Unit 2: Who Am I?

Section 1: Who Am I Now?  |     Section 3: What Skills Will Help Me Become That Person?  |  Unit Summary  |

SECTION 1: WHO AM I NOW?

The links below will lead you to other inventories you can complete so that you can get a better sense of the different opportunities that are out there for you. Remember that these surveys are meant to help you look at meaningful patterns, no to provide firm answers as to what career you could have. They can only tell you what you might enjoy and be good at doing, based on your interests. Keep in mind that you are only exploring possibilities right now.

1. Before completing more interest inventories, take a moment to review the interpretation you did of the Interest Sorter results from the text, as well as some of the work you've kept in your portfolio:
   
   • Links activity: Finding career profiles that interest you on nextSteps website.
   • "Collect your credentials" — a list of credentials you already have
   • Know yourself — 5 things your like to do, 5 that you do well, and 5 things that are important to you
   • How have you changed? — in it you described what you liked to do and were good at when you were 8 years old, in grade 8, and in the present.
     
     
2. Go to one or more of the following sites and complete the interest inventory.
   
   • EDge Interactive Publishing Inc., Schoolfinder.com, Interest Quiz
   • Mazemaster, Self-Assessment (note: free registration is required to access quizzes and self-assessment tests)
   • nextsteps.org, What Turns You On?
   • Worksearch, “Who Am I?”, The Work Interests Quiz
   • Career Toolbox, Work Interest Quiz

3. When you complete each interest inventory or quiz, save the result or jot down some key points that come up. Answer the following questions after you've completed one or more of the surveys:

• Compare your results to the Interest Sorter you completed from the text. What was different about the results this time? What was the same?
• Often a survey will present you with possible occupational fields or specific occupations. What does this tell you about the possibilities that exist for you?
• Why might it be worthwhile to complete an Interest sorter every year or two?
• Make a list of any occupations suggested that you are interested in learning more about . If you've already started a list of possible occupations, add these to it. You'll have the opportunity later on to investigate them.
  
4. Why were you asked to review items from your portfolio before completing more surveys? Why were these activities chosen, rather than others?
   
5. Keep the results from this activity in your portfolio. You will want to review your findings for comparison the next time you complete an interest inventory.

Remember that it's important to have a career that you enjoy, but there's more to it than that. The fact that you like playing video games or fixing things around the house might suggest some occupations where your skills would come in handy. When it comes time to making choices for your career, you will need to make a balanced decision, taking into account your skills, interests, values, training you'll need, your personality, and the opportunities available to you.

The section in your textbook titled "What Are My Skills" provides you with some example of where different types of skills can be used. The Skills chart on page 40 gives you an one example of a skills inventory, but it's a good idea to complete a few to get a better overall view of the skills you have.

The links below will lead you to some on-line skills inventories. It's a good idea to do more than one, as each will give you a slightly different perspective.

1. Make a list of the things you know you're good at. Refer back to some the work you've kept in your portfolio if you need to:
   • "Collect your credentials"
   • "How have you changed?"
   • "Skill evidence"
   
   
2. Go to one or more of the following sites and complete the skills inventory.
   • Mazemaster, Self-Assessment
   • nextsteps.org, Job Related Skills
   • HRDC, Self-Identify Your Skills
   • Next Steps, Transferable Skills
   • Worksearch, "Who Am I?", My Workplace Skills
     
     
3. Compare the results from one or more of the online surveys to the chart you made in the Skills evidence activity.
   • What new skills did you discover you had? What evidence can you provide of skills you have now discovered that you have?
   • Did your weightings change in a particular skill area? Add new skills and evidence to the chart you created in the Skills evidence activity. Make a note of where your rating in a skill level has changed, but don't get rid of the original rating. Look for patterns that appear in the chart.
     
     
4. Which survey is more accurate, based on what you know about yourself?
   
   
5. What occupations that did not appear before show up in these results? Add any new ones to the list of careers you began compiling in the first links activity. Circle occupations that appear in both your interest inventory results and your skills inventory results.

Like the interest sorter, these inventories are used to help you discover more about yourself. They provide you with some understanding of what your skills are, and occupations that you might be good at based on these skills.

Keep your results in your portfolio. It's a good idea to reference what you've learned later on. You can also use these results for comparison. Although you may have natural abilities in a particular area, your skill set is always growing as you learn new skills through your daily activities. It's a good idea to take an interest inventory every once in a while to identify new skills and changes to your skill set.

Now here's a chance to find out more about the theory of Multiple Intelligences, and to check to see if the results from the survey in the textbook are an accurate measure of where your strengths lie. Record your answers to the questions below on a separate piece of paper. Attach them to your results from the "What's your MI?" activity in your portfolio.

1. Visit the first two links below and record your answers to the following questions about Howard Gardner and the Multiple Intelligences Theory:
   • What prompted Howard Gardner to suggest that there was more than one type of intelligence?
   • Originally there were seven, not eight intelligences in the MI theory. Which one was added, and why?
   • How does keeping a Career Education Porfolio allow you to demonstrate your MI?
   • Can you see a connection between your MI and the interest and skills inventories you've done? What is it?
   • How might determining your MI help you in choosing a career path?
   • Is your MI likely to change during your life? Why or why not?
     
     Intro to Multiple Intelligences
     More on Multiple Intelligences
     
     
2. You may want to do an online MI Quiz. It is similar to the quiz in your textbook, but your results will be calculated for you automatically.

1. Consider the following questions while completing the on-line quizzes linked below. Record you answers and attach them to the results from the "What your type?" activity in your portfolio:
   
   
   1. What did you discover about yourself that you didn't find out in completing the personality sorter in the textbook?
   2. How do the personality types in these quizzes relate to the categories of intelligence found in Multiple Intelligences theory? Make a list of personality types for each quiz, and beside each, the MI types that might correspond to it.
   3. Consider how accurate and useful this type of quiz is:
      • Do you agree that "typing" people is an accurate measurement of who they are?
      • How useful are the results from this type of quiz? How might you use the results from this type of quiz in your career search?
      • What other information might be more effective in making career choices?
      • Might this type of quiz be more helpful to you when you are older? Why?
        
        
2. Go to one or more of the following sites and complete the on-line quiz.
   

• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter II
• The Mentoring Network, The Platinum Rule
• The Enneagram Test
• The Career Key
• nextsteps.org, Personal Traits
• North Carolina State Occupational Information Coordinating Committee, Career Planning, Holland Occupational Themes
• Typefocus, Personality Assessment
  

Be sure to remember that the purpose of this quiz, as with the other ones you've done on-line, is to allow you to discover a few things about yourself you might not have already known. You can make planning for your future career more effective by taking advantage of all of the tools available to you to learn more about yourself. It's up to you to choose which information is worthwhile.