I have always bought into the
following notion that a former guidance colleague of mine once said. He
believed that students need to graduate being able to answer the following
three questions: "Who are you?", "Where are you going?" and
"How are you going to get there?". I am sure that many school
districts disregard his idea because it is not quantifiable. True, you
cannot measure the return or outcome of those questions, but I believe in them.
I think there is something to "planting seeds" and helping
students become more familiar with their interests, likes and dislikes.
My favorite of the three questions is the first one because you cannot
move to the other two if you can't answer number one. So, like most high
schools, we have students take a personality assessment that links their
personality with potential careers that people with their same personality are
successful at in the workplace (Students, you took this freshman year so feel
free to go back and see your results in Naviance by logging in and clicking on
the About Me tab. Parents of HTHS students, you can also see your child's
results the same way). Now of course, if you are like me, after you found
your personality type and careers, you found the most ridiculous career on the
list and went home and complained that your "Guidance Counselor said you
were going to be a Park Ranger" (sorry to any Park Rangers out there!).
And I know this has not changed because just this weekend my niece
complained that she was told she was going to be a bail bondsman until I kept
pushing and asking what else was on the list. But if you look at the
complete list, you will realize that all those careers have something in
common...your personality. When I took the test in high school it said
that I should be a teacher, counselor or priest - someone who helps people
(guess which one I went home and complained to my mom about?). But I
wanted to do nothing of the sort. I wanted to go into business and be an
advertising executive on Madison Ave. So, despite my personality, I went
to a business college and in my junior year, realized that I did not actually
want to study business. I graduated and went to work for a college,
pursuing my master's degree in, you guessed it, counseling. Fast forward
a few years and here I am finishing almost two decades of working in education.
Helping people. Go figure.
About a year ago I was listening to
NPR and heard a women say that her Guidance Counselor told her she would be a
farmer based on her personality test and that she laughed, thought it was
ridiculous, and went on to a very lucrative job in NYC making a lot of
money. Years later, she moved to Iowa because she wanted to live
"off the grid" and fell in love with growing all her own
food, which then turned into her second career - being a
farmer. Turned out her personality test/career guide was right. As
was mine.
I bring this up because today I was
reading this
article in Sunday's New York Times and couldn't help
but think about how this all related. Whether you are still in high
school (recently graduated, working in an unfulfilling job or maybe even
unemployed) it is a good idea to start figuring out "who you are" so
you will know "where you are going" and "how you plan on getting
there". This
article discusses the idea of how you can show prospective employers (but
feel free to interchange that with part time job, college, internship, etc...)
how you can "add value" to their company. So if you are
applying for a summer job, camp counselor, summer academic program, or college,
start by knowing "who YOU are" and what YOU can bring to the position
for which you are applying. In other words, help the person hiring or
admitting you understand how YOU (and only you) can "add
value" to their organization.
