Career Planning Time!

Career Planning Time! College commencement is coming quickly! After breezing through high school and, basically, completing college, I am in a stark state of pure panic. I have given not a thought to what fantastic future follows next! The present is fabulous fun and I believed that the “ fantastic future” was some coming complex concept that I’ll address, well, you know, sometime in the future!

Ok, so maybe I blew it but it is not totally my fault! It is absolutely appalling that, up to this very day I have been given not a crumb of counseling on career selection, since my mother suggested that, instead of being a brat, maybe a more correct career would be a dedicated doctor, an illustrious lawyer or an Intrepid Indian Chief!

Every school should compel comprehensive testing to reveal our academic and personal strengths and weaknesses. Look, it is pretty easy to find out that learning Spanish is easy, while calculus scares, me to death. But, that, itself, is not career guidance. Am I suited to be a Spanish teacher rather than make it as a mathematician? I need to know much more than that to cull a career from the countless choices. Why didn’t all schools develop programs for, let’s say, a weekly hourly demonstration and/or discussion by someone who enjoys his or her job, in a specific profession. The school system gets an “F” from me for not doing its Freaken job! That’s silly and it sucks!! Now it is up to me and I am clueless about career choices!

My mom told me that I should become a doctor. I told her that I get sick at the sight of blood! She replied, “Then, do dentistry!” My response was “I can’t bear to bend down daily, with my fragile fingers in someone’s mangy mouth? Are you kidding”? So, maybe, master engineering, she whispered. I told her that entering engineering would, indeed, not be an enjoyable experience. Not to be out done, Mom mimed, “you could become a chemist”! Well, I said, that’s clearly conceivable ‘cause chemistry could be cool but, what careers will we encounter? We have no clue!

Then, my mom patiently pleaded: “You adore antiques. So, how about a joyful job as an antique dealer?” I asked my dad and he suggested that I could, aspire to the antique import business, or, alternatively, he would fund my graduate school tuition. I asked my great girlfriend, magical Mitzi, for her flawless feelings. She said that it was a neat notion to totally travel, eternally acquiring antiques. I also think that traveling would be a wonderful way for fabulous fun! When I worked for dad, during the summer, I enjoyed, unpacking shipments. I savored, clandestinely, combing for uncommon treasures, in draws of old desks, like when I located an old love letter. Also, nothing can beat finding a fantastic antique, like the gun I found that looked like it came from revolutionary times. It was small, with disappearing trigger, and a barrel was made from wire, beaten into solid form, with a hammer. It could shoot a sphere, the mass of a marble! My father said it as a lady’s gun, for protection, when traveling, and he gave it to me!

This career-combing crap comprises a difficult decision between two choices, and neither of them may be valid. The antique business is an exciting one, but I am not sure that I can buy and sell antiques the way my father does. Once, when I was helping unpack a shipment, a dazzling decorator came in, dressed as if she was going to do a dance! The demanding decorator pointed to a painting and asked its price. Dad said, “$300.00”. She retorted, “$150.00”. My dad took out a pad of paper, made two columns, and wrote, while the deceitful decorator rummaged for relics, arranged Willy-nilly, all over the store. Every time, the despicable decorator asked a price, she bargained, and he wrote in pencil on that dirty, crumpled paper. When she said she was finished, my dad went to his big, old, black adding machine and pulled the long, lever down, again and again, as it went “clickety-clack”. When it was complete, he tallied the totals on the well-worn piece of paper.

The distasteful decorator asked for the total and dad, said, $2,600.00. The devious decorator nodded agreement, and asked: “By the way, why do you have two columns”? My father responded, calmly, but seething, “the figure that I quoted was exactly what the lot will cost you, with all the discounts that you demanded”. “The second column”, he continued, “is the list without your bargaining”. She looked at him, quizzically, and asked: “So, what was the total in the other column”? My father softly said, $1,800.00. The duped decorator declared, desolately, in a loud voice, “I want to pay the price in the other column”. My father bellowed back, so that everyone in the store could hear, “If you want that price, I will give it to you on one condition, that is, YOU WILL NEVER BARGAIN AGAIN IN MY STORE”!! She sheepishly, settled for the lower price.

Incidentally, that damn dizzy decorator returned again, when a new shipment arrived. My dad screamed at her, in front of her colleagues, that he would not sell her anything because she didn’t pay her bill. The displeased decorator responded that she had never been so insulted in her whole life. The duplicitous decorator exclaimed “I WILL NEVER BUY IN THIS STORE AGAIN”!! A few minutes later she said: “How much is this desk?” And, to my amazement, my dad told her the price! I just don’t think that I have that power of personality, to do that line of work, for a lifetime!

I decided to take tests to discover my strengths and weaknesses. I took a full day of psychological tests and met with the psychologist the following day. The office was dark and dreary. The psychologist was a sickly, weak looking man, in a wheelchair. On his lap, was a pile of papers, with my test scores. He introduced himself to me as Victor Indrisano, Ph.D.

He said that, “today, you are going to learn more about yourself than you ever thought possible”. The first area of tests was on cognitive ability and style. I scored 65th percentile on the Watson Glaser test, which requires specific answers to problems of logic. Dr. Indrisano explained that the result says that I am “creative and tends to march to a different drummer”.

On the second test, I scored in the 99th percentile, on the ability scale of the “16PF” test, which, measures personality factors. The psychologist noted that my creative energies have also found expression in my artwork. On the other hand, he said that my math skills “were so poor that, I could not even balance my checkbook”! He told me to actively avoid occupations that require such skills.

The Myers-Briggs test suggested that I am “an enthusiastic innovator, always seeing new possibilities”. It also suggested that I have the imagination to plan new projects and have the energy to complete them, but he warned that “it is easy for me to get too focused on a project and may let other things suffer”. He added that my profile is frequently found in “effective managers”. The Psychologist cautioned that I need a fair amount of autonomy, since I like to make my own decisions, but also said I also tend to be conscientious, responsible, and dependable.

He noted that the results indicated that one of my strengths is being very responsive to people and to empathize with them. Dr. Indrisano indicated that I am very tolerant of feelings of others and tend to view people in a multidimensional way. He added that, “I can handle people and tend to understand them, and the reasons for their behavior, rather than judge them”. The psychologist concluded that, “since I am warm, outgoing, and anticipating, I would do well in business, in a management area”. This was great input in helping me to rely on factual test results, from a qualified individual, to discern strengths and weaknesses.

After reading this report, I decided to go to graduate school and then craft a career where I can use these skills, in a management milieu. I am so glad that I took these tests since they enlightened me on my strengths and weaknesses, and allowed me to make more intelligent choices about my career. I hope that you disseminate this discussion on how important testing is, by a certified specialist, in revealing characteristics of your personality and mind, and their potential power in helping you carve out a correct career, or giving the gift of just the joy of learning more about yourself!

© Norman F. Estrin, Ph.D., August 8, 2016, Career Planning Time!