Vocational Interest Inventory

[kurt_messick]

As a beginning to seminary, we have students take a battery of tests (called a battery often because, after nearly a full day of psychological and academic adjustment tests, students feel fairly battered indeed). These include the Myers-Briggs, the MMPI, the Strong Interest Inventory, and the Theological School Inventory (TSI).

This past week was new student orientation for incoming mid-term students. I dug out my test results from 1998 to see what they were like. Myers-Briggs we've gone into in other strands; probably very few if any of you have taken the TSI.

Have any of you taken the Strong Interest Inventory?

It consists of several parts:

General Occupational Themes: These are six broad areas.

Social - Helping, instructing
Artistic - Creating or enjoying art
Investigative - Researching, analysing
Conventional - Accounting, processing data
Enterprising - Selling, managing
Realistic - Building, repairing

I list them here in the order of my results, from strongest to weakest. They are ranked Very High Interest to Very Little Interest. I scored no lower than average interest on any of them. The first four each scored a very high interest.

Also, my top five scores on the Basic Interest Scores were:

Medical Service - Helping people in a medical setting
Social Service - Helping people
Religious Activities - Participating in spiritual activities
Science - Conducting scientific research
Music/Dramatics - Performing or enjoying music/drama

All of these scored very high interest.


Has anyone else taken this test, or this kind of test? If so, was it accurate for you according to your estimation? Mine was fairly accurate.

[hadassahchana[$]]

Hmm, this sounds interesting. Is there a place online where we can all take this?

Cindy

[taurusmoon]

My ex-husband worked for many years as a vocational counselor. As a result, I guinea pigged quite a few tests.

As I recall, my problem with the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) and Self-Directed Search (SDS) -- which both sound like they might be predecessors to the test you describe -- is that I was good at things I didn't particular care for doing. That tended to skew my results since the test factored aptitude in among preference.

For instance, I was always rather good at tinkering with things. Does that make auto mechanics a good career choice for me? The tests seemed to think so with a fairly high Realistic score.

In all fairness though, the tests also captured some good possibilities for me as well. A number of which I've considered pursuing.

It's been many years since I've taken these tests. I was in my early 20's when I did. I'd be curious to see how the results may have changed over the years.

One interesting note: I don't remember which test it was, but one of them detected a fairly high resistance to taking the test. Now that one had me pegged right.


Sara

[kurt_messick]

I just did a search, and there is something called the Strong Interest Inventory Online

http://www.discoveryourpersonality.c...fessional.html

Unfortunately, this is not a free test. They require a fee for analysis, and the fee includes a 6-page report (my stats are the from page one of my 6-page report), a 15-page professional analysis, and a phone call consultation.

[ms_n]

Well, the fee is a bit steep for an old timer like myself. However, it seems like a nice little starter for those who are just learning about themselves and where they fit in.

I do remember taking some sort of test through the counseling center during college. The results showed that I was suited for social work, artistic work, or technology. I found it helpful.

[kurt_messick]

At seminary, we're supposed to get our results back during our first semester. However, the testing administrator was planning to retire, and I never made the appointment. The next two years I forgot about it. It wasn't until I was working there and putting on the website for students to remember to make appointments that I remembered I'd never gotten my results.

So, I contacted the new testing administrator (who by this time was two testing admins away from the original one) and asked for my test results.

My particular Occupational Scales are as follows (in order of priority):

Nursing Home Administrator
English Teacher
Nurse, RN
Respiratory Therapist
High School Counselor
Minister/Priest
College Professor
Foreign Language Teacher
Sociologist
Chiropractor

All are within a few points of each other (highest is a 69, the lowest on my list is a 62; minister is a 66 and professor is a 65).

Oddly enough, when I was sought out to be chaplain at a retirement centre, I had no idea of these results. Strange how things work out sometimes...

[jenninca]

I took this test twice a decade ago in high school. I think it was that Self-Directed Search version. I know that I came out with Social and Artistic as the highest both times. One time I came out with Conventional third and the other I think it was Investigative as third. Oddly enough, one of the highest professions for Social is a teacher.

Cindy

[pluckyduck]

Did someone say Vocation?

Sounds like a thread for Business Beat to me!

Off we go....

Andrea
who loves to leave a redirect in a high traffic area to a lower traffic one, thank you padre!

[kurt_messick]

Actually, the definition of vocation is an interesting one. One of the books I'm reading right now strives to define it; one of the reasons I had to leave my old church (the Episcopal church) was an disagreement over the definition of terms, one of which was the word vocation.

It is more than a job, more than a business. American readers often miss the intention of the word because of the more prevalent terminology of vocational education, which means business-related or work-related. While this is not inaccurate in substance, it is a shallow definition at best.

I avoided the word in my pre-priestly conversations with the Episcopal hierarchy because I didn't want to the lack of depth from this kind of use to colour my perception of the priestly calling. I used the term career instead, using the more British difference between the terms job and career. Apparently the Episcopal hierarchs heard in the word career a term meaning just a job, and thus didn't like my intention. I didn't like their use of the word vocation because they failed to define it as meaning anything more than just a job.

It took me years to realise we were saying the same things with different words.

I don't think they have realised it yet.

[poseidon]

I remember taking some sort of vocational ability test back in school, and I also remember the results.

1. International Playboy.

2. Famous Inventor.

3. World Leader.

4. Bond. James Bond.

5. Doggie Poop Scooper.

While I did become number four, the rest of the choices never really panned out.