Personality impacts career satisfaction
Dr. Peggy Avent has been using the 16PF® Questionnaire and the Personal Career Development Profile (PCDP) in her professional practice, and with her children, for over 15 years. Her letter speaks to the powerful insights generated from these assessment tools.
I would like to share a personal experience with the 16PF Questionnaire.
When my children were in high school, each of them took the 16PF assessment as they got old enough. All of my children were very bright and self-starting high achievers. Three of the four 16PF results accurately described the children. At times I found them in their rooms reviewing the profile after they took it. That was about 15 years ago, and the 16PF description of each continues to be accurate.
One son was not too excited about taking the test. He and his girlfriend took it on-the-run. This son has always planned on becoming a doctor. He was also a talented athlete and wanted to get a football scholarship to Texas A&M because of A&M's football fame and their excellent pre-med school. He, like all his siblings, was in the top 10% of his class. Yet the profile said he was not cut out for the rigorous academic requirements of college. It suggested he would do well in an outdoor job like a builder or park ranger. Wow! Not my doctor-son! We all just dismissed the results saying it was due to his less-than-interested attitude.
He did not get his football scholarship to A&M, but decided to turn down other football scholarships in order to enroll in the well-respected A&M pre-med school. He also decided to join the famous Military Corps at A&M. Another shock. The Corps is very rigid, and demanding, and required intense study habits. He began in pre-med, but after one year decided that pre-med was too hard for him, and changed his major to Animal Husbandry thinking he would become a Vet. He got married, but continued in the Corps until graduation. He was committed, but struggled all the way. He just couldn't keep focused on the academics. He finally graduated, a year late, after a concerted struggle.
After graduation, he took a job in the construction industry, as supervisor in a housing development in Houston. He moved from there to a company that contracts with individuals to help them build their own custom homes. He later started his own successful business to renovate houses that had been infested with mold, and then started doing insurance assessments after natural disasters. (He is in Florida now working claims.) He has excelled in each business.
Now when we read his 16PF profile, we are totally amazed at how accurately it described him. He now admits that he always felt he was not as smart as his siblings and therefore disciplined himself more in order to keep up. I thought I was very aware of my children's concerns, but never dreamed that he felt that way. I just assumed he was aware of his learning-style needs and knew that he needed more structure than his siblings. I never had to push any of my children in school.
I share this story with my clients who are considering taking the test. I highly recommend it. I find that even resistant teens who don't want to be in counseling, will take the test for career choice, and then get caught up in the assessment suggestions. Before we finish processing each of your excellent points, they have made the changes they need to make. I use it more as a treatment tool than a career placement tool.
Respectfully,
Peggy Avent, PhD, LPC, LMFT |