Online Career Tests and What I Found Out About Myself

I recently filled out a career test from the Navy called Life Ops and another one at CareerFitter. This is what I found out.

Careers

The only similarities between the Navy and the CareerFitter test were these careers:

  • Musician
  • Artist
  • Writer

I wouldn’t consider myself a musician now, but I was in choir through middle and high school and was in a band for four years in high school and college. I also continually made/make mix tapes/CDs/Spotify playlists for myself and others as well as original songs and raps.

I wouldn’t consider myself an artist, but I do have to design flyers, brochures, and web sites regularly which falls in line with the “Graphic Design” job CareerFitter mentioned, but the Navy did not. I do enjoy going to art museums occasionally, but I find the people that I’m there with much more interesting than the art.

I am starting to consider myself a writer, but like musician and artist, although I do write, enjoy writing, am published, and make money writing, it’s actually a very small part of what I “do”. An average day consists of people asking me to do things for them that include technical or procedural troubleshooting, but I do occasionally have to design something or write something. This morning I have to design schedules and schedule templates for job roles. That’s a mix of graphic design and writing I guess.

The Navy says I like, “unstructured work situations and prefer to work in roles where creativity is valued.” That’s true. I like to say that, “I like to have a seat at the table,” which means that if my voice is not being heard, or if I don’t have input on the decisions going on around me, I don’t feel valued or needed. The value I feel I add is my creativity and problem solving, which is something the Navy calls the “Innovator”.

Innovator

While I appreciate the Navy calling me an innovator, I’ve never put “artist” together with that word. I do agree that I have some skill for using my, “imagination to invent or find unique ways of doing things”, and I do see myself as, “expressive, original and independent.” I do like to, “stand out from the crowd.” Like Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

Here are the type of activities in a career the Navy thinks a person like me would enjoy:

  • Express yourself creatively
  • Think imaginatively or conceptually
  • Produce or review artistic works

Reformer

CareerFitter called me a “Reformer”, who others see you as easy-going, calm and pleasant, but on the inside prefer and enjoy personal structure. My calm demeanor can quickly become assertive if one of my personal values is violated.

I like how they suggest I be an architect as I’ve always wanted to be an architect or city planner. I find it interesting that they mention “Holistic health practitioner” as a career as I have three of those as clients. I wonder if my personality attracts them.

There are many things listed by CareerFitter that match up with me a little too eerily that it makes me wonder about the human condition. How much are we just a factor of our programming and are there really so few possibilities that we can all be categorized like this?

Actions

I took this information and immediately began acting on it. I let past recruiters know I was interested in technical writing or web content management jobs, I notified my employer of my “writing/artist as best-work-type”, and I applied for a web content coordinator job at HH Gregg. None of the recruiters responded to my email, HH Gregg said no thanks, and my current employer told me to blog more (which I did).

Editors Note: I previously had no tag for “Career”. Interesting and telling.

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