Strong Interest Survey Results
Based on my results, my highest themes are social, conventional and enterprising (SCE), this would mean that my foremost theme is social, followed by conventional and enterprising. The social theme is concerned with helping others, basically it is found on occupations that involve nurturing, caring for and helping other people.
The conventional theme is found in occupations that work with organizing and managing data, finances and processes while the enterprising theme is present in careers that influence, persuade and lead others. Reviewing my results helped me realize that I am drawn to careers that give me a sense of fulfillment by helping others. I had always wanted to be a teacher when I was younger, I guess I idolized my first grade teacher then, but throughout my teen years I lost the idea and like most teenagers did not have a clear idea of what career to pursue. But, then I also noticed that I was eager to tutor my siblings, help the kid next door with a science project and I even volunteered once as a peer facilitator in our church. All of which is consistent with the social attribute in me.
However, I am puzzled with the conventional theme because although I understand being organized and working with numbers and managing, this is not a particularly strong area in my life. I must admit that I am the first to wander off during computer programming classes and also in bookkeeping which we had in high school. Why it did came up as one of my strongest theme I attribute to probably not understanding the items that I responded to in the survey.
The third strongest theme was enterprising and this I could say is very true to me, my mother often remarked that I was the leader of the gang whenever my friends came over, I usually assume leadership roles both in and out of the classroom. I can also persuade my friends and parents to my ideas and they support it too. I guess, enterprising came up because when I looked over the professions under the theme, it was closely related to the social themed careers, for example human resources and public relations also involve working with people, helping others and influencing them.
My Top 5 Interest Areas
According to my results, my top five interest areas are; counseling and helping (S), religion and spirituality (S), athletics (R), management (E) and social sciences (E). While the occupations I was least interested with were mechanics and constructions (R), healthcare services (S) and taxes and accounting (C).
The results were pretty interesting for me, naturally I expected that my top interest would be a social occupation but I was leaning more towards teaching and I came up with counseling and helping, this could be from being a therapist, mental health professional and a doctor, but then, teachers also do counseling and they all help others. I have not really seen myself as someone in those occupations but if my results point me to that direction, then I am open to exploring it and knowing more about it in time.
Religion and spirituality was also a revelation, I am not really very religious but my parents have brought us up going to church, attending Sunday school and saying prayers everyday. Maybe, it is that curiosity in me that wants to know more about religion and spirituality and their purpose in our society that made me focus on it in the test. My third interest was athletics which comes as no surprise because I have been involved in athletics since I was a kid. I love to dance, to play a sport and to swim, it would be a very great experience if I could get a job as a coach or a professional cheerleader.
The next on the list was management, this probably is because of my leadership skills, I like taking charge of things, managing and organizing a party or a group project. The last on the list was social sciences which include studying people, groups and culture. I have been interested with archeology and fossils and sometimes imagine I am working on a dig and discovering something huge. But then reality pulls me back and tells me it is wishful thinking but since I like working with people and being with them, then it also involves studying them.
When I looked over my least interested areas, I realized that the list contained the areas I care very little about, for example mechanics and construction are far too complex for me and it meant working with tools and equipments which is very lonely. Although healthcare services are a social area, I probably was not interested in it because I associated it with hospital work and I am not keen on that. Also accounting and taxes are also very boring for me, I can’t imagine myself being trapped in an office and working on a computer alone for a whole day.
These results actually support my earlier report in my highest themes, I am a social person and my top interest’s areas reflect social themes however, as I said before I am not really into the conventional theme and I was right because one of the areas I was least interested in was taxes and accounting which was under the conventional areas. Enterprising themed areas were also present in my top interest list and it coincided with most of my characteristics and the things I like to do.
My Top 10 Strong Occupations
The interest survey results also identified my top strong occupations which was based on my responses to the test, the list was school administrator (SEA), paralegal (CE), social science teacher (SEA), parks and recreation manager (SE) and human resource manager (EAS). Occupations which I have dissimilar interests include medical illustrator (AIR), architect (ARI) and art teacher (ARI) among others. This part of the results report helps me identify the specific occupations that I can possibly get into which reflects the interests that I have. What it tells me however is that I could be in a job that is in a school setting, of which I am pretty open to. And all of these occupations involve working with people and people from different walks of life.
A school administrator deals with teachers, parents and students, paralegals work with clients, lawyers and others, a social science teacher is concerned with teaching society, culture, groups and many more. The list of occupations I had dissimilar interests with also point out that I am not cut out to work on jobs that are artistic, realistic and investigative. I admit, I don’t have much talent for visual arts, I do bad drawings, I can’t even take a decent picture and I have difficulty understanding very technical terms and processes. I am more of a here and now person, I am proactive and I make decisions quickly.
My Personal Style Scales Preferences
The last part of the interest survey identified my personal style or how I prefer to do things or learn, the results reported that I prefer to work with people and this was clearly the most evident aspect in my test results. I also seem to prefer to learn through traditional means like listening to lectures and reading books and materials. I guess that is how we were trained in school and I appreciate teachers who really try to explain and discuss their lessons and then give assignments later rather than just showing movies or pictures. I also probably take charge and lead others,
I guess, I had been a leader for so long that it naturally comes to me when faced with tasks involving groups. I am a fun person, I am not overly serious to the point of being boring, so I am not afraid of taking risks, I sometimes even think I welcome risks because it makes life more worthwhile, more challenging. The test report also said I enjoy being an independent contributor, I have difficulty understanding what it means but I do think it has to do something with being forthright and telling people how to do things more efficiently then I guess I am also that person.
MBTI Results
- Reported Type: ISJT
- Attention: Introversion
- Taking in information: Sensing
- Making decisions: Thinking
- Dealing with outer world: Judging
My MBTI type is ISJT, this would mean that in terms of focusing attention I use introversion or the tendency to focus on inner ideas and impressions. When I take in information, I am a sensing person which means that I use all of my senses to understand outside information. In terms of making decisions, I am a thinking person; this implied that I rely on logic and analysis of cause and effect before arriving with a decision. As to dealing with people and events in my outer world, I am a judging person, thus I prefer being organized and plan ahead for my future.
The results actually appear strange to me, because for one, I have thought that I am an extrovert, I like being with people and I generally focus my energy on tasks and situations that involve other people. The results also pointed out that I very strongly preferred introversion over extraversion, which makes me wonder whether I have followed the directions or not. I also came up to be sensing which is true to me and as to being thinking and judging, I say that I am like that to some degree.
According to the test report, my reported type prefer to work on tasks such as setting goals and deadlines, preparing project plans, monitoring performance, making decisions and the like. While, this type also likes to work in an environment that respects traditions, successful, people take responsibilities seriously, co-workers who meet deadlines and private time to be alone and think.
That said, I am fairly certain that I might consider these results when I explore career options because although some of the results at first glance is not very relevant to what I know I want, I also realized that I am particularly drawn to the said career tasks and environments. For example, I like working with a group that actually follows my suggestions and contribute to the attainment of a goal.
Conclusions
Having discussed and explored my STRONG and MBTI results, I come to the conclusion that my STRONG interest themes contradict my MBTI type. For one, the interest survey clearly pointed out that I am more interested in working in areas that involve working with people, groups and organizations, and more probably with an element of helping and nurturing said groups. My MBTI type however says that I am highly into introversion which means that I focus on internal process and ideas.
Frankly, I am confused because the tests are supposed to complement each other, but I could also see it as a learning opportunity wherein the tests might be telling me something I did not know about myself. This would mean I need to continue with my career exploration and assessment of my interests and personality types.
On the other hand, the MBTI type when translated into strengths and weaknesses made sense to me. I do rely on common sense when working with tasks and problems, I also develop and execute plans, but then I am not much of a logical thinker. In fact, my MBTI type is supposed to be matched to occupations such as the military, engineering, manufacturing, math and sciences which I do not actually like or are interested in based on my STRONG results.
Moreover, the job families that STRONG reported as being my most favored and interested in came out is the least attractive jobs for my MBTI type. I really am not sure what went wrong with this results but I am keener on trusting the results of the STRONG interest inventory than the MBTI.
