobs. Several characteristics prompt
these new entrepreneurs to pursue this goal in a society fraught with change:
• Discontent with 9 to 5: The new entrepreneurs are not content working for someone
else. They demand work that provides more intrinsic rewards, such as an opportunity to
be creative, to have fun, to take risks, and to use all their talents. The new entrepreneur
resists the idea of simply “making a living”—getting up every morning and going to a
job that is not fulfilling or challenging and where most of us have no autonomy or
input into the decisions that are made.
• The myth of job security: Many of us grew up believing that you go to work for a
company, corporation, or government agency and work there until you retire. Our par-
ents raised us to believe that a company is our friend and will take care of us. Yet, we all
know that this is just not true in today’s work environment. Companies have stream-
lined operations and forced employees into early retirement—all with an eye on the
bottom line. No longer are people guaranteed promotions and pay raises based on their
performance at work. For some, work is no longer even available, regardless of education
or work experience. In such an insecure world, the risks associated with entrepreneur-
ship suddenly look less risky (or at least equally risky).
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40 Career Quizzes

• The growth of small business: New entrepreneurs know that big business is not where
the opportunities are. Most people take jobs in small companies where they find more
flexibility and autonomy. Improvements in telecommunications and the explosion of the
Internet have made working from home a much more viable alternative. This same tech-
nology allows entrepreneurs the opportunity to create their own jobs and businesses
without a lot of capital.
• Being comfortable with change: New entrepreneurs see change as a necessary ingredi-
ent of career development. Since they are not interested in “climbing the corporate lad-
der,” they see no need to stay at one job for an entire career.
NOTE
They look at job hopping as a way of building skills and
Many home-based businesses maintaining their participation in interesting leisure activities.
do not require large amounts
Thus, a job to them is merely a way to make money to sup-
of capital. The number of small
businesses has doubled over the port their real interest: the growth of their own business.
last 10 years. Corporate build- Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been defined as the process
ings that house hundreds or of starting and developing a new business. In the last decade,
thousands of employees have
started to disappear, replaced
entrepreneurship has increasingly been viewed as a mindset or
by e-businesses operated from attitude that a person develops about work and freedom. Some
your neighbor’s family room. of these shifting attitudes about working for yourself versus
working for someone else include the following:

Owning Your Own Business Working for Someone Else

• You are the owner of your time. • You are at the mercy of an employer.
• Financial rewards depend on your • Financial rewards are fixed and deter-
efforts. mined by the employer.
• Work and leisure are fused together. • Leisure comes only when work is
done.
• You direct the work.
• Your supervisor directs the work.
• You have time for family and friends
when you need it. • Time off needs to be scheduled and
approved.

Doing What You Love

Have you ever been engaged in a hobby or activity that you enjoyed and thought, “How come
I can’t do this for a living?” Many small and home-based businesses start as an outgrowth of a leisure
interest. Take, for instance, the teenager who turns a trading-card collection into a profitable
business or the teacher who enjoys painting in her spare time and eventually opens a small art
gallery in her home. Our leisure activities are often untapped sources of marketable skills and self-
employment possibilities. In fact, most successful entrepreneurs aren’t in it for the money but are
driven by their passion for the work they do. After all, it was that passion that prompted them to
start their own business in the first place.
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 41

Making Your Mark

The October 10, 2005, issue of Forbes magazine highlighted some of the most successful, influential
entrepreneurs. Can you match the person with his entrepreneurial accomplishment?

Ray Dolby Ray Tomlinson Pierre Omidyar Stanley Hubbard Robert Rich Sr.

1. Former computer programmer who started an

online auction site in 1995 that allowed consumers
to buy and sell everything from Alaskan acreage to
vintage haute couture.

2. World War II “milk administrator” who invented a

soy-based topping that stayed “whippable” even
after being frozen. The first to market the homespun
miracle of whipped cream in a can, he accumulated
profits reaching $2.5 billion.

3. Engineer and physicist who made a fortune developing

an audio-processing system that eliminates hiss and other
background noise from movies and stereo equipment,
earning him $1.4 billion.

4. Believed that people should have unlimited channel

choices while watching television. His first company,
U.S. Satellite Broadcasting, was later purchased by
DirecTV, helping him to accumulate $1.3 billion.

5. In 1971, this MIT graduate wrote a program that

allowed one computer to send messages to another
computer on the same network, thus creating e-mail.
He did not patent the program, however, and missed
an opportunity to be a billionaire.

Answers: 1. Pierre Omidyar; 2. Robert Rich Sr.; 3. Ray Dolby; 4. Stanley Hubbard; 5. Ray Tomlinson.

This isn’t to say that wannabe entrepreneurs can simply snap their fingers and turn their favorite
hobby into million-dollar enterprises. While everyone has something they enjoy, not everyone has
the skills to be an entrepreneur. It takes a great deal of perseverance and planning, not to mention
a little creativity and a willingness to take risks. But if you are one of the millions who are disen-
chanted with the prospect of working for someone else, the time, effort, and risks involved might
be worth it.
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42 Career Quizzes

The Entrepreneurial Readiness

Assessment
The following assessment can help you decide whether self-employment is a viable option for you.
It contains 50 statements related to the qualities shared by successful entrepreneurs. Read each
statement to decide whether the statement describes you. If the statement is true for you, circle the
number next to that item under the “True” column. If the statement is false for you, circle the num-
ber next to that item under the “False” column.
Do not spend too much time thinking about your responses, and be sure to respond to every
statement.

True False
1. I often overreact to things 1 2
2. I persist in the face of challenges 2 1
3. I can be assertive when necessary 2 1
4. I need other people around when I am working 1 2
5. I would not consider myself to be “driven” 1 2
6. I am well organized 2 1
7. I am knowledgeable about sales and marketing 2 1
8. I am good at multitasking 2 1
9. I am not a good writer 1 2
10. I become frustrated easily 1 2
11. I am creative 2 1
12. I am a risk-taker 2 1
13. I often do not trust my own instincts 1 2
14. I like to work independently 2 1
15. I am not very optimistic 1 2
16. I do not want to punch a time clock 2 1
17. I am not very competitive 1 2
18. I will work until the job is complete to my satisfaction 2 1
19. I have trouble staying on schedule 1 2
20. I am a self-starter 2 1
21. I embrace change 2 1
22. I have difficulty making decisions 1 2
23. I think business opportunities are everywhere 2 1
24. I am a procrastinator 1 2
25. I am results oriented 2 1
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 43

True False
26. I am confident in my abilities 2 1
27. I have trouble generating ideas 1 2
28. I hate to be bogged down with details 1 2
29. I am a visionary thinker 2 1
30. I would not be comfortable if I did not receive a regular paycheck 1 2
31. I am thorough and attentive to details 2 1
32. I have many ideas for businesses I could start 2 1
33. I have trouble meeting deadlines 1 2
34. I am easily distracted 1 2
35. I do not mind working long hours 2 1
36. I know what a business plan is 2 1
37. I am a charismatic person 2 1
38. I am not afraid to make sacrifices 2 1
39. I like to set clear goals for myself 2 1
40. I am worried about going into debt 1 2
41. I prefer to be told what to do 1 2
42. I am impatient 1 2
43. I am always thinking about ways to improve things 2 1
44. I like to solve complex problems 2 1
45. I am not very good at math 1 2
46. I tend to blame others when something goes wrong 1 2
47. I understand the difference between a failure and a setback 2 1
48. I have been called stubborn by people who know me 2 1
49. I am willing to commit my savings to a new enterprise 2 1
50. I do not like managing other people 1 2

Scoring
Total the numbers you circled for all the statements. You will get a score from 50 to 100. Write that
number in the space below.
Total: __________
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44 Career Quizzes

The Makings of an Entrepreneur

No assessment, no matter how involved, can tell you for certain whether you will succeed as an
entrepreneur. All it can do is give you a sense of where you stand in relation to those who have suc-
cessfully become self-employed. Even having all the qualities of an entrepreneur doesn’t guarantee
success. It does, however, provide a starting point—a way to gauge where you stand with regard to
self-employment and how much work it would take.
Given the potential risks involved, it is important to know your strengths and weaknesses before
you pursue any self-employment options. If you scored in the low or average range on the preced-
ing assessment (any score below 84), you may want to carefully reconsider your options. People
with low scores (50–66) should especially talk with family, friends, and professionals before quit-
ting their day jobs. While there are very few barriers that you can’t overcome (you can always learn
what a business plan is, improve your math skills, or work on your time management), it is arguable
that some people’s personalities simply aren’t suited for self-employment. For example, if you are
uncomfortable taking risks; prefer to be told what to do; and don’t have one single idea for some-
thing you could create, sell, or improve, then self-employment is probably not for you. (Of course,
if you are that person, you probably knew that long before you read this chapter.)
If, on the other hand, you scored in the high range (84–100) or feel you have what it takes to start
your own business, then it is important to explore your options and begin making plans. The
remainder of this chapter (and the rest of this book) can help.

The Self-Employment Dream

If you decide to become self-employed, you should feel passionate about the work you will do.
When considering your options, don’t limit your thinking. Suppose that you are good at and enjoy
gardening. Businesses related to gardening might include such things as opening a lawn and tree
service, a greenhouse, a flower shop, a landscaping service, a landscape design service, an orchard,
or a Christmas tree farm.

EXERCISE

Answering the following questions might help you identify some self-employment possibilities:
1. As a child, what did you dream of doing when you grew up?
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 45

2. What activities have brought you the most satisfaction over the last five years?

3. What do you think you are better at than most people? What do other people say you
are good at?

Your answers to these questions will give you valuable insight into the best type of business ven-
tures to pursue.

A COMMITMENT TO SUCCESS
Entrepreneurial endeavors are not without their disadvantages. Other than the obvious monetary costs,
you can expect a variety of personal costs. You should be prepared, at the very least, to make the fol-
lowing commitments:
• Working steadily: Self-employed individuals must have self-discipline and a willingness to put
in the hours needed to succeed. While you can set your own hours, you must be willing to work
without someone standing over you telling you what needs to be done and when. It’s important
to stay focused and have a healthy work ethic.
• Working alone: Home-based business owners must be especially willing to sacrifice “people”
contact. This isn’t to say that entrepreneurs are completely isolated—only that it can be harder
to fill social needs through your work when there isn’t someone in a cubicle next to you.
• Maintaining your professionalism: Your professionalism will pay off for you in terms of cus-
tomer satisfaction. Nothing hurts a small business more than being inconsiderate and rude to its
customers. This is especially true for the home-based business owner who must rely on word-of-
mouth advertising to gain even more business.
• Paying your own benefits: You will probably have to purchase your own health insurance and
start your own retirement plan. Many home-based business owners pay into individual retire-
ment accounts (IRAs), and most insurance companies can offer individual health insurance.
Still, with the rising cost of health insurance and the questionable future of Social Security, these
are no small sacrifices.

(continued)
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46 Career Quizzes

(continued)

• Trusting your intuition: You must be willing to trust that your ideas are good and that other
people will also think so. You must believe in yourself and be willing to follow your instincts.
• Being willing to live with a certain amount of uncertainty: Unlike a traditional job in which
you receive a check regularly, the amount of money you make in your own business will largely
depend on the number of people who express interest in your service or product. Also, don’t
forget that a great deal of the money you make will need to be reinvested back into the business.

There are ideas for self-employment all around you. For example, I once counseled an unemployed
welder named Joe who told me that several months ago, he blacktopped his driveway. Soon, an
impressed neighbor asked how much Joe would charge to do his. Because he worked fast and did
a great job, word got around. Today, Joe has his own home-based blacktopping business.
Many people begin their own business by working directly from their homes. This is an excellent
way to test the self-employment waters without drowning in the risky seas of full-fledged entrepre-
neurship. By working from your living room, you eliminate many expenses associated with
traditional businesses. There are no lengthy, gas-guzzling commutes, no lunches out, and no extra
rent or utility bills for the office. Home-based businesses are more popular than ever, in part
because new technology makes it even easier to market and sell your ideas, products, and services
to interested parties and customers.
Just be sure to choose a business based on your interests. One reason that many home-based busi-
nesses fail is that people are more concerned with what they think will earn them the most money
rather than what they are actually skilled at or would enjoy doing. Just think about all the needs
you identified in the previous chapters. Self-employment is not worth the risk if it doesn’t bring
you closer to meeting more of those needs than a typical nine-to-fiver.

Types of Home-Based and Small Businesses

Of course, not every occupation translates well into a home-based business. Surgeon comes to
mind. So does firefighter (most garages simply won’t hold the truck). Running a bed and breakfast
in your home is possible, if it’s big enough, but I wouldn’t recommend turning your dining room
into a full-service bar. Truthfully, some careers are better suited
NOTE to self-employment than others. Here are some suggestions cat-
Keep a running list of possible egorized by the type of business:
business ideas in a small note-
book that you carry with you.
• Service businesses: Service businesses are the fastest-
Constantly think about new growing type of home-based business. In this type of busi-
ideas and new ways of doing ness, you perform a personal service for people for a fee—
things. Think about what is usually something that customers cannot do or prefer not
needed in your town or com- to do themselves. Examples of this type of business include
munity or goods and services small engine repair, painting houses, counseling, day care,
that you could improve on. lawn care, accounting, maid or house-cleaning services,
home repair, photography, and pet-sitting.
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 47

• Product businesses: In this type of business, you make and sell products to others for a
profit. Product-based self-employment often starts as an outgrowth of a hobby or leisure
activity and begins with an idea for a product that is not readily available on the market.
For these types of businesses, it is important to have a clearly defined market and the
ability to produce the product(s) cost-effectively. It also helps if you can produce some-
thing that is unique or appeals to a niche market. Common products include handmade
toys, paintings, software, furniture, and pottery.
• Information businesses: In this type of business, computer-based services are generally
offered from the home. Computer-based home businesses encompass a wide range of
services, including desktop publishing, Web design, word processing, paralegal services,
information brokering, bookkeeping, editing, and technical writing.

EXERCISE
In the spaces below, brainstorm possible self-employment options that you would like to try.
What kinds of products can you make or sell? What skills or services can you offer? What
makes your product or service different from everything else on the market?
Type of business:
What product or service would you sell?
How is what you have to offer different from what is currently on the market?

Type of business:
What product or service would you sell?
How is what you have to offer different from what is currently on the market?

Type of business:
What product or service would you sell?
How is what you have to offer different from what is currently on the market?

(continued)
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48 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Now think about which one of these self-employment options is most realistically attainable and
will provide you with the greatest satisfaction. Write it here, along with why you think it is the
best option:

To help crystallize your thinking, use the space below to write a complete description of your
current or proposed business. Pretend that you are talking to a loan officer about obtaining a
small-business loan.

Getting Started
While every good business starts with a good idea, that idea alone won’t get you very far (unless
you can patent it and sell it to someone for a cool million). The truth is, most people who are self-
employed work just as hard, if not harder, than people who aren’t. They just do it on their own
terms. While the “to-do” lists of becoming self-employed vary considerably, the following checklist
can give you some idea of what’s involved as well as serve as a reminder of where you stand and
what you still need to accomplish.

Business Readiness Checklist

Check off the following tasks you have completed that relate to starting your own business.
The items are not in any particular order.

In Yet to
Completed Progress Start
Identify your business ■ ■ ■
Identify your market ■ ■ ■
Select a location ■ ■ ■
Assess your competition ■ ■ ■
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 49

In Yet to
Completed Progress Start
Promote your product/service ■ ■ ■
Determine insurance needs ■ ■ ■
Consult with an attorney ■ ■ ■
Consult with an accountant ■ ■ ■
Select a legal structure ■ ■ ■
Estimate needed capital ■ ■ ■
Obtain needed financing ■ ■ ■
Obtain necessary supplies ■ ■ ■
Manage business affairs ■ ■ ■
Plan for future expansion ■ ■ ■
Plan for retirement ■ ■ ■

Entrepreneurship is very different from a traditional nine-to-five job. On a job, you get vacations,
performance evaluations, and colleagues to socialize with. More importantly, there tends to be a list
of job requirements and a supervisor to help you manage your time and meet your goals. On your
own, without someone looking over your shoulder, self-management becomes crucial. Consider
the questions that follow to help explore critical management issues involved in starting your own
small business:
• How big do you want your business to be?
• How much income do you expect to generate?
• How much time do you want to devote to your business?
• How will operating a home-based business affect your lifestyle?
• List the tasks about running a business you dislike (for example, bookkeeping, stuffing
envelopes, dealing with customer complaints, and so on).
• What compromises will you make in order to meet your goals?

Where to Learn More

This book is not intended to offer a crash course in small-business startup (if it were, this would
probably be the first chapter rather than the third). It is intended to help you find your career
direction, your sense of purpose, and to plan the steps necessary to get there. It might be that self-
employment is not a part of your career path; it may not even be something you are remotely
interested in. But if you are interested, and you have an idea of some merit, you owe it to yourself
to learn more.
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50 Career Quizzes

The following resources can help you pursue your dreams of starting your own small business:
• The Entrepreneur Next Door: This book, written by Bill Wagner, can help readers
explore their strengths and weaknesses as potential entrepreneurs, identify specific
types of businesses that suit their personality, and discover the secrets of financial
independence.
• Entrepreneurship For Dummies: This book, written by Kathleen Allen, can help read-
ers turn their ideas for new business ventures into reality. The book provides practical
information and a step-by-step plan for how to become a successful entrepreneur. It pro-
vides great advice for everything from putting together a business plan to developing a
marketing campaign.
• Self-Employment: From Dream to Reality: This workbook, by Linda Gilkerson and
Theresia Paauwe, is an excellent resource for beginning entrepreneurs. It is for people
who have little or no experience in running their own business, do not have a lot of
money to invest, and are trying to decide if self-employment is for them.
• http://www.guru.com: On this Web site, entrepreneurs can create a profile that details
who they are and what services they offer.
• http://www.elance.com: This Web site places entrepreneurs in a virtual workplace to
offer their services or business ideas to potential customers.
• http://www.freeagent.com: On this Web site, freelance workers or consultants are
matched with potential employers based on the skills each entrepreneur has to offer.
NOTE Also, know that it is in your best interest to consult with an
The latest statistics suggest that attorney and an accountant before you make decisions about
women are 12 times more starting your own business. They can help you with legal and
likely to become self-employed insurance issues, tax planning, and the advantages and disad-
than men. One theory suggests vantages of different kinds of business structures.
that women have always had to
rely more on self-employment Most importantly, as with any career decision, you should dis-
because their career patterns cuss your plans for self-employment with friends and family.
have always been more com- Career change, by its very nature, can be risky, and self-
plex than that of men. Regard-
employment often magnifies those risks. Communicate your
less of the statistics, nothing
says that one gender has a bet-
ideas and goals to the people who will be affected by your deci-
ter chance of succeeding as an sions, and take their advice to heart. After all, you will need
entrepreneur than the other. their support most of all as you pursue the dream of being your
own boss.

Tying It All Together

More and more people are forgoing the traditional workplace in search of work that they can direct
and that provides meaning. Many people find that entrepreneurial pursuits are the only way to find
the ideal job. Now might be the perfect time to start your own business. Your current career tran-
sition might provide a great opportunity to test the entrepreneurial waters.
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CHAPTER 3: BEING THE BOSS 51

Having reflected on the nature of your transition, established your current needs, and assessed
your potential for self-employment, you are ready to jump-start your career by focusing on the kind
of work that will bring you the most satisfaction. Part II will help you explore career options by
assessing your skills, interests, values, and personality. But don’t forget what you’ve learned about
yourself so far. Build on it by integrating that self-knowledge into your new discoveries to forge a
career path that is right for you.
The worksheet on the following page can help you summarize and reflect on what you’ve discov-
ered so far.
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Part I Summary: Define Your

Purpose

T aken individually, your results on the three assessments in this section can provide insight into
a particular aspect of your career path or identity. Taken together, they provide a starting point
for further career exploration and development.
Based on the results of the assessments and the information you completed in each chapter, use the
following worksheet to summarize what you’ve discovered about yourself. This information can
help you make important career decisions as you work through the rest of the book.

EXERCISE

My career development style (from chapter 1):

Advantages of that style Disadvantages of that style

The kind of career path I’d like to take based on my style:

My most pressing career needs (from chapter 2):

Ways my work could help me better fulfill those needs:

Ways other life roles can help me fulfill those needs:

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PART I SUMMARY: DEFINE YOUR PURPOSE 53

My degree of entrepreneurial readiness (from chapter 3):

Possible ideas I have for starting my own business:

Based on the information above, what will it take for me to feel more satisfied with my job and
career?

What possible jobs or activities can I engage in that will match my intended career path, satisfy
my most pressing needs, and/or help me fulfill my dream of becoming self-employed?
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PART II: DISCOVER YOUR

IDEAL JOB

“The point of life is not to slave away for years until the age of
65 and then say ‘Phew, glad that’s over!’ Rather, it is to make
sure that we do not die with our music still in us.”
—Lance Secretan, author of Living the Moment: A Sacred Journey
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C H A P T E R
4
Discover Your Skills and
Interests

“Life is the sum of your choices.”

—Albert Camus

J enny works as an admissions counselor in a small college. She loves her job. She answers ques-
tions by phone, helps students gather information about the college, and recruits students from
local high schools. As part of her job, Jenny sometimes does intricate math problems in her head.
Students who know her well often bring their math homework to her for help. One day, a student
told Jenny that she should quit her job as a counselor and become an accountant. She looked hor-
rified. “No way. Not me,” she said. “I would hate to be cooped up all day in an office counting. I
need to be around people!”
One secret to career satisfaction and success is to find an occupation that matches both your inter-
ests and your abilities. Recent studies of young adults making a career change found that nearly half
of them changed occupations to find a better fit between their skills and interests.
It seems that the two would correlate and that people who were interested in something would also
be good at it, but this isn’t always the case, as the example above shows. Achieving career success,
then, becomes a balancing act between finding work that you enjoy and work at which you excel.
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58 Career Quizzes

Discovering where your skills and interests overlap can clue you in to the kinds of occupations that
suit you.

Who Am I and What Am I Doing Here?

If you’ve ever asked this at work (either question, really), you might have been experiencing a dis-
connect in your work identity. In other words, who you think you are and what you think you are
good at don’t gel with the role you fill at work.
Don’t be discouraged. Many of us have asked these questions in the face of jobs that didn’t satisfy
us—that didn’t hold our interest or make good use of our abilities. It’s that moment where you look
around you—at your cubicle or your uniform or the tool in your hand—and say, “This isn’t me.”
After all, who doesn’t want a career that fits them so that he or she can look around and say, “Now,
this—this—is me”?
Unfortunately, the process of matching yourself to that ideal job isn’t easy. It often requires a lot of
trial and error. Most importantly, it involves knowing who you are and what you can do. That
means knowing how your interests, skills, values, and personality traits all contribute to your over-
all career.
The idea that you could more successfully match yourself to a career by exploring your interests,
skills, and other personal traits began with the career guidance movement in the first part of the
twentieth century. It was Frank Parsons, a vocational guidance counselor, who called for a better
way to help people choose occupations. Parsons’s theory, referred to as the “trait-and-factor
approach,” became the foundation for career counseling programs in the twentieth century.
The theory works under the assumption that all people have a unique pattern of traits that can be
objectively measured and compared with the requirements of various occupations. Parsons’s process
for doing this was really quite simple: He compared an individual’s personal characteristics with the
characteristics required for successful performance in different jobs. The closer the match between
individual traits and job requirements, the more productive and satisfied the person would be in
that line of work. For Parsons and, in fact, for many career counselors and coaches today, that
process begins by assessing your interests.

THE “RIGHT” OCCUPATION IS THE WRONG APPROACH

Much of Parsons’s work still holds up today. Vocational counselors, job coaches, high school teachers,
and college counselors still dole out assessments to students and clients with the hope of helping them
make more informed career decisions. However, some of the assumptions behind the trait-factor
approach haven’t stood time’s test. Namely, Parsons believed that there was one “right” occupation for
each person and that a single type of person works in each job—ideas that don’t hold much water in a
world where the average adult changes jobs more often than he or she changes addresses. Don’t try to
find the “right” job—just try to find the best one for you.
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 59

Taking an Interest in Interests

Interests are constellations of the things you like and dislike. You show your interests through the
activities you engage in, what you value, what you like to talk about, and your patterns of behav-
ior. When you were a kid, you were probably asked what you wanted to be when you grew up. In
most cases, this question ends up being about interests. An early interest in basketball, ballet,
music, or movies can have a dramatic impact on an eight-year-old’s long-term career plans.

EXERCISE

What were you interested in as a child? And what is your answer to that clichéd question?
My interests growing up:

What I wanted to be when I grew up:

Your interests have probably changed over the years. Interests NOTE
we have as children are influenced by our family and social If you already know what your
background, our friends and teachers, and the recreational interests are, why bother taking
activities we are exposed to. Interests we have as children tend an assessment? The truth is
to be unstable, however, and are often not useful in our career that even people who know
planning as adults (although some of us do carry the dreams of what their interests are don’t
our adolescence with us and grow up to be astronauts, fire- know how to translate those
fighters, or movie stars). interests into occupations. By
clarifying your interests and
Our interests evolve. We learn more, experience new things, seeing how they relate to the
engage in new relationships, and play a variety of roles. Our world of work, you will make
needs sometimes dictate our interests, regulating how much better decisions.
time, money, or energy we have to invest in them. No matter
how old we are or what stage in life we’re at, it’s always important to fuel our interests, as they are
a constant source of our career and life satisfaction.

EXERCISE

In the space below, list the interests you currently have. Feel free to list as many as you can think
of. Compare them to the interests you had as a child. How much has changed?
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60 Career Quizzes

OTHER WAYS TO ASSESS INTERESTS

The assessment in this chapter will help you match your interests with occupations. However, you can
also try completing some of the following exercises on a separate sheet of paper to help determine your
interests:
• If you only had five years to live and had to keep working, what would you do?
• When you watch television, read newspapers and magazines, or surf the Internet, what types of
occupations catch your eye?
• Create a list of the occupations you have thought about and rejected over the years. Why did
you reject them?
• Write the letters of the alphabet on a piece of paper. Then, write down interesting occupations
that correspond to each letter.

Research suggests that interests are a major determinant of both college major and occupational
choice and that they are the most important considerations in finding a good fit between you and
the world of work.

The Career Interest Inventory

This assessment can help you explore career and job alternatives based on your interests. Read each
item, decide how much you would enjoy engaging in that activity, and check the appropriate
response using the following scale:
4 = Very Interested 3 = Somewhat Interested 2 = A Little Interested 1 = Not Interested
This is not a test. Since there are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time think-
ing about your responses. Be sure to respond to every statement. Do not worry about totaling your
scores at this point.

Very Somewhat A Little Not

Interested Interested Interested Interested
How interested are you in…
1. planting and trimming trees 4 3 2 1
2. managing and protecting natural resources 4 3 2 1
3. caring for sick animals 4 3 2 1
4. working on a farm 4 3 2 1
5. studying the composition of soil 4 3 2 1
6. conducting experiments with plants 4 3 2 1
Section 1 Total: ________
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 61

Very Somewhat A Little Not

Interested Interested Interested Interested
How interested are you in…
7. assembling products from wood 4 3 2 1
8. operating heavy equipment 4 3 2 1
9. working with tools 4 3 2 1
10. using drafting instruments to prepare detailed drawings 4 3 2 1
11. planning, designing, and directing construction projects 4 3 2 1
12. creating safe and functional buildings 4 3 2 1
Section 2 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

13. researching and writing news stories 4 3 2 1
14. singing in a professional choir 4 3 2 1
15. preparing public relations information 4 3 2 1
16. painting or sketching landscapes or portraits 4 3 2 1
17. doing commercial art or design projects 4 3 2 1
18. dancing in a variety show or acting in a play 4 3 2 1
Section 3 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

19. supervising and motivating others 4 3 2 1
20. adding columns of numbers 4 3 2 1
21. leading and making important decisions for people 4 3 2 1
22. computing wages for payroll records 4 3 2 1
23. managing a department or an organization 4 3 2 1
24. completing tax forms for corporations or individuals 4 3 2 1
Section 4 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

25. teaching reading, English, or math 4 3 2 1
26. watching children at a day care center 4 3 2 1
27. managing education programs 4 3 2 1
28. working with special-needs students 4 3 2 1
29. teaching life skills to adults 4 3 2 1
30. tutoring students having trouble in school 4 3 2 1
Section 5 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

31. analyzing and tracking investments 4 3 2 1
32. preparing financial reports 4 3 2 1
33. buying and selling stocks and bonds 4 3 2 1

(continued)
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62 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Very Somewhat A Little Not

Interested Interested Interested Interested
34. studying financial trends 4 3 2 1
35. selling insurance policies 4 3 2 1
36. helping people plan their retirement 4 3 2 1
Section 6 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

37. examining financial documents for errors 4 3 2 1
38. making plans for land use in cities 4 3 2 1
39. inspecting tree damage and preventing forest fires 4 3 2 1
40. keeping accounting records for a government agency 4 3 2 1
41. conducting research for crime prevention agencies 4 3 2 1
42. investigating crimes 4 3 2 1
Section 7 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

43. diagnosing and treating illnesses 4 3 2 1
44. helping people overcome physical disabilities 4 3 2 1
45. working as an aide in a hospital 4 3 2 1
46. working on a rescue squad 4 3 2 1
47. helping people maintain healthy teeth 4 3 2 1
48. researching diseases and cures 4 3 2 1
Section 8 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

49. teaching tourists to scuba dive 4 3 2 1
50. preparing and/or serving meals 4 3 2 1
51. helping people plan trips as a travel guide 4 3 2 1
52. cutting and styling hair 4 3 2 1
53. leading tourists on a mountain-climbing expedition 4 3 2 1
54. managing a hotel or motel 4 3 2 1
Section 9 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

55. helping students manage stress effectively 4 3 2 1
56. working in a mental health clinic 4 3 2 1
57. helping people in crises 4 3 2 1
58. providing marriage counseling 4 3 2 1
59. doing social service work 4 3 2 1
60. working with at-risk youth 4 3 2 1
Section 10 Total: ________
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 63

Very Somewhat A Little Not

Interested Interested Interested Interested
How interested are you in…
61. repairing computers 4 3 2 1
62. helping people use technology 4 3 2 1
63. managing an organization’s computer network 4 3 2 1
64. writing computer programs and software 4 3 2 1
65. creating or managing Web sites 4 3 2 1
66. finding new ways to prevent computer viruses 4 3 2 1
Section 11 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

67. helping people solve legal problems 4 3 2 1
68. using equipment to fight fires 4 3 2 1
69. collecting evidence to solve a criminal case 4 3 2 1
70. enforcing laws and regulations 4 3 2 1
71. preparing and arguing legal cases for trial 4 3 2 1
72. protecting people and property from harm 4 3 2 1
Section 12 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

73. setting up machines according to written standards 4 3 2 1
74. producing precision metal and wood products 4 3 2 1
75. operating lathes and drill presses 4 3 2 1
76. disassembling and repairing machinery 4 3 2 1
77. repairing televisions and other electronic devices 4 3 2 1
78. inspecting and evaluating the quality of products 4 3 2 1
Section 13 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

79. selling products over the Internet 4 3 2 1
80. planning advertising campaigns 4 3 2 1
81. raising funds for an organization 4 3 2 1
82. persuading others to buy something 4 3 2 1
83. helping people buy and sell homes 4 3 2 1
84. explaining and demonstrating how to use products 4 3 2 1
Section 14 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

85. solving difficult math problems 4 3 2 1
86. conducting chemistry experiments 4 3 2 1
87. collecting and analyzing rocks 4 3 2 1

(continued)
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64 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Very Somewhat A Little Not

Interested Interested Interested Interested
88. studying the nature of the universe 4 3 2 1
89. researching and developing products for a corporation 4 3 2 1
90. creating and interpreting maps, graphs, and diagrams 4 3 2 1
Section 15 Total: ________

How interested are you in…

91. maintaining automobile engines 4 3 2 1
92. driving a truck or taxi cab 4 3 2 1
93. driving a bus from city to city 4 3 2 1
94. doing auto body repairs 4 3 2 1
95. flying airplanes or helicopters 4 3 2 1
96. transporting passengers and cargo 4 3 2 1
Section 16 Total: ________

Scoring
The Career Interest Inventory is made up of 16 sections representing 16 major career clusters.
Those clusters, in turn, represent the majority of available occupations. For each section on the pre-
vious pages, add the numbers you circled for each item. Put that total on the line at the end of each
section. The higher the total number for each section, the more important it is for you to pursue
those types of interests when making career decisions. For each scale, a score from 6–12 is low, a
score from 13–18 is average, and a score from 19–24 is high.
Later in this chapter, you will use your results to reveal possible occupations of interest. But first,
you need to think about your skills.

What Are Skills?

Skills are things that you are able to do well, such as playing chess, working on car engines, shoot-
ing free throws, or writing speeches. Most people have hundreds or even thousands of skills, many
of which they use daily and some they may not even be aware of. Skills are also those capabilities
that you bring with you to the workplace. They are activities that you do in order to help employ-
ers reach their goals.
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 65

WHERE SKILLS ARE DEVELOPED

Skills are not just learned at work; you can develop them in a variety of roles and settings, including
the following:
• At home: Some skills are learned in the home, including budgeting and financial planning,
planning family vacations, motivating kids to clean their room, negotiating, organizing sched-
ules, chauffeuring, and cooking.
• In school: Many skills are developed at school, including writing, critical thinking, creative
problem solving, working as part of a team, tutoring others, conducting research, and calculat-
ing math problems.
• In the community: Skills are learned while engaged in community activities, including organiz-
ing neighborhood events, volunteering at a library, serving as president of an organization, being
a statistician for athletic events, and organizing religious or spiritual activities.

Because you can gain them from a wide variety of activities and then transfer them from one task
to another, skills have become more important in today’s world of work. It’s important for you not
only to discover the various skills that you possess, but also to identify the skills you most enjoy
using.
People interested in making a career change need to be keenly aware of how they can apply their
skills to a variety of jobs. After all, a corporate executive who suddenly decides to teach high school
needs to make good use of his or her negotiation skills when the erasers start flying. Likewise, a
stay-at-home mom should consider her time-management skills when thinking about a new career
after the nest empties. By assessing your skills, you can better
• Identify your strengths and weaknesses.
• Determine abilities that are important in your work.
• Assess your self-confidence and self-esteem.
• Examine and consider career alternatives.
• Formulate a career objective.

YOU CAN TAKE THEM WITH YOU

Transferable skills are those skills that are not job specific but cut horizontally across all industries and
vertically across all jobs, from entry level to chief executive. Transferable skills are portable skills that
people take from one life experience to another. They include such skills as building things, instruct-
ing people, analyzing data, leading a group, and managing money. Transferable skills naturally develop
from all aspects of life—especially from activities outside work—and then carry over to a job.

Before you jump into the assessment that follows, take some time to think about your best skills.
They don’t necessarily have to be skills that you used in previous jobs, although it helps if you could
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66 Career Quizzes

use them in some kind of work (writing with your toes or being able to stick your fist in your
mouth, while impressive, aren’t likely to earn you a paycheck).

EXERCISE

List what you believe to be your 10 best skills below:

The Career Skills Inventory

The Career Skills Inventory can help you think about and identify the skills you possess that you
can transfer to the world of work. You may have acquired these skills from working at various full-
or part-time jobs or through leisure activities, volunteer experiences, hobbies, classes, and training
experiences.
Please read each statement carefully. Then, using the following scale, circle the number that best
describes your degree of skill:
3 = Very Skilled 2 = Somewhat Skilled 1 = A Little Skilled 0 = Not Skilled or N/A
This is not a test. Since there are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time think-
ing about your responses. Be sure to respond to every statement. Do not worry about totaling your
scores at this point.

Some- A Not Some- A Not

Very what Little Skilled Very what Little Skilled
Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A
In working with plants and animals, how skilled Farming 3 2 1 0
are you at the following tasks? Training pets 3 2 1 0
Sitting for pets 3 2 1 0
Section 1 Total: _______
Weeding 3 2 1 0
Grooming pets 3 2 1 0 In working with designing and maintaining build-
Gardening 3 2 1 0 ings, how skilled are you at the following tasks?
Tree trimming 3 2 1 0 Building 3 2 1 0
Planting 3 2 1 0 Wiring 3 2 1 0
Breeding pets 3 2 1 0 Remodeling 3 2 1 0
Landscaping 3 2 1 0 Repairing 3 2 1 0
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 67

Some- A Not Some- A Not

Very what Little Skilled Very what Little Skilled
Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A
Plumbing 3 2 1 0 In helping people learn, how skilled are you at the
Wallpapering 3 2 1 0 following tasks?
Measuring 3 2 1 0 Evaluating 3 2 1 0
Reading blueprints 3 2 1 0 Coaching 3 2 1 0
Drafting 3 2 1 0 Teaching 3 2 1 0
Using power tools 3 2 1 0 Training 3 2 1 0
Planning lessons 3 2 1 0
Section 2 Total: _______
Encouraging 3 2 1 0
In expressing your ideas creatively, how skilled are Counseling 3 2 1 0
you at the following tasks? Mentoring 3 2 1 0
Singing 3 2 1 0 Testing knowledge 3 2 1 0
Dancing 3 2 1 0 Explaining ideas 3 2 1 0
Photography 3 2 1 0
Section 5 Total: _______
Drawing 3 2 1 0
Writing 3 2 1 0 In helping people and organizations become finan-
Performing 3 2 1 0 cially fit, how skilled are you at the following tasks?
Editing 3 2 1 0 Accounting 3 2 1 0
Designing 3 2 1 0 Interviewing 3 2 1 0
Painting 3 2 1 0 Calculating 3 2 1 0
Sculpting 3 2 1 0 Analyzing data 3 2 1 0
Tracking investments 3 2 1 0
Section 3 Total: _______
Managing inventory 3 2 1 0
In making an organization, project, or club run Auditing 3 2 1 0
smoothly, how skilled are you at the following Financial planning 3 2 1 0
tasks?
Selling 3 2 1 0
Supervising processes 3 2 1 0
Investing 3 2 1 0
Coordinating events 3 2 1 0
Planning projects 3 2 1 0 Section 6 Total: _______
Budgeting 3 2 1 0 In helping government agencies meet the needs of
Directing activities 3 2 1 0 the public, how skilled are you at the following
Delegating authority 3 2 1 0 tasks?
Managing resources 3 2 1 0 Campaigning 3 2 1 0
Bookkeeping 3 2 1 0 Lobbying 3 2 1 0
Filing 3 2 1 0 Inspecting facilities 3 2 1 0
Motivating employees 3 2 1 0 Planning projects 3 2 1 0
Reporting results 3 2 1 0
Section 4 Total: _______
Proofreading documents 3 2 1 0
Compiling statistics 3 2 1 0
Entering data 3 2 1 0

(continued)
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68 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Some- A Not Some- A Not

Very what Little Skilled Very what Little Skilled
Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A
Keeping records 3 2 1 0 Mentoring 3 2 1 0
Evaluating progress 3 2 1 0 Helping the disabled 3 2 1 0
Section 7 Total: _______ Camp counseling 3 2 1 0
Facilitating groups 3 2 1 0
In helping people be healthy, how skilled are you Listening 3 2 1 0
at the following tasks?
Studying behavior 3 2 1 0
Caring for others 3 2 1 0
Nursing 3 2 1 0 Section 10 Total: _______
Treating injuries 3 2 1 0 In designing, developing, and supporting
Researching cures 3 2 1 0 information systems, how skilled are you at the
Examining specimens 3 2 1 0 following tasks?
Diagnosing illnesses 3 2 1 0 Programming
computers 3 2 1 0
Performing experiments 3 2 1 0
Creating Web sites 3 2 1 0
Healing 3 2 1 0
Repairing computers 3 2 1 0
Fixing teeth 3 2 1 0
Analyzing systems 3 2 1 0
Dispensing medicines 3 2 1 0
Maintaining networks 3 2 1 0
Section 8 Total: _______ Technical writing 3 2 1 0
In helping meet other people’s needs, how skilled Analyzing data 3 2 1 0
are you at the following tasks? Designing software 3 2 1 0
Cutting/styling hair 3 2 1 0 Applying software 3 2 1 0
Entertaining 3 2 1 0 Securing networks 3 2 1 0
Cooking/baking 3 2 1 0 Section 11 Total: _______
Serving others 3 2 1 0
Playing sports 3 2 1 0 In protecting people and property, how skilled
are you at the following tasks?
Cleaning 3 2 1 0
Researching personal
Nurturing 3 2 1 0 backgrounds 3 2 1 0
Guiding tours 3 2 1 0 Rehabilitating people 3 2 1 0
Planning events 3 2 1 0 Enforcing regulations 3 2 1 0
Traveling in foreign Investigating crimes 3 2 1 0
countries 3 2 1 0
Guarding property 3 2 1 0
Section 9 Total: _______ Inspecting buildings 3 2 1 0
In helping other people improve their overall well- Fighting fires 3 2 1 0
being, how skilled are you at the following tasks? Defending yourself
Helping others cope 3 2 1 0 and others 3 2 1 0
Monitoring client Handling firearms 3 2 1 0
progress 3 2 1 0 Arguing a particular
Empathizing 3 2 1 0 viewpoint 3 2 1 0
Solving problems 3 2 1 0 Section 12 Total: _______
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 69

Some- A Not Some- A Not

Very what Little Skilled Very what Little Skilled
Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A Skilled Skilled Skilled or N/A
In using machines to process materials, how skilled In learning more about the natural world, life
are you at the following tasks? sciences, and human behavior, how skilled are
Repairing broken you at the following tasks?
machines 3 2 1 0 Teaching 3 2 1 0
Assembling products 3 2 1 0 Inventing 3 2 1 0
Installing new Discovering 3 2 1 0
components 3 2 1 0 Studying unexplained
Maintaining machines 3 2 1 0 phenomena 3 2 1 0
Setting up machines 3 2 1 0 Conceptualizing
Drilling 3 2 1 0 research 3 2 1 0
Welding 3 2 1 0 Formulating theories 3 2 1 0
Grinding 3 2 1 0 Reviewing data 3 2 1 0
Forging 3 2 1 0 Conducting
experiments 3 2 1 0
Operating heavy
machinery 3 2 1 0 Doing library research 3 2 1 0
Systematizing data 3 2 1 0
Section 13 Total: _______
Section 15 Total: _______
In persuading others or bringing them to your
point of view, how skilled are you at the following In moving people or materials, how skilled are
tasks? you at the following tasks?
Marketing 3 2 1 0 Estimating distances 3 2 1 0
Making an argument 3 2 1 0 Planning routes 3 2 1 0
Promoting products 3 2 1 0 Driving long distances 3 2 1 0
Selling 3 2 1 0 Operating heavy
Demonstrating machinery 3 2 1 0
products 3 2 1 0 Piloting boats 3 2 1 0
Raising money 3 2 1 0 Navigating ships 3 2 1 0
Writing proposals 3 2 1 0 Operating a train 3 2 1 0
Publicizing events 3 2 1 0 Unloading packages
Speaking publicly 3 2 1 0 and materials 3 2 1 0
Communicating ideas 3 2 1 0 Flying aircraft 3 2 1 0
Delivering goods 3 2 1 0
Section 14 Total: _______
Section 16 Total: _______

Scoring
The Career Skills Inventory is made up of 16 sections representing the same 16 major career clus-
ters as the Career Interest Inventory. For each section on the previous pages, add the numbers you
circled for each item. Put that total on the line at the end of each section. The higher the total num-
ber for each section, the more skills you perceive yourself to have in that particular career cluster.
For each scale, a score from 0–10 is low, a score from 11–20 is average, and a score from 21–30 is
high.
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70 Career Quizzes

Matching Your Interests and Skills

to Occupations
You can use your results from the assessments you just completed to narrow down your career pos-
sibilities. For each cluster that follows, list your score from the Career Interest Inventory in the
blank marked “Interest” and whether it was low, average, or high. Similarly, list your score from the
Career Skills Inventory in the blank marked “Skill” and whether it was low, average, or high. Keep
in mind that you may have a high interest in a cluster but a low skill level. The opposite can also
be true. Of course, just because you don’t have the skills related to a particular career doesn’t mean
you shouldn’t pursue it—skills can be learned, after all. You should, however, begin your explo-
ration with career clusters in which you have both a high interest and a high skill level.
1. Agriculture and Natural Resources: An interest in working with plants, animals, forests,
or mineral resources for agriculture, horticulture, conservation, and other purposes.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
2. Architecture and Construction: An interest in designing, assembling, and maintaining
buildings and other structures.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
3. Arts and Communication: An interest in creatively expressing feelings or ideas, in com-
municating news or information, or in performing.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
4. Business and Administration: An interest in making an organization run smoothly.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
5. Education and Training: An interest in helping people learn.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
6. Finance and Insurance: An interest in helping businesses and people secure their finan-
cial futures.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
7. Government and Public Administration: An interest in helping a government agency
serve the needs of the public.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
8. Health Science: An interest in helping people and animals be healthy.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 71

9. Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation: An interest in catering to the wishes and needs of
others so that they may enjoy a clean environment, good food and drink, comfortable
accommodations, and worthwhile recreation.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
10. Human Service: An interest in improving people’s social, mental, emotional, or spiritual
well-being.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
11. Information Technology: An interest in designing, developing, managing, and support-
ing information systems.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
12. Law and Public Safety: An interest in upholding people’s rights or in protecting people
and property.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
13. Manufacturing: An interest in turning materials into products or maintaining and repair-
ing products by using machines or hand tools.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
14. Retail and Wholesale Sales and Service: An interest in bringing others to a particular
point of view through personal persuasion and sales techniques.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
15. Scientific Research, Engineering, and Mathematics: An interest in discovering, collect-
ing, and analyzing information about the natural world, life sciences, and human
behavior.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________
16. Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics: An interest in operations that move people
or materials.
Interest: ___________ Skill: ___________

Looking back over your results, which career clusters yielded the highest combined scores? Use the
following space to list the four career clusters with the highest scores. This provides an excellent
clue as to the kind of occupation you will find the most satisfying.

The following lists a sampling of career options for each cluster. Starting with the four you listed
above, read through the list of job titles, checking any that sound interesting to you. Do not worry
about the education and training required for these jobs. For now, just isolate potential careers that
you would consider pursuing.
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72 Career Quizzes

AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES ■ Drywall Installer

■ Agricultural Engineer ■ Electrician
■ Animal Scientist ■ Heating and Air Conditioning Mechanic
■ Animal Trainer ■ Home Appliance Installer
■ Conservation Worker ■ Insulation Worker
■ Construction Driller ■ Painter
■ Environmental Engineer ■ Paperhanger
■ Farm Manager ■ Pipelayer
■ Farmer ■ Plumber
■ Fisher ■ Roofer
■ Food Scientist ■ Stonemason
■ Forester ■ Surveyor
■ Groundskeeper
ARTS AND COMMUNICATION
■ Nursery and Greenhouse Manager ■ Actor
■ Park Naturalist ■ Art Director
■ Pest Control Worker ■ Broadcast News Analyst
■ Petroleum Engineer ■ Cartoonist
■ Rancher ■ Choreographer
■ Soil Conservationist ■ Composer
■ Tree Trimmer ■ Dancer
■ Veterinarian ■ Editor
■ Zoologist ■ Fashion Designer
ARCHITECTURE AND ■ Graphic Designer
CONSTRUCTION
■ Interior Designer
■ Architect
■ Interpreter or Translator
■ Brickmason
■ Musician
■ Building Inspector
■ Painter
■ Bulldozer Operator
■ Photographer
■ Carpenter
■ Public Relations Manager
■ Ceiling Tile Installer
■ Radio and Television Announcer
■ Construction Manager
■ Reporter
■ Crane Operator
■ Sculptor
■ Drafter
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 73

■ Sound Engineering Technician ■ Middle School Teacher

■ Writer ■ Museum Technician

BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION ■ Postsecondary Teacher

■ Accountant ■ Preschool Teacher
■ Administrative Assistant ■ Secondary School Teacher
■ Auditor ■ Special Education Teacher
■ Brokerage Clerk ■ Teacher Assistant
■ Budget Analyst ■ Vocational Education Teacher
■ Chief Executive FINANCE AND INSURANCE
■ File Clerk ■ Advertising Sales Agent
■ Human Resources Manager ■ Appraiser
■ Legal Secretary ■ Assessor
■ Management Analyst ■ Bank Teller
■ Medical Secretary ■ Bill and Account Collector
■ Meeting and Convention Planner ■ Cost Estimator
■ Office Clerk ■ Credit Checker
■ Personnel Recruiter ■ Financial Analyst
■ Post Office Clerk ■ Financial Manager
■ Secretary ■ Insurance Adjuster
■ Shipping Clerk ■ Insurance Underwriter
■ Tax Preparer ■ Loan Counselor

EDUCATION AND TRAINING ■ Loan Officer

■ Adult Education Teacher ■ Market Research Analyst
■ Archivist ■ Personal Financial Advisor
■ Curator ■ Securities and Commodities Salesperson
■ Educational Counselor ■ Survey Researcher
■ Elementary School Teacher ■ Treasurer
■ Fitness Trainer GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC
■ Instructional Coordinator ADMINISTRATION
■ Agricultural Inspector
■ Kindergarten Teacher
■ Aviation Inspector
■ Librarian
■ City Planning Aide
■ Library Assistant
■ Court Clerk
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74 Career Quizzes

■ Court Reporter ■ Pediatrician

■ Environmental Compliance Inspector ■ Pharmacist
■ Equal Opportunity Representative ■ Psychiatrist
■ Financial Analyst ■ Radiologic Technologist
■ Fire Inspector ■ Respiratory Therapist
■ Fish and Game Warden ■ Surgeon
■ Government Property Inspector ■ Veterinarian
■ Immigration and Customs Inspector HOSPITALITY, TOURISM, AND
■ License Clerk RECREATION
■ Amusement Attendant
■ Licensing Examiner
■ Baker
■ Missing Persons Investigator
■ Bartender
■ Municipal Clerk
■ Butcher
■ Tax Examiner or Collector
■ Concierge
■ Urban Planner
■ Cook
HEALTH SCIENCE
■ Counter Attendant
■ Anesthesiologist
■ Flight Attendant
■ Athletic Trainer
■ Gaming Dealer or Manager
■ Audiologist
■ Hairdresser
■ Cardiovascular Technologist
■ Host or Hostess
■ Chiropractor
■ Hotel Desk Clerk
■ Coroner
■ Janitor
■ Dental Assistant or Hygienist
■ Lodging Manager
■ Dentist
■ Maid
■ Diagnostic Medical Sonographer
■ Recreation Worker
■ Dietician or Nutritionist
■ Ticket Agent
■ Home Health Aide
■ Tour Guide
■ Laboratory Technician
■ Travel Agent
■ Massage Therapist
■ Usher
■ Medical Transcriptionist
■ Waiter or Waitress
■ Nurse
HUMAN SERVICE
■ Occupational Therapist
■ Child Care Worker
■ Optician
■ Clergy
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 75

■ Clinical Psychologist LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY

■ Counselor ■ Arbitrator

■ Funeral Attendant ■ Bailiff

■ Interviewer ■ Correctional Officer

■ Marriage and Family Therapist ■ Criminal Investigator

■ Mental Health Counselor ■ EMT or Paramedic

■ Nanny ■ Fire Investigator

■ Personal and Home Care Aide ■ Firefighter

■ Probation Officer ■ Highway Patroller

■ Rehabilitation Counselor ■ Judge

■ Residential Advisor ■ Law Clerk

■ Social and Human Services Assistant ■ Lawyer

■ Social Worker ■ Lifeguard

■ Paralegal
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
■ Artificial Intelligence/Robotics ■ Police Detective
Programmer ■ Private Detective
■ Computer and Information Systems ■ Security Guard
Manager
■ Sheriff or Deputy Sheriff
■ Computer Facilities Manager
■ Title Searcher
■ Computer Operator
MANUFACTURING
■ Computer Programmer
■ Aircraft Engine Specialist
■ Computer Scientist
■ Appliance Repairer
■ Computer Security Specialist
■ Automotive Specialty Technician
■ Computer Software Engineer
■ Bookbinder
■ Computer Systems Analyst
■ Cabinetmaker
■ Data Processing Equipment Repairer
■ Industrial Production Manager
■ Database Administrator
■ Jeweler
■ Network Administrator
■ Machinist
■ Office Machine Repairer
■ Molding and Casting Worker
■ Systems Analyst
■ Powerplant Operator
■ Web Developer
■ Printing Machine Operator
■ Production Laborer
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76 Career Quizzes

■ Semiconductor Processor ■ Chemist

■ Slaughterer or Meatpacker ■ Economist
■ Soldering Machine Operator ■ Engineer
■ Stationary Engineer ■ Engineering Technician
■ Tool and Die Maker ■ Epidemiologist
■ Woodworker ■ Geographer

RETAIL AND WHOLESALE SALES ■ Historian

AND SERVICE ■ Materials Scientist
■ Adjustment Clerk
■ Mechanical Drafter
■ Advertising Manager
■ Physicist
■ Cashier
■ Sociologist
■ Counter and Rental Clerk
■ Statistician
■ Customer Service Representative
■ Surveying Technician
■ Demonstrator
TRANSPORTATION, DISTRIBUTION,
■ Funeral Director AND LOGISTICS
■ Marketing Manager ■ Able Seaman
■ Model ■ Airline Pilot or Flight Engineer
■ Purchasing Agent ■ Ambulance Driver
■ Real Estate Broker ■ Bus Driver
■ Receptionist and Information Clerk ■ Cargo and Freight Agent
■ Retail Salesperson ■ Courier
■ Sales Manager ■ Driver/Sales Worker
■ Telemarketer ■ Freight Inspector

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, ENGINEERING, ■ Locomotive Engineer

AND MATHEMATICS ■ Postal Service Mail Carrier
■ Actuary
■ Public Transportation Inspector
■ Anthropologist
■ Subway or Streetcar Operator
■ Archaeologist
■ Taxi Driver or Chauffeur
■ Astronomer
■ Traffic Technician
■ Biologist
■ Truck Driver
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CHAPTER 4: DISCOVER YOUR SKILLS AND INTERESTS 77

Of all the occupations you just checked, which seem the most interesting to you? List the 10 occu-
pations you’d most like to explore in more detail in the space below.

EXERCISE

Ten Occupations I Would Like to Learn More About

My Ideal Job
No job is likely to incorporate all your interests or use all your skills. And it doesn’t have to. Inter-
ests or skills that go unsatisfied through our work are often satisfied through other aspects of our
lives, like our leisure activities.
However, your job—and the career it contributes to—will serve as one of the most important, if
not the most important, conduit for developing your interests and skills. With that in mind, it
helps to know what to look for as you search for the best job to meet your needs. In the space below,
write down interests you want to pursue and the skills you’d like to use in your ideal job.

EXERCISE

Interests Skills

Tying It All Together

Now that you have determined what your career interests and skills are, you are well on your way
to choosing an occupation that will lead you to career success. Remember that interests are those
things that you are most passionate about and feel called to take part in. However, they are just one
part of the career equation. Hopefully, your skills will correlate with your interests. If not, you
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78 Career Quizzes

should consider finding ways to get those skills, either through additional education, on-the-job
training, or other means.
But even skills and interests don’t give you the entire picture. Your work preferences are made up
of a complex interaction of many other factors. The next chapter will help you to learn more about
what you value in your career.
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C H A P T E R
5
Identify Your Values

“A person who simply settles for whatever comes his/her way, rather than pursuing his/her
own goals, is probably not living a life based upon his/her own freely chosen values. He/she
usually ends up by feeling that life is not very meaningful or satisfying.”
—Sidney Simon, Leland Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum in Values Clarification

K ali is a college student considering work as a counselor. She enjoys volunteering at a retire-
ment community on the weekends. She says she wants to “make the world a better place.”
She really doesn’t care how much money she makes (she is majoring in social work, after all). She
just wants to nurture others and make a difference in their lives. She values generosity and commu-
nity service and isn’t really interested in climbing any corporation’s ladder.
Sharon is the chief executive officer of a large company. She makes gobs of money and enjoys the
“finer” things in life: her 3,500-square-foot condo, her new Mercedes, and her summer vacations
in Europe. She loves being recognized as one of the most successful female CEOs in the country.
She enjoys setting goals for herself and then working hard to achieve them, knowing that she helps
make her company, her stockholders, and herself very wealthy.
James is an anthropology professor at a medium-size university. He loves learning about new things
and teaching what he knows to others. He has written several books on the topic of ancient civiliza-
tions, and you can often find him in the library, poring over old books and maps. He makes enough
money to live comfortably, but he prefers the rewards that come from teaching and research: the sum-
mers off, the interactions with students, and the chance to intellectually challenge himself every day.
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80 Career Quizzes

Work and Values

People choose to enter certain occupations because they value the rewards they receive from the
work they do. Whether it’s helping people, making money, or continuing to learn, the values that
motivate people to work vary considerably, and no single value appeals to everyone equally.
Although you share common values with people from all over the world, you have a value system
that is unique to you.
Values are beliefs and behaviors that are important to you—that provide you with a sense of use-
fulness, meaning, and worth. For example, my friend Rick values financial security over all else. He
wants to retire early and have enough money to live comfortably for the next 30 or 40 years. This
value affects his life in many ways: He doesn’t take expensive vacations or eat out often, and he puts
the maximum amount in his retirement account each year. He has stayed at the same job most of
his working life and has tried his best to move up the corporate ladder. Rick’s situation is unique in
that he has one major value that dominates his career. Most of us have two or three or more.

WHERE DO VALUES COME FROM?

Our values are developed in the early years of life through a combination of environment and experi-
ences. Most experts on the topic of values suggest that you develop them from interactions with your
parents, siblings, teachers, friends, coaches, neighbors, and all parts of the community in which you
live.
Some values are learned through reading or even from movies and television. (Think of the many gen-
erations who have learned to share by watching Sesame Street.) It is through explanations, modeling,
rewards, punishments, and rules that these influential forces in your life provide the basis for your value
system.

Unlike the people in the preceding examples, not all of us have such clear-cut value systems. In
today’s chaotic world of work, we are confronted with more choices than previous generations. We
are besieged by messages telling us what to value through adver-
NOTE tising, as well as from parents, friends, teachers, and coworkers.
While many see values as sim- Do we value low prices or high living? Do we value the safety
ply principles of right and and prestige of a monstrous four-wheel-drive or the environ-
wrong, such a definition is lim-
mental friendliness of a hybrid economy car? Do we value the
iting. Although morality plays
a significant role in your value security that comes with saving for retirement or the desire to
system, your values also live for the moment and spend every last cent while we’re
include your beliefs about what young? Our values are there to guide us—to help answer those
is meaningful to you. They questions, determine our actions, and define our goals.
help you prioritize what is
most important. Your values also dictate the amount of motivation you have
toward your work and other activities. Your personal values, to
a large extent, help determine job satisfaction. Thus, under-
standing your values—and how they relate to the world of work—is an important step in pursuing
the type of career and lifestyle you desire.
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CHAPTER 5: IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES 81

The Work Values Scale

This assessment can help you identify and explore your dominant values and how these values
affect your career development. It contains 60 activity statements directly related to potential val-
ues in your life and career.
Read each statement, and then circle the number to the right that best describes how important
the activity is to you according to the following scale:
4 = Very Important 3 = Important 2 = Somewhat Important 1 = Unimportant
This is not a test. Since there are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time on each
item. Be sure to respond to every statement.

Very Somewhat
Important Important Important Unimportant
How important is it for you to…
Read and/or write poetry 4 3 2 1
Create beautiful things 4 3 2 1
Brainstorm new ideas 4 3 2 1
Imagine and design how things will work 4 3 2 1
Draw or paint 4 3 2 1
Develop new skills working with your hands 4 3 2 1
Make music 4 3 2 1
Invent new products 4 3 2 1
Attend theater performances 4 3 2 1
Visit museums or art galleries 4 3 2 1
Section 1 Total: _______

How important is it for you to…

Analyze numerical data 4 3 2 1
Use computers to solve problems 4 3 2 1
Use statistics in your daily life 4 3 2 1
Understand complex mathematical problems 4 3 2 1
Use deductive reasoning 4 3 2 1
Be an expert at learning and remembering numbers 4 3 2 1
Calculate and compute numbers easily 4 3 2 1
Manage your money effectively 4 3 2 1
Be able to follow complex instructions 4 3 2 1
Be detail oriented 4 3 2 1
Section 2 Total: _______

(continued)
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82 Career Quizzes

(continued)

Very Somewhat
Important Important Important Unimportant
How important is it for you to…
Do volunteer work 4 3 2 1
Be understanding of others’ problems 4 3 2 1
Give to worthwhile charities 4 3 2 1
Share your time and money with others 4 3 2 1
Do social service work 4 3 2 1
Counsel other people 4 3 2 1
Teach 4 3 2 1
Ensure the safety and well-being of the public 4 3 2 1
Be a positive role model 4 3 2 1
Help people in need 4 3 2 1
Section 3 Total: _______

How important is it for you to…

Make important decisions 4 3 2 1
Be a leader 4 3 2 1
Be the boss rather than an employee 4 3 2 1
Manage group projects 4 3 2 1
Plan long-term goals 4 3 2 1
Be considered a business expert 4 3 2 1
Be financially successful 4 3 2 1
Manage others’ work 4 3 2 1
Be admired by other business leaders 4 3 2 1
Be in a position of authority 4 3 2 1
Section 4 Total: _______

How important is it for you to…

Display good hand-eye coordination 4 3 2 1
Be outdoors 4 3 2 1
Be engaged in sporting events 4 3 2 1
Have good motor skills 4 3 2 1
Work at mechanical activities 4 3 2 1
Make things with your hands 4 3 2 1
Grow plants 4 3 2 1
Use hand tools like hammers and screwdrivers 4 3 2 1
Operate large machines and equipment 4 3 2 1
Be able to repair things in your home 4 3 2 1
Section 5 Total: _______
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CHAPTER 5: IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES 83

Very Somewhat
Important Important Important Unimportant
How important is it for you to…
Learn all you can about science 4 3 2 1
Construct or interpret maps and graphs 4 3 2 1
Study and test hypotheses 4 3 2 1
Collect biological data 4 3 2 1
Understand all you can about plants or animals 4 3 2 1
Conduct scientific experiments 4 3 2 1
Read about scientific or medical discoveries 4 3 2 1
Read about technical developments 4 3 2 1
Work with the knowledge and processes of the sciences 4 3 2 1
Solve complex problems 4 3 2 1
Section 6 Total: _______

Scoring
Add the numbers you have circled for each section. Put that total in the space marked “Total” at
the end of each section. Then, transfer your totals for each section to the lines below. The higher
the number for each section, the more important those work values are to you in making satisfy-
ing career and life choices.
Section 1: Artistic ________ Section 2: Logical ________ Section 3: Social ________

Section 4: Authoritative ________ Section 5: Physical ________ Section 6: Scientific ________

Understanding Your Values

Research by Hunter Lewis helped create the assessment that you just completed. Lewis was a
prominent researcher who spent his life studying human behavior—specifically, what motivated
people to do the things they do. Lewis was president of the American School of Classical Studies
in Athens, Greece, where he developed a system for categorizing values that are important in a per-
son’s life and career. His book A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That
Shape Our Lives broke all values into six overarching categories or systems:
• Artistic: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in beauty,
harmony, imagination, and the pursuit of art and creative expression. They are inter-
ested in turning intuition into artistic creations. (Lewis called this the Intuition Value
System.)
• Logical: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in using
deductive logic, dialectics, and advanced mathematical tools to solve problems and make
decisions. (Lewis called this the Logical Value System.)
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84 Career Quizzes

• Social: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in altruism and
philanthropy, helping other people, and nurturing and caring for others. (Lewis called
this the Emotional Value System.)
• Authoritative: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in hav-
ing power and influence, as they value competition and leadership as ways to achieve
power. (Lewis called this the Authoritative Value System.)
• Physical: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in the use of
their physical prowess, hand-eye coordination, and agility. (Lewis called this the Sensory
Experience Value System.)
• Scientific: People with this type of value system express a dominant interest in the
exploration of the nature of the world or of human beings. They are interested in col-
lecting data and doing scientific research. (Lewis called this the Science Value System.)

Lewis felt that these six systems not only describe how we think about things in general but
also describe how our values develop and how we use them in our lives and careers. Most of us will
privilege one or two of these values above others, although we will have several of them at more
moderate levels. We may even value one or two of these values negatively. (Someone with predom-
inately social values may also privilege scientific values but may eschew authoritative values.) By
understanding your work values, you can begin to make career decisions based on those things you
care about most deeply.
Of course, few—if any—career options will fully incorporate all your values. What is most impor-
tant is that you make career decisions that match the values you feel most passionate about. Thus,
values you scored high in (scores of 31 or more) represent those values you should try to incorpo-
rate into your work. Those you scored low in (20 or fewer) represent values that your work and
career need not necessarily encompass. This isn’t to suggest that those values aren’t important to
you—only that they aren’t as high a priority.

EXERCISE

Think about the values that you identified by taking this assessment to answer the following
questions:
What surprised you the most about your results?

What did not surprise you at all?

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CHAPTER 5: IDENTIFY YOUR VALUES 85

What did you learn about yourself and your values?

Tying Values to Occupations

People who carefully consider what they most value in life and in a career are often the ones who
land jobs and develop careers that provide satisfying rewards. Therefore, it is important to develop
a framework for your values and how they relate to occupations in the real world.
By completing the assessment in this chapter, you have taken the first step in understanding and
applying your value system. The next step is for you to examine
how your personal value system influences your preferences for NOTE
certain occupations and work environments. Remember that this assess-
ment, like the others in this
For each of the following sections, read the descriptions and part of the book, is not a crys-
then consider how your own values match with what is tal ball. Remember to keep
described and with the occupations that follow. Be sure to your options open. You will
check any that interest you. have an opportunity to
methodically narrow them
You should begin by focusing on the scale on which you scored down in Part III.
highest. This is likely the value system that drives and will con-
tinue to drive your career decisions. If you scored high on two
or more scales, you should take the time to read each description and then select occupations of
interest.

Artistic Values
People with high artistic values enjoy working in jobs where they can create things of beauty. They
prefer to engage in imaginative activities that can be done alone. They value work where they can
invent and design new products, communicate news or information, or perform for the public.
People scoring high on this scale usually appreciate music and the arts.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Actor ■ Commercial Artist
■ Advertising Agent ■ Cosmetologist
■ Architect ■ Creative Writer
■ Barber ■ Curator
■ Broadcast Technician ■ Dancer
■ Cartoonist ■ Desktop Publisher
■ Choreographer ■ Director
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■ Editor ■ Painter
■ Fashion Designer ■ Photographer
■ Fine Arts Instructor ■ Poet
■ Florist ■ Public Relations Manager
■ Graphic Designer ■ Reporter
■ Jewelry Maker ■ Sculptor
■ Makeup Artist ■ Singer
■ Music Teacher ■ Technical Writer
■ Musician ■ Web Designer

Logical Values
People with high logical values are most interested in solving problems with deductive reasoning.
They value working with numbers and having clearly defined procedures. They enjoy calculating,
examining, and interpreting data and financial records.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Accountant ■ Financial Planner
■ Actuary ■ Information Technologist
■ Air Traffic Controller ■ International Marketer
■ Architect ■ Literary Agent
■ Attorney ■ Mathematician
■ Auditing Clerk ■ Nuclear Power Technician
■ Bank Examiner ■ Office Manager
■ Cartographer ■ Physicist
■ Computer Analyst ■ Pilot
■ Computer Programmer ■ Real Estate Agent
■ Distribution Manager ■ Salesperson
■ Diversity Manager ■ School Principal
■ Economist ■ Securities Investor
■ Engineer ■ Statistician
■ Financial Examiner
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Social Values
Not surprisingly, individuals with high social values like to work with and help other people. They
find satisfaction in making a difference in people’s lives. This can come in a variety of forms, from
teaching and counseling to providing medical care. They generally enjoy work that allows them to
provide services to other people rather than products.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Art Therapist ■ Nurse
■ Caseworker ■ Pharmacist
■ Child Care Worker ■ Physician
■ College Administrator ■ Police Officer
■ Correctional Treatment Specialist ■ Probation Officer
■ Counselor ■ Psychologist
■ Criminologist ■ Rehabilitation Specialist
■ Funeral Attendant ■ School Guidance Counselor
■ Home Health Aide ■ Social Worker
■ Human Resource Manager ■ Special Education Teacher
■ Interviewer ■ Substance Abuse Counselor
■ Librarian ■ Teacher
■ Marriage and Family Therapist ■ Veterinarian
■ Mental Health Worker ■ Vocational Guidance Counselor
■ Missionary ■ Welfare Eligibility Worker

Authoritative Values
Individuals with high authoritative values are primarily interested in managing people or running
organizations. People scoring high on this scale may enjoy working in positions of leadership,
ensuring that people work efficiently or follow the rules. They value guiding others, solving prob-
lems, and making decisions.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Arbitrator ■ Chief Financial Officer
■ Assessor ■ Cost Estimator
■ Attorney ■ Diplomat
■ Bank Loan Officer ■ Engineer
■ Buyer ■ Financial Manager
■ Chief Executive Officer ■ Fire Inspector
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■ Funeral Director ■ Pilot

■ Highway Patrol Officer ■ Police Officer
■ Homeland Security Officer ■ Political Campaign Manager
■ Hospital Administrator ■ Psychiatrist
■ Human Resource Manager ■ Public Policy Analyst
■ Intelligence Officer ■ Purchasing Agent
■ International Business Representative ■ Real Estate Manager
■ Judge ■ Sales Manager
■ Magistrate ■ Surgeon
■ Military Officer ■ Warden

Physical Values
Individuals with high physical values are primarily interested in working and playing outdoors.
They enjoy tinkering with machines and using their hands. People scoring high on this scale value
being physically active.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Aerobic Instructor ■ Fish and Game Warden
■ Agriculture Inspector ■ Fitness Trainer
■ Athletic Coach ■ Immigration Inspector
■ Automobile Mechanic ■ Law Enforcement Officer
■ Avionic Technician ■ Machinist
■ Bus Driver ■ Motor Vehicle Inspector
■ Commercial Truck Diver ■ Occupational Health Specialist
■ Concierge ■ Parks and Recreation Director
■ Construction Worker ■ Pipe Fitter
■ Correctional Officer ■ Professional Athlete
■ Electrician ■ Security Guard
■ Embalmer ■ Tool and Die Maker
■ Fire Inspector ■ Travel Guide
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Scientific Values
Individuals with high scientific values want to understand how things work. They value using sci-
entific processes to discover, collect, and analyze information. They may enjoy doing research,
using computers, and performing experiments.
Place a check mark in front of those occupations that interest you:
■ Anthropologist ■ Meteorologist
■ Archaeologist ■ Nurse
■ Astronomer ■ Occupational Therapist
■ Athletic Trainer ■ Optician
■ Biologist ■ Optometrist
■ Chemist ■ Pharmacist
■ Chiropractor ■ Physical Therapist
■ Dentist ■ Physician
■ Dietitian ■ Physician Assistant
■ Forensic Scientist ■ Radiological Technician
■ Geologist ■ Veterinarian
■ Medical Technologist

Prioritizing Your Values

Now it is time to start narrowing your occupational choices based on your values. In the space
below, list your two most important values, starting with the one you scored the highest in. Then,
use the second column to list the possible occupations you might be interested in that relate to that
value.

EXERCISE

Value Occupations of Interest

Now go through the lists of occupations you just made to identify the six that seem most interest-
ing to you.
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EXERCISE

Six Occupations I Would Like to Learn More About

In a perfect world, you would do work that matches all your values—almost as if your personal
philosophy on life and the company motto were one and the same. Unfortunately, no such
job exists, and if it did exist, you could have trouble finding it. The reality is that your career sat-
isfaction and success depend on you carefully assessing your situation and your job prospects
(including your current job) and making a firm decision about those values that your work
absolutely must include, those that you’d like it to include, and those that you can do without. Still,
it doesn’t hurt to set high goals, as long as you remain open to all possibilities.

EXERCISE

On the lines below, write down those work values that you most want your job and career to
reflect:

NOTE Tying It All Together

Remember that your career is a If you are like most people, exploring your values is probably
combination of your work and not something you do regularly. The truth is that assessing val-
leisure. Your values manifest ues is critical in career exploration. Because the most common
themselves in both, so as with reason for career dissatisfaction is a lack of congruence between
interests and skills, it is possible
personal values and the values in the work environment, explor-
(even likely) that you can com-
pensate for work that doesn’t ing your value system is important. People who lack this insight
satisfy all your values through generally find themselves struggling to manage a career and
your other life roles. However, leading a life without meaning and commitment. The next
you should avoid work that chapter will help you discover the role your personality can play
goes against your most impor- in your career choices. Then, you put together your interests,
tant values. skills, values, and personality to identify career paths that fit you
best.
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C H A P T E R
6
Explore Your Personality

“A preference is an inborn tendency to be, act, or think in a certain way.

While we do change and grow, and may seem to be different at various
times in our lives, our basic personality style remains the same.”
—Renee Baron, What Type Am I?

J an is a practical person who likes to repair automobiles and prefers any job where he doesn’t have
to behind a desk all day. He enjoys working with his hands and likes to spend his weekends hik-
ing or fishing.
Karen is an inquisitive person who enjoys solving problems that require a lot of research. She likes
being intellectually challenged and enjoys debating ideas and beliefs with other people.
Tyrone is a creative and temperamental person who prefers to express himself in innovative and
artistic ways. He works from his home as a graphic artist and spends his free time writing and
sketching.
Kathy is a compassionate person who enjoys helping others. She likes to go home from work know-
ing she has made a difference in someone else’s life.
Rosie is an energetic and ambitious person who makes a good living as a sales manager. A natural-
born leader, she loves being in charge and pushing her staff to meet their quotas.
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Shane is a neat and organized person who people can count on to take care of details. He loves
working in an office, making sure coworkers get what they need when they need it.
Do any of these people sound like you or people you know? These examples (albeit oversimplified)
illustrate some of the different personality types in the workplace. Personality can best be defined
as the ways we differ from one another and how these differences affect our individual behavior.
Because we live in a society full of other people with whom we must cooperate and compete to get
what we want in life, it is critical for us to understand as much about our personality characteris-
tics (and those of others) as possible.

What’s Your Type?

Your personality is a consistent style of behaviors and emotional reactions that are present from
infancy onward, developing as a result of a combination of heredity and environmental experiences.
Whether you realize it or not, your personality critically impacts your career development. One key
to success is to find a career that complements your personality rather than conflicts with it.
Psychologists and psychiatrists believe that human beings share personality characteristics, which
we can then use to classify people. They also believe that such a classification can predict how a per-
son with a given personality will behave in a given situation. Such an approach suggests that you
can best describe personality by grouping people with similar characteristics into distinct categories
called personality types.

POINTS TO REMEMBER
Remember these points about personality types as you progress through this chapter:
• You will probably not change your basic personality type, but you can change behaviors associ-
ated with your basic type.
• All types have unique sets of strengths and weaknesses.
• All the information you read about your type may not apply to you all the time.
• People with similar personality types tend to be motivated in the same ways, view the world in
similar manners, and engage in similar occupations and leisure activities.
• Sociological factors such as where you were born and raised, your family life, cultural values
passed down to you from your parents, and your educational attainment can influence the
intensity of your personality type.
• No single type is better than any other type.

Your personality type developed primarily during your childhood. By the time you reached your
teen years, your personality began to crystallize and become a part of who you are. It is very unlikely
that your personality type has shifted much since, as our basic personalities rarely change substan-
tially in adulthood.
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 93

Your personality affects your career development in a variety of ways. Namely, it has an impact on
• How you approach making career decisions
• How you interact with coworkers and supervisors
• How well you like the work you are doing
• How you define your strengths and weaknesses
• How you recognize and value diversity in others
• How you solve problems and resolve conflicts

Knowing more about your personality type can help you explain why certain patterns also keep
repeating in your career.
The more your personality relates to the work you do, the more likely you are to enjoy your work
and feel fulfilled by it. The career assessment that follows can help you identify your personality
type, interpret the information you learn about yourself, and then apply it to your career planning.

The Career Personality Inventory

Many experts think that personality plays as important a role as interests and skills in determining
the kinds of jobs people gravitate toward. The logic is simple: The greater the match between your
occupation and your personality, the greater life and career satis-
faction you will have. Your career personality determines such NOTE
things as whether you enjoy working indoors or outdoors, with As you explore possibilities, it
people or with information, or making money or making art is important not to rule any
(although those two don’t have to be exclusive). The assessment occupation out simply because
that follows can help you identify your career personality and it requires more education and
the core career and life themes associated with it. training than you currently
have. We are all lifelong learn-
The Career Personality Inventory contains a series of words that ers, and the need for an
describe various personality traits that you may or may not apprenticeship, a certification,
have. Read each word listed to decide whether the word or even a higher degree should
describes you. If it does describe you, circle the word in the not stand in the way of a satis-
column. If it does not describe you, do not circle the word— fying career.
simply move to the next word.
Take your time responding, but be sure to respond to every word listed. This is not a test, so there
are no right or wrong answers.
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I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Athletic Honest Persistent
Conforming Humble Physical
Frank Mechanical Practical
Genuine Modest Self-reliant
Handy Natural Shy
Hardheaded Outdoorsy Stable
R Total: _______________

I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Analytical Intellectual Precise
Cautious Introverted Rational
Complex Logical Reserved
Critical Methodical Scholarly
Curious Modest Scientific
Independent Pessimistic Self-controlled
I Total: _______________

I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Artsy Idealistic Intuitive
Complicated Imaginative Nonconforming
Creative Impulsive Open
Daydreamy Independent Original
Emotional Individualistic Uncontrolled
Expressive Innovative Unstructured
A Total: _______________

I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Altruistic Generous People-oriented
Cheerful Helpful Responsible
Compassionate Humanistic Sociable
Convincing Idealistic Tactful
Cooperative Kind Understanding
Emotional Patient Warm
S Total: _______________
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 95

I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Acquisitive Bold Impulsive
Adventurous Charismatic Optimistic
Aggressive Domineering Persuasive
Ambitious Energetic Popular
Assertive Extroverted Self-confident
Attention-getting Goal-driven Sociable
E Total: _______________

I consider myself to be (circle all that apply)

Careful Inhibited Reserved
Conforming Obedient Scheduled
Conscientious Orderly Self-controlled
Dependable Persistent Structured
Detail-oriented Practical Thrifty
Efficient Precise Unimaginative
C Total: _______________

Scoring
Count the total number of items you circled for each section. Put that total on the line marked
“Total” at the bottom of each section and then transfer your totals to the spaces below:
R (Realistic) ______ S (Social) ______
I (Investigative) ______ E (Enterprising) ______
A (Artistic) ______ C (Conventional) ______

Generally, the higher your score, the more characteristics you share with others of that personality
type. Scores from 13 and above are considered high, while those 5 and below would be considered
low.
Identify the scale on which you scored the highest. This is your primary personality type. In the
descriptions that follow, you should explore all the occupations listed for that scale. This is espe-
cially true if you have one score much higher than the rest. However, if you had high scores on two
or more scales, you should explore occupations listed under each type. Bear in mind that the occu-
pations listed under each scale represent only a sample of the jobs that might interest you.
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Remember that no assessment can tell you who you should be or what job you should do. They
can’t choose your career path; they can only help you to better define it. Knowing more about your
personality can narrow down the number of jobs you might be interested in pursuing. At the same
time, it might reveal possible career directions you hadn’t thought about before.

How Others See Me

Charles Cooley, a famous sociologist, said that our personality develops based on the way that
others see us; he called this theory “The Looking-Glass Self.”
Before you interpret your scores on the assessment, it might be fun to retake it. But this time, you
should circle descriptors based on the way that you think others would describe you. This exer-
cise might provide you with important information about your personality. Use a different color
pen or pencil as you work through the assessment a second time. Then, answer the questions
that follow.

How were your scores on the two versions of the assessment similar?

How were your scores on the two versions of the assessment different?

What does this say about your personality?

The following sections will describe the six types and provide a list of occupations that relate to
each type for you to explore.

Holland’s Personality Theory

Vocational psychologist John Holland created one of the most enduring theories of career develop-
ment. Holland suggested that your personality style reflects your preferences for interests and
activities and that individuals search for work environments that allow them to express their
personalities.
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 97

For decades, career counselors have used Holland’s personality model to match people with con-
gruent occupations. When your personality type matches the duties required for an occupation,
you will find greater career satisfaction. For example, an Investigative person would likely find
career satisfaction as a biologist, geologist, or food scientist. On the other hand, an Artistic person
might feel dissatisfied with a job that is primarily conventional in nature (such as a bank teller or
accountant). Research shows that people who enter occupations that are not compatible with their
personality type tend to feel dissatisfied with and highly unstable in their jobs.

ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL

Holland believed that people would function best in a work environment that matched their person-
ality. But it isn’t as simple as finding an Artistic job to go with your Artistic personality. For starters,
everyone has a combination of different personality orientations, with one orientation being dominant.
None of us are purely Realistic or purely Social. Then, there is the fact that very few jobs cater to only
one personality type. Work environments are complex and always changing, requiring workers to deal
with a variety of tasks and environments. The goal is simply to discover a career that matches well with
your personality (just as it should match with your values, interests, and skills), even if it’s not a per-
fect fit.

According to Holland, all people have some combination of the following personality types. Each
of the following descriptions represents “pure” types. You will probably see some parts of each
description fitting you in different roles you play. Keep this in mind as you read each description
and explore occupations of interest.

Realistic
People scoring high on the Realistic scale prefer working with their hands and using tools to build
or repair things. They enjoy working with machines rather than with people or behind a desk. They
tend to lack an interest in social activities and would much rather be outdoors than indoors.
Realistic personalities are cultivators; they have an urge to make things grow and prosper. Their pri-
mary interest is in practical, earthy matters, and they tend to have a no-nonsense approach to life.
Realistic personalities are not always interested in the prestige or financial rewards that come with
accomplishments—they simply enjoy getting things done. They also have no interest in being
innovative or trying to understand complex ideas. Rather, they enjoy things that are easy to expe-
rience and that they can feel, taste, hear, and smell.
Realistic personalities seek stability and security in their career paths. They are reliable, stubborn,
autonomous, and true to their word.
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Sample Occupations
■ Airline Pilot ■ Electrician
■ Anthropologist ■ Engineer
■ Architectural Drafter ■ Firefighter
■ Athletic Trainer ■ Geologist
■ Audiovisual Technician ■ Plumber
■ Automotive Mechanic ■ Police Officer
■ Boat Builder ■ Production Supervisor
■ Bricklayer ■ Prosthetist
■ Carpenter ■ Radiologic Technician
■ Cartographer ■ Recreation Manager
■ Construction Worker ■ Roofer
■ Cook ■ Safety Inspector
■ Correctional Officer ■ Sheet Metal Worker
■ Drywall Installer ■ Truck Driver
■ Electrical Technician ■ Waste Management Worker

Investigative
People scoring high on the Investigative scale enjoy working with ideas and concepts in the fields
of mathematics, physical sciences, biological sciences, and social sciences. They are bright and curi-
ous and tend to be lifelong students. They are driven by the desire to learn new things and solve
life’s mysteries. They are often perceived as being scholarly, analytic, critical, curious, introspective,
and methodical.
Investigative personalities prefer careers where they can explore ideas, test hypotheses, and develop
new theories based on what they’ve learned. They enjoy debating their ideas with others, but they
also spend a lot of time alone gathering information. You often find them working in research lab-
oratories, hospitals, or college classrooms.
Investigative personalities are most comfortable thinking rather than feeling or acting. They are
always evaluating, processing, and synthesizing information. They do not become bogged down in
details, but they always keep the big picture in mind. For the Investigative personality, understand-
ing life is just as much fun as living it.
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 99

Sample Occupations
■ Actuary ■ Information Systems Supervisor
■ Aircraft Mechanic ■ Market-Research Analyst
■ Anesthesiologist ■ Mathematician
■ Biologist ■ Medical Lab Technician
■ Botanist ■ Nurse
■ Chemical Engineer ■ Optometrist
■ Chemist ■ Pharmacist
■ Chief Information Officer ■ Physician
■ Chiropractor ■ Physicist
■ Civil Engineer ■ Psychologist
■ Computer Programmer ■ Radiologist
■ Coroner ■ Research Analyst
■ Dentist ■ Sociologist
■ Economist ■ Statistician
■ Electrical Engineer ■ Surgeon
■ Engineering Technician ■ Veterinarian
■ Financial Analyst ■ Veterinary Assistant
■ Fire Investigator ■ Zoologist

Artistic
People scoring high on the Artistic scale seek opportunities for creative self-expression through writ-
ing, singing, dancing, art, and theater. They avoid highly structured situations and totally involve
themselves in their creative endeavors.
Artistic personalities tend to see life from a holistic perspective that allows them to always be look-
ing at the big picture. This allows them to create novel applications to existing services, products,
and projects. They are continually looking for new interests and often have difficulty completing
projects, making them long on vision but a little short on action.
Artistic personalities strive to make the world a better place through their creative endeavors. They
have a very highly developed aesthetic sense and are often asked to bring new perspectives to tradi-
tional problems. They tend to be shy and introverted and thus are sometimes uncomfortable in a
more traditional business setting. They find typical night-to-five jobs too restrictive, and they do
not like taking orders from other people. Therefore, they tend work alone, toiling tirelessly to see
their creations come to fruition.
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Sample Occupations
■ Actor ■ Graphic Designer
■ Announcer ■ Illustrator
■ Architect ■ Interior Designer
■ Art Director ■ Jeweler
■ Art Teacher ■ Journalist
■ Barber ■ Librarian
■ Cartoonist ■ Makeup Artist
■ Choreographer ■ Musical Instrument Repairer
■ Columnist ■ Musician
■ Commentator ■ Painter
■ Commercial Artist ■ Photographer
■ Composer ■ Poet
■ Curator ■ Producer
■ Dancer ■ Reporter
■ Desktop Publisher ■ Screenwriter
■ Drama Teacher ■ Sculptor
■ Editor ■ Set Designer
■ English Teacher ■ Singer
■ Engraver ■ Talent Director
■ Fashion Designer ■ Translator
■ Film Editor ■ Tree Trimmer
■ Floral Designer ■ Writer
■ Furniture Designer

Social
People who score high on the Social scale have a strong concern for the welfare of others. They like
giving their time and resources to teach, support, counsel, cure, and otherwise serve other people.
Their mission in life tends to be to remain selfless and give more than they take. As such, they are
very compassionate and nurturing.
Social personalities seek to help and work in their community, whether through spiritual service,
counseling, teaching, or medicine. They tend to value the spiritual and/or emotional rewards
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 101

they receive from their work more than the material rewards. Their service gives them a sense of
identity and worth. They can sometimes become so driven to help others that it becomes their per-
sonal crusade.
Social personalities tend to be very critical and highly vocal about the inhumanities they see in the
world. Other people often view them as being idealistic. Because of their unwavering belief in their
convictions, they make excellent teachers and leaders. They are very thoughtful and emotional but
are equally capable of taking quick and decisive action for the benefit of others.
Sample Occupations
■ Adult Literacy Teacher ■ Music Therapist
■ Ambulance Driver ■ Nurse
■ Animal Trainer ■ Occupational Therapist
■ Caseworker ■ Parole Officer
■ Child Care Worker ■ Police Officer
■ Clergy Member ■ Preschool Teacher
■ Community Service Manager ■ Principal
■ Correctional Treatment Specialist ■ Psychologist
■ Counselor ■ Radiation Therapist
■ Dental Assistant ■ Recreational Therapist
■ Education Administrator ■ Rehabilitation Counselor
■ Emergency Medical Technician ■ Social Worker
■ English Teacher ■ Speech-Language Pathologist
■ Fitness Trainer ■ Teacher
■ Human Services Assistant ■ Teacher Aide
■ Librarian ■ Travel Guide
■ Loan Officer ■ University Professor
■ Marriage Counselor ■ Urban Planner
■ Medical Assistant ■ Vocational Training Instructor
■ Mental Health Worker
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Enterprising
People who score high on the Enterprising scale prefer activities where they can lead, control, or
persuade others to reach a personal or organizational goal. They tend to value the rewards that
come with power, status, and a higher-than-average income. They strive to be the best at what they
do and the first to do it. They are confident, determined, and have natural leadership abilities,
although in many cases they just prefer to get things done themselves. They are also highly charis-
matic, which makes them good at selling their ideas, their products, and themselves.
Enterprising personalities prefer to be in charge. They make decisions quickly and decisively,
whether others like it or not. They also tend to understand and appreciate the power of money and
strive to attain it, control it, and put it to good use. As such, they often run businesses or start new
ones, or invest money for themselves or for others.
Enterprising personalities are usually eager to initiate new projects and take on new challenges.
Their confidence and determination make “all things possible” and allow them to succeed in
the fast-paced world of business. They tend to focus on positive opportunities rather than negative
consequences. Perhaps more than any other personality, they are the most driven to pursue the
standard American definition of success: climbing the ladder (or building one of their own) to
achieve wealth, prestige, and happiness.
Sample Occupations
■ Advertising Sales Agent ■ General Manager
■ Appraiser ■ Human Resources Manager
■ Attorney ■ Insurance Adjuster
■ Buyer ■ Insurance Agent
■ Chief Executive ■ Judge
■ Claims Adjuster ■ Leasing Agent
■ Communications Consultant ■ Legislator
■ Construction Manager ■ Loan Officer
■ Customer Service Representative ■ Management Analyst
■ Demonstrator ■ Meeting and Convention Planner
■ Economist ■ Operations Manager
■ Education Administrator ■ Pharmaceutical Dealer
■ Financial Analyst ■ Public Relations Manager
■ Financial Manager ■ Purchasing Agent
■ Funeral Director ■ Real Estate Manager
■ Gaming Dealer ■ Real Estate Sales Agent
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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 103

■ Retail Salesperson ■ Sales Manager

■ Sales Engineer ■ Sales Representative

Conventional
People who score high on the Conventional scale tend to be neat, organized, and always under con-
trol. They can concentrate on the task at hand and are excellent with details. They are orderly to
the point of sometimes being inflexible, and they prefer to follow strict guidelines when doing their
work.
Conventional personalities prefer working with data and information rather than with people or
ideas. They have extraordinary clerical and numerical skills and are often counted on for their
dependability and reliability. They are often found in office environments—crunching numbers,
keeping records, and processing data. Practical and hardworking, they enjoy solving problems, pro-
vided there is a set procedure to follow. They make excellent day-to-day managers, although they
prefer to run and organize things from behind the scenes.
Conventional personalities truly value success in the organizations they work for and will do every-
thing in their power to ensure that success. They are conscientious, stable, thorough, conservative,
and enjoy having things run according to plan.
Sample Occupations
■ Accountant ■ Freight Inspector
■ Accounting Assistant ■ Human Resources Assistant
■ Air Traffic Controller ■ Insurance Clerk
■ Auditor ■ Legal Secretary
■ Bank Teller ■ Library Assistant
■ Bill and Account Collector ■ Media Coordinator
■ Budget Analyst ■ Medical Record Technician
■ Cartographer ■ Medical Secretary
■ Cashier ■ Office Clerk
■ Computer Operator ■ Payroll Clerk
■ Cost Estimator ■ Personnel Clerk
■ Court Clerk ■ Pharmacy Technician
■ Electronics Assembler ■ Post Office Clerk
■ Employment Clerk ■ Proofreader
■ Financial Counselor ■ Reservation and Transportation Ticket
Agent
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■ Secretary ■ Title Examiner

■ Shipping Clerk ■ Travel Clerk
■ Tax Preparer
■ Utility Clerk

Finding a Good Fit

Starting with the personality type for which you scored highest, pick the occupations that interest
you the most and then list them below. Do the same for your second- and third-highest scores.

EXERCISE

My highest-scoring personality type:

Occupations that interest me:

My second-highest scoring personality type:

Occupations that interest me:

My third-highest scoring personality type:

Occupations that interest me:

Now go through the lists of occupations you just made and circle the six that seem the most inter-
esting to you.

EXERCISE

Six Occupations I Would Like to Learn More About

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CHAPTER 6: EXPLORE YOUR PERSONALITY 105

Tying It All Together

To find your ideal job, you need direct correspondence between your personality type and the char-
acteristics of that job. If you enjoy a highly structured and methodical work environment, for
instance, then you probably won’t find much satisfaction as a kindergarten teacher. You should
instead consider fields such as accounting, engineering, or math.
It is important to understand that all types are found in all occupations. However, in order to be
successful and find career satisfaction, you need a job that comes naturally to you. You now have
another important piece in the career decision-making puzzle. Combining this with what you’ve
already learned about your interests, skills, and values gives you a comprehensive assessment of your
preferred work environment and should produce a few highly compatible career options.
The worksheet on the following page can help you summarize and reflect on what you’ve discov-
ered in this part of the book. You will use this information as you begin to plan your career in
Part III.
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Part II Summary: Discover

Your Ideal Job

I n the chapters of this section, you identified career options that match your interests, skills, val-
ues, and personality. All these contribute to your career identity and provide insight into the kind
of work you are best suited for.
Based on the results of the assessments and the information you completed in each chapter, use the
following worksheet to summarize what you’ve learned about yourself. You can then use this infor-
mation to verify your current career direction or identify a new one. Regardless, by pulling together
your results from all three chapters, you should have a much clearer sense of where to go next.

EXERCISE

My most important interests and skills (from chapter 4):

Ten occupations that appeal to my interests and skills:

My preferred work values (from chapter 5):

Six occupations that appeal to my values:

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PART II SUMMARY: DISCOVER YOUR IDEAL JOB 107

My most dominant personality type (from chapter 6):

Six occupations that appeal to my personality:

Look at all the jobs you have listed. What occupations, if any, did you list more than once?

Based on all the information above, list the 10 to 12 occupations you are most interested in pur-
suing next in your career:
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PART III: DEVELOP A

CAREER PLAN

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

—Antoine de Saint-Exupery
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C H A P T E R
7
Make a Decision

“You are now at a crossroads. This is your opportunity to make the most important deci-
sion you will ever make. Forget the past.... Who are you now? Who have you decided to
become? Make this decision consciously. Make it carefully. Make it powerfully.”
—Anthony Robbins

O nce you are aware of your needs, values, interests, and skills, it becomes easier to choose a path
that’s right for you. Once you know your options, you are ready to make a decision.
You cannot casually make decisions about your career. The process of change will be stressful for
you and people close to you. Your career decisions will affect how much money you make, how
happy you are at work, how much self-esteem you feel, how committed you are to your job, and
how well you meet your long-term goals.
When facing a career transition, many people simply take the first opportunity that comes along.
But those who successfully manage their careers use proven decision-making strategies. They
develop career alternatives, collect information, and methodically select the option that best suits
their personal characteristics.
The main goal of this book is to help you make informed career decisions by learning more about
yourself and what you have to offer. The main goal of this chapter, however, is to focus specifically
on the decision-making process itself—to show you how to make a conscious and powerful deci-
sion by identifying and removing some of the common barriers to that process.
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112 Career Quizzes

The Nature of Career Decisions

Our careers are constellations of decisions and their consequences. Should I go into the military? If
I go to college, what will I major in? Do I want to be a teacher or a doctor? Should I take on the
family business or start one of my own? Should I go back and get my master’s degree? Should I take
the job as supervisor in my department? Is it really time to retire? You will encounter many such
decisions over the course of your career, with varying degrees of risk and reward.
You have probably made many decisions to get where you are now. Some likely worked out well;
others maybe didn’t work at all. Decisions such as which courses to take in high school, whether to
become involved in community activities, whether to go to college or straight into the workforce,
what type of training to find, and even whether to work overtime can all have an impact on your
career. The truth is, you will constantly have to make career decisions, and each decision will have
some impact on your future.

What Has Worked and What Hasn’t?

Part of understanding where you’re going is understanding where you’ve been. In the spaces below, write
down one or two career decisions you’ve made in the past, whether they worked out, and if not, why not.
When it comes to careers, much of our learning comes from revisiting our mistakes.

Decision:

Consequences:

If it didn’t work out, why not?

Decision:

Consequences:

If it didn’t work out, why not?

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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 113

Career decisions such as whether to leave a current job, return to college full time, or start a new
business are difficult for several reasons:
• Most career decisions involve risk: Your life and the lives of your family will change
based on your career decisions. Suppose that you decide to quit your job to start your
own business. You could risk losing a steady paycheck, retirement and health benefits,
and family or leisure time. While these changes aren’t assured, they are likely, and they
are sacrifices that you need to consider.
• Most career decisions are uncertain: If you always knew that doing A would lead to B,
career decisions would be easy. However, A has a nagging tendency to jaunt off to C, D,
or E instead (or Z, if things really go wonky). If you spend money to return to college
to finish a bachelor’s degree, you assume that you will make more money when you
graduate. This assumption is true most of the time. However, there are waiters and wait-
resses with bachelor’s degrees ready to tell you otherwise.
• Outside influences affect career decisions: Sometimes, life will interfere and keep you
from making effective career decisions. For example, trailing spouses (a spouse who fol-
lows his or her significant other from company to company and city to city as the S.O.
moves up the career ladder) must often take jobs based on availability. Therefore, many
trailing spouses end up taking jobs that pay less or that do not fit their interests, values,
and personality.
• Family issues often conflict with making career NOTE
decisions: Other times, you will have to take the best Although you can’t deny the
interest of your family into consideration when mak- impact of past decisions to
ing career decisions. An example would be a parent shape where you presently
who does not take an “ideal” job in another city stand in your career, it is
because it would uproot children from their schools important to focus on the deci-
and friends. Often, career decisions require balancing sion you need to make now.
Learn from past mistakes, but
what is best for you with what is best for all other
don’t let them keep you from
parties involved. taking calculated risks with
potentially rich rewards.
The key to making successful career decisions is to reduce the
uncertainty, risk, and fear that come with them, and the best
way to do that is to use a rational decision-making strategy. The assessment that follows—and the
strategies it leads to—will help ensure that you make conscious and careful decisions.
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114 Career Quizzes

The Career Decision-Making Scale

The Career Decision-Making Scale contains 40 statements related to how you make decisions in
your life and your career. Read each statement to decide whether it describes you. If the statement
does describe you, circle the number in the column marked “True.” If the statement does not
describe you, circle the number in the column marked “False.”
Take your time responding, and be sure to respond to every statement. Remember, this is not a test;
there are no right or wrong answers.

True False
In making career decisions…
(A) I let others decide for me 1 2
(B) I consider how my decision will affect others 2 1
(C) I carefully evaluate each option available to me 2 1
(D) I just do what feels right rather than rely on logic 1 2
(E) I am often afraid of the consequences of my decisions 1 2
(A) I am sometimes not sure decisions are worth making 1 2
(B) I do not worry about researching my options 1 2
(C) I am very creative in thinking about possibilities 2 1
(D) I usually take the first alternative available to me 1 2
(E) I am not an effective risk-taker 1 2
(A) I prefer to wait and let things work out by themselves 1 2
(B) I have trouble knowing where to go to gather information
about my options 1 2
(C) I take a lot of time to think about all alternatives 2 1
(D) I balance my intuitive, “gut” feelings with careful analysis 2 1
(E) I take action after I make a decision 2 1
(A) I am too afraid I will make the “wrong” decision 1 2
(B) I am good at synthesizing information about myself 2 1
(C) I consider all types of career options, no matter how silly they sound 2 1
(D) I lack the confidence necessary to make decisions 1 2
(E) I do not like to accept the consequences for decisions 1 2
(A) I have a specific procedure I follow in making decisions 2 1
(B) I take my interests and skills into account 2 1
(C) I consider the possible consequences and risks of alternatives 2 1
(D) I am willing to compromise 2 1
(E) I worry that acting on my decision will be too much work 1 2
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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 115

True False
(A) I often leave decisions to fate 1 2
(B) I ask others I trust for help in making decisions 2 1
(C) I rarely weigh the “pros” and “cons” 1 2
(D) I let others decide for me 1 2
(E) I create a timeline for taking action 2 1
(A) I procrastinate 1 2
(B) I often feel bogged down with useless information 1 2
(C) I take time to eliminate the least acceptable alternatives 2 1
(D) I am often unable to make up my mind 1 2
(E) I make a commitment to my decision 2 1
(A) I trust my decision-making skills 2 1
(B) I know what my career values are 2 1
(C) I think about possible outcomes of my alternatives 2 1
(D) I have trouble synthesizing information to make a decision 1 2
(E) I draw up a specific plan for acting on my decision 2 1
(A) I have trouble committing to the decision-making process 1 2
(B) I am honest with myself 2 1
(C) I rank all the possibilities based on the information available 2 1
(D) I know I need to make a decision, but I just cannot do it 1 2
(E) I take time to reevaluate decisions I make 2 1
(A) I develop a timeline for making the decision 2 1
(B) I look for patterns in the information I gather 2 1
(C) I rationally weigh all the costs and benefits for each outcome 2 1
(D) I make decisions based on my needs 2 1
(E) I set goals for implementing my decisions 2 1

Scoring
This assessment can enrich your understanding of how you make career decisions by breaking the
process into five steps. Total the numbers you circled for all the statements marked (A), (B), (C),
(D), or (E). You will have a score from 10 to 20 for each letter. Put that number in the correspon-
ding space below for each step in the career decision-making process:
(A) Defining and Committing to the Decision __________
(B) Gathering Information About Self and Situation __________
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116 Career Quizzes

(C) Generating and Analyzing Alternatives __________

(D) Selecting the Best Alternative __________
(E) Implementing Your Decision __________
Scores from 10–13 are low and indicate that you may need help with this aspect of the decision-
making process. On the other hand, scores from 18–20 are high and indicate that this step of the
process shouldn’t pose much problem for you.
You should pay particular attention to those steps with the lowest scores. The descriptions that fol-
low can help you increase your understanding of the career decision-making process. Read the
information to complete the exercises and help ensure that your next career decision is the best one
for you.
While the exercises for each step will most benefit those who scored in the low or average ranges
on that corresponding step, any job seeker is bound to discover some useful strategies, regardless of
his or her score.

One Step at a Time

No one makes major career decisions blindly. No one flips a coin to decide his or her next career
move (at least I hope not), and “eeny meeny miny mo” is not taught in high schools as an effective
career-planning strategy. However, studies show that surprisingly few people undergoing a career
transition have a methodical, step-by-step approach to choosing their path.
Thankfully, many different career decision-making systems have been developed over the years. All
these theories recommend a logical, practical approach to developing a list of possibilities and then
choosing the best among them. The model that follows includes five steps that take you from defin-
ing your decision to taking action:
1. Define the decision you need to make and then commit to it: What is the decision
you are struggling with? For most of us, it is deciding which of the many career options
available to us will meet our needs and lead to fulfilling our long-term goals. This could
include what kind of job to look for, what degree to pursue, or what business to start.
2. Gather information about yourself and your situation: Gather information about
your personal characteristics—your interests, skills, values, and personality—and pull
together this information. Then, gather information about occupations and educational
opportunities that interest you. Combined, this information will help you to make bet-
ter career decisions.
3. Generate and analyze your alternatives: Develop a list of possible occupations or
opportunities based on how your personal characteristics match with people happily
employed in those occupations.
4. Select the best alternative: Draw on your personal information to think about what it
would be like to work in each possible occupation. At this stage, you begin to value cer-
tain careers with the highest potential for providing you with success and satisfaction.
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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 117

Once you have weighed all the evidence, you are ready to select the occupation that best
matches the qualities you bring to the workplace. If you’ve done the first three steps
thoroughly, this step should be easy (or easier, at least).
5. Implement your decision: Put your career decision into action by searching for a new
job, returning to school, or starting your own business. If it sounds “easier said than
done,” that’s because it is. But don’t worry; later chapters in this book will help you with
this step.

Now for some good news: You’ve already completed the first two steps of this process. In Part I of
this book, you explored your current occupational situation, your needs in the world of work, and
your potential for self-employment. In Part II, you learned a lot about yourself and identified pos-
sible occupations and career paths that match your values, interests, skills, and personality. Using
that list of possibilities, you are ready to take the next steps in the process.

Step 1: Define the Decision You Need to Make

and Then Commit to It
From the information you learned about yourself in Part I (chapters 1–3), what is the career deci-
sion or decisions you need to make? Some examples might include the following:
• Is there a better job out there for me?
• Is there a different line of work out there that would better fulfill my needs?
• Should I try to change my current job so that it better meets my needs?
• Should I go back to college?
• Should I try to start my own business?

EXERCISE

In the space below, list the career decision(s) you are facing:

What possible barriers stand in your way to making your decision(s)?

(continued)
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118 Career Quizzes

(continued)

What can you do to overcome those barriers and commit to making and implementing your
career decision(s)?

Step 2: Gather Information About Yourself

and Your Situation
Another important step in making an effective career decision is to learn as much as you can about
yourself. You have done a lot of the work already.

EXERCISE

Go back to the summary for Part II (page 106) and list up to 12 career choices you have cho-
sen to consider. Don’t forget to also include any self-employment or educational options here.

Now look at all the occupations you have listed. What themes do you see (all the jobs are helping
others, most of the jobs are business-oriented, etc.)?

EXERCISE
Write your themes below, as they will be useful to you later:
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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 119

GETTING READY
Most career development experts agree that good decision making can take place only when you are
ready to make a decision. Although that sounds like common sense, it might surprise you how often
people make career decisions without preparing themselves mentally for the process. To achieve a state
of readiness, you must
• Overcome any desire to procrastinate.
• Overcome any fear of taking risks.
• Overcome any fear of failure.
• Overcome any desire for perfection.

Such fears and desires can act as attitudinal blocks—barriers to the decision-making process. Such
mental barriers have developed due to beliefs or ideas that you have accumulated over time since child-
hood and continue to affect your thinking today. The more attitudinal blocks you possess, the less
likely you are to make good career decisions.

Step 3: Generate and Analyze Your

Alternatives
Your next step is to research the careers under consideration. Although this will take a lot of time
and effort, it is key to helping you determine whether the occupations you listed earlier best fit your
career needs. For example, discovering that a job that you’ve listed pays only $20,000 a year could
weigh heavily into your decision (or not, depending on your lifestyle and your affinity for peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches). Likewise, learning that an occupation is on the decline and that fewer
and fewer jobs might exist in this field in the future may be a red flag to you if you need long-term
career stability.
Some of the most popular means of gathering occupational information are discussed in the fol-
lowing sections.

Reading NOTE
You can learn a lot about occupations by reading books and When researching the possibil-
career pamphlets. These resources provide information that ities, the goal is to gather as
you can use to determine whether an occupation fits your per- much information as possible.
sonal characteristics. Most job descriptions will include a list of However, it is important to
focus on the needs you identi-
job duties, working conditions, average earnings, the training fied earlier in this book. Have a
and education required, and the outlook for that particular good understanding of your
occupation. You can compare all this data to the information priorities before you start your
you gathered about yourself in the first two parts of this book research; this will give you
to find a job that screams “Come and get me!” some specific things to look
for.
Use the following sources to gather information about specific
occupations of interest to you. Page 122 includes an exploration
form to help you record what you learn.
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120 Career Quizzes

• Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH): The OOH, developed by the U.S. Depart-
ment of Labor, presents occupations by career families. For each occupation, the OOH
provides information about job duties, working conditions, level and places of employ-
ment, education and training requirements, job employment outlook, advancement pos-
sibilities, earnings, and related occupations. You can find it in
NOTE most libraries or online at www.bls.gov/oco.
Remember the occupational • Occupational Information Network (O*NET): O*NET is
themes you identified earlier? a computerized database of occupational information. It
You can use them in your provides information on nearly 1,000 occupations, includ-
career research. Most career
reference sources group occu-
ing job descriptions, work activities, earnings, education
pations into fields or clusters. If requirements, and correlations with other career resources.
you find a theme in your self- It is available at libraries or online at http://online.
analysis that matches one of onetcenter.org/.
those clusters (an “affinity
for jobs that help people” • New Guide for Occupational Exploration (GOE): This
matching “service jobs,” for book allows you to explore all major O*NET jobs based on
example), then that’s a clue your interests. It also corresponds directly to the 16 career
that some of the other jobs clusters used in chapter 4. Thus, you can use your knowl-
included in that cluster might edge of your interests and skills to search directly for even
interest you. more jobs that would be a good fit.

Job Shadowing
You can learn a lot about jobs by watching people do the work you are interested in. You should
pay particular attention to the types of skills the workers use, the way their work environment is
organized, and how much interaction occurs with others. When job shadowing, you should ask
questions of the person you are shadowing, but you should also stay out of the way.

Informational Interviewing
Informational interviewing is a way to gain real-world information and advice on a career of
interest to you. Informational interviews help you to develop contacts, gain knowledge about occu-
pations of interest, and learn more about the world of work in general. It involves identifying
people who do work that you might like doing and asking them questions related to their current
job. Informational interviews
• Help you develop greater social skills that will help you when you actually begin to
interview for jobs.
• Allow you to build confidence in your ability to discuss your career interests.
• Might lead to other informational interviews and possibly jobs.
• Help you to refine your knowledge of career fields of interest.
• Help you meet people in career fields similar to the ones you are interested in.
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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 121

Remember that the purpose of informational interviews is not to look for a job, but to gather infor-
mation to confirm information about the career field and build contacts that may help you in the
future. Questions you should ask in an informational interview include the following:
• How did you prepare for your career?
• What are the most important qualifications (skills, education, personality, etc.) needed
to succeed in this field?
• How did you get your job?
• What is a typical workweek like?
• What do you like best (or least) about the work you do?
• What are the salary ranges for positions in this field?

Talking with People

You can also gain valuable occupational information by talking informally with people in various
occupations of interest. Remember, anyone you talk to may also be a source of potential job leads
down the road.

Summing Up
The worksheet that follows can help you summarize the most crucial information about any occu-
pations or career paths that interest you. Feel free to make as many copies as necessary; this will
make it easier to compare the possibilities later in the career decision-making process.
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122 Career Quizzes

Occupational Information Form

Use this form to learn more about the occupations that interest you. You may read job descriptions
in books or online or talk with people working in the occupation, with a career counselor, or with
friends and family members.

Occupation:
Duties and responsibilities:

Nature of the work:

How is the work performed?

Where is the work done?

Do you primarily work with people, data, ideas, or things?

What are the working hours?

What is the average salary?
What is the potential for advancement?
What is the long-term outlook for the occupation?
What education and training are required?
Things you think you would like most about the job:

Things you think you would like least about the job:

Other important information:

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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 123

Step 4: Select the Best NOTE

Alternative There are spaces for 14 pos-
sibilities, but if you have
Based on your research, you can now develop a list of occupa-
more, be sure to list them.
tions that interest you most. After having examined your own
Also, keep in mind that the
personal characteristics and gathered information about occu-
list you create here will
pations, you can also effectively select the best alternative.
likely be different from the
Use the Occupational Fit Matrix that follows to identify the one you created at the end
occupations that best match your personal characteristics. In of Part II. Over the course
the first column, list the occupations you identified earlier. of your research, you likely
Then, in the columns titled Interests, Skills, Personality, and eliminated some options
Values, place a check mark if the occupation matches that char- and discovered new ones.
acteristic. Finally, in the last column, write down the needs
(from chapter 2) you think that occupation could fulfill.

Occupational Fit Matrix

Occupation Interests Skills Personality Values Needs

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124 Career Quizzes

Based on the information you just completed, which occupations seem to best match your personal
characteristics and meet your needs? In the spaces below, you should try to rank your top three
options based on their probability of meeting your needs and providing you with career satisfac-
tion and success.

EXERCISE
My Top Three Options:
Option 1:
Option 2:
Option 3:

Now that you have narrowed your options, it is time for the final analysis. Use the Decision-
Making Matrix that follows to help you compare your choices. List the three occupations or career
alternatives that you are most interested in and the pros and cons associated with each.

Decision-Making Matrix

Occupation:

Pros:

Cons:

Occupation:

Pros:

Cons:

Occupation:

Pros:
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CHAPTER 7: MAKE A DECISION 125

Cons:

EXERCISE

Now, of the three you listed in the exercise, choose the option that interests you most and
appears to have the best chance of meeting your needs and helping you reach your goals:

Step 5: Implement Your NOTE

Decision Remember that your decision
A decision is only that until you act on it and find a way to is the best one for you at this
time. If your needs or interests
implement it. Implementing your career decision can mean dif-
change later, or if the outcomes
ferent things to different people. For some, it will entail using of the decision you just made
effective job search tools to find the ideal job in which you can do not seem to take you closer
fully utilize your full potential; for others, it may mean setting to a rewarding career, you can
goals to go back to college to earn a degree or an additional make a new decision based on
degree; and for others, it may mean stepping out on a limb to new information at that time.
start a small or home-based business.
The actions required for this step are much too involved to address in a few paragraphs tacked on
to the end of this chapter, which is why the rest of the book will help you through that process.
One thing I know is that the people who are most successful in their lives and their careers are those
people who establish long-term career goals that provide future direction and perspective. The good
news is that you can develop effective goal-setting and action-planning skills. You must, however,
not fear change or worry about failing to achieve your goals. Before moving to the next chapter to
develop a career plan, complete the following questions to learn more about how much of a risk-
taker you are.
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126 Career Quizzes

Taking Calculated Career Risks

Think about the career risks you have taken in the past and then answer the following questions.
Doing so will help you uncover your career risk-taking patterns:

What types of career risks do you tend to take most often?

What types of career risks should you take more often?

Are there career risks you should not continue to take?

Do the career risks you take reflect what matters most to you?

Tying It All Together

Congratulations! You’ve decided on a career goal—or at least the occupation that will help you
meet your career goals. The next step is to create a plan for achieving it. Chapter 8 will help
you with the last step in the career decision-making process as you turn your vision for the future
into steps to take in the present.
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C H A P T E R
8
Plan Your Work—and
Work Your Plan

“Just as collective actions shape society’s future, our individual

actions shape our personal destiny.”
—David Borchard, John Kelly, and Nancy Pat Weaver,
Your Career: Choices, Chances, and Changes

C arrie is a 27-year-old paralegal who has been working for a large firm in Columbus, Ohio, for
the last five years. She has never been married. She graduated from Ohio State University with
a degree in sociology. She feels unchallenged and has quickly lost interest in this type of work. She
enjoys research, but she does not feel like she helps society in any tangible way.
Carrie says that she has always felt like she would be a good criminal profiler. She has a very ana-
lytical mind and took several criminal justice courses while earning her degree, but she does not
know how to go about getting this type of job. How should she go about making the transition?
How can she best tailor her degree to criminal-profiling positions? Does she need additional edu-
cation, such as a master’s degree? Will she need to get experience as a law enforcement officer? Does
that mean she will have to carry a gun? Who has answers to these kinds of questions?
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128 Career Quizzes

These represent the types of difficult questions that you will probably face if you want a possible
career change. (Note the word “types”—most of us aren’t worried about having to bring firearms
on the job.) You can answer these kinds of questions only through careful planning. Career plan-
ning is not an easy process, as you probably found as you tackled the decision making part of it in
the last chapter, but it is well worth the time and effort you put into it. Now that you have made
some career decisions, it is time to design a plan that will help you reach your goals.

Taking Responsibility for Your Career

Career planning takes a lot of personal responsibility. It also takes a fair amount of optimism. Peo-
ple who take responsibility for their careers also tend to stay positive. A direct relationship exists
between how responsible you are and how much control you feel you have in your life. In turn, a
direct relationship also exists between your level of responsibility and the positive emotions you
experience. People who feel they have no control, who are victims of fate, or are stuck in their
current situation tend to become trapped by negativity, feeling bad for themselves to the point of
helplessness.
Your cognitions play a powerful role in how prepared you are to begin the career-planning process.
As you learned in the previous chapter, your attitudes can act as stumbling blocks, keeping you
from taking action. For example, imagine while driving, you get
NOTE stuck in traffic due to an accident ahead. You will definitely
arrive late to that job that you don’t really like anyway. You may
Unresolved conflicts can sabo-
tage careers and lives. There get mad at the rubbernecking drivers of the cars ahead of you,
comes a time when you have to at the police officers for not showing up faster, or even at the
give up negative emotions and people in the accident. You may dwell on the past and get mad
stop feeling sorry for yourself. at yourself for not having taken a different route; you may start
The best way is to stop blam- hoping that you can get a new job with a shorter commute; or
ing others for your problems you may get mad at your spouse for not having breakfast done
and feelings. Blaming others
quickly enough for you to get on the road sooner. Your internal
takes away from your ability to
take effective action. programming tells you that you need to be somewhere, you are
late, and you may even lose your job. Someone, it would seem,
is to blame.
But the truth is, you couldn’t have predicted the accident. Nor can you predict every change or cir-
cumstance that you might face in your career. Blaming yourself or others for what has happened in
your career is simply a way to defer the responsibility you need to take from this point on. The
question you have to answer isn’t, “Who caused me to be stuck in this jam?” but, “What can I do
now to get out of it?”

Goals: Stepping Stones to Achievement

By making a strong commitment to your dreams, you create your own motivation rather than rely
on external circumstances to drive you. By committing yourself to a career path, you focus your
energy and eliminate indecision. Now you must set purposeful short- and long-term goals to help
you maintain your motivation.
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Short-term goals describe what you would like to accomplish within the next few months. They
act as stepping stones toward the achievement of your long-term goals—those goals you would like
to accomplish within the next year or more (sometimes, a lot more). Goals keep you on track. Some
people even feel that the journey toward a goal is as important as the goal itself.

Defining Your Goals

Defining your goals is a critical part of reaching them. You can set effective goals by following these
guidelines:
• Your goals should be yours, not someone else’s.
• Your goals should be stated in as specific, measurable terms as possible.
• Your goals should have observable outcomes so that you know when you have achieved
them.
• Your goals should be realistic and attainable.
• You should set specific deadlines for achieving each goal.
• Your goals should be positive and stated positively—focused on what you want to do
rather than on what you do not want to do.

Long-term career goals are those that extend far into the future—even as many as 20 or 30 years.
These goals may change over time and are the most difficult to achieve. For this reason, you should
focus on both short- and long-term goals. Short-term goals tend to be more flexible and more eas-
ily achieved. As such, they help provide direction and set guidelines for future action.
The exercise that follows will help you begin to start thinking about what you would like to achieve
throughout your career. In the space below, use the guidelines stated above to set some basic career
goals. Later in the chapter, you will have the opportunity to revise these initial goals.

EXERCISE

Long-Term Goals Short-Term Goals

The Art of Accomplishment

Nicholas Lore, author of the book The Pathfinder, sees the career-planning process as the most critical
aspect of career success and believes that setting goals is actually the first and most important step in
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mastering the art of accomplishment. In his art of achievement model, Lore proposes that goals are the
engine that actually drives achievement. He contends that you can break down accomplishments into spe-
cific cycles of creation, action, and completion. Let’s look at each aspect in more detail.

1. Creation
In this first phase, you develop ideas of things you would like to do or have. Then, you make a
commitment to the ideas and begin to plan how to achieve these goals. In the spaces that follow,
list some of the ideas you have and then write a statement of commitment. Be sure to draw on the
decision you made in chapter 7 as one possibility.

EXERCISE

Things I would like to do or have:

How I will commit to achieve these things?

2. Action
In this second phase, you think about what you need to do to gain the things you would like to do
or have.

EXERCISE

In the space that follows, list some of the things you have to do to get what you want:

3. Completion
In this third phase, you maintain your energy and enthusiasm until you have accomplished what
you set out to achieve. Think about how you will maintain a positive attitude as you work toward
your goals.
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EXERCISE

How I will maintain my energy and enthusiasm during the completion of my goals?

Regardless of the system you use to set and achieve goals, one thing is certain: Setting goals and
identifying the steps it takes to achieve them is what career planning is all about. But as with every-
thing else in the career-development process, a career plan is effective only if you approach it with
the right attitude. (A good sense of humor might come in handy, too.)

The Career-Planning Assessment

The following assessment can help you identify your key attitudes about career planning. Read each
statement and then decide the extent to which you agree or disagree. Circle one of the four
responses to the right of each statement.
• If you strongly believe the statement or feel it is true most of the time, circle the
number under SA (STRONGLY AGREE).
• If you believe the statement or feel it is true some of the time, circle the number
under A (AGREE).
• If you do not believe the statement or feel it is not true some of the time, circle the
number under D (DISAGREE).
• If you strongly do not believe the statement or feel it is not true most of the time,
circle the number under SD (STRONGLY DISAGREE).

Of course, there are no right or wrong answers. Be sure to respond to each statement.

SA A D SD
1. I need luck to get ahead in my career 1 2 3 4
2. I am interested in learning more about various occupations 4 3 2 1
3. I am flexible when considering career options 4 3 2 1
4. I have developed long-term career goals 4 3 2 1
5. I feel like I cannot get ahead in this world 1 2 3 4
6. I have talked with a career counselor about my career options 4 3 2 1

(continued)
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132 Career Quizzes

(continued)

SA A D SD
7. I am always looking for new career opportunities 4 3 2 1
8. My long-term goals are too hard to achieve 1 2 3 4
9. It is futile to plan for my career 1 2 3 4
10. I have observed workers in occupations of interest to me 4 3 2 1
11. I have little or no choice in what career to pursue 1 2 3 4
12. Career planning can be an exciting process 4 3 2 1
13. I have read materials to learn more about the world of work 4 3 2 1
14. I usually take the first job available to me 1 2 3 4
15. Setting goals is critical for career success 4 3 2 1
16. Life is full of choices 4 3 2 1
17. I am willing to spend the time and effort needed to
choose the best occupation for me 4 3 2 1
18. Some occupations are for men and others are for women 1 2 3 4
19. I know how to set career goals 4 3 2 1
20. Others know better what type of work is best for me 1 2 3 4
21. I am aware of the educational requirements for
occupations that interest me 4 3 2 1
22. I am interested in talking to people in different occupations 4 3 2 1
23. It is important to investigate all options and alternatives
before making decisions 4 3 2 1
24. People should just wait for the right job opportunity
to come along 1 2 3 4
25. I have many different career options 4 3 2 1
26. People should consider all possibilities and then choose
the best available option 4 3 2 1
27. Career problems are challenges to be solved 4 3 2 1
28. People should be involved in their own career development 4 3 2 1
29. Having a lot of career possibilities makes me nervous 1 2 3 4
30. I always set specific and achievable goals 4 3 2 1

Total: ________________
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Scoring
This assessment measures your attitude concerning career development and career planning and
helps you identify possible barriers to that process. Count the total raw score of the items you cir-
cled. Transfer your total score to the space below:
Career-Planning Total: _________
A score from 91–120 means that you are ready to take an active role in the career-planning process.
A score from 30–59, on the other hand, means some mental or attitudinal barriers stand in the way
of your career planning.
Your attitude determines your ability to develop a sound career plan. The lower your score, the less
likely you are to take charge of your career. People who do not prepare to take responsibility for
their careers tend to be at the mercy of forces outside of themselves. They take whatever jobs come
their way and do not actively initiate the career changes necessary for greater career and life satis-
faction. They are ships tossed around in the stormy seas of career inertia, stuck without a map or
a paddle, waiting for the next wave to come.
The following sections can help you take more responsibility for your career development. While
this is especially important for anyone who scored in the low or average range on the preceding
assessment, just about anyone can benefit from a little extra career-planning advice.

The Four Characteristics of Effective

Career Planners
Effective career plans come from good career planners. Researchers and career theorists have iden-
tified several characteristics that effective career planners have in common. Regardless of your score
on the assessment in this chapter, keep the following characteristics in mind as you complete your
own career-planning process.

Career Planners Are Active

People who are good at career planning are actively invested in the process and do not rely on other
people to make plans for them. People who are active identify career choices that are unique and
appropriate to them rather than passively accept the choices offered by others or that are easy or
readily available. They trust in their own ability to make career decisions. They see problems in
their lives as challenges that they can solve, and they proactively set out to make positive changes
rather than wait for outside forces to impose changes on them.
Use the following worksheet to assess your own active role in the career-planning process and what
you can do to become more active.
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134 Career Quizzes

EXERCISE

I am not confident in making career decisions.

Reasons for inactivity:
Why or why not?
What I can do about it:
I blame other people when I make bad decisions.
Reasons for inactivity:
Why or why not?
What I can do about it:
I am passive in making career decisions.
Reasons for inactivity:
Why or why not?
What I can do about it:
I do not like making career decisions.
Reasons for inactivity:
Why or why not?
What I can do about it:

Career Planners Are Involved

People who are good at career planning become highly involved in the whole process. They com-
mit and motivate themselves to explore career options and gather career-related information. They
see career development as a lifelong process of decision making, implementation, and adjustment.
They discuss their careers with knowledgeable people, family, and friends and will put in hours at
the library or engage in job shadowing or informational interviewing to learn as much as they can
about their options. They see all things as somehow relating to their career development and truly
believe that careful research and planning will pay off in the form of a more satisfying career.
Use the following worksheet to assess your involvement in the career-planning process and what
you can do to become more involved.
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CHAPTER 8: PLAN YOUR WORK—AND WORK YOUR PLAN 135

EXERCISE

I am not interested in researching career information.

Reasons for not being involved:
Why or why not?
How I can become more involved:
I think that career decisions are irreversible.
Reasons for not being involved:
Why or why not?
How I can become more involved:
I do not want to discuss my career with friends, family, or a career counselor.
Reasons for not being involved:
Why or why not?
How I can become more involved:
I have trouble seeing how all parts of my life are related to my career.
Reasons for not being involved:
Why or why not?
How I can become more involved:
I am not willing to commit the time, effort, and energy necessary to plan my career.
Reasons for not being involved:
Why or why not?
How I can become more involved:

Career Planners Make NOTE

Compromises In making career decisions and
plans, you will have to make
People who are good at career planning are willing to compro- some sacrifices. The key is to
mise. This isn’t to suggest that they sacrifice their dreams or prioritize your wants and needs
desires—only that they are flexible in considering all the career and then plan a career that sat-
options available to them. They continuously look for new isfies as many of them as possi-
opportunities and can realistically appraise their career options ble. The job that pays a
based on knowledge about themselves and about the world of hundred grand a year may only
come with two weeks of paid
work. Most importantly, they understand the need to make vacation—but with that kind
informed decisions based on carefully calculated risks, and they of salary, those could be some
also understand that career development is a process. spectacular vacations.
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136 Career Quizzes

Use the following worksheet to assess your openness to compromise in the career-planning process
and what you can do to become more flexible.

EXERCISE

I am rarely open to new career opportunities.

Reasons for not compromising:
Why or why not?
How I can become more open to compromise:
I am stuck in my current line of work.
Reasons for not compromising:
Why or why not?
How I can become more open to compromise:
I lack knowledge about myself and the world of work.
Reasons for not compromising:
Why or why not?
How I can become more open to compromise:
I believe that only one perfect job exists for me.
Reasons for not compromising:
Why or why not?
How I can become more open to compromise:

Career Planners Are Goal Oriented

People who are good at career planning are goal oriented; they willingly establish career goals and
enthusiastically pursue them. They take responsibility for developing their careers. They use short-
term goals as benchmarks to stay motivated toward reaching their long-term goals. They initiate
career changes much more effectively, constantly reviewing and revising their goals to meet their
current needs.
Use the following worksheet to assess how goal oriented you are and what you can do to become
more goal oriented.
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CHAPTER 8: PLAN YOUR WORK—AND WORK YOUR PLAN 137

EXERCISE

I do not take responsibility for developing my own career.

Reasons for not being goal oriented:
Why or why not?
How I can become more goal oriented:
I have no or limited short-term goals.
Reasons for not being goal oriented:
Why or why not?
How I can become more goal oriented:
I have no or limited long-term goals.
Reasons for not being goal oriented:
Why or why not?
How I can become more goal oriented:
I have difficulty implementing my career goals.
Reasons for not being goal oriented:
Why or why not?
How I can become more goal oriented:

Developing Your Career Plan

Now that you have chosen an occupation to pursue, you might feel tempted to sit back and wait
for the recruiter to knock down your door and welcome you to your chosen profession.
This will definitely not happen (even if you have a flimsy door). As the quote that opens the chap-
ter tells us, our actions shape our destiny. Now is the time for you to roll up your sleeves and get
to work to develop the specific career goals that will make up your career plan.
You can break down your career dreams into specific goals with realistic completion dates. Those
goals are the bridge to get you where you want to be. In the previous chapter, you identified an
occupation that you would like to pursue. Begin by making it the focus of your career goals by list-
ing it below:
My Current Career Choice: __________________________________
While your overall career goal may be to become a “fill in the blank here,” it’s important to realize
that this goal consists of several smaller goals or related goals. For example, if your occupational
choice is “firefighter,” that, in turn, requires you to meet other career goals—you will need to train
for, enroll in, and pass a firefighter training program and examination. If your occupational choice
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138 Career Quizzes

was “actor,” you may have multiple goals to work toward, from enrolling in acting school to land-
ing a lead role in a local production to finding an agent.
The next steps will help you define clear and measurable career goals and then identify and over-
come potential barriers to completing them. Just remember that attitude is key. You must become
active, involved, and willing to make compromises if you want to achieve those goals and establish
your dream career.

Step 1: Define Your Goals

The first step in setting and reaching effective career goals is to define them so that they are realis-
tic and achievable. Take a look at some sample career goals:
• Be successful.
• Make a lot of money.
• Be happy at work.
• Be a good leader.

Notice that these career goals are vague and difficult to measure. When you develop career goals,
remember that the goals should have the following characteristics: specific, measurable, attainable,
relevant to you, and tied to a timeline. Let’s take a look at each characteristic in more detail:
• Specific: Goals must be stated in concrete, behavioral terms. For example, “I would like
to start my own advertising agency in Pittsburgh within the next six months” would be
a concrete, behavioral goal.
• Measurable: Goals must be assessable so that you can track your progress. For example,
“Earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing” is measurable, whereas “Getting educated” is
not.
• Attainable: Goals must be within your reach, or you will not be motivated to work
toward them. You must feel as though you have a realistic opportunity to achieve your
goals; for example, feeling as though you have the time, patience, and intelligence to
earn a bachelor’s degree (not to mention the money).
• Relevant: Goals must be important in your overall career plan; for example, knowing
that attaining a bachelor’s degree will help you get a promotion or better job.
• Timed: Goals must have deadlines attached to them if you want them to motivate you,
although you need to be reasonable and set deadlines that you can realistically commit
to; for example, earning a bachelor’s degree within the next five years (which is how long
it takes most people nowadays).

Let’s follow Katie as she sets some career goals. Katie works as a shipping clerk for a large manufac-
turing company. She makes approximately $30,000 a year and would like to rise to a leadership
position within the corporation. Notice some of the career goals that she sets for herself:
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CHAPTER 8: PLAN YOUR WORK—AND WORK YOUR PLAN 139

• “Return to college to work on my degree in business administration. I will finish my

degree within the next five years.”
• “Find a job that pays at least $45,000 a year after I complete my bachelor’s degree.”
• “Ask one of my coworkers to be my mentor. I need to accomplish this by the end of
next month.”
• “Ask my supervisor if I can take on a greater leadership role with the corporation. I need
to do this within the next two weeks.”

Notice that all the above goals are specific, realistic, measurable, and achievable and that timeframes
are given for each.
Now take some time to define your own goals. Goals should be positively stated, be realistic, iden-
tify specific behaviors, and be within your ability to achieve them. Use the space below to set four
or more career goals related to the occupation that interests you most.

EXERCISE
My career goals:

Step 2: Rank Your Goals

The next step is to rank your goals into short- and long-term goals. Most people need to achieve
their short-term goals before their long-terms goals. Remember that short-term goals are career
objectives that you would like to achieve in a year or less. On the other hand, long-term goals are
career objectives that you want to achieve over a longer period of time and can be set 5 to 10 years
into the future. Look how Katie sorts her goals:
Short-term goals:
• “Ask one of my coworkers to be my mentor. I need to accomplish this by the end of
next month.”
• “Ask my supervisor if I can take on a greater leadership role with the corporation. I need
to do this within the next two weeks.”

Long-term goals:
• “Return to college to work on my degree in business administration. I will finish my
degree within the next five years.”
• “Find a job that pays at least $45,000 a year after I complete my bachelor’s degree.”
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140 Career Quizzes

Use the space below to categorize your goals into short- and long-term goals.

EXERCISE

Short-Term Goals Long-Term Goals

Step 3: Identify Roadblocks to Your Goals

Next, you will need to identify people, circumstances, or other barriers that might prevent you
from achieving your career goals. For Katie, some of these roadblocks might include the following:
“Ask one of my coworkers to be my mentor.”
• Identifying a person whom I think will be a good career mentor
• Gathering the courage to ask someone to be my mentor
• Working out an agenda for the mentoring process

“Ask my supervisor if I can take on a greater leadership role with the corporation.”
• Effectively communicating my interest in leadership activities to my supervisor
• Identifying problems I could solve
• Proving to my supervisor that I deserve the opportunity

“Return to college to work on my degree in business administration.”

• Exploring whether I can return college
• Improving my study habits
• Finding a way to pay for classes
• Determining whether business administration is the best degree for me to pursue
• Identifying a college in my area
• Being accepted to the college
• Finding time to take classes

“Find a job that pays at least $45,000 a year.”

• Completing my college degree
• Rebuilding my resume to show off my accomplishments
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CHAPTER 8: PLAN YOUR WORK—AND WORK YOUR PLAN 141

• Building a network of potential employers

• Enhancing my leadership skills
• Joining professional organizations that can help me in my search for a new job

As you can see, it will take much more time and effort for Katie to accomplish her long-term goals.
However, accomplishing her short-term goals will help her build confidence. For example, taking
a leadership role in her current company will enhance her managerial skills, which in turn will
make her more marketable when she looks for a job with her new degree.
Use the worksheet below to identify obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your career
goals. For each goal, identify the potential roadblocks to your achievement.

EXERCISE

Short-Term Goals Potential Roadblocks

Long-Term Goals Potential Roadblocks

Step 4: Overcome Your Roadblocks

This last step is the action stage—the opportunity to work toward achieving your goals. You will
need to develop a strategy or step-by-step process that will help you overcome your roadblocks. For
Katie, some of those strategies might include the following:
• Asking to manage special projects at work
• Exploring financial aid options with a loan officer
• Taking assessments to determine her interest, skills, and abilities
• Researching alternative ways to take classes, such as through distance-learning programs
• Joining professional business management organizations
• Networking with supervisors in her city

There are hundreds of other ways Katie can overcome her roadblocks. Also, as Katie achieves some
of her short-term goals, new ones will present themselves—with new complications requiring new
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strategies. This is the nature of career development. It is an ongoing, multistep process, which is
precisely why it requires a plan.
Use the worksheet below to explore proactive things you can do to overcome roadblocks to your
career goals.

EXERCISE

Roadblocks to Short-Term Goals Ways I Will Overcome Them

Roadblocks to Long-Term Goals Ways I Will Overcome Them

Congratulations! You have learned more about your career-planning skills and have successfully
developed career goals and a career plan for achieving these goals. Remember that you must remain
active in this process, revise and change goals as new opportunities present themselves, and stick to
the deadlines you have set for yourself.

Tying It All Together

Remember that your attitude about career planning is extremely important when looking for your
ideal job and developing a successful career. In addition to a positive attitude, generating an effec-
tive career plan also requires skills in setting goals and implementation. Many people are reluctant
to set goals or develop any type of plan for fear that they will not stay committed to them and fail.
That’s why it’s important to remember that your goals should provide you with direction and moti-
vation and that you can, and will, make changes as you encounter new situations and meet new
people.
In the next chapter, you will continue the career-planning process by learning how to effectively
balance work and leisure in your career.
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C H A P T E R
9
Keep Your Balance

“The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life….

If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man.”
—Euripides

M y wife, Kathy, loves to work. She never complains about having to get up in the mornings
and never dreads Sunday evenings, knowing that another workweek is about to begin. She
willingly brings work home and rarely takes vacation days. She enjoys climbing the corporate lad-
der. Even when she does have leisure time, she usually thinks about the different projects she has
to do. Sometimes, she even feels guilty for taking time off. If we won the lottery, Kathy would con-
tinue to work as if nothing had happened.
Personally, I think she’s nuts.
I tend to be just the opposite. I love my idle hours—time for fun, relaxation, and personal explo-
ration. I could spend hours playing chess, writing, playing with my dog, volunteering at church, or
simply sitting on my back porch. I never feel guilty for having leisure time on my hands. I do not
like too much responsibility, and I want to leave the office at five and not have to think about my
job until the next morning. I have no interest in corporate ladder climbing. If we won the lottery,
I would quit work the next day, clicking my heels as I walked out the door.
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Neither my wife nor I do a great job of balancing work and leisure, and we aren’t alone. The
work-leisure balance can be one of the most difficult aspects of managing a career. But without that
balance, people can end up addicted to one or the other. My wife and I try to help each other gain
more work-leisure balance, but it is easy to fall back into old habits and favor one role in your career
development to the exclusion of others.
This chapter will help you explore how effectively you balance your work and leisure roles—and
learn some more effective ways to balance them better to make your career and your life more sat-
isfying. As you plan your career and even as you search for your next job, you should always keep
your need for balance in mind.

Balancing Work and Leisure

Workers across the world—and Americans especially—have a difficult time balancing work and
leisure, in part because the pressures of work have intensified. Studies of workplace trends suggest
that for many people, the demands of work dominate life. This, in turn, has prompted claims that
the quality of life, career satisfaction, and our sense of community have started to deteriorate.
Much of this pressure comes from the top down. Many corporate employers demand that employ-
ees work longer hours, take work home, work weekends, and take less vacation time, forcing those
employees to choose between work and leisure. In contrast, many new employees desire more
balance between work and the rest of their lives. They don’t want to provide unlimited and uncon-
ditional commitment to their jobs. In fact, recent research shows that many of the young adults
entering the workforce willingly sacrifice money for time, taking lower salaries in favor of more
vacations or the ability to work from home.

LEISURE DEFINED
Career theorists have defined leisure in many ways. Some have called it a state of being or a condition
of the soul. Others consider it as any activity viewed as less important than work. Still others define
leisure as any activity engaged in by choice (suggesting, and rightly so for many people, that work is
not a matter of choice). To be sure, the definitions have changed considerably over time and differ from
one culture to the next.
For the purposes of this book, leisure is any self-determined activity or experience that you aren’t paid
for—made possible because you have time or income to spare.

Many people lead unbalanced lives, engaging in work or leisure to the exclusion of the other. As
with most things, living in either extreme—workaholism or leisure addiction—can have unhealthy
consequences. Achieving the proper work-life balance means having sufficient time to commit to
activities at both work and home. The result of achieving such balance is greater life satisfaction and
greater career success. The career decisions you make should always take your need for this balance
into account. Otherwise, you might find yourself making those decisions over and over again until
you find the right balance.
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Your Career Is a Combination

Remember that your career is a combination of your work and other life roles that together express
your total pattern of self-development. In other words, your career is more than just what you do
for a living. It’s who you are and how you develop. It’s the goals you set and your path to achiev-
ing them.
Thus, your career is a combination of your work roles and your leisure roles. Carl McDaniels was
one of the first career development professionals to show an interest in how work and leisure com-
bine to form a career. He suggested that “Career equals work plus leisure.” Thus, those who focus
solely on work or solely on leisure miss out on a crucial piece of the equation. As a result, their
career simply won’t add up.
For you to be happy and live a life that is (mostly) free of stress, you need to be able to balance the
two. Research has determined that a balanced combination of job satisfaction and leisure satisfac-
tion is one of the primary predictors of physical and psychological health. Job satisfaction alone is
not enough.
In fact, for many people, leisure is the antidote to a lack of job satisfaction. One way that leisure
can help people who are bored or lack meaning and satisfaction at work is through compensation.
People who are unfulfilled at work can make up for it through hobbies and activities that satisfy
the needs not being met on the job.
Take Jerry, for example. Jerry works as a plumber in Pittsburgh, following in his father’s footsteps.
He likes the work well enough and is well-paid. His real passion, however, is photography. Photog-
raphy allows him to express his creative side, something he isn’t really able to do on the job (most
people prefer that their plumbers not get creative). He hopes one day to make a living selling his
photographs. Until then, Jerry gains enough satisfaction from taking pictures as a hobby that he
does not mind fixing pipes. Like Jerry, the less you can satisfy your needs at work, the more you
must rely on leisure-time activities for your life satisfaction.
Ultimately, the relationship between your work and leisure—and the effects of the balance (or
imbalance) between the two—can take a variety of forms:
• Separation: Your work and leisure are two distinct facets of your life that do not influ-
ence each other. While possible, it is hard to imagine that the time put into work and
the money earned from it have no impact on your hobbies or interests—or that leisure
activities have no effect on your work life. True separation is quite difficult to manage.
• Spillover: Little or no distinction exists between your work and leisure. You find so
much satisfaction engaging in one activity that you choose to do it in both your work
and free time. Imagine a veterinarian who loves working with animals so much that she
volunteers at the local animal shelter on the weekends or a video game designer who
plays Xbox in his free time.
• Compensation: You can compensate what you lack in one area of life by engaging in
activities in another area. For example, someone who dislikes her desk job shuffling
papers because it is too stationary and predictable may enjoy mountain climbing on the
weekends.
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• Conflict: High levels of demand in one area of life can cause conflicts in the other. Such
conflicts are frequent and are often part of the career management process (although
with more careful management, you can avoid them). A person who works too much
may experience difficulties at home with family members—a common complaint
among workers who feel the pressure to put their careers first.

Recognizing the patterns that your work and leisure take, how they interact, and the effects that
interaction has on your well-being is important. Knowing the balance you need to strike can help
you develop a career plan that is right for you.

The Work-Leisure Balance Scale

The following assessment measures your orientation and commitment to work and leisure. In other
words, it helps you see where you fall on the work-leisure continuum and just how balanced you
are. Read each item carefully to decide how much you agree with that statement. For each choice
listed, circle the number of your response on the line to the right. There are no right or wrong
answers. Be sure to respond to each item by circling the response that best describes you.

Always Very Somewhat Not

True True True True
1. I do not have much of a social life because
I am always working 4 3 2 1
2. My job consumes too much of my time as it is 1 2 3 4
3. I rarely bring work home with me 1 2 3 4
4. I often feel I must drop everything else for my work 4 3 2 1
5. I have lots of hobbies 1 2 3 4
6. I feel like I can never finish my work 4 3 2 1
7. I am not very goal oriented 1 2 3 4
8. Leisure time is just time off to rest up for work 4 3 2 1
9. I am driven to perform well at work 4 3 2 1
10. I often do work-related jobs in my spare time 4 3 2 1
11. I need the structure of work in my life 4 3 2 1
12. I judge myself by my accomplishments 4 3 2 1
13. I like to be in total control of situations at work 4 3 2 1
14. I am not worried about advancing at work 1 2 3 4
15. I often take on additional responsibilities 4 3 2 1
16. I am interested only in the results of my work 4 3 2 1
17. I rarely obsess over work to be done 1 2 3 4
18. I often work as many as 12 hours each day 4 3 2 1
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Always Very Somewhat Not

True True True True
19. I rarely work evenings and weekends 1 2 3 4
20. I like to take days off 4 3 2 1
21. I am often unable to relax after work 4 3 2 1
22. I am constantly thinking about work 4 3 2 1
23. I feel guilty when I am not working 4 3 2 1
24. I cannot wait for the next vacation or holiday 1 2 3 4
25. I spend my free time doing activities not related
to work 1 2 3 4
26. I get bored when I am not working 4 3 2 1
27. I come into work even if I am sick 4 3 2 1
28. I cope with life’s problems by working harder 4 3 2 1
29. I would quit my job if I did not need the money 1 2 3 4
30. I do not know what to do with my time off 4 3 2 1

Scoring
Add up the scores you circled for each item on the assessment. Then, transfer your total to the space
below:
Work-Leisure Balance Total: __________
Now put an X on the line indicating your total score for the assessment.
30 ❘ ❘ 45 ❘ ❘ 60 ❘ ❘ 75 ❘ ❘ 90 ❘ ❘ 105 ❘ ❘ 120
Leisure Lover Balanced Workaholic

Exploring Your Work-Leisure Balance

We all define success differently. How you define success depends
on what you value in life and in your career. Some people value NOTE
work above all, and some people value leisure. The majority of Perhaps you are already per-
people value some combination of the two. In essence, your fectly content with your bal-
lifestyle is what you need and value in relation to work and ance of work and leisure. But
leisure in your life, and your career is the path you take to cre- that doesn’t mean it will stay in
ate that lifestyle. balance forever. The exercises
that follow can also give you
Look at your work-leisure balance total. Totals from 91–120 are some tips for maintaining the
high and indicate a work orientation, a person that is generally balance you’ve already
more interested in work than leisure. Especially high scores may achieved.
indicate tendencies toward workaholism. By contrast, scores
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148 Career Quizzes

from 30–60 are low and indicate a leisure orientation, a person that privileges his or her leisure
activities and is not willing to sacrifice them for work. Especially low scores may suggest a lack
of motivation to succeed at work. As you might expect, scores from 61–90 indicate a balanced
orientation.
Read about your orientation on the following pages and then complete the exercises that follow.
This will help you develop a keener sense of how to balance your work life with the rest of your
life, which in turn can lead to smarter career choices and better career management.

Work Orientation
People with a work orientation see their jobs as their greatest (and sometimes only) source of life
satisfaction. They work long hours and devote much of their energy to their jobs, sometimes even
preferring work to spending time with family and friends. As a consequence, they perform well in
demanding jobs. Leisure may be important in their lives but only after all their work is done. They
are very results oriented and will often work extra hours to complete projects. They need work that
is challenging, that allows them to set goals, and that lets them measure their achievement. They
often feel guilty when not working. Some might say they are addicted to the work they do.

All Work and No Play: The Dangers of Workaholism

Some people live for their work. It is second only to oxygen on their list of daily requirements. Such
people might be considered “workaholics.” Research estimates that millions of people in the work-
force suffer from workaholism, a progressive disease in which you become addicted to the process
of working. Working gives such people a “high” and becomes something they depend on. Worka-
holics ultimately develop a rationalization for why they have to work so hard. Like other types of
addicts, they are in denial about their obsession and compulsion with work. The following statis-
tics give a little insight into how Americans especially tend to gravitate toward this extreme:
• Overall, employees in the United States earn fewer vacation days than any other country
in the industrialized world. People in the United States earn an average of 13 days per
year for vacations. In Japan, employees earn 25 days per year, while in Italy, employees
earn 42 days per year.
• Overall, employees in the United States work more than employees in any other country
in the industrialized world. In the United States, an employee now averages approxi-
mately 50 hours per week. By comparison, in most other countries in the world, the
workweek is limited to 45 hours per week, while the official workweek in France has
been reduced to 35 hours per week.
• In the United States, workaholism adversely affects more than one million employees
per year.
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WORKING YOURSELF TO DEATH

Although the term “workaholic” is not yet an official medical or psychological diagnosis, the compul-
sion to work can have detrimental effects on your life and career. In Japan, it is called Karoshi, or “death
by overwork,” and causes approximately 1,000 deaths per year, accounting for nearly 5 percent of the
country’s stroke and heart attack victims in employees under the age of 60.

What makes workaholism different from hard work is the obsession. For the workaholic, the desire
to work is all encompassing. Even when they do something social or engage in a hobby, the worka-
holic cannot concentrate for thinking about work. As a result, a workaholic’s life continues to
revolve around his or her job, and all other areas of his or her life become affected, including phys-
ical health, social relationships, domestic life, and leisure time.
Some common problems associated with workaholism include a disruption in family life, marital
problems, an increase in stress-related diseases, job burnout, and an increase in poor health. Worka-
holics are the people who miss important events like soccer games and school plays because they
feel they must work. Workaholics have nothing else to balance their lives—no hobbies, no leisure
activities, no community activities, and no spiritual connections—with potentially devastating
results. As the saying goes, all work and no play can make Jack...well...dead—or at least high
strung, exhausted, and a prime candidate for blood-pressure medication.

How the Work Oriented Find Balance

Ernie Zelinski, in his book The Joy of Not Working, pointed out the differences at work between a
workaholic and one who balances work and leisure:
Workaholic Balanced Performer
Works long hours Works regular hours
Has no defined goals—works to be active Has defined goals—works toward objectives
Cannot delegate work Delegates as much as possible
Has no interests outside work Has many interests outside work
Misses vacations to work Takes and enjoys vacations
Develops acquaintances at work Develops deep friendships outside work
Always talks about work Minimizes talk about work
Feels life is difficult Feels life is a celebration

People with a work orientation tend to spend too much time and effort engaged in work-related
activities. Thus, one of the best ways to achieve balance is to identify fulfilling leisure-time activi-
ties. One of the most important benefits of leisure is its ability to reduce stress and help you stop
thinking about work so much.
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150 Career Quizzes

The important thing is to find hobbies and activities that are different from your work but that still
appeal to your interests. One person’s leisure activity is another person’s version of “just more
work,” whether it’s jogging, baking, reading novels, or volunteering at the local animal shelter. The
key is to engage in these activities because you want to—because they fill needs that your work
can’t—not because you think you should.
Answering the following questions can help you become more balanced in your approach to work
and leisure:

EXERCISE

What needs do you have that are not met by your work (revisit chapter 2 for some ideas)?

How do your leisure activities fulfill your needs?

How can you find more time for leisure?

What new leisure activities would you explore if you had more time?

In addition to simply choosing and engaging in your favorite leisure activities, other things can help
you have a more balanced career and life. Consider the following as you seek balance:
• Time for relationships: It is important that you take time each day to connect with
important people in your life. This may mean scheduling this time (actually writing it in
a calendar or planner) until you begin to adopt it as a permanent part of your day.
• Time alone: Take time for yourself. Use it to reflect and recharge. If you know how, try
meditating for an hour a day. Meditation can help you focus on the moment and stop
thinking about work that needs to be done in the future.
• Breaks: You can easily build breaks into your work schedule. Even if you have been
working quite well without taking breaks, you probably have not experienced your opti-
mum level of creativity, motivation, and energy. Almost all employers allow for some
breaks during the day.
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CHAPTER 9: KEEP YOUR BALANCE 151

• Exercise: Exercise has been shown to be an excellent stress-buster. People who exercise
regularly tend to be happier, are more energetic, and have a better outlook on life.
• Vacations: Use your vacation time for rest and relaxation. Of course, everyone has a dif-
ferent idea about what constitutes rest and relaxation. My wife and I love international
vacations with lots of sightseeing. Our neighbors prefer to rent a cabin on the lake only
an hour out of town. Commit to using your vacation days (don’t try to carry them over
without a great reason for doing so) and find a restful way to spend them.

Leisure Orientation NOTE

Individuals with a leisure orientation privilege other life activi- Traditional thinking on careers
ties over their work. Work is a necessity—a means to an end. It often does not account for
“play,” instead measuring the
provides them with the resources required to engage in hobbies
success of a career by the
or activities, spend time with their family, or accomplish other extrinsic rewards it affords.
life goals. They have little interest in jobs that consume too Work is work. Careers are
much of their time and energy. They meet their needs for self- made up of jobs, and jobs are
esteem and self-actualization through their hobbies, commu- not supposed to be “fun.” But
nity activities, and leisure experiences. Some might even see this work can be enjoyable if it
preference for leisure as a sign of laziness or a lack of drive. allows people to engage in
activities that interest them and
lets them be interactive, spon-
All Play and No Work: The Drawbacks taneous, and creative.
of Leisure Addiction
People who engage in leisure to the exclusion of work tend to have their own problems at work and
at home. Leisure-lovers tend to be unpredictable employees. They are often just motivated enough
to do a passable job (enough to avoid getting fired) but not a great job (enough to avoid getting
promoted). Leisure-lovers work primarily to pay for their leisure-time experiences. Therefore, their
commitment to the organization and to coworkers tends to be less intense. While they usually do
not experience much stress associated with work, their lack of a more balanced work ethic can have
drastic long-term effects on their careers.

THE EVER-SHIFTING BALANCE

Naturally, our leisure activities change as we grow older, and inevitably, the balance shifts. The chances
of us becoming workaholics as toddlers or even teenagers is less likely than when we are in our 30s.
Likewise, it may shift again as we near retirement and seek more time for leisure to make up for the
loss of a work role. While the balance shifts, the importance of incorporating leisure into career devel-
opment never diminishes.

If you do not invest enough time and effort in your job, you will lack career focus and career direc-
tion. Work provides structure and needed financial rewards for you and your family. Besides the
money, work meets many of your other needs, including a place to go, a social network, a sense of
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152 Career Quizzes

self-esteem, and a sense of belonging. All play and no work can leave Jack feeling lost, empty, and
unfulfilled.

How the Leisure-Oriented Find Balance

We all need balance, and working is a part of maintaining that balance. Ideally, you will want to
find work related to your leisure-time interests or at least find work that you enjoy as much as these
interests.
Answering the following questions can help you become more balanced in your approach to work
and leisure.

EXERCISE

In your work, what are your aspirations and ambitions?

What part does family play in your balanced-life approach?

In your leisure time, how do you meet the following needs?

Companionship:
Self-esteem:
Creativity:
How could you begin to meet these needs at work?

How could your leisure interests help you achieve your career goals?

Balanced Orientation
People with a balanced orientation can meet their needs and find life and career satisfaction
through a variety of work and leisure activities. They have a healthy work ethic and enjoy their
work but use their leisure time to rejuvenate and pursue other interests. They want to be good at
what they do, but they are not obsessed with their work.
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CHAPTER 9: KEEP YOUR BALANCE 153

Staying Balanced NOTE

For those of you who are experiencing a balanced orientation, As you begin to walk the career
congratulations, but realize that you still have your work (and path you’ve outlined in previ-
leisure) cut out for you. As your life becomes more complex ous chapters, be sure to keep
your balance. If you happen to
and you experience increasing demands on your time, main-
fall down, pull yourself back
taining that balance becomes more difficult—and even more up and think about what you
important. can do to regain that balance
Most people strive for a balanced orientation, but few achieve before moving forward again.
it. Many of us feel overwhelmed trying to juggle jobs, family,
children’s activities, leisure activities, community responsibilities, and school. It is no surprise that
work—because it fills many of our needs, especially the most basic ones—can dominate. Here are
some things to keep in mind as you work to maintain the balance in your career:
• Be aware of things happening in the moment.
• Continue to engage in satisfying work and leisure activities.
• Review and alter (if need be) your definition of success. Consider what you believe
about work and leisure, and be sure to remember that leisure is a worthwhile pursuit in
your life and your career.
• Take vacations that you enjoy and that allow you to feel rested and rejuvenated.
• Whether in your work or leisure-time activities, be sure to pursue your passions. Identify
what you really enjoy doing and then find an outlet to do it.
• Know that you can complete your personal mission or calling in life in your work role,
in your leisure role, or in both.

Take some time to reflect on ways that you can maintain your balance as you make your career
transition and plan your next career move.

EXERCISE

Things I am currently doing or can start doing to maintain my work-leisure balance:

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154 Career Quizzes

Tying It All Together

As a balance of work and leisure, your career encompasses all the roles you come to play during the
course of your life. Of course, the length of these roles and how many you engage in at one time
will vary depending on your situation. For example, a person who is not married will not play the
spouse role but may compensate by engaging in the citizen role more than someone who is. Of
course, the more roles you have to play, the less time and money you have to allocate to each role.
A wife and mother of two who works as a nurse, lobbies for animal rights, and runs her own scrap-
booking club will constantly face the challenge of balancing each role and making career decisions
based on her need to keep or shift that balance.
The balance between work and leisure is one of the most critical issues confronting today’s worker.
As you develop your career plan, remember to take into account all the roles you play in life. You
must find a balance that is right for you and your situation. By making balance a priority, you have
taken another step toward achieving greater career satisfaction, which, in turn, can lead to greater
success.
The worksheet that follows can help you summarize everything you’ve learned about yourself in
this part of the book. From there, it is on to the last stage in the career-planning process (and the
last part of this book): taking action to make your career dreams come true.
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Part III Summary: Develop a

Career Plan

I n this section, you have identified potential barriers to your career decision making and devel-
opment and identified strategies for making more effective decisions. You have also set career
goals and begun to formulate a plan to reach them. Finally, you have identified where you stand in
terms of balancing your work and leisure and explored strategies for staying in balance as you con-
tinue to develop your career. The next step is to put your plan into action.
Based on the results of the assessments and the information you completed in each chapter, use the
following worksheet to summarize what you’ve discovered about yourself. You can then use this
information to further develop and assess your career plan. By pulling together your results from
all three chapters, you should have a much better sense of what steps you need to take to achieve
career success and satisfaction.

EXERCISE

My barriers to effective career decision making (from chapter 7):

Ways I can overcome those barriers:

The career decision I’ve made:

My attitude toward career development (from chapter 8):

Ways that I can become more active and invested in my own career development:

(continued)
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156 Career Quizzes

(continued)

My work-leisure orientation (from chapter 9):

Ways I can better balance my work and leisure roles:

What steps can I take immediately to pursue my chosen career goal?

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PART IV: TAKE ACTION

“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than
the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”
—John F. Kennedy
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C H A P T E R
10
Improve Your Job Search
Strategy

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”

—Henry Ford

W ith your career plan in hand (and your life in balance), it’s time to take action and land your
ideal job. Sound easy enough? It can be, provided you approach it the right way. Consider
the following two examples of people conducting a job search.
Vivian has worked in marketing for about five years and now is interested in becoming a manager.
She starts looking for job vacancies that have been posted by private companies and other organi-
zations with marketing departments. She consistently checks the classified ads. She registers with
an employment agency, which tells her that her resume will be mailed out to prospective employ-
ers. In addition, she posts her resume with an electronic job search firm. With all these people
working for her, Vivian figures her resume is just about everywhere and her next job is just around
the corner. Her work is done.
Sue is also looking for a marketing manager position and shares the same skills and experience as
Vivian. She decides to market her skills directly to prospective employers. She begins by identify-
ing the hiring managers in organizations that interest her. She sends her cover letter and resume to
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160 Career Quizzes

these hiring officials and then follows up her mailing with a phone call asking for an interview. She
develops her network—those people who can provide her with information that may lead to a job.
She conducts informational interviews with marketing directors to learn more about the position
she is interested in. She also goes to conferences to meet other professionals in the field. She never
once looks at a classified ad or browses the Internet for jobs. She thinks Monster.com must be a
Web site for horror movie fans.
Who is likely to have more success? Most people would put their money on Vivian (or at least take
a similar approach), but in reality, Sue will probably be the first person to receive a job offer. All the
research regarding the job search suggests that people find most jobs by accessing the hidden job
market—those jobs that haven’t even been posted yet—using the strategies that Sue does.
They don’t call it the hidden job market for nothing, of course; finding these jobs requires some
effort. That is why most people simply send out or post resumes and rely on search firms to do the
work for them. Of course, those same people are still waiting on a company to find their resumes
long after that same company has hired someone who went through the trouble of making direct
contact. More often than not, Vivian’s still waiting to hear back from the company that already
hired Sue.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t post your resumes on the Internet or use job search
services. You will probably find the best results by using a combination of approaches. Just remem-
ber that in today’s economy, finding the job you want takes self-discipline, hard work, and
self-motivation. A systematic and well-organized approach to finding a job is crucial. The trouble
is, most people don’t have one.

How People Traditionally Find Jobs

Traditional approaches for finding employment involve contacting as many employers as possible
with the hope that some of them will respond to you and set up an interview. This approach
depends on the notion that the more classified ads you respond to, the more electronic resumes you
post, and the more prospective employers who see your credentials, the more interviews you’ll land.
This is the “numbers game” job search. Traditional approaches also involve getting other “career
experts” in employment services to help you find job leads and match you with available jobs. The
traditional job search uses some or all of the following tools:
• Job-training programs: In most job-training programs, a job developer goes out and
initiates employer contacts. After identifying potential openings, counselors screen indi-
viduals to determine an appropriate “match” between client and job. Clients are then
referred to the employer for interviews.
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 161

• Employment agencies: In employment agencies, a “placement specialist,” who has

access and knowledge of particular job openings, will refer qualified individuals to
prospective employers for a fee. Recruiters and headhunters typically use this process
to find jobs for their clients. In these systems, the job seeker tends to be at the mercy
of the agency, and a very limited number of the people who rely on this method find
employment.
• Job postings: Employers with openings often post them to job banks. Job banks are sys-
tems of postings, including small systems, such as the newspaper “want ads,” and large
systems, such as Internet job posting sights (like Monster). Anyone can apply for posted
job bank positions. The major drawback to this method is that you must compete with
all the other job seekers who may be remotely qualified for the advertised positions.
• Resumes: Most job seekers spend hours searching through want ads from local newspa-
pers and mailing hundreds of resumes to employers. They also “pound the pavement”—
going from business to business to fill out applications and leave resumes with
prospective employers. The problem with this approach is that you must rely on the
strength of your qualifications on paper—resumes, cover letters, and employment appli-
cations—and don’t get any face time with the person who can hire you.

The truth is, relatively few people find jobs with these approaches. Nontraditional job search
approaches, on the other hand, are more proactive. Nontraditional approaches involve identifying
prospective employers based on the development of a career plan, developing a network of contacts,
and making direct contact with employers before jobs have even been posted.

The Job Search Proficiency Scale

Because no single method of job hunting is 100 percent effective, you must be proficient in a vari-
ety of job search strategies. Moreover, you need to approach each phase of the job search with the
right attitude and an action plan. The assessment that follows can help you gauge how effective
your job search strategy is and then help you discover ways to enhance it.
For each activity statement below, choose the number of the response that best reflects how effec-
tive or skilled you are at the given task.
This is not a test. Since there are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time think-
ing about your responses. Be sure to respond to every statement.
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162 Career Quizzes

Very Somewhat A Little Not at All

Effective Effective Effective Effective
In looking for a job, how effective am I at…
1. posting my resume on Internet job boards 4 3 2 1
2. identifying companies I would like to work for 4 3 2 1
3. networking for job leads 4 3 2 1
4. conducting informational interviews with prospective
employers 4 3 2 1
5. going to conferences where I can meet people in similar
positions as me 4 3 2 1
6. searching the “want ads” in local papers 4 3 2 1
7. signing with a headhunter who can help me find a new
position 4 3 2 1
Section I Total: __________

In presenting my qualifications in writing, how effective am I at…

8. writing an outstanding, professional resume 4 3 2 1
9. writing a cover letter that grabs an employer’s attention 4 3 2 1
10. filling out applications correctly 4 3 2 1
11. stating my job objective 4 3 2 1
12. adapting my resume for electronic viewing 4 3 2 1
13. obtaining references who have written letters on my
behalf 4 3 2 1
14. developing a portfolio of my best work 4 3 2 1
Section II Total: __________

In interviewing for jobs, how effective am I at…

15. researching the organization and industry ahead of time 4 3 2 1
16. effectively answering interview questions with specific
examples 4 3 2 1
17. making a good first impression 4 3 2 1
18. dressing and grooming for success 4 3 2 1
19. highlighting my strengths and camouflaging my weaknesses 4 3 2 1
20. preparing a list of questions to ask prospective interviewers 4 3 2 1
21. staying upbeat and enthusiastic about the job 4 3 2 1
Section III Total: __________
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 163

Very Somewhat A Little Not at All

Effective Effective Effective Effective
When following up after interviews, how effective am I at…
29. sending thank-you notes and e-mails 4 3 2 1
30. telephoning employers if I do not hear from them 4 3 2 1
31. obtaining the business cards of interviewers 4 3 2 1
32. keeping accurate records of all employers with whom
I interview 4 3 2 1
33. assessing job offers 4 3 2 1
34. negotiating salary, benefits, and other compensation 4 3 2 1
35. providing additional materials requested by prospective
employers 4 3 2 1
Section IV Total: __________

Scoring
This assessment can measure how competent you are in four critical aspects of the job search. Add
up the scores you circled for each section. Put that number on the line marked “Total” at the end
of each section, and then transfer your totals to the spaces below:
Section I: Using a Total Marketing Approach __________ Section III: Interviewing __________
Section II: Paper Job Search Methods __________ Section IV: Follow-up __________

Improving Your Job Search Strategy

Not everyone has skills in every aspect of the job search. In fact, most of us have one or two
weaknesses that we point to as the reason we don’t gain an interview or an offer. Someone who can
create a knockout resume may clam up at an interview. Likewise, someone who shines in the per-
sonal exchange of an interview may not have the slightest clue how to organize a job search.
Although you aren’t expected to master every nuance of a job search strategy, the better you are at
the four critical aspects listed above, the better your chances of getting the job you want. The key
is to identify your weaknesses and take the necessary steps to improve them.
For each scale above, a score from 7–13 is low and suggests that you need to develop more job
search competencies in this area. A score from 22–28 is high and suggests that you have a good
handle on this aspect of the job search and should keep up the good work.
What follows are strategies for improving your job search strategy. As you read through the sugges-
tions and complete the exercises, concentrate on those scales that you scored in the low or average
ranges. And remember that all the planning and introspection you’ve done to help define your
dreams won’t get you far if you aren’t prepared to take the necessary steps to fulfill them.
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The Total Marketing Approach

For many, the job market appears to be a maze that consists of dead ends, blind alleys, and endless
frustrations. The typical “hit-or-miss” approach to finding a job often results in a lengthy job
search, which, in turn, results in the job seeker taking the first thing that finally comes along,
whether or not he or she wants it. The only way to effectively navigate the maze is to understand
how employers fill job openings.
To better understand the job market, you need to understand the two basic types of jobs for which
you will apply: the visible ones and the hidden ones.
Visible job leads are those vacancies that have been officially announced by an organization.
Organizations traditionally make the general public aware of these openings by placing an ad in
newspapers or magazines, having the personnel department announce it, retaining a search firm,
making employment agencies and placement offices aware of it, and alerting state government
agencies. At that point, you—and millions of other people—open a newspaper or a Web browser
and see a job opening that interests you.
Although it appears easier to get a visible job, it’s not often the case, primarily because of competi-
tion. Most job openings are actually never advertised, yet most people only apply for the visible
jobs. Thus, you have a large percentage of job seekers squabbling over a small percentage of avail-
able jobs. Imagine a grocery store advertising a particular brand of soda on sale at the front of the
store. Imagine 100 customers fighting over the 10 cases that the store has available in that front dis-
play. Now imagine that one guy in the soda aisle, far from the maddening crowd, who not only has
several cases of the on-sale soda sitting right in front of him but a dozen other options besides.
Applying for visible jobs is like fighting for one of those cases at the front of the store. Odds are
good that you will come away empty handed or with something you don’t really even want.
It is true, however, that millions of people do find jobs by searching the want ads, using employ-
ment agencies, or responding to Internet postings. So, even though it shouldn’t command your
undivided attention, trying to get a job in the visible market can still be a worthwhile endeavor.
The following strategies can help you make the most of this approach:
• Use the employment clearinghouse functions of professional and trade associations to
search for vacancies.
• Attend career fairs sponsored by colleges and chambers of commerce.
• Avoid personnel departments because they usually do not have the power to hire appli-
cants, only to screen them out.
• Set up a place in your home to better organize your job search—a place where you can
keep track of contacts, interviews, and follow-up opportunities.

Most people aren’t aware of jobs on the hidden market because they have not been announced; in
fact, there may not be an official job opening. The two primary methods for tapping the hidden
job market are directly contacting employers and networking.
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 165

Making Direct Contact

Nearly half of all people get their jobs by contacting employers directly, often through a direct mail
campaign or a simple phone call. To enhance your chances of success, you should
1. Research and screen organizations of interest: Determine the most appropriate com-
panies to contact by finding out the size and type of the organization, where they are
located, and what products and services they provide.
2. Identify hiring officials in these organizations: Call the company to request this
information. Get the exact spelling and proper title of the person who can hire you, usu-
ally the manager in the department you would work in.
3. Develop a well-crafted cover letter and resume: Send a resume and an individualized
cover letter addressed to this hiring official.
4. Develop a well-planned telecommunication presentation: You should call three to
four working days after your resume and cover letter have likely arrived. Be prepared for
this phone call by writing out a script of what you want to say.
5. Be sure to ask for an interview: Even if there are no openings, ask to see this person to
discuss the organization’s goals and possibilities for future employment.

The following resources are useful for identifying potential organizations that fit with your career
goals and could use your skills. Just don’t forget all the work you’ve done so far, and look for oppor-
tunities with companies and organizations that will match your values, interests, and skills and fill
your needs.
• Chamber of Commerce: This can be a good source for identifying organizations in
your community. It publishes a list of companies in the area.
• Library: This is a great place to start researching prospective employers. Sources that are
available in most libraries include the following:
• Standard and Poor’s Register of Corporations, Directors, and Executives
• Trade journals such as Dun’s Review and Advertising Age
• Business periodicals such as Forbes and Fortune
• Encyclopedia of Associations
• Dun’s Employment Opportunities Directory
• The Directory of Executive Recruiters
• Newspapers from cities where you might like to work
• Yellow pages: The yellow pages will help you discover local companies that may offer
jobs in your selected career field. Contact these companies through networking, cover
letter and resume submissions, and/or by telephone.
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166 Career Quizzes

• The Internet: Nearly every organization you might want to work for has a Web site.
Simply searching the name of the industry you’d like to work in along with the city you
live in (or are willing to relocate to) will give you a ton of options and information.

Networking
Although it may sound cliché, it is often “who you know” and not “what you know” that leads to
a job. Networking is the process of systematically meeting people who can provide you with infor-
mation that may result in an interview. You must learn to tap into your network—all the people
you know who could help you—and milk them for those leads.
Networking serves several functions. It not only helps you access the hidden job market, but it also
gets your name out there, letting people in the world of work know who you are, what you can do,
and that you are interested in a job.
A network is made up of people you currently know and people you will soon meet. From the fol-
lowing exercise, you should generate an initial network of 25 to 50 people.

EXERCISE

Identify your current network of contacts.

Contacts are people you already know, such as friends, relatives, family, people with whom you
have worked, former teachers, and so on. List the people who could help you find a job in the
space below:

Identify contacts employed by prospective employers.

Identify several companies for whom you would like to work. Do your research to identify
potential hiring officials with these companies. Then, list the name(s) of people who could pro-
vide you with a potential contact at each company you list:
Employer 1:
Employer 2:
Employer 3:
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 167

INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWING
Remember that the purpose of an informational interview is to gather information in order to confirm
your career plans, become better known in your field, and expand your network of contacts.
If an employer you contact insists that there are no foreseeable job openings, an informational inter-
view should be your next request. While not all employers will have the 30 minutes to spare, many will
meet with you to discuss the industry, the organization, or the kind of job that might interest you.

The Paper Job Search NOTE

Put frankly, a resume will seldom, if ever, land you a job. At A resume isn’t intended to get
best, it can land you an interview. Often, it is meant merely to you the job—it is intended
screen you out. Still, the resume, like the other parts of the only to get you an interview.
Once there, you will have the
“paper job search,” is a requirement—a ticket you have to have chance to really sell yourself to
to even play the game. As such, you need to be proficient in the employer.
using a variety of paper job search methods, from writing
resumes and cover letters to filling out job applications and cre-
ating portfolios.

The Resume
Resumes serve several purposes, for both you and prospective employers:
• Self-assessment: Developing and writing your resume forces you to determine your
career objective, reflect on your past experiences, and assess your past accomplishments.
• Generate interest: Your resume will generate interest for prospective employers and
prompt them to call you for an interview.
• Make an impression: Your resume will be an employer’s first impression of you. In
their review of your resume, employers will make assumptions about your organizational
skills, your attention to detail, and your communication skills as well as evaluate your
qualifications and past experience.
• Provide information: Your resume provides you with detailed information about your
work experience, education, and skills. This information will be vital in other aspects of
your job search.
• Follow-up emphasis: Leaving your resume with a prospective employer can help rein-
force the positive impressions you made during an
interview. NOTE
Of course, the most important function a resume serves is as a You can often fill gaps in
your work experience by listing
screening tool. Employers use resumes to weed out candidates
volunteer work or self-
they feel don’t have the necessary skills and experience to do the employment.
job.
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168 Career Quizzes

NOTE Because it is such an important job search tool, and one with its
Use industry-specific keywords own rules and conventions, it is important that you concentrate
in describing your education on making your resume attractive, easy to read, informative,
and experience. and, above all, professional. The following tips can get you
started drafting your resume (or revising a current one):
• Personal information: This should include your name, present address (including ZIP
code), telephone number (including area code), and an e-mail address.
• Job objective: Always include a specific statement that identifies the type of position
you are applying for; for example, Computer programming position with an emphasis in
software development.
• Educational background: You should list postsecondary schools you have attended (the
most recent first), degrees received, major(s), minor(s), and dates of graduation. You
may emphasize concentrations of coursework and other academic honors. If your overall
grade-point average is 3.0 or better, include this information. Except in unusual circum-
stances, the name of your high school and dates of attendance are not necessary.
• Work experience: You must include a summary of your work experience, emphasizing
the most recent or most important job relevant to your stated job objective. Include all
types of work experience (full-time employment, volunteer experiences, summer
employment, part-time employment, internships, and so on). List the title of your posi-
tion, name of employer, dates of employment, and describe the nature of your work in
detail. You should emphasize your strengths in this section of your resume.
• Interests and activities: Prospective employers are interested in your leisure activities
(especially if they directly relate to your job objective). Identify any organizations to
which you belong and any offices you hold in those organizations. Also, include any
honors received, committees served on, workshops attended, and presentations given.
• References: State that letters of reference are “Available upon request.” Then, be sure to
select at least three individuals who are familiar with your qualifications and who are
willing to write you a favorable letter. These references can be former employers, super-
visors, coworkers, long-time acquaintances, or former teachers.

PRESENTING YOURSELF WELL ON PAPER

Use the following tips to ensure a professional resume:
• Check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. Then, have two or three other people double-
check it. Misspellings and typographical errors suggest that you are sloppy and careless.
• Leave adequate margins on each side (one inch is typical).
• Single-space the text within the resume.
• Emphasize important aspects of your resume by using boldface type, uppercase letters, and
underlining.
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 169

• Use “bullets” to highlight key accomplishments.

• Don’t crowd too much information on your resume. Leave considerable “white space” so that
your resume is easy to read.
• Print your resume on good-quality, heavy paper.

While these tips should be enough to get you started, this only NOTE
covers the bare essentials of resume writing. You should consult Functional resumes that high-
other resources to create a more polished resume. Most resume light skills and abilities rather
books contain samples to inspire you, as well as in-depth advice than chronologically list and
on how to make your documents stand out from the crowd. summarize education and work
experiences can be effective for
Possible titles of interest include Resume Magic by Susan Britton people with limited work expe-
Whitcomb and Gallery of Best Resumes by David Noble. rience or gaps in their work
history.
Cover Letters
You will want to include a cover letter with each resume you send to employers. Cover letters intro-
duce your resume and highlight important aspects of your background. They also give you an
opportunity to indicate why you are the best candidate for the job by directly matching your own
qualifications with the job description. A well-written cover letter is one of the surest ways to ensure
that a prospective employer reads your resume. Cover letters usually contain following parts:
• Your address and the date
• Inside address of the organization
• Salutation: Usually Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. and then the name of the person who is in a
position to hire you. Always be sure to include a specific name; do not write “To Whom
It May Concern.” If you do not have this information, call the company and get it.
• Introductory paragraph: The introductory paragraph should immediately grab the
reader’s attention and compel him or her to read the rest of the letter. It should be indi-
vidually tailored to the specific reader or prospective employer, should include the title
of the position you are applying for, and should mention the names of any contacts that
lead you to that position. (Remember, employers are more likely to hire people they
know or at least people recommended to them by people they know.)
• Middle paragraph: This pivotal paragraph indicates why you are interested in the posi-
tion, the company, its products or services, and, above all, what you can do for the
employer and the value you can bring to the organization. Create interest by explaining
how your unique qualities and characteristics make you a qualified candidate for the
position, but try not to simply repeat the same information the reader will find in the
resume.
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170 Career Quizzes

• Final paragraph: In the closing paragraph, state your appreciation and indicate your
desire for a personal interview. Include your phone number in the letter. Refer the
reader to the enclosed resume. If possible, close your letter with a statement or question
which will encourage a response or initiate follow-up plans. State that you will call in
several days.
• Closing: Use a formal closing (such as “Sincerely”), and be sure to save room for your
signature above your name.

Your cover letter demonstrates your professionalism as well as your ability to communicate
effectively through writing. Keep your letter brief (one page if possible) and focused. Proofread it
carefully to make sure it is free of misspellings and mistakes. Remember that a well-written cover
letter, along with an effective resume, can help you get your foot in the door for an interview. Also,
be aware that this represents only the most basic guidelines. For more in-depth information on how
to write a cover letter, consult books at your local library. Possible titles of interest include Cover
Letter Magic by Louise M. Kursmark and Wendy S. Enelow and Gallery of Best Cover Letters by
David Noble.

The Employment Application

The employment application may or may not be important in your job search. Some organizations
don’t bother with them until the interview process. Many others use it as the first point of contact,
insisting that you fill one out before being considered for an interview. Regardless of when you fill
one out, employment applications serve one basic function: to help organizations screen out
unqualified applicants. Therefore, any applications you fill out must be as impressive and accurate
as possible.
The following tips can help you fill out employment applications effectively:
• Think before you write: If at all possible, take the application home and complete it.
This will give you more time to think about your answers before writing them down.
Try to avoid cross-outs and erasures, since these give an employer a negative impression.
• Use an ink pen: Take several blue or black ink pens with you. Never use a pencil or a
red or green ink pen.
• Follow directions: Read all instructions carefully before filling out an application. If
there is something on the form that you do not understand, always ask the receptionist,
personnel officer, or human resources assistant for clarification.
• Neatness counts: Print as neatly as possible. Your application is a reflection of you: If it
is neat and accurate, then an employer can assume that you are neat and accurate.
• Spelling is crucial: Spell all words correctly. If possible, carry a pocket dictionary with
you when you apply for a job.
• Be honest: Never lie on an application. If you provide false information to an employer,
you can be fired and/or prosecuted for a criminal offense.
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• Attach a resume: You can attach a resume to your application form, but never write
“See Resume” on the application in lieu of answering all the questions. This suggests
laziness on your part.

Interviewing
When you hear the words “employment interview,” what do you think of? Sweaty palms, pregnant
pauses, and the feeling that you are being interrogated? It’s a little disheartening to think about all
the hard work you put into preparing your resume and cover letter, developing your network, and
hunting for the ideal job, only to realize that someone will decide your entire career in a span of
less than an hour. Even though this isn’t true, it feels like it to most people.
The employment interview is at the heart of the job search process, and you must approach it with-
out fear and apprehension. To do so, you must prepare as best as you can.
Proper preparation for an interview starts long before the interview itself. Individuals who are con-
vinced they are the best candidate for a position will be most influential with the interviewer.
Review your strengths and your accomplishments. If you’re not convinced that you would be an
asset to the employer’s organization, the employer probably won’t be either. Use the following
strategies to help you prepare for and succeed at your interviews:
• Analyze your strengths and weaknesses: Start by doing some honest self-assessment
(you should be good at it by this point). Analyze your strengths and weaknesses, your
background, your academic performance, your vocational interests, and your personal
aspirations and values. Formulate, in your own mind, not only what you would like to
do but what you feel you are best prepared to do. Much of the work that you’ve already
done in this book should help you.
• Read employer literature: Research your prospective employers. It is imperative that
you have some knowledge about their policies, philosophies, products, and services.
Some pertinent facts would be how old the organization’s products or services are, what
its growth has been, and how its prospects look for the future. This information pro-
vides topics for discussion during the interview. It is also quite helpful to try to identify
how all this information relates to your interests and potential job duties. You can use
the following strategies to uncover information about prospective employers:
• Go to the library to read reference materials that contain information about the
organization, including annual reports.
• Read over material distributed by the organization’s personnel or public relations
office.
• Visit the organization’s Web site to learn as much as you can about its products,
services, and history. Most companies have an “About Us” page that provides useful
background information.
• Talk with current employees of the company.
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172 Career Quizzes

• A stockbroker could be useful in determining the stability of the organization, new

product lines, and new marketing areas of publicly held companies.
• Contact distributors and/or competitors. Talk with employees of similar companies.
• Prepare for commonly asked questions: The questions an interviewer might ask dur-
ing an interview will take many forms, but you can at least prepare for some of the most
common ones.

COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

• Why should I hire you?
• What qualifications do you have that will make you successful with our organization?
• What do you consider to be your greatest strengths?
• What do you consider to be your greatest weaknesses?
• In what ways do you think you can make a contribution to our company?
• What are your short- and long-term goals and objectives? How are you preparing yourself to
achieve them?
• What do you see yourself doing X years from now?
• What do you expect to earn in X years?
• Why did you choose this career?
• How would you describe yourself?
• How do you think a friend or colleague who knows you well would describe you?
• What motivates you to put forth your greatest effort?
• How do you determine or evaluate success?
• What do you think it takes to be successful in a company like ours?
• What qualities should a successful manager possess?
• What two or three accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction? Why?
• What school subjects did you like best? Least?
• How do you work under pressure?
• What have you learned from your mistakes?
• Why did you decide to seek a position with this company?
• How do you feel about relocating?
• Are you willing to travel?
• Give me an example of a major problem you’ve encountered and how you dealt with it.
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• Prepare questions for the interviewer: Interviewers expect you to ask questions and
should give you a chance to do so. Not having any questions suggests a lack of interest
in the job or the organization. You should develop a list of questions you would like to
ask the interviewer beforehand. However, never ask a question that is easily answered in
the materials supplied by the employer. As you research for the interview, jot down
questions—similar to the ones listed below—that concern you.

QUESTIONS TO ASK AN INTERVIEWER

• How much travel is expected?

• Can I progress at my own pace or is it structured?
• Will I spend most of my time working alone or with others?
• How frequently do you relocate professional employees?
• How much contact and exposure to management is there?
• Is it possible to move through the training program faster?
• About how many individuals go through your program each year?
• How much freedom is given and discipline required of new employees?
• How often are performance reviews conducted?
• Is it possible to transfer from one division to another?
• How much decision-making authority is given after one year?
• Have any new product lines been announced recently?
• At what time should I report for work?
• Does the organization provide employee discounts?
• Is a car provided to traveling personnel?
• What is the average age of top management?
• What is the corporate culture like?
• What are your policies on continuing education?
• What do you like best about working for this organization?

• Plan your attire: Because the first few seconds of the interview are critical in most hir-
ing decisions, you will need to look your best. Dress professionally and also pay close
attention to your grooming. While many companies have adopted an “office casual”
work environment and dress code, it is better to be too conservative than too flashy.
• Arrive early: Try to arrive at least 10 to 15 minutes prior to the interview. Late arrival
for a job interview is rarely excusable. Early arrival gives you a chance to review informa-
tion about the organization and interviewer as well as your own skills and abilities.
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174 Career Quizzes

It also gives you a chance to compose yourself. Just be sure to be courteous and profes-
sional with everyone you meet—anyone’s opinion could factor into the hiring decision.
• Greet the interviewer: Always greet the interviewer by their last name, using Mr. or
Ms. Never address the interviewer by a first name unless specifically instructed to do so.
Always shake hands with the interviewer in a firm, confident manner. Stand until the
interviewer asks you to sit.
• Emphasize your strengths during the interview: Emphasize your strong points with
every answer you provide. The interview is your opportunity to sell yourself. Use “proof
by example” to illustrate your skills. For example, instead of saying “I am an excellent
salesperson,” say “In my last position, I increased sales in my territory by 70 percent
over 3 years.”
• Be enthusiastic: Employers want to hire people who are excited about the work. You
must project an air of confidence and enthusiasm about the interviewer’s organization
and the job you are applying for.
• Close the interview professionally: Always thank the interviewer for his or her time.
Conclude by making a statement that sets the stage for appropriate follow-up activities,
such as “I am very interested in working with your organization. May I call you next
week to see if you need any additional information?”

NOTE Employment interviewing can be one of the most exciting

experiences in your job search. The secret to your success is
Never ask about salary during
preparation and practice. Remember that the job does not
an interview—at least not until
the offer is on the table. always go to the most qualified person (although this helps);
jobs often go to the candidate who is the best fit for the organ-
ization (personality, preparation, confidence, social skills,
positive outlook on life, and enthusiasm). Therefore, you should view employment interviews as
your chance to sell those qualities that make you an ideal employee.

The Follow-Up
The feeling of relief that comes as you leave the building after an interview doesn’t last long. The
job search process doesn’t end with a handshake and an “It was a pleasure meeting you.” To cement
the positive impression you’ve made, it is crucial to follow up.

Giving Thanks
Follow-up letters or thank-you notes are an important and often-overlooked part of the job search.
These are letters sent 24–48 hours after an interview or informational meeting. They are primarily
intended to
• Reiterate your interest in the position.
• Thank the interviewer for the time he or she spent with you.
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CHAPTER 10: IMPROVE YOUR JOB SEARCH STRATEGY 175

• Add pertinent information you may have overlooked in the interview.

• Keep the lines of communication open.

Of course, the content of the letter or note varies depending on the organization, the job in
question, and the kind of interview it was. A note sent thanking someone for an informational
interview will likely be shorter than one sent after a job interview. Still, in all cases, a thank-you
note or letter should be short, professional, to the point, and free of errors.
You should begin writing your thank-you note immediately after an interview. The key is to reit-
erate your interest in the job and the organization while reminding the person you are writing as
to what makes you a qualified applicant. The following example provides one possible approach to
a thank-you note.

SAMPLE THANK-YOU NOTE

Dear Ms. Smith:
Thank you for the time and courtesy you extended to me during our meeting on Wednesday. The posi-
tion you described sounds extremely interesting and challenging.
I believe that my experiences as a secretary with the Private Industry Council and as an office manager
with the Nationwide Insurance Agency would help me make a significant contribution to XYZ Cor-
poration. I am very interested in helping your company grow and succeed.
If you need any further information or would like to meet again, please feel free to contact me at (606)
123-4567. I will contact you next week to discuss the next step in the selection process. Thank you
again for your time.
Sincerely,
Nita Jobs

After each interview you complete, you should immediately NOTE

send a thank-you note to all the people who interviewed you.
You should also consider send-
Besides showing your appreciation and reiterating your ing an e-mail immediately after
strengths, thank-you notes also show that you have good atten- interviewing and then follow
tion to detail skills and good follow-through skills. that up with a mailed thank-
you note.

Assessing Job Offers

Part of the job search process is assessing the job itself once it has been offered. After all, what is
the point of all this self-reflection and analysis—discovering your needs and interests, skills and val-
ues, goals and dreams—if you don’t take the time to decide if a job is right for you?
Having been offered a job, your first instinct will be to immediately accept it. After all, rejecting it
means going back to the job search. This is especially tempting if you have been unemployed for a
long time. However, you should always examine each job offer very carefully. Items you should con-
sider include:
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176 Career Quizzes

• The company’s financial position and financial history

• Promotional practices
• The type of work you will do
• The people with whom you will work
• The salary
• The benefits package
• The personality and management style of your supervisor
• Your commute to work
• Whether it will make the best use of your skills
• The amount of autonomy you will have on the job
• Opportunities for advancement
• How the job fits with your values
• How the job fills your needs
• How the job shifts your work-leisure balance

And don’t lose sight of the forest while considering the trees. The temptation is to think of how a
job offer will change your present—how it will solve your current problems, pay your bills, and
provide you with the security you need. But it is also important to think about the long-term effects
of your choices. How does this job change your overall career plan? Does it bring you closer to your
long-term goals or is it just a paycheck? Does it open up new opportunities for you? Does it put
you in contact with people who can help you make your dreams come true?
Take Sharon, for example. Sharon always wanted to own a beauty salon. She had eight years of
experience working as a hairdresser at a chain store and had built up a base of loyal customers.
Unfortunately, while she knew a lot about styling hair, she didn’t know much about the numbers
of running her own business. When a position opened up as an office assistant at a tax firm, Sharon
saw it as an opportunity. Not only did the job pay more and offer better benefits, but it put her
in contact with people who knew about money and taxes and what it would take to own her own
business. Working at the tax firm for a few years might give Sharon the chance to save some capi-
tal, make some contacts, and learn the ins and outs of starting her own beauty salon.
So, as you consider a job offer, think back to everything you’ve discovered about yourself so far—
your needs, your interests, your values, your career goals, and your career direction—and ask your-
self if the offer represents just another job or the next step along your own career path.
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NEGOTIATING SALARY
A common misconception is that only executives can negotiate for their salary and other benefits. In
reality, anyone can and should negotiate. Many employers are prepared to compromise if they want you
bad enough and your requests are reasonable. The secret is to be assertive but not demanding in your
discussions. Consider the following tips when entering salary negotiations:
• Let the interviewer initiate the discussion about salary. Once they throw out a number, you can
negotiate.
• Come prepared by knowing the typical salary range for people working in similar positions.
Research salary reference books in your local library or on the Internet.
• State your desired salary as a range. For example, if you know an employer wants to pay about
$18,000/year, you might state your salary range as “upper teens to low twenties.”
• Remember to negotiate other items in addition to salary.
• Ask for annual or biannual performance reviews to get possible salary increases based on your
job performance. Many employers will negotiate for salary increases after a specified period of
time.
• Show enthusiasm throughout the process.
Also, remember that money is not always the most important factor as you consider a job offer. Assess
the overall package. Consider benefits such as flextime, vacation, job title, medical insurance, stock
options, and so on. Also, consider often-overlooked benefits such as tuition reimbursement, assisted
child care, or paid attendance to conferences and workshops.

Tying It All Together

It is not enough to develop a career plan. You must now put that plan into action—more than likely
by going out and getting the job you’ve dreamed of. Remember that finding a job is hard work and
that you must use a combination of the visible and hidden job markets to get the one you want. If
you learned more about your job search proficiencies and effective techniques for finding employ-
ment, you are now ready to go out and begin looking for your ideal job. The next chapter will help
you learn to make better use of your specific personality style in searching for a job.
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C H A P T E R
11
Make the Most of Your Style

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters
compared to what lies within us.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson

W hen I was growing up, my parents often wondered how my sister and I could be so differ-
ent, despite being from the same genetic stock and raised in the same household. My sister
liked predictability and took her obligations very seriously. I preferred new experiences and did not
take anything seriously. She placed high value on home and family, whereas I often felt trapped by
those types of commitments. My sister (like my wife) has a great work ethic, and I would rather
not work at all. In short, my sister and I had—and continue to have—very different temperaments
and approaches to life and career. The same is true for people searching for a job. For example, look
at how differently four people go about looking for employment.
Janet likes to plan every little detail and stick to the tried-and-true job search methods. She is
conscientious and willing to commit long hours to her job search. She uses a low-key approach to
finding jobs, like sending out cover letters and resumes to employers she identifies through hours
of Internet research, but she feels uncomfortable networking and interviewing.
Sherita is spontaneous, unstructured, and likes to use active job search methods. She has a high
degree of energy and a great deal of enthusiasm. She does not like details and the paper-based
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aspects of a job search but prefers networking and “cold calling” to talk directly with prospective
employers. The good rapport she develops with people serves her well in interviews.
Juan is goal oriented and determined in his search for a job. He is confident in his job-seeking
abilities and direct in his approach, contacting employers and all but insisting on an interview.
He is very good at networking and convincing prospective employers that he can improve their
organization.
Eddie is easygoing and tends to rely on the visible job market, sending out resumes to advertised
positions. He is not very good at making initial contact with employers, but he does well in inter-
view situations with his relaxed and friendly style. He is not aggressive, but he is persistent in his
low-key approach.
Which one of these approaches sounds most like you? You are undoubtedly a mix of styles, but you
will probably find one approach that comes more naturally than others.
When it comes to looking for your ideal job, it is important to understand your temperament and
its strengths and weaknesses. Once you better understand your temperament, you can better use
the job search methods that come naturally to you as well as overcome your weaknesses by learn-
ing and incorporating more effective job search methods.

Understanding Your Temperament

Your temperament is your unique way of expressing your feelings, thoughts, and actions. Tempera-
ments are simple ways to understand yourself, your behaviors, and your relationships with other
people. The study of temperaments has been useful in psychological practice, from marriage coun-
seling to career counseling. In fact, a better understanding of your temperament can help you more
effectively plan and execute your job search.
Temperament theory suggests that people of the same temperament type share a set of strengths,
abilities, and core values. By becoming aware of these characteristics, you can better understand
yourself and other people. Your temperament provides you with characteristics that set you apart
from other people. The different combinations of these characteristics can lead to very different
types of behaviors. An understanding of how your temperaments impact your behavior and the way
you react to changes in your environment can even provide insight into your strengths and weak-
nesses as a job seeker.

The Four Temperaments

The idea behind temperaments goes back to the days of togas and Trojans. Temperament theory
comes from the work of the Greek doctor Hippocrates, who believed bodily fluids called “humors”
caused certain human behaviors. These humors accounted for different behaviors in human beings.
The key to healthy leaving, for Hippocrates, was to achieve the proper balance of these four
humors. (If there was an imbalance, one cure was to drink enough poison to cause you to vomit,
thus releasing the humor, or bodily fluid, you had in excess. This practice is not recommended.)
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 181

Of course, Hippocratic theories have evolved substantially over time, but the fundamental divisions
have remained constant, as has the idea that these temperaments motivate our behaviors. Although
many other systems have replicated or incorporated the temperament types proposed by Hip-
pocrates, the four basic types remain consistent:
• Sanguine: Sanguine temperament types are generally optimistic, cheerful, confident,
and popular. They can be impulsive and unpredictable. They tend to have a lot of
energy but often have difficulty channeling this energy to accomplish the task at hand.
• Choleric: Choleric temperament types generally have a lot of ambition, energy, and
drive. They often seem charismatic or dominating. They set lofty goals and work very
hard to achieve them.
• Melancholic: Melancholic temperament types are generally thoughtful, analytical, and
detail oriented. They tend to be perfectionists and are particular about what they want
and how they want it. They are reserved and would rather work by themselves than as
part of a group.
• Phlegmatic: Phlegmatic temperament types tend to be calm and unemotional. They are
generally self-content, kind, relaxed, curious, and shy. They are reliable and compassion-
ate toward others. They like routine and prefer to keep a low profile.

Hippocrates was the most famous physician of his time, and his writings about the four tempera-
ment types show their effect on people’s physical health, mental attitude, happiness, career choices,
and compatibility among people. However, it is important to remember that people cannot be cat-
egorized exclusively into one of four categories or labels. All people are some combination of these
four temperament types. You will find that you possess one dominant temperament type, and the
characteristics of that type will largely dictate your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, but these types
are used for better understanding people, not pigeonholing them.

FACTS ABOUT TEMPERAMENTS

• You have a unique balance of the four basic temperaments.
• One of the temperaments will be dominant at your core.
• Whenever you’re outside your “element,” you’ll probably experience discomfort.
• When exposed to people with a different temperament, you’ll need to have time alone to find
your proper balance.
• The more aware you are of how your temperament operates, the more empowered you’ll be to
develop solutions to problems.
• You can’t change your basic temperament, but you can learn how to change behaviors and
actions associated with that temperament if necessary.
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182 Career Quizzes

Temperament and the Job Search

Karen has a great eye for detail, a polished resume, and a well-organized job search plan, but she is
uncomfortable contacting employers over the phone and meeting with them in person. She comes
off as being quiet and reserved—it’s just the kind of person she is. Karen soon discovered that
she could “psych herself up” to talk with employers. If she worked at it, she could be outgoing
and charismatic when interacting with new people; she could
NOTE overcome a temperament quality that was inherent in her
An understanding of tempera- personality.
ment can also help you better
understand other people Understanding your temperament can help you learn more
important in your job search. If about how you approach your search for employment and the
you are able to understand the reasons you choose certain job-seeking behaviors over others.
temperament of an interviewer, Just as people who understand their personalities can better find
you can adapt to his or her jobs that will suit them, people who understand their tempera-
temperament, such as keeping
an interviewer who becomes
ment can maximize their strengths and take steps to overcome
easily distracted on topic by their weaknesses during the job search. Making small and rea-
asking pointed questions. sonable accommodations will help you reduce the tension of a
job search campaign and adjust to certain job search situations.
The following assessment can help you identify your type and learn how to integrate other types
to be more effective in your search for the ideal job.

The Job Search Style Inventory

The following assessment can help you identify your approach to career development and the job
search based on your temperament. Read each statement to decide whether the statement describes
you. For each choice listed, circle the number of your response on the line to the right of each state-
ment.
This is not a test. Since there are no right or wrong answers, do not spend too much time think-
ing about your responses. Be sure to respond to every statement.

Very Much Usually Occasionally Somewhat Not

Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me

1. When in a group, I usually act

as leader 5 4 3 2 1
2. I am low-key and supportive 5 4 3 2 1
3. I am a free spirit 5 4 3 2 1
4. I am analytical 5 4 3 2 1
5. I am a self-starter 5 4 3 2 1
6. I do things in a leisurely manner 5 4 3 2 1
7. I motivate others easily 5 4 3 2 1
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 183

Very Much Usually Occasionally Somewhat Not

Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me

8. I usually make rational, planned

decisions 5 4 3 2 1
9. I want to get ahead 5 4 3 2 1
10. I am a good listener 5 4 3 2 1
11. I enjoy making new things 5 4 3 2 1
12. I am not very assertive 5 4 3 2 1
13. Others look to me to make decisions 5 4 3 2 1
14. I enjoy talking with other people 5 4 3 2 1
15. I easily adapt to change 5 4 3 2 1
16. I act only after having all the facts 5 4 3 2 1
17. I am competitive 5 4 3 2 1
18. I am loyal 5 4 3 2 1
19. I do not like taking risks 5 4 3 2 1
20. I pay close attention to details 5 4 3 2 1
21. I tend to be task oriented 5 4 3 2 1
22. I am patient 5 4 3 2 1
23. I always have lots of energy 5 4 3 2 1
24. I prefer to persuade people with logic 5 4 3 2 1
25. I work hard to achieve my goals 5 4 3 2 1
26. I am well organized 5 4 3 2 1
27. I am good at juggling many tasks 5 4 3 2 1
28. I prefer to work with facts and figures 5 4 3 2 1
29. I am good at getting results 5 4 3 2 1
30. I tend to develop only a few deep
relationships 5 4 3 2 1
31. I am innovative 5 4 3 2 1
32. I like to make plans in advance 5 4 3 2 1
33. I rarely take “no” for an answer 5 4 3 2 1
34. I am caring and nurturing 5 4 3 2 1
35. I see possibilities in every situation 5 4 3 2 1
36. Others see me as inflexible and rigid 5 4 3 2 1
37. I enjoy challenges 5 4 3 2 1
38. I put people at ease 5 4 3 2 1
39. I consider myself an “idea person” 5 4 3 2 1
40. I prefer to work alone 5 4 3 2 1
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184 Career Quizzes

Scoring
To score the assessment, first record your scores on the lines below. For example, if you circled “4”
for item number 1, you would put a “4” in the first space.
Now add the totals for each column and then put that number on the total line at the bottom. You
should get a total between 10 and 50.
Scale I Scale II Scale III Scale IV
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32
33 34 35 36
37 38 39 40

Total Doer Total Preparer Total Energizer Total Thinker

You’ve Got Style

How you go about the job search process largely depends on your job search style. Your job search
style is your unique way of looking for employment based on your temperament.
Odds are, you have one score that is higher than the others. This represents your preferred job
search style. Think of it as your default approach to a given job search situation—the one you are
most comfortable with. It is important to recognize this preference for two reasons. First, it helps
NOTE you discover your job search strengths—those aspects of the job
search that come naturally to you. But it can also help you
A comprehensive job search
uncover possible weaknesses in your job search strategy. Not
requires you to use a variety of
different tools and techniques only does each style have weak spots, but styles that don’t match
in order to be successful. The your temperament (those you scored lower in) may offer posi-
problem that most people have tive strategies that you weren’t aware of.
when searching for their ideal
job is that they use only a small
In other words, the key is to accentuate your strengths and
number of the job search tech- improve your weaknesses—to identify those things you do in
niques available to them. the job search that come natural to you but to also recognize the
job search strategies that you struggle with and find ways to
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 185

overcome them, whether it’s writing your resume, calling on NOTE

employers, or answering interview questions. Once you recog-
No single job search style is
nize the role that your temperament plays in your job search better or worse than another.
strategy, you can learn to modify your behaviors to get the most Although it’s arguable that one
from your job search. or two styles are better suited
to a particular aspect of the job
The rest of this chapter provides descriptions of the four job search (that Doers are more
search styles: their strengths, their weaknesses, and suggestions naturally adept at interviewing
for making the most of them. As you read through the descrip- than Thinkers, for example),
tions and complete the exercises, concentrate on the potential the truth is that the job search
weaknesses of scales you scored higher in. Likewise, concentrate is a complex array of tasks for
on the strengths of scales you scored lower on and find ways to which no single approach
incorporate the positives of those styles into your job search. works all the time.

The Doer
Doers are driven to achieve their goals. They are action oriented and assertive. They seldom take
no for an answer and are highly competitive. They also have little patience and operate at a high
stress level. Doers are self-motivated and results oriented, sticking with a task until it’s finished.
They take themselves very seriously. Because they are so forceful and intense, they often have trou-
ble getting to know people well. They don’t worry about details or offending other people. They
are respected by others, however, because of their ability to get things done. They relate most closely
to the Choleric temperament.

Doers and the Job Search

Doers tend to be open and assertive with employers, whether over the phone or face to face.
They excel at selling themselves to employers and following through on job search activities. Very
articulate, they have no problem trumpeting their skills and experiences, but they tend to avoid
criticism.
At the same time, Doers tend to lose patience with the job search. Their aggressiveness can be a
liability, and they sometimes do not think about the consequences of their actions. They can
come across as pushy, and they sometimes forget to (or choose not to) listen during a job search
interview.
Not patient enough to rely on resumes and cover letters, Doers prefer job search strategies that get
immediate results (such as directly calling an employer). Because of their aggressive and determined
nature, Doers are also effective at building a job search network.
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186 Career Quizzes

PROFILE OF A DOER
Fred is a Doer. He works as a journalist for a small-town newspaper, but he has a strong desire to get
a better job. He drives himself more than his colleagues and sets both short- and long-term goals for
his career and works hard to achieve them. He wants to find a job working for a bigger newspaper in
a larger city and then become a managing editor. He believes that the secret to finding this job will be
to meet directly with hiring officials at newspapers that could use his skills. When Fred meets with
other newspaper executives in conferences, meetings, and trainings, he aggressively sells his qualifica-
tions and experience to prospective employers. He keeps business cards from all the people he meets
while networking and keeps in touch with them through phone calls and e-mails. He has a resume
(although it’s a little unpolished) and a portfolio of the newspaper articles he has written but believes
that networking with colleagues is the best way to get the job he wants.

Individuals with a primarily Doer style can improve their job search strategy with the following
tips:
• Learn to know when assertiveness is detrimental to job search efforts.
• Think before acting.
• Learn to relax and be patient.
• Develop a portfolio of accomplishments to show employers.
• Do not alienate employers with a direct approach.
• Create a great resume and cover letter to show prospective employers.

The Preparer
Preparers are good at interacting with others, provided they don’t have to be forceful and can avoid
conflict. They handle problems courteously and efficiently. They are well-organized and are adept
planners. They find comfort in routine and prefer to keep a low profile. They carry out their
well-designed plans in a thorough and persistent manner, although often without any outward
show of enthusiasm. Preparers are very productive in their work. Their fear of change can become
debilitating, but in a stable and predictable environment, they are friendly and warm and have a
tremendous desire to succeed. They relate most closely to the Phlegmatic temperament.

Preparers and the Job Search

Preparers remain calm in their search for a job, usually taking rejection in stride. Organized
and thorough, they prepare for every aspect of the job search campaign, trying to anticipate all
possible outcomes. Responsive listeners, their easygoing nature and affable personality make for a
comfortable interview environment, although their sometimes shy nature may keep them from
making a lasting impression.
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 187

Because they avoid confrontation and lack assertiveness, Preparers often struggle to sell themselves.
They are not enthusiastic or aggressive when talking to employers, either to make initial contact or
during job interviews. In an interview situation, especially, this temperament can come off as being
passive—often seen as a negative in the world of work where companies are looking for energetic
self-starters. Although nice guys don’t finish last all the time in the job search, they often struggle
to finish first.
A Preparer’s easygoing temperament inclines them toward relying too heavily on the visible job
market; thus, they are not very proactive in phoning employers, applying directly to organizations,
or building a job search network. Being “people people,” Preparers like to rely on others, such as
friends, relatives, agencies or government offices, to help them in their job search—sometimes to
the Preparer’s detriment.

PROFILE OF A PREPARER
Janice is a Preparer. She is very friendly but somewhat shy when meeting new people. She works as a
computer programmer in a student service office at a small college. She has worked at the college for
14 years and enjoys her job, but she wonders if she could get a job with a little more responsibility,
such as an academic computing specialist who serves the entire college. She manages a well-organized
job search campaign, especially with jobs advertised in the paper. She has developed a great resume and
cover letter and sends it out if she sees a job she really likes, but she is not at all proactive in phoning
potential employers or talking to people about potential openings they may have. If her dream job is
never advertised, she will probably just stay in her current one.

Individuals with a primarily Preparer style can improve their job search strategy with the following
tips:
• Take control of the job search campaign.
• Become more assertive in self-marketing.
• Learn to never take “no” for an answer.
• Be enthusiastic throughout the job search.
• Make an effort to achieve goals and not procrastinate.
• Take action after thorough preparation.
• Learn to enjoy talking with prospective employers.
• Build a network of potential employers.

The Energizer
Energizers are adventurous and can be risk-takers. Spontaneous and unstructured, many people
consider them to be “free spirits.” Like Preparers, Energizers tend to avoid confrontation. Unlike
Preparers, Energizers have a high energy level and a great deal of enthusiasm, although they often
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188 Career Quizzes

need help channeling their energy in constructive ways. Energizers get along well with almost
everyone. They love a variety of tasks and are open to change. They can be impulsive and become
restless easily. They would rather work with people than worry about details or paperwork. They
may have limited organizational skills, which can lead to making careless mistakes, but their enthu-
siasm makes them good motivators. They relate most closely to the Sanguine temperament.

Energizers and the Job Search

Energizers are willing to take risks. As such, they are willing to use all job search methods and will
even discover innovative job search strategies. Energizers use their energy to propel them through
every phase of the job search without getting discouraged. Their charisma and enthusiasm usually
make a positive impression in an interview (provided they aren’t seen as being hyper or chaotic).
Because their energy can be frenzied and they themselves are spontaneous, Energizers have diffi-
culty organizing a job search campaign. They tend to be impulsive and careless. They are often not
interested in the paper aspects of looking for a job (developing an effective resume, filling out
employment applications, and so on), which can hurt their chances during the screening process.
Although they can generate new ideas in their job search, they have difficulty developing a plan or
following through to complete it.
Energizers are excellent at networking and talking directly with employers, although they some-
times have difficulty translating their energy and enthusiasm to paper. Thus, Energizers will excel
in an interview, provided they haven’t been screened out by a sloppy resume or a lack of attention
to detail. Energizers also become bored easily in a job search campaign. They are okay as long as
they are talking with people and networking. However, unless they are able to pull together all the
aspects of a job search campaign, they will have difficulty finding the ideal job.

PROFILE OF AN ENERGIZER
Shauna is an Energizer. She runs a small business from her home, selling paintings and other artworks,
many of them her own. However, she does not make enough money at this and would like a job that
would allow her to create art in her spare time. She worries that her personality might not come across
well in interviews. She is also not interested in developing a resume, and would rather pay someone to
do it for her. She is not at all organized and doesn’t want to be bothered filling out employment appli-
cations. She says that she might create an electronic portfolio to show prospective employers her work.
She might also send out “artsy” postcards to employers to advertise her skills. She feels that a creative
approach to the job search will be the best way to sell her talents to prospective employers.

Individuals with a primarily Energizer style can improve their job search strategy with the follow-
ing tips:
• Organize a job search campaign better.
• Learn to curb impulsiveness.
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 189

• Appreciate the value of tools such as resumes, cover letters, and employment applica-
tions (and working to make them professional).
• Learn not to be sensitive to criticism and rejection.
• Use creativity to find ways to impress employers.
• Attend more to the small details of an effective job search campaign (such as keeping
track of resumes sent out, replies from prospective employers, interview dates, and
follow-up activities).

The Thinker
Thinkers are logical in all that they do—the Mr. Spocks of the job search style universe. Like Pre-
parers, Thinkers are low keyed, although they prefer to work alone. They are not very assertive and
often worry about things they can’t control. Thinkers tend to be perfectionists, willing to spend a
great deal of energy to complete projects and get them right. As a consequence, they often get
bogged down in details and fail to “see the forest for the trees.” Some would call them thoughtful;
others would call them reclusive. They make decisions only after having all the facts. They have lit-
tle tolerance for carelessness in themselves or in others, which prompts the impression that they are
critical and impatient. They are most closely related to the Melancholic temperament.

Thinkers and the Job Search

Thinkers need a lot of information before proceeding, whether that means researching a company
before an interview or taking a battery of assessments to find out what careers they are suited for.
They tend to operate a passive job search campaign, preferring more traditional methods—for
example, mailing out a resume rather than directly calling an employer. Thinkers will work at find-
ing a job for long hours and will not feel satisfied until they have completed the task at hand.
Their analytical nature makes them skilled at writing resumes and cover letters and preparing for
job interviews, although once they come face to face with an employer, they may come off as being
reserved and unenthusiastic. Thinkers are not very assertive in their search for employment and
often struggle with networking. They may set unrealistic time limits for finding a job or get bogged
down in the insignificant aspects of the job search and lose sight of the big picture.
Even the most organized job search won’t produce results without risks. So, while a Thinker may
feel prepared to take action, actually taking the action requires a little more effort on his or her part.
Thinkers are adept at utilizing “paper” job search methods, such as sending out cover letters and
resumes, completing employment applications, and following up after interviews.
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PROFILE OF A THINKER
Omar is a Thinker. He tends to be extremely logical in his work as a geologist with the state of Vir-
ginia and would like to get a job as a geologist with one of the major U.S. oil companies. He likes the
traditional job search methods, including mass mailing resumes and cover letters to all the oil compa-
nies he can identify through his research. He has posted his resume to all the job search engines, and
he knows plenty about the companies he’s most interested in. He is afraid to phone employers and talk
to them directly, however, doubting his interpersonal skills. He knows that once he is on the job, he
will do well, but he has trouble talking to prospective employers about his knowledge, skills, and abil-
ities. He would be happy if an employer would just look at his immaculate resume and send him an
e-mail telling him he’s hired. He does very little networking and will simply wait for his resume to land
in the right hands.

Individuals with a primarily Thinker style can improve their job search strategy with these tips:
• Rely less on logic and more on gut feelings.
• Don’t fuss over the minor details of a job search campaign.
• Never lose sight of the big picture.
• Be less critical.
• Be flexible.
• Be more aggressive with employers.
• Develop a network of prospective employers.

Improving Your Job Search Skills

We each have one or two styles that we will naturally gravitate toward. But remember that no one
style is better than another. The best job search strategy is one that incorporates the best parts
of your strongest style along with strategies you can learn to implement from weaker styles. While
it is important to play to your strengths and stay in your comfort zone, odds are you won’t fully
realize your career goals without taking risks. Sometimes, that involves going against your natural
inclinations and doing things you aren’t comfortable with (such as picking up the phone and call-
ing an employer) or don’t think you’re good at (such as networking or writing a cover letter). The
more you engage in these activities, the better you will become at them. While temperament is a
part of your personality, job searching is a skill that can be learned and improved. The key is to use
your understanding of the one to help you improve the other.
In the spaces below, answer each question related to your job search style and ways it can be
improved.
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CHAPTER 11: MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR STYLE 191

EXERCISE

What is your most dominant job search style?

What are your job search strengths? Which job search strategies do you prefer to use?

What are your job search weaknesses? Which job search strategies do you least like to use?

What are some characteristics from other job search styles that you’d like to incorporate?

What steps can you take now to improve the effectiveness of your job search?

Tying It All Together

The more you know about yourself and your tendencies, the better you are able to utilize the job
search techniques that come naturally for your temperament as well as learn techniques that do not
come naturally.
Having assessed your job search knowledge and learned about your job search style, almost noth-
ing stands between you and your career goals. The final step is to ensure your success as you meet
those goals. The last chapter will help you do just that.
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C H A P T E R
12
Ensure Your Success

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close
they were to success when they gave up.”
—Thomas Edison

S o, you’ve landed your ideal job. (And if you haven’t, what’s stopping you?) You may think your
work is done, but in many ways, you’re just getting started. Career development, after all, is
about much more than getting a job offer. It’s about managing the opportunities that come your
way and working hard to create new opportunities of your own. You’ve spent most of this book set-
ting long-term career goals; you want to be sure you reach them. That means ensuring you have
the skills employers want most, regardless of what kind of job you’ve got.
Maintaining your career success means excelling at the work you do. This may be harder than you
think. Just imagine working with (or managing) the following two employees.
Sam is a loner. He worries that if he asks for help, he will lose status in his supervisor’s eyes. He is
a poor team player and does not willingly share information with coworkers. He isn’t receptive to
others’ ideas and is certainly not open to constructive criticism. He doesn’t make much room for
empathy or try to understand where his coworkers, or even his customers, are coming from.
Sherry appreciates being part of a team. She listens attentively to her coworkers and tries to learn
as much as she can from them. She avoids passing judgment and trusts other people to accomplish
the goals they set. She accepts both the strengths and weaknesses of the people in her office.
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Although these two examples are exaggerated, they represent two of the many types of people you
will encounter (or already have encountered) in the workplace. They each exhibit varying degrees
of emotional intelligence (EI). Your emotional intelligence plays an important role in maintaining
your career success.

The Skills Needed to Succeed

In today’s constantly changing world of work, people must take full responsibility for their own
careers. In the 1950s and 1960s, workers could depend on loyal and consistent employment. Today,
traditional career ladders have disappeared or been replaced, and employees who survive and suc-
ceed in the workplace are those who have a comprehensive set of skills—both the technical skills
needed to do a job and the nontechnical or “soft” skills needed to be a good employee and team
player.
Many researchers even suggest that these “soft” skills are more valuable than the technical require-
ments for a job. Employers are more concerned about workers showing up on time, taking
supervision well, and getting along with each other than they are a worker’s ability to complete a
spreadsheet, track a package, or repair an engine. These “soft” skills can be loosely defined
as emotional intelligence skills, and they are your keys to long-lasting career success. Emotional
intelligence often determines not only who is hired, but also how successful an employee is with an
organization.
Today’s career managers (and that is what you are) must have a much wider array of emotional intel-
ligence skills and knowledge to stay successful. Despite this fact, all the current research suggests
that prospective employees do not have the emotional intelligence skills required to deal with the
opportunities and challenges inherent in the world of work.

WHAT EMPLOYERS WANT MOST

Employers worry about the gaps in skills in prospective employees. The National Association of Col-
leges & Employers (NACE) recently surveyed 640 randomly selected college recruiters in an effort to
identify the most important performance dimensions currently being sought by employers in their
prospective employees. In this study, the employers rated interpersonal skills as the most important skill
for new employees to have, followed by ethics and integrity, leadership, perseverance, and then job-
related knowledge. The first four most-sought-after dimensions were emotional intelligence skills.

Why Emotional Intelligence Matters

The people with the highest emotional intelligence tend to be the ones who move ahead in their
careers. The effectiveness of emotional intelligence training is well documented. In his book Emo-
tional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Daniel Goleman suggests that people with
well-developed emotional skills are more likely to be content and effective in their lives. Evidence
verifies that people who are emotionally intelligent—those who know and manage their own feel-
ings well and who read and deal effectively with other people’s feelings—are at an advantage in any
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domain of life, from intimate relationships to business organi- NOTE

zations. Knowing your best emotional intelligence skills and Unlike the traditional intelli-
making the constant effort to improve them can help you to gence quotient (IQ), anyone
achieve the long-term career goals you’ve set for yourself. can learn and improve his or
her emotional intelligence
Goleman identified a set of five emotional intelligence compe-
skills. Emotional intelligence
tencies: includes such skills as motivat-
I. Self-awareness: Knowing one’s internal states, prefer- ing oneself, thinking rationally,
and empathizing with others.
ences, resources, and intuitions
II. Self-regulation: Managing one’s internal states,
impulses, and resources
III. Motivation: Emotional tendencies that guide or facilitate reaching goals
IV. Empathy: Awareness of others’ feelings, needs, and concerns
V. Social skills: Adeptness at inducing desirable responses in others

Regardless of the type of organization you work for, you are evaluated on these skills. Your emo-
tions can provide you with valuable information about yourself, other people, and interpersonal
situations you will encounter in the workplace. Being successful means working together with
coworkers and supervisors to meet the organization’s goals. Ultimately, your emotional intelligence
skills are teamwork skills.
You can increase your emotional intelligence by learning more about yourself and practicing these
skills and abilities. But first, it might help to know what your stronger (and weaker) emotional
intelligence skills are.

The Emotional Intelligence Scale

The Emotional Intelligence Scale can help you determine how effective you are at working with
others and what skills you could further develop to be more successful in your career. Read each
statement to decide how well the statement describes you and then circle the number of your
response on the line to the right of each statement.
There are no right or wrong answers, so do not spend too much time thinking about your
responses. Be sure to respond to every statement.
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Very Much Somewhat A Little Not

Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me
1. I welcome constructive criticism 4 3 2 1
2. I attend all meetings on time 4 3 2 1
3. I am willing to help other coworkers 4 3 2 1
4. I appreciate differences in others 4 3 2 1
5. I communicate my ideas clearly 4 3 2 1
6. I am prepared to make sacrifices to reach goals 4 3 2 1
7. I foster team spirit 4 3 2 1
8. I acknowledge others’ viewpoints 4 3 2 1
9. I communicate in a nonjudgmental manner 4 3 2 1
10. I keep the commitments I make to coworkers and
supervisors 4 3 2 1
11. I acknowledge and reward coworkers for
their contributions 4 3 2 1
12. I encourage differing opinions 4 3 2 1
13. I disagree with others tactfully 4 3 2 1
14. I make organizational goals a priority 4 3 2 1
15. I openly share new information with coworkers 4 3 2 1
16. I recognize the positive ideas of others 4 3 2 1
17. I ask questions and encourage others to do so 4 3 2 1
18. I maintain ethical standards when completing tasks 4 3 2 1
19. I trust other coworkers to complete their work 4 3 2 1
20. I empathize with others easily 4 3 2 1
21. I give others constructive feedback 4 3 2 1
22. I identify and respond to needs without being asked 4 3 2 1
23. I foster cooperation among coworkers 4 3 2 1
24. I am willing to change my mind 4 3 2 1
25. I listen attentively to others 4 3 2 1
26. I follow the rules and regulations of the
organization 4 3 2 1
27. I encourage participation among uncommitted
coworkers 4 3 2 1
28. I enjoy working with people different from me 4 3 2 1
29. I notice nonverbal and verbal cues 4 3 2 1
30. I complete tasks efficiently 4 3 2 1
31. I am cooperative 4 3 2 1
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Very Much Somewhat A Little Not

Like Me Like Me Like Me Like Me
32. I respect the personal boundaries of others 4 3 2 1
33. I learn as much as possible from my coworkers 4 3 2 1
34. I hold myself accountable for my actions 4 3 2 1
35. I coordinate my work with that of my
coworkers 4 3 2 1
36. I make the best use of everyone’s strengths 4 3 2 1

Scoring
To score the assessment, first record each score on the lines below. For example, if you circled “4”
for item number 1, you would put a “4” in the first space.
Now add the totals for each column and put that number on the total line at the bottom. You
should get a total between 9 and 36.
Scale I Scale II Scale III Scale IV
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28
29 30 31 32
33 34 35 36

Total Communication Total Commitment Total Cooperation Total Connection

The Four Cs of Success

The Emotional Intelligence Scale can help you identify your NOTE
strengths as an employee (or a supervisor) in four critical skills All employers want employees
areas: communication, commitment, cooperation, and connec- who are good team players,
who communicate well, who
tion. The following sections will describe these four key compo-
collaborate with coworkers,
nents as well as provide some questions to help you enhance and who can leverage diversity.
your emotional intelligence skills. At least, you’d be hard pressed
While anyone can benefit from the information and exercises to find an employer who
doesn’t appreciate these skills.
that follow regardless of their score, you should concentrate on
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198 Career Quizzes

those areas you scored the lowest in. For each section, scores from 9–17 are considered low and sug-
gest room for improvement, while scores from 28–36 are high and suggest this is one of your
strengths. Naturally, you will want to play to your best skills to maintain your career success, but
you shouldn’t neglect any opportunity to turn a weak point into a strong one.

Communication
Emotional intelligence is a critical component for success or failure in the world of work, and much
of emotional intelligence relates to effectively sending and receiving messages. People with high
scores in communication get their point across effectively but also listen attentively to what other
people say. They communicate ideas in a clear and nonjudgmental manner, using both verbal and
nonverbal cues. They are not afraid to ask questions or ask for help. They show a great deal of
empathy and are good at resolving conflicts.
Miscommunication is the cause of much disagreement, both in and out of work. To be more effec-
tive in communicating with others, remember these key points:
• When sending messages, use words like “I,” “me,” and “my.” In this way, you take own-
ership of your messages. Words like “They” or “Some people” are ineffective and elusive.
Speak for yourself!
• Look at the person and speak to him or her directly. Maintain steady eye contact (but
don’t give them the “stare of impending doom”).
• Express your feelings. It may sound cheesy, but your emotions drive your behavior and
thus explain your actions and reactions. It can be useful to get them out in the open.
Examples of how to express your feelings include statements such as “I get upset when
you break your word.”
• Give constructive feedback. Be generous in the amount and type of feedback that you
give to others. Expressing more positive feedback can increase the quality of your work-
ing relationships.
• Be assertive. Assertive people can express their desires, needs, and wants. By establishing
what it is that you really want, you will know what is worth fighting for and what to
simply walk away from.

Learn to Listen
Listening is paying close attention to what others say and is just as important as, if not more impor-
tant than, sending your own messages. Active listening involves listening and responding to another
person in ways that help you better understand his or her views. Too often, however, people find it
much easier to talk than to listen. Here are some common blocks to effective listening:
• Inadequate listening: It is easy to get distracted from what other people are saying.
This includes being too involved with your own thoughts or too preoccupied with your
own needs.
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CHAPTER 12: ENSURE YOUR SUCCESS 199

• Evaluative listening: Listening with the intent of judging the person can hinder your
ability to really understand them.
• Daydreaming: Everyone’s attention will wander from time to time. If you find yourself
having a hard time listening to someone, it is probably a sign that you are avoiding the
person or certain topics of conversation.
• Rehearsing: Any time you ask yourself the question, “How should I respond to what
the person is saying?” you get distracted from what the person says.

Active listening is a learned skill and one you can easily improve by following a few simple steps:
• Listen for understanding: Rather than think about what you will to say next, make it
your priority to discover what other people are thinking and feeling as they relay their
messages to you.
• Clear your mind: Be receptive to the thoughts and emotions behind other people’s
words. Use “encouragers” such as “Tell me more,” “Uh, huh,” or “I see.”
• Be like a mirror: Reflect back to the person your understanding of his or her thoughts
and feelings. In your own words, restate what you understand the person’s message
to be.
• Ask for more: Invite the speaker to elaborate if you need more information.

I SEE WHAT YOU’RE SAYING

People frequently communicate without words (as most irritated drivers know) by using body action,
eye contact, hand gestures, and facial expressions.
Here are some tips for enhancing your nonverbal communication skills. Remember that people from
different cultures may show some variations on these tips:
• Find comfortable spacing when talking to another person. How close you get will depend on
your relationship with the other person.
• Lean your body forward slightly. This will show the other person that you are interested in the
conversation.
• Maintain eye contact.
• Provide nonverbal cues to the other person; for example, nodding your head in approval.
• Keep gestures simple and unobtrusive.
• Stay alert when communicating with others. Closing your eyes, yawning, or looking at your
watch can block effective communication (a scientific way of saying “tick people off ”).

Answering the following questions can give you some insight into your strengths and weaknesses
as a communicator. Remember that you can improve your communication skills, just as you can
any emotional intelligence skill.
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EXERCISE

When do you find yourself being so distracted that you do not listen to others?

When do you find yourself thinking about your response instead of listening to others when they
speak?

How can you improve your communication skills?

NOTE Commitment
For employees to feel commit- People with high scores in commitment tend to be steadfast
ted, they must feel trusted, in their pursuit of organizational goals and dedicated to the
included, and supported. Trust
your coworkers to do their jobs
success of their team. They show up prepared to work and are
effectively and efficiently, sup- intuitive about what needs to be done. They complete the tasks
port them in their work, and that they are assigned and are accountable for the results.
include them in your own, and
Commitment to a team of coworkers and an organization can
they will return the favor.
take many forms. Contrary to popular opinion, this does not
include spending long hours at work or taking work home,
refusing to take earned vacations, or obsessing about the work you do. Being committed is not the
same as being a workaholic or a perfectionist.
Instead, commitment includes things such as
• Making personal sacrifices to meet a larger organizational goal.
• Finding a sense of purpose in your organization’s larger mission.
• Using the organization’s core values when you make decisions.
• Seeking out opportunities to further the organization’s goals.
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Taking Responsibility NOTE

Personal responsibility refers to accepting the consequences of To be more responsible in the
your actions, choosing the behaviors necessary to reach your workplace, you need to be
goals, and making decisions that will positively affect the organ- aware of your strengths. Think
about your most valuable con-
ization you work for.
tribution to the organization—
When you accept responsibility, you make an effective, growth- the thing that distinguishes
oriented decision to create the future you want. You should you from your coworkers. The
begin to think about the projects that you might accept that most successful people take on
assignments that match their
will enhance your career development. strengths.
When you accept responsibility, you also choose to do the most
important tasks on your agenda. If you find yourself avoiding
hard projects out of fear or intimidation, you will want to reverse your self-defeating thinking or
find a mentor to talk to about your fears.

INCREASING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

Being responsible includes improving your own productivity. Whether it’s a teacher raising the test
scores of more students, the lawyer winning more cases, or the sales manager exceeding a quota, every
organization has a “bottom line” of some kind and will appreciate the employees who meet or exceed
their goals.
Here are some habits and activities employees often engage in that decrease their productivity at work.
Place a check mark in front of any you spend too much time doing:
• Spending too much time on e-mail
• Surfing (the Web, not the ocean, although most people shouldn’t do that while at work either)
• Chatting excessively with coworkers
• Searching for misplaced paperwork
• Poorly prioritizing tasks
• Good, old-fashioned procrastinating
• Poorly estimating how long tasks will take
• Becoming obsessed with the details

Answering the following questions can give you some insight into your strengths and weaknesses
in terms of commitment.
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EXERCISE

What commitments can you make to your organization?

What situations in your life may affect your commitment?

What can you do now to improve your level of commitment?

Cooperation
People with high scores in cooperation willingly help team members achieve organizational goals.
They do whatever they can to enhance team spirit and acknowledge the accomplishments of their
coworkers. They work to get everyone involved, fostering participation from committed and
uncommitted team members alike.
Quite simply, cooperation represents your efforts to work with others. This does not include doing
other people’s work for them (even if you think you would do it better), giving in to others’
suggestions all the time, or trying to avoid conflict. Giving in, giving up, or doing all the work
yourself only isolates you further from people who can help you be successful. It also tends to fos-
ter negative feelings in the workplace.
Instead, you should find ways to develop effective working relationships with your coworkers, striv-
ing to create an atmosphere of camaraderie with clear lines of communication. This includes
• Sharing important information and resources with your team members. Sharing infor-
mation builds trust and integrity, and sharing with your coworkers helps ensure that
they will return the favor.
• Promoting a friendly and cooperative climate in which to work. Keep your criticism
constructive, and remember to praise the good work of team members.
• Identifying and nurturing opportunities for cooperation. Learn to pick up on cues about
projects that are important to coworkers and then collaborate with them.
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CHAPTER 12: ENSURE YOUR SUCCESS 203

Giving Feedback
Positive feedback prompts your coworkers to continue doing things that benefit the organization.
When giving positive feedback, consider the following tactics:
• Be sincere: Tell what you think of group members’ behavior and how it had a positive
impact on the outcome.
NOTE
• Point out the details: Mention specific behaviors,
The first year in a new job is
actions, and events that were especially effective.
critical. New employees need
• Make it personal: Use “I” statements when possible. to understand the corporate
For example, you might say something like “I really culture, learn the written and
unwritten rules of the organi-
enjoyed your marketing presentation. It really got me
zation, and work to become an
thinking. Keep up the great work.” efficient member of the team.

Providing Constructive Criticism

Constructive criticism provides information so that coworkers can improve their behavior. In pro-
viding constructive criticism, remember the following:
• Word your feedback so that it does not hurt or offend the person. Very few people
appreciate having their shortcomings pointed out to them, so be very careful with the
language you use.
• Identify specific behaviors and situations that need improvement. Try to balance these
with praise of behaviors that you find effective.
• Tell how you feel about the behaviors and the outcomes rather than pass judgment on
the individual’s personal qualities.
• Confirm understanding by listening to the person’s reaction.
• Most importantly, offer suggestions on how to improve performance. “Do it faster, bet-
ter, cheaper” might be the ultimate goal, but give specific strategies for how to meet
those goals.

IT’S A MATTER OF TRUST

To develop and maintain effective relationships with coworkers and supervisors, you must work to
establish trust. A high level of trust is hard to build and may take years to develop. So, take your time
in building trust with people, and don’t expect coworkers to immediately trust you 100 percent either.
Here are some things you can do to enhance trust in the workplace:
• Communicate accurate and relevant information.
• Openly share your thoughts and feelings with others.
• Be friendly (even if it’s just not your day).

(continued)
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(continued)

• Behave ethically in your relationships with others.

• Do what you say you will do.
• Avoid stereotyping.
• Build relationships with people from cultures and backgrounds different from yours.
• Support coworkers who are “on the spot.”
• Be honest with coworkers and supervisors.

Answering the following questions can help you pinpoint ways to improve your cooperation skills.
Remember that while people are often hired for their skills, they are often fired for their inability
to get along with their coworkers or supervisors. Technical skills may be your ticket into a job, but
your emotional intelligence skills are your ticket to long-term success.

EXERCISE

When have you struggled to work as part of a team? What kept the team from functioning as
effectively as it could have?

What can you do to establish a more collaborative environment at work?

What can you do to ensure that team members openly share ideas?

Connection
People with high scores in connection enjoy working with other people with diverse backgrounds.
They feel connected to the other members of the team because they can see all the possibilities that
those team members bring to the table. They are open to different points of view and encourage
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CHAPTER 12: ENSURE YOUR SUCCESS 205

other team members to express their opinions. By recognizing and accepting the strengths and
weaknesses of coworkers, people with good connection skills tend to operate from a more opti-
mistic viewpoint.
When you cannot connect with coworkers and supervisors, you fail to create a cooperative, ener-
getic environment that encourages all people to do well. Your ability to connect with others also
significantly boosts your value to your employer.
To connect with other people in your organization, you need to be someone your coworkers appre-
ciate and like to work with. In connecting with others, you should try to
• Be accessible, approachable, and responsive.
• Be adaptable in your work. Be creative and flexible during “crunch time,” and be willing
to accommodate other people.
• Maintain an upbeat, can-do approach in your work. Moodiness can lessen your connec-
tion to other people; try to maintain an even emotional keel.
• Be respectful and considerate of others—the time they give to you and the skills, knowl-
edge, and abilities they bring to the organization.
• Be fair. You should always try to look for “win-win” solutions in every situation and
avoid conflicts if possible.

Being Empathetic
Empathetic people are uniquely attuned to the feelings of others. They can easily understand what
people are going through. As such, they are also highly attuned to the messages hidden behind what
people say. They are highly socially intelligent, tend to have very effective interpersonal relation-
ships, and are guided by genuine feelings of compassion and regard for their fellow human beings.
Being empathetic involves several key skills, including
• Listening carefully to others’ points of view.
• Setting aside your own judgments and biases in order to “walk in the shoes” of your
coworkers.
• Paying close attention to both the verbal and nonverbal messages others send you.
• Drawing as much as possible on your own experience to relate to the circumstances of
others.

Leveraging Diversity
We live in a complex society, and interacting effectively with people from different cultures,
ethnic groups, socioeconomic classes, races, and historical backgrounds is critical. The problem is
that interacting with people different from us does not come naturally. The process of leveraging
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206 Career Quizzes

diversity is important because you will be required to interact with people despite natural barriers
of culture, religion, work ethic, gender, race, and social class. In addition, you will inevitably
encounter greater diversity among your friends, teachers, classmates, coworkers, neighbors, and
others in your community. Therefore, you must be skilled in relating to diverse individuals.
Use the following worksheets to recognize and better understand the diversity of the people around
you.

EXERCISE

Coworkers and friends who are different from me:

How these friends are different (race, social status, religion, gender, culture, etc.):

Reasons to appreciate those differences:

EXERCISE

Recognizing Strengths and Weaknesses

We all have a unique set of skills, abilities, talents, and traits that we bring to the workplace.
Recognizing the strengths of coworkers and learning to bring out the best in them are important,
whether you are a member of the team, a supervisor, or the owner of the company.
In the space below, list the members of your team (your coworkers) and any positive characteris-
tics they have that can help the team and the organization reach their goals:
Team Member Positive Characteristics
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CHAPTER 12: ENSURE YOUR SUCCESS 207

Answering the following questions can help you to imagine ways to foster a better sense of connec-
tion at work.

EXERCISE

How can you use the differences of your team to be more effective at work?

What can I do to be more open to the differences of the people around me (both in and out of
work)?

What can I do to be more empathetic toward the people around me?

Leading the Way

Being an effective part of a team in the workplace takes practice, experience, and persistence. Much
of how you act as part of a team comes from other teams you have been a part of. One of the first
steps to becoming successful is to explore your teamwork experiences in the past. This will give you
insights into the strengths and weaknesses you possess in working with others. The following exer-
cises can help you reflect on your team experiences in the past and how you might improve your
ability to work as part of a team in the future.
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EXERCISE

Describe some of the teams on which you have worked in the past.

Were they successful? Why or why not?

What roles did you play on these teams?

What team skills do you possess?

What team skills do you need to develop further?

What steps will you take to improve these skills?

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Tying It All Together

During the course of your career, you will make extensive use of your emotional intelligence
skills. You may find yourself speaking to angry clients or customers, listening to an anxious or frus-
trated supervisor, or getting into a disagreement with a coworker. The secret to success in today’s
workplace is to communicate effectively with your coworkers, commit to the success of your
organization, cooperate to ensure that everyone’s career goals are met, and find ways to connect
emotionally with the people you work for and with.
Emotional intelligence skills are job skills you can learn. You don’t have to be the smartest or best-
educated person in your organization. You simply need to work hard, play to your strengths, and
make the most of the strengths of those around you.
The worksheet that follows can help you summarize everything you’ve learned about yourself in
this part of the book. Remember that career development and management is an ongoing process
and does not end here. Use what you’ve learned about yourself to guide you as your career journey
unfolds.
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Part IV Summary: Take Action

I n this section, you identified strengths and weaknesses of your job search style and identified spe-
cific strategies for improving your job search. You have also looked at your emotional intelligence
and considered ways to be a more effective team member and worker.
Based on the results of the assessments and the information you completed in each chapter, use the
following worksheet to summarize what you’ve discovered about yourself. You can then use this
information to further assess your career plan and, more importantly, to put that plan into action.
By pulling together your results from all three chapters, you should have a much better sense of
what steps you need to take to achieve career success and satisfaction.

EXERCISE

Job search strategies I can improve on (from chapter 10):

What I can do now to make my job search more effective:

My preferred job search style (from chapter 11):

Strengths of my job search style:

Weaknesses of my job search style and ways to improve them:

Emotional intelligence skills I can improve on (from chapter 12):

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PART IV SUMMARY: TAKE ACTION 211

Ways I can be more effective and successful at work:

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Conclusion

Congratulations!
You have done a lot of hard work, learned a lot about yourself and your connection with the world
of work, and, hopefully, have found your ideal job so you can start down your newly envisioned
career path. Remember, you need to carefully manage your career because it will not manage itself.
You may want to take the assessments in this book again in about six months to see if your needs,
interests, skills, or values have changed; to make sure that you’re still in balance; to see if entrepre-
neurship looks more appealing; or to simply find more ways to be successful at work. If so, you
may also need to make new career decisions, set new career goals, and find different ways to imple-
ment changes. Whether you crack open this book again or not, never forget the advice of Socrates
that started this book, and learn as much about yourself as possible.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we
are moving. We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it—but sail we must and
not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
Keep sailing.
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 213

Index

A emotional intelligence, 195–197

AARP (American Association of Retired interests, 60–64
Persons), 39 job satisfaction, xii–xiii
accomplishments of entrepreneurs, 41, 129–131 job search strategy, 161–163
action phase (art of accomplishment), 130 job search styles, 182–184
active investment of career planners, 133–134 personality, 93–96
active listening, 198–200 self-employment, 42–43
Agriculture and Natural Resources career cluster, skills, 66–69
sample job titles, 72 values, 81–83
Allen, Kathleen, 50 work-leisure balance, 146–147
alone time, in work-leisure balance, 150 attainable goals, 138
American Association of Retired Persons attire for interviews, 173
(AARP), 39 attitude in career planning, 133
Answering Your Call (Schuster), 33 attitudinal blocks, 119
Architecture and Construction career cluster, authoritative values (Authoritative Value System),
sample job titles, 72 84, 87–88
art of accomplishment, 129–131
artistic personality type, 99–100
artistic values, 83–86
B
Arts and Communication career cluster, sample balance. See work-leisure balance
job titles, 72 balanced orientation, 152–153
assessing job offers, 175–177 basic needs (physiological needs), 21, 25–26
assessments. See also exercises belonging and love needs, 21, 28–30
career needs, 22–25 benefit plans, 45
career planning, 131–133 blaming others, 128
career transitions, 6–9 body language, 199
checklists, 48–49 breaks, in work-leisure balance, 150
decision-making process, 114–116 Business and Administration career cluster,
description of, xv–xvi sample job titles, 73
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 214

214 Career Quizzes

C career transitions
callings, 33 assessment, 6–9
career, as work-leisure balance, 145–146. See also preparation for, 5–6
occupations readiness for, 19–20
career clusters reasons for, 4–5
matching skills and interests to, 70–77 safety and security needs in, 26–28
researching occupations, 120 stages of, 6
Career Decision-Making Scale, 114–116 styles of, 9–17
career decisions. See decision-making process catalyst, 11–13
career goals. See goals job jumper, 15–17
Career Interest Inventory, 60–64 opportunist, 13–15
career interests. See interests selecting, 17
career needs. See needs traditionalist, 9–11
Career Personality Inventory, 93–96 catalyst career development style, 11–13
career plan development exercise, 155–156 change. See career transitions
career planners, characteristics of, 133–137 checklists, self-employment readiness, 48–49. See
career planning also assessments; exercises
assessment, 131–133 choleric temperament, 181, 185
attitude in, 133 commitment skills, 200–202
example scenarios, 127–128 commitment stage (career transitions), 6
goals, setting, 128–131 commitments, in self-employment, 45
responsibility for, 128 communication skills, 198–200
steps in, 137–142 companies, resources for identifying, 165–166
defining goals, 138–139 compensation (work-leisure balance), 145
identifying, 140–141 completion phase (art of accomplishment),
130–131
overcoming barriers, 141–142
compromise in career planning, 135–136
prioritizing goals, 139–140
conflict (work-leisure balance), 146
career risks, 125–126
connection skills, 204–207
Career Skills Inventory, 66–69
constructive criticism, 203–204
career success
conventional personality type, 103–104
emotional intelligence
Cooley, Charles, 96
assessment, 195–197
cooperation skills, 202–204
commitment skills, 200–202
Cover Letter Magic (Enelow and Kursmark), 170
communication skills, 198–200
cover letters, 169–170
connection skills, 204–207
creation phase (art of accomplishment), 130
cooperation skills, 202–204
importance of, 194–195
maintaining, 193–194
steps to, xv
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 215

INDEX 215

D employers
contacting directly, 165–166
Danko, William, 38
researching, 171–172
daydreaming, 199
skills sought by, 194
death rate of workaholics, 149
employment agencies, 161
Decision-Making Matrix, 124–125
employment applications, 170–171
decision-making process, 111
Enelow, Wendy S., 170
assessment, 114–116
energizers (job search style), 187–189
barriers to, 119
enterprising personality type, 102–103
difficulty of, 112–113
The Entrepreneur Next Door (Wagner), 50
steps in, 116–126
entrepreneurship. See self-employment
defining the decision, 117–118
Entrepreneurship For Dummies (Allen), 50
implementation, 125–126
esteem, self-esteem needs, 21, 30–31
information gathering, 118–119
evaluating job offers, 175–177
researching occupations, 119–122
evaluative listening, 199
selecting best occupation, 123–125
exercise, in work-leisure balance, 151
denial stage (career transitions), 6
exercises. See also assessments
diagnostic assessments, 22
active role in career planning, 134
Digital Aboriginal (Tarlow), 3
art of accomplishment, 130–131
direct employer contact, 165–166
balancing leisure orientation, 152
dissatisfaction. See job satisfaction
balancing work orientation, 150
diversity, leveraging, 205–207
barriers to goals, identifying, 141
doers (job search style), 185–186
barriers to goals, overcoming, 142
belonging and love needs, 28
E callings, 33
Education and Training career cluster, sample job career decision mistakes, 112
titles, 73 career plan development, 155–156
emotional intelligence career risks, 125–126
assessment, 195–197 catalyst career development style, 13
commitment skills, 200–202 checklists, 48–49
communication skills, 198–200 commitment skills, 202
connection skills, 204–207 communication skills, 200
cooperation skills, 202–204 compromise in career planning, 136
importance of, 194–195 connection skills, 207
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More cooperation skills, 204
Than IQ (Goleman), 194 coworker strengths and weaknesses, 206
Emotional Value System (social values), 84, 87 Decision-Making Matrix, 124–125
empathy, 195, 205 defining decisions (decision-making process),
117–118
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 216

216 Career Quizzes

defining goals, 139 F

diversity, leveraging, 206 family issues, career decisions and, 113
goal orientation of career planners, 137 feedback, providing, 203
goals for needs fulfillment, 35 Finance and Insurance career cluster, sample job
ideal job, 77, 106–107 titles, 73
information gathering (decision-making following up after interviews, 174–177
process), 118 Forbes, 41
interesting occupations, 77 functional resumes, 169
interests, 59
involvement in career planning, 135
job jumper career development style, 17 G
job search styles, 191 Gallery of Best Cover Letters (Noble), 170
life roles and needs fulfillment, 36 Gallery of Best Resumes (Noble), 169
maintaining work-leisure balance, 153 gender, self-employment and, 50
matching values and occupations, 89–90 Gilkerson, Linda, 50
needs fulfillment, 34 goal-oriented nature of career planners, 136–137
needs versus wants, 26 goals
networking, 166 barriers to, 140–141
Occupational Fit Matrix, 123 characteristics of, 138–139
Occupational Information Form, 122 defining, 138–139
opportunist career development style, 15 overcoming barriers to, 141–142
personality types and occupations, 104 prioritizing, 139–140
physiological needs, 25 setting, 128–131, 137–142
ranking occupations, 124 GOE (New Guide for Occupation Exploration),
relationships, impact of work on, 29–30 120
safety and security needs, 28 Goleman, Daniel, 194
self-actualization needs, 32 Government and Public Administration career
self-discovery, 52–53, 210–211 cluster, sample job titles, 73
self-employment dreams, 44–45 guided self-reflection, xiv
self-employment options, 47–48
self-esteem needs, 30–31
short-term and long-term goals, 129, 140
H
skills, 66 Health Science career cluster, sample job titles,
teamwork ability, 208 74
traditionalist career development style, 11 hidden job market, 160, 164–167
values, 84–85 Hippocrates, 180–181
exploration stage (career transitions), 6 Holland’s personality theory, 96–104
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 212
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INDEX 217

home-based businesses, types of, 46–48. See also J

self-employment
job applications, 170–171
Hospitality, Tourism, and Recreation career
job jumper career development style, 15–17
cluster, sample job titles, 74
job offers, assessing, 175–177
Human Service career cluster, sample job titles,
74–75 job postings, 161
job satisfaction
assessment, xii–xiii
I elements in, 3–4
ideal job, 77, 106–107 lack of, xi
implementation (decision-making process), leisure and, 145
125–126 motivation versus, 20
inadequate listening, 198 self-assessment and, xiii–xiv
information businesses, 47 skills and interests and, 57–58
information gathering (decision-making process), statistics, 3–4
118–119 job search skills, improving, 190–191
Information Technology career cluster, sample job search strategy
job titles, 75 assessment, 161–163
informational interviews, 120–121, 167 example scenarios, 159–160
innovation, in career development, 14 following up after interviews, 174–177
interests for hidden job market, 164–167
assessment, 60–64 interviewing, 171–174
explained, 59–60 nontraditional approach, 161
ideal job, 77 paper job search, 167–171
job satisfaction and, 57–58 traditional approach, 160–161
matching to occupations, 70–77 job search styles. See also temperaments
interpersonal skills, improving, 28–29 assessment, 182–184
interviews doers, 185–186
following up after, 174–177 energizers, 187–189
informational interviews, 120–121, 167 improving skills, 190–191
preparation for, 171–174 preparers, 186–187
intuition, 46 thinkers, 189–190
Intuition Value System (artistic values), 83–86 job security, myth of, 39
investigative personality type, 98–99 job shadowing, 120
involvement by career planners, 134–135 job-training programs, 160
isolation, 45 The Joy of Not Working (Zelinski), 149
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 218

218 Career Quizzes

K–L N
Karoshi, 149 needs. See also motivation
Kursmark, Louise M., 170 assessment, 22–25
defined, 20
Law and Public Safety career cluster, sample job fulfilling, 25–36
titles, 75 belonging and love needs, 28–30
leisure. See also work-leisure balance in life roles, 35–36
as compensation, 145 physiological needs, 25–26
defined, 144 safety and security needs, 26–28
leisure orientation, 151–152 self-actualization needs, 31–34
Lewis, Hunter, 83–84 self-esteem needs, 30–31
life roles, fulfilling needs in, 35–36 at work, 34–35
listening skills, 198–200 Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 20–22
logical values (Logical Value System), 83, 86 wants versus, 26
long-term goals, 129, 139–140 negotiating salary, 177
“The Looking-Glass Self ” theory, 96 networking, 121, 166–167
Lore, Nicholas, 129 New Guide for Occupational Exploration (GOE),
love, belonging and love needs, 21, 28–30 120
Noble, David, 169–170
nontraditional job search strategy, 161
M nonverbal communication skills, 199
Manufacturing career cluster, sample job titles,
75
Maslow, Abraham, 20, 32 O
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 20–22 Occupational Fit Matrix, 123
McDaniels, Carl, 145 Occupational Information Form, 122
measurable goals, 138 Occupational Information Network (O*NET),
melancholic temperament, 181, 189 120
The Millionaire Next Door (Stanley and Danko), Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH), 120
38 occupations
millionaires, reasons for success of, 38–39 best, selecting, 123–125
money, in fulfilling needs, 26 for artistic personality type, 100
morality, in values system, 80 for conventional personality type, 103–104
motivation. See also needs for enterprising personality type, 102–103
defined, 20 for investigative personality type, 99
as emotional intelligence skill, 195 matching personality types to, 104
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, 20–22 matching skills and interests to, 70–77
matching values to, 85–89
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INDEX 219

for realistic personality type, 98 productivity, increasing, 201

researching, 119–122 professionalism, 45
“right” occupation, 58 prognostic assessments, 22
for social personality type, 101
older workers, self-employment of, 39
O*NET (Occupational Information Network), Q–R
120 A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Per-
OOH (Occupational Outlook Handbook), 120 sonal Choices That Shape Our Lives (Lewis), 83
opportunist career development style, 13–15 questions
outside influences on career decisions, 113 to ask in interviews, 173
overcoming barriers to goals, 141–142 sample interview questions, 172
quizzes. See assessments

P ranking. See prioritizing

Paauwe, Theresia, 50 realistic personality type, 97–98
paper job search strategy, 167–171 rehearsing, 199
Parsons, Frank, 58 relationships
The Pathfinder (Lore), 129 belonging and love needs, 21, 28–30
peak experience moments, 32 in work-leisure balance, 150
personal responsibility, 201–202 relevant goals, 138
personality researching
assessment, 93–96 employers, 171–172
defined, 92 occupations, 119–122
example scenarios, 91–92 resistance stage (career transitions), 6
others’ opinions of, 96 resources
personality types identifying companies, 165–166
explained, 92–93 researching occupations, 119–120
Holland’s personality theory, 96–104 self-employment information, 49–50
matching to occupations, 104 respect, need for, 30–31
phlegmatic temperament, 181, 186 responsibility
physical values, 84, 88 accepting, 201–202
physiological needs, 21, 25–26 for career planning, 128
planning. See career planning Résumé Magic (Whitcomb), 169
positive feedback, 203 resumes, 167–169
preparers (job search style), 186–187 with employment applications, 171
prioritizing purpose of, 167
goals, 139–140 sending to employers, 161
values, 89–90 what to include, 168
product businesses, 47
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 220

220 Career Quizzes

Retail and Wholesale Sales and Service career Self-Employment: From Dream to Reality
cluster, sample job titles, 76 (Gilkerson and Paauwe), 50
“right” occupation, 58 self-esteem needs, 21, 30–31
risks self-regulation, 195
in career decisions, 113 Sensory Experience Value System (physical
career risks, 125–126 values), 84, 88
separation (work-leisure balance), 145
service businesses, 46
S short-term goals, 129, 139–140
sacrifice (compromise in career planning), skills
135–136 assessment, 66–69
safety and security needs, 21, 26–28 explained, 64–66
salary ideal job, 77
negotiating, 177 job satisfaction and, 57–58
when to discuss, 174 job search skills, improving, 190–191
sanguine temperament, 181, 188 learning, 65
satisfaction. See job satisfaction matching to occupations, 70–77
Schuster, John, 33 soft skills. See emotional intelligence
Scientific Research, Engineering, and Mathe- sought by employers, 194
matics career cluster, sample job titles, 76 small businesses, types of, 46–48. See also
scientific values (Science Value System), 84, 89 self-employment
security and safety needs, 21, 26–28 social personality type, 100–101
self-actualization needs, 21, 31–34 social skills, 195
self-assessment, xiii–xiv social values, 84, 87
self-awareness, 195 Socratic method, xiii
self-discipline, 45 soft skills. See emotional intelligence
self-discovery exercise, 52–53, 210–211 specific goals, 138
self-employment spillover (work-leisure balance), 145
accomplishments of entrepreneurs, 41 Stanley, Thomas, 38
assessment, 42–43 strengths, analyzing, 171
benefits and risks, 37–38 styles. See job search styles
characteristics needed for, 39–40 success, defining, 147–148. See also career
commitments in, 45 success
enjoyment in, 40–41
financial rewards of, 38–39
of older workers, 39 T
readiness checklist, 48–49 Tarlow, Mikela and Philip, 3
resources for information, 49–50 teamwork, ability for, 207–208
selecting work to pursue, 44–46 temperaments. See also job search styles
types of businesses, 46–48 example scenarios, 179–180
explained, 180–182
job search and, 182
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 221

INDEX 221

tests. See assessments W

thank-you notes, 174–175
Wagner, Bill, 50
thinkers (job search style), 189–190
wants versus needs, 26
timed goals, 138
weaknesses, analyzing, 171
traditional job search strategy, 160–161
Web sites
traditionalist career development style, 9–11
researching occupations, 120
“trait-and-factor approach”, 58
self-employment information, 50
transferable skills, 65
Whitcomb, Susan Britton, 169
transitions. See career transitions
work, fulfilling needs at, 34–35. See also
Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics career occupations; work-leisure balance
cluster, sample job titles, 76
work-leisure balance, 12–13, 143–144
trust, building, 203–204
assessment, 146–147
balanced orientation, 152–153
U–V career as, 145–146
uncertainty forms of, 145–146
in career decisions, 113 leisure orientation, 151–152
in self-employment, 46 work orientation, 148–151
unresolved conflicts, 128 work orientation, 148–151
workaholism
vacations, in work-leisure balance, 151 balanced work-life versus, 149–151
values dangers of, 148–149
assessment, 81–83
development of, 80 X–Z
example scenarios, 79
Zelinski, Ernie, 149
explained, 80
matching to occupations, 85–89
prioritizing, 89–90
types of, 83–85
visible job market, competition in, 164
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 222

Notes
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Notes
13 Index.qxp 4/8/2008 11:30 AM Page 224

Notes