Shining some light
- At November 27, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Meeting Needs
- 2
Just imagine what the world might be like if tomorrow everybody on the planet won the lottery. I know, it ain’t going to happen, so why bother talking about it? Simply to make this point: A great amount of human activity and productivity appears to be focused primarily on meeting our own personal needs.
If I had lots and lots of money in the bank, mucho dinero, would I honestly busy myself trying to meet the needs of others? Can’t say for sure, but I suspect that my country’s productivity would decline if we really didn’t need to produce and sell anything to anyone. For example, with the delay of the proposed Keystone pipeline, are Canadians more concerned about ordinary Americans who will be deprived of our oil or fellow Canadians who will be deprived of their cash?
Read More»Six things to do
- At November 09, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
It can be encouraging to make lists and then be able to check things off that you have accomplished. Here are a few career-related tasks that you might want to consider:
1. Get to know yourself. All sorts of career-counselling-type people I have bumped into online and in ordinary life make a living helping people figure out who they are. Sounds strange, but then again, maybe we can all use some help. After all, why try to decide what you want to do, or do next, for a living if you don’t even really know who you are?
2. Develop your interests and abilities. Fine, so you discover that you are, say, good with numbers and tend to enjoy administrative type work. Congratulations! But, you haven’t arrived. Now you just know where you need to invest your time, money, and energy. It is time to study, study, study and practice, practice, practice and work, work, work.
Read More»Personality potential
- At November 04, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
- 0
Trying to be someone you are not is a waste of time.
This basic observation has been bent in recent years in order to support all sorts of bizarre beliefs and behaviour. But engaging in behaviour like whacking people on the head with heavy objects, baseball bats, tire irons, rolling pins, etc. is still an odd way to go about discerning your authentic personal identify or core personality type.
A dishevelled researcher covered in ivy may wax eloquently about discovering the “head-hunting'”gene, but only until some enlightened journalist discovers another exciting use for their microphone or things take a turn for the worse back home in the kitchen. Distortions aside, it is important to try to be yourself.
Okay, so you might not be the life of the party, but you have a distinct personality nonetheless. Everyone does. Considering a new career direction, it is a good idea to maximize your particular personality potential in the work place by gaining a greater sense of self-awareness.
One way to go about doing that is to take a personality test designed by TypeFocus Careers. David Wood and his team in Victoria, B.C. offer a free online evaluation or a more detailed self-awareness report for $34.95. If you are connected to a college that has already contracted to use the Typefocus service you might be able to get the more extensive version for free.
This “test” is based on the famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which contains 16 different personality types. Actually there are 8 categories that can be combined in 16 different ways. If, for example, you are energized by being alone instead of being with people you would be identified by an I. Then, if it turns out that you tend to acquire new information via intuition as opposed your senses you would be given an N. If you usually make decisions by thinking in contrast to feeling a T would be tacked on. A J would be your finally letter if you like to bring your structure to the outside world (i.e. judging) rather than taking things as the come (i.e. perceiving).
This type of exercise really pays off if you can then identify job families, and eventually a specific career, that is suited to someone with your personality type
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