Before I entered college, there was only one career path that was carved out for me by my parents and consequently for myself. Being a doctor in any chosen field was my parents’ dream. When I came to Georgia State University and started taking my major biology classes, I began discerning what medical school and being a doctor truly entailed. My outlook on my parents’ chosen profession for me changed and I started concentrating on finding what I was really passionate about. Through research in the career center, volunteer work and various stressful conversations with friends, I came to the conclusion that my path is in Nutrition/ Dietetics. Coming into Career Development and Life Planning class, I wanted to learn more about my chosen field and myself by gaining new insight through the MBTI and CISS assessments and learning about career theories. The areas that I learned most about so far consist of self exploration and career development.
Self exploration is a major component in finding a happy fit in one’s career. Knowing your personality, expectations, interests, and skills is imperative to facilitate an awareness of what careers someone is passionate about and the careers …show more content…
and jobs that would make a person miserable. Personally speaking, I will never work in retail, the food service industry and a monotonous five to nine office job dealing with bureaucratic problems and solutions. Through self exploration, I know that I get bored easily when dealing with repetitive tasks. I also get discouraged when I am not passionate about the bigger picture of a certain job. By knowing these aspects about myself, I would like to have a career that is varied, involving exciting tasks at work; meeting new people and dealing with mentally challenging problems.
The results of my CISS assessment support my desire for an exciting, ever-changing career environment. I scored the highest in the Adventuring section of the CISS assessment. According to the CISS “People who have this pattern of scores typically report moderate interest and confidence in physically active, adventurous, and competitive activities such as athletics, police work and military activities” (Campbell Interest and Skill Survey, 10) . I am not eager to work in law enforcement or be a trainer but I would like to incorporate adventure into my nutrition career by traveling or working with professional athletic teams. Another aspect that the CISS recognized about me is revealed in the Helping orientation. I see myself as a compassionate person so naturally I enjoy helping people. The CISS report advised me to develop careers in the medical field. I think that is somewhat a reflection of me since I plan on working with the United Nations as a Nutritionist. In addition to the CISS Report, I scored the most in altruism in most of my in-class assessments which is a clear indication of my passion to help others. Also on my CISS assessment, I scored very low in the analyzing and organizing orientation. I do not enjoy managing people and being responsible for their mistakes or analyzing reports and budgets. My CISS assessment hit the nail on the head by advising me to avoid careers in finance, sales/advertising and basically leadership roles pertaining to managing.
In the MBTI report, I am considered an INFJ.
INFJ is a person who is introverted, relies on intuition, feeling to take in information and make decisions and deals with the world through judgment. Being an INFJ for the most part fits who I am and how I see the world. I am quite and observant in most situations, I do tend to focus on the big picture and I like to be logical in my decisions for the most part. According to the MBTI summary, being an INFJ is congruent with my career goals. The report states that I like to help people grow and develop and my preferred work environment has somewhat of humanitarianism involved which I agree with because I do want to work with third world countries by developing their nutrition and health
programs.
My career goal is to become the highest form of a Nutritionist. I reason I choose this as my career path is because on the most basic level, I simply enjoy studying nutrition and the science behind this profession. I am a strong believer in liking what I willing be doing everyday for the next 40 years of their lives. The CISS assessment reported that I enjoy adventure which is very true. I would incorporate this adventure factor by working with the UN and traveling which is another passion of mine. The MBTI and CISS assessments confirmed what I recognize about myself. These assessments also take one step further by negating by interest in fields that I would not enjoy and shining a light on other areas that I would not have normally considered as an option which is very insightful. The CPS 2500 is one of the few classes I enjoy this semester because it provides a place for me to address my questions, fears about my career path while obtaining new, fresh information to aid my decisions in the future.
One lesson I will take away with me from this class and that made me feel much better about not being sure of my career path is that it’s ok to change your career path as you learn about yourself. Through Super’s theory, I learned that a person’s expectations change and develop over time so its only fair that their career development journey is rarely a straight line but a topsy-turvy, zigzag road to their final destination of career bliss.