Assessments Writeup Example #5

[Thanks to Paul for sharing his writeup based on his Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) results.]

My current career goals are to get a bachelor’s degree, and after I graduate I would like to find a role that lets me work from my computer and be anywhere in the world I want to be.

I am currently working through my general education requirement classes, and have chosen graphic design as my major, but I may change that before completing these required classes.

I am considering changing my major to mathematics. This kind of bachelor’s degree will open a lot of doors for me. I can go into a highly scientific or technical field dealing with the latest and greatest technology.

Another utility of this degree would be to let me work abroad as an English teacher, as many countries have a 4-year degree as one of their minimum requirements to get a work visa, and I can’t teach in any school without one. I considered all these things before deciding to enroll in college.

My Strong letter results from the assessment were ICR – Investigative, Conventional, and Realistic.

Investigative themed people tend to be interested in science, medicine, mathematics, and research, which according to the General Occupational Themes section of the report, involves working in labs, solving abstract problems, and conducting research. The skills people with this result tend to be strong in are mathematical ability, researching, writing, and analyzing. They tend to value independence, curiosity, and learning.

People with the Conventional tendencies tend to be interested in organization, data management, accounting, investing, and information systems. They usually work setting up procedures and systems, organizing, keeping records, developing computer applications, and can work well with numbers, data analysis, finances, and are attentive to detail. They usually value accuracy, stability and efficiency.

My third section was the Realistic section, and people with this inclination tend to be interested in machines, computer networks, athletics, and working outdoors. They are usually operating equipment, using tools, building, repairing, and providing security. Their potential skills include mechanical ingenuity and dexterity, and physical coordination and they tend to value tradition, practicality, and common sense.

My MBTI results were INFJ, or Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, and Judging.

Introverted people tend to focus on their own inner worlds of ideas and impressions.

Intuitive people tend to prefer an approach that takes in information from patterns and the bigger picture and focus on future possibilities.

People with a Feeling side tend to prefer to make decisions based on feeling and values of subjective evaluation of person-centered concerns.

People with a Judging tendency tend to like a planned and organized approach to life and want to have things settled.




The top 5 career fields or majors that appeal to me the most are:

• Software Engineering
• Website/App Design
• Astronomy
• Linguistics
• Library Science

Software engineering is the first on this list because there is so much potential and money in that field. I could build apps or websites, improve website functionality, or work with the latest and greatest self-driving cars. The possibilities in that field seem to be endless.

Learning to code is a very difficult thing to undertake, but the money and potential for fulfillment do seem to be quite attractive. It would involve me getting a computer science degree or at the very least taking programming classes to further my knowledge of how computers and technology interact with each other.

It does involve having characteristics from all three of my Strong Inventory themes, like science, math, research, data management, and computer networks.

Software engineering involves a lot of time working alone as well as recognizing patterns in the code. There is also a bit of planning involved to try to keep things on track, but from what I have heard, those plans need flexibility. I think it all lines up with my assessment results a lot.

The next one I listed is app/website design. If you think of software engineers like construction guys, then these guys are the architects. They gather user experience data from user interviews, write reports, and craft designs using software like Adobe xD/Figma, based on the data they gathered to hand off to the software engineers to implement those designs.

It is mostly problem solving, but does involve some creativity as well. Each design needs to be justified by user data or pain points.

This career field involves research into user behavior, solving abstract problems, organizing and keeping records, developing designs, and attention to detail. It also involves interviewing strangers which could be challenging for me considering my Social inventory score was the lowest category.

This career field is similar to software engineering in that I would spend a lot of time alone in my head thinking of solutions, as well as looking at patterns in user feedback. Considering I am slightly in the Feeling category, this career field might be a good fit.

I also mentioned astronomy because I think I have an intense desire to explore and understand this universe. There are theories like black holes and the way time works so differently around them that really intrigue me and make me want to know more. This universe is so vast that there is no shortage of exploring to do.

One needs to be an open-minded and curious individual to be in this field. If I were to go work in an observatory doing research, this would involve a lot of aspects of the Investigative field, like lab work, research, math ability, writing, and analyzing. It involves independence, curiosity, and a desire to learn new things.

There is also some need for organization, data management, and keeping records. I should be comfortable working with numbers and wanting to be accurate. The machines and computer network part of this career may also involve occasional maintenance which would be something from the Realistic section.

An astronomy researcher position may involve working alone with data, and definitely involves taking information from patterns and focusing on future possibilities. It also helps to have a Judging inclination to take an organized approach to analyzing data.

Linguistics is appealing to me as well because I think open-minded, active listening and understanding is key to maintaining peace in the world. I myself have been learning Mandarin for the past 7 years, so this career field is something I can more personally relate to. It definitely involves recognizing patterns in other languages to develop a deep understanding to further my bilingual abilities.

Having a judging inclination is paramount to efficient learning of any foreign language. The more organized things are in my mind, the clearer and easier to grasp foreign language concepts will be.

My weak spot in this career field and major is the social aspect. It is quite scary to communicate with someone in a language you are not proficient in and risk being misunderstood. Thankfully a majority of it involves research, recognizing patterns, and organization.

There are language exchange apps which help overcome other practical limitations, like not living near many native speakers of your target language or being too shy to go out and meeting them on the street.

The last career field I chose was library science. Working in a library seems like a good fit for me because it is a nice, quiet, and relaxed environment where I can work alone. It involves a lot of organizing of books by ISBN numbers.

This career field will mostly involve skills from the Conventional field in the Strong Inventory assessment. Becoming proficient in this career field would involve both reading how to organize library books as well as physically doing it (also incorporating the Realistic theme). People with Judging inclinations do well in this career field.

The most surprising part of my results was the fact that I have a slight Feeling tendency. I have taken short MBTI-related quizzes in the past, and my result was INTJ, so I’m not sure why this time was different. Perhaps I answered the questions a bit differently. I think making decisions based on feelings is something I am reluctant to admit that I do, but I suppose in some instances it is necessary. If I don’t feel respected in a job, I want to leave.

I was surprised to see computer programmers as being near the top of the list in jobs recommended for people with my results as I have tried to learn to code in the past, but I can’t seem to understand it well. Other than that, there wasn’t any other part of my results which surprised me. Certainly not the fact that I have a scientific inclination. My closest friends have all said I am a deep scientist and just don’t know it.

These kinds of assessments have all kinds of benefits, but I think the most important is being able to map out which career fields would be most suitable based on your personality style and preferences.

People don’t have to be stuck in career fields that are contrary to their values or that they have no interest or inclination towards. They can be pointed in the right direction using their results.

One potential drawback I could see happening with some people is that they could let the results limit them to the career fields that are most in line with their result. They could see an opportunity that is somewhat outside of that and dismiss it prematurely, when these results should not be used to prevent someone from exploring something they are curious about, even if it is not what an INFJ like me should be interested in.

Another drawback of these kinds of assessments is that the questions aren’t always answered the same way, and people can get different results based on a misunderstanding of a question when the reality is that their personality hasn’t really changed.

My overall impression of the Strong and MBTI results is that they are good tools that can help give career suggestions to people based on their personalities.

Overall, they can be very helpful. Like anything, there should be a healthy amount of skepticism and one should not take the results to heart or let them limit their possibilities.

I intend to incorporate these results into my college and career planning by pursuing the areas of the results that I had the strongest scores in just to see if I enjoy them and if those careers are truly the right fit for me. I agree with the results I received and am hard pressed to find anything I can argue with in them.