TASK 2: ACADEMIC WRITING

Choosing a correct career is the most important thing in anybody life. Based on the
Cambridge Dictionaries Online, career is the job or series of jobs that you do during your
working life. We want to do works or jobs that really suitable to us and we like the jobs. If we do
not have the passion towards the career, we will have some difficulties in our working life. There
are some ways in determine which career suit to our personality and environment. One of the
ways is by using career interest inventory. Career interest inventory is the self-evaluation on
what ones likes and dislikes in career planning. It can tell your personality type, ones interest,
work related values and skills to get to know which career options are most suitable with the
person. (McKay, 2014). Career interest inventory is relevant to most of people to get to choose
an occupation. It helps us to decide what we need to know and we can discuss the results we
get from the career test with our friends or career professional.

I chose to use career invest inventory based on John Hollands Theory of Career Choice.
According to John Hollands theory, there are six personality types which are conventional,
realistic, investigative, artistic, enterprising and social. He introduced the permanent association
between a geometric shape in hexagon and the field of career psychology (Rayman, 2008).
Based on this theory, people are choosing a job where they can be around with the people who
are like them. According to Holland (1997) citied in Journal of Vocational Behaviour, recently
suggested that most persons have a personal career theory (PCT) about careers or work,
which can range from weak and invalid to strong and valid (Robert C. Reardon, 1999).

person can have combination of personality types. It refers that we can consider occupations
more than one category. We do not stick on one category only. As examples, we focus on social
only however, we also have artistic in our personality. The finding can be widen in searching our
career by looking on combination of social and artistic. We cannot limit ourselves in one
category only because most of people will have more than one personality.

Diagram 1
The diagram 1 shows that the Hollands hexagon which shows the relationship between
the personality types and environments. It is very useful for us to refer after we have done our
career test. Based on the article, The Meaning and Measurement of Environments in Hollands
Theory in Journal of Vocational Behavior, it stated that Hollands theory predicts that
occupations will reflect particular patterns of job requirements and rewards depending on which
of the environmental models they most resemble (Gottfredson, 1999). It means that our jobs will
suitable with our personality types in the Hollands theory of career choice. I had done the
career test to myself. There were two steps for me to complete the career interest inventory. The
first step was I need to answer Yes or No based on the statements given. There were four
groups in step 1 which are activities, competencies, occupations and self-estimates. In each
group, there were six categories according to the personality types which are realistic,
investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional. However, in the self-estimates
section, I need to rate myself from one to seven on each of the following traits as I really think I
am when compared with other persons my own age. The second step was counting how many
times I tick for Yes and record the number of Yes for each group of activities, competencies and
occupations. Then, I totaled up the scores according to each category and the three highest
numbers indicate my Summary Code. My Summary Code was SIA. I have social, investigative
and artistic. Based on Hollands theory, social person likes to work with people to teach, train

and inform, help, treat, heal and cure, serve and greet, concerned for the wellbeing and welfare
of others. It is really related to me. I like to work with people rather than with things.

Furthermore, I am training to be a future teacher one day. The career that I choose to be
is suitable to my personality type because I like to teach children. A teacher needs to teach
pupils, help them to understand anything that they need to know and take care of the welfare of
the pupils. This is because the pupils are the clients to the teacher. They are like customers to
the teacher and the teacher is working with the pupils. Therefore, a teacher needs to have many
skills to deal with the clients which are the pupils. Moreover, I also like to help people and take
care of welfare of others. I dream to help people in orphanage and old folks home because I
would like to do volunteering activities at those places. I need to find the opportunities to join
any organization if I want to do the volunteering activities. Moreover, a social person does not
really like working with machines, tools or animals to achieve a goal. I prefer to talk with people
even though I am not a talkative person. As a future teacher, this career is really relevant and
significant for me because I need to interact with the teachers, staffs and the pupils. I will deal
with people not with things. Thus, this is the correct path for me to choose to be a teacher as my
job in my life.

Besides, the second highest Summary Code that I got based on the career interest
inventory was investigative. An investigative person likes to discover and research ideas,
observe, investigate and experiment, ask questions and solve problems (Hollands theory).
Even though I am a social person, I also like to solve math and science problems. There are
some suitable occupations for investigative personality type such as doctor, dentist and
zoologist. In primary and secondary school, I had dreams to be a doctor, a nurse or a scientist.
However, after I had done the career interest inventory in secondary school, I found that I am a
social and investigative person. I could further my study in science field but I did not think that I
could work in the investigative work environment. I only love to learn about science but not to
practice it in my career. I found that I really need to be a critical person in order to investigate
and do experiment. If I want to follow this personality type, I can be a Science and Mathematics
teacher in future.

In addition, the third highest of my Summary Score is artistic. I am also an artistic

person. An artistic person likes to use words, art, music or drama to communicate, perform, or
express themselves, create and design things. (Hollands theory) I am not really an expressive
person however I found that it is one of the ways I can be somebody else by performing drama
and expressing through art. Based on the result that I got from the career interest inventory, my
personal Summary code was SIA (Social, Investigative, Artistic). As suggested in the inventory,
the suitable occupations for this personality pattern are psychologist, counselor and others.
However, I think I am in the correct field because I have social for my personality type. I can
further my study if I want to be a psychologist or counselor in future. As I discovered myself in
social personality type, I learn to be friendly with people because I need to interact with people
in my working environment in future. This is important because a social person needs to have
good interpersonal skill. I can improve my interpersonal skill before I enter to the real working
environment.

In conclusion, career interest inventory is really important and relevant to any groups of
people. It is not only for the students but working people also can take the career test. It is never
too late to discover our personality types because we can know our own ability to improve
ourselves or choose the correct career to fulfill our personality. If we do not fit in our working
environment or personality types, it makes our life more challenging and unique. We need to
find ways to fit in in the working environment or find other occupation that related to our
personality types. This career test is one of the ways for us to know ourselves better and
understand which career suitable for us. It is a good guideline for anyone to make career
decisions. Based on my opinion, I think that the most suitable people to take this career interest
test are the students in secondary school because they need to choose the correct career to
further their study in college or university after they finished the school. However, this career test
does not limit to anybody to try in order to find their own personality types in their life. We have
our own right to choose the correct career in our life because we are the only one who controls
our own decisions.

References

Gottfredson, L. S. (1999). The Meaning and Measurements of Environments in Holland's

Theory. Journal of Vocational Behavior 55, 57-73.
Hollands theory. (n.d.). Retrieved February 16, 2016, from Careersnz:
https://www.careers.govt.nz/practitioners/career-practice/career-theory-models/hollandstheory/
McKay, D. R. (2014, December 15). What is a Career Test? Retrieved February 15, 2016, from
aboutcareers: http://careerplanning.about.com/od/selfassessment/a/career-test.htm
Rayman, J. R. (2008, November 27). A Tribute to John L. Holland: Psychologist, Theoretician,
Scholar, Researcher, Counselor, and Friend . Retrieved February 15, 2016, from
National Career Development Asssociation:
http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/6521/_PARENT/layout_de
tails/false
Robert C. Reardon, J. G. (1999). Hollands Theory and Career Assessment. Journal of
Vocational Behavior, 102-113.