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The best way to find your career direction is to do what comes naturally.
Forget about career titles, they're just names.
Pay attention to the activities that you perform with ease, even without training.
Do you enjoy that actual 'doing' of your daily work
tasks, or are you going through the motions? Would you hire a doctor
who doesn't eat, sleep and drink medicine in their free time? Career titles and
credentials don't make you good at what you do—your natural talents are the secret to success.
Find your inborn talents . . .
Human beings have different proclivities. Although most of us are taught
the same way in school, in the same subjects, we are not alike in terms of
inborn talent. The people who excel in high school, without much effort, were
lucky to born with the raw talents needed to learn the typical subjects. They
are no smarter than someone who did not do so well, they just happen to have
the innate talents necessary to easily learn the "standard skills" mandated by
most states.
The majority of American school systems have not yet evolved to
take into account the differences in human aptitude. For the most part,
students (at all ages) are viewed as a blank slate, able to 'learn' all
subjects, and expected to put in hard work if they're struggling. Yet, we
all know that working hard doesn't always add up to better performance. In
fact, it's often apparent that people who excel don't struggle much. They are
"naturals" in specific subjects. Since most schools (and parents) do not
understand inborn ability, they usually don't make clear distinctions between
someone being generally 'smart' and someone who is natural in specific areas.
As a result, most young people are encouraged to specialize in fields and
professions that don't fit their strongest inborn ability. The result of
misdirecting people over the last 40 years is a staggering: 7 out 10
mid-career professionals say they are in a career that doesn't fit.
Check out our professional battery of aptitude tests . . .
What are aptitudes? Think of an aptitude as one tool
in your mental tool belt. You are born with these tools; they are not acquired
through learned skill or practice. Your talents are Mother Nature's gift to
you, and will remain the same throughout your life. Depending on the situation
at hand, you'll pull out the aptitude (or combination of aptitudes) best able
to handle the job. If you are trying to solve a problem that requires aptitude
"tools" you don't have, your work will feel like an uphill climb. Your ability
to choose a career that fits you well will rely heavily on knowing your inborn
talent. Like your DNA, you have a unique profile of natural talents that play
a major role in shaping who you are.
Our research shows that many really bright people find
themselves burned out in their career because they are performing tasks that
mainly engage their weaker talents. For example, many mid-career clients will
say they were good at math and science in high school, so it seemed logical to
major in a physical science, engineering, or medicine. After being tested for
the aptitudes, they find that they are only natural at one or two of the
abilities required for their work, while missing several other essential
abilities and personality traits. For example, we've tested many engineers who
do not have a natural ability to mentally visualize in a 3-D spatial
orientation, yet they were able to do well in high school-level physics.
Likely, they were able to rely on other inborn reasoning aptitudes to solve
simple physical science problems. This is like using a pipe wrench to pound in
a nail if you don't have a hammer lying around; it works, but it's not the
most effective tool to use. As the problems got more spatially complex at the
college and professional level, non-spatial students began to struggle
and lose interest in the field. The key to a well-fitted career is to choose a
field that requires you to perform tasks and activities that engage the
perfect combination of all your natural talents.
The best way to find you inborn aptitudes is get your talent profile measured, it's nearly impossible to self-assess your brain's hardwiring.
A brain surgeon, nude sculptor and global climatologist
all have something in common. What combination of abilities do each of these
professionals use everyday? To solve this riddle you'll have to go beyond the
career title, and look at the activities performed by each. To draw on an
analogy, what are the common ingredients of a loaf of bread, bagel, doughnut,
and croissant? You got it, flour, water, salt, sugar, butter, etc. On the
surface, the neurologist and the computer architect look very different, just
as do the loaf of bread and the bagel. However, the ingredients that make up a
good tasting bagel are not that much different than those of a loaf of bread.
In the same way, inborn human aptitudes are the 'ingredients' that combine
together into work activities or job functions. Once you understand how your inborn abilities
combine into functions, and how these functions fit the career
world, you'll have unlocked one of the key secrets to choosing a career that
makes you feel like a squirrel in a tree.
Spatial & non-spatial abilities and intuition & sensing
talents are innate, they are not preferences.
Many people are a mix of each of these pairs of opposites, so as
you read these descriptions note whether you are near either extreme of each
continuum or somewhere in the middle.
Spatial & Non-spatial Continuum
Spatial
Ability— People natural at spatial visualization tend to be good with
with objects and physical things. This ability is common among very talented
architects and mechanical engineers, among many other career fields.
Three-dimensional (3D) visualization is the
ability to see all sides of a physical object by rotating it in your mind's eye.
About 50% of men and 25% of women measure as more spatial.
Non-spatial
Ability— On the other end of the continuum are non-spatial
people who tend to play with concepts, theories, and ideas. They have
difficulty visualizing in 3-D, therefore, thrive more naturally in
conceptual fields like economics and language, among many other fields.
About 50% of men and 75% of women measure as more non-spatial.
Intuition & Sensing Continuum
Intuition—
Intuitives understand the world through the
lens of metaphor and meaning.
Intuitives look at a grain of sand and see the universe. They prefer to
understand the whole forest, getting bored with the trees. The are poetic,
inventive, and spend a lot of time imagining how the world could be in the
long-term. Intuitives are often teased for being dreamers, idealistic, with
their head in the clouds. About 25% of the American population measure as
more intuitive.
Sensing—
Sensors understand the world the lens of their
five senses, paying attention to what is real, immediate, factual, and
practical. To sensors, a grain of sand is a grain of sand. They prefer to
play with parts of system, enjoying one tree at a time, rather than
contemplating the meaning of the whole forest. They are sensual, observant,
and tend to focus on what is doable in the short-term. Sensors are often
teased for being too conventional and unimaginative. About 75% of
the American population measure as more sensing.
Pathfinders The Careerfinder Program measures many other
aptitudes and personality traits, including; Tribal/Maestro™ frame of reference, Spatial/Non-spatial orientation,
Diagnostic Reasoning, Analytical Reasoning, Idea Flow™, Visualizing Possibilities, Visual Dexterity,
Associative Memory, Number Memory, Design Memory, Manual Speed & Accuracy,
and Extroversion & Introversion. Your unique mix of high, mid and low scores in
these inborn talents is like a compass that points you in a career direction that
fits what you do best. See an sample talent profile.
Contact Anthony at Pathfinders to learn more . . .
The terms Tribal™, Maestro™, and Idea
Flow™ are Trademarks of Rockport
Institute, used with permission.
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