Self-efficacy Test - Assignment Example

Introduction I have always believed that I know myself quite well. When I began to think about my future, and planning a career, I realized that I needed to have a clearer understanding of my likes and dislikes, as well as my strengths and my weaknesses, if I was to choose well. One’s career choices will influence one’s entire future and happiness, and I want to be sure that my choices are informed by a good knowledge of myself. My preference would be to become a Human Resources Manager in a successful company. In order to confirm that my aim is realistic and supported by my personality and abilities, this assignment will provide me with the opportunity to evaluate whether I would be making a good choice of career. Human Resources are a field which I think would suit my personality and character. This needs to be confirmed. Further, I need to establish if I would be good in a management position. Therefore, in this essay, I will report on 5 personality and vocational interests assessments I have completed. (Only 3 of these will be looked at in great detail) I will also explore the area of management of human resources to establish the personality traits most suited to this area of work. In doing this, my aim is to achieve a better understanding of my suitability for the career I hope to enter. Section 1: Understanding Myself In order to arrive at a fair indication of my personality, perspectives, emotions and lifestyle, I completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment. This indicator reflects one’s characteristics by identifying which of opposing types of person could best describe one. In my case, the test describes me as follows: ESTJ (See Appendix 1) This description can be interpreted as meaning that firstly, I am more extrovert than quiet and reflective or introvert. My thinking is geared more toward the practical rather than the idealistic or imaginative, and also more logical, independent and critical. I am not emotional in my thinking or actions, generally. Organizing and planning were also revealed as more important to me than flexibility or instinctive behavior. Completing this assessment was certainly worthwhile in that it gave me some idea of the type of person I am. But I did feel that I needed to get a “second opinion”, so I went on to complete the Big 5. Upon completion of this assessment, one can expect to gain insight into one’s Openness to Experience; Conscientiousness; Agreeableness; Neuroticism and Extraversion. Commonly, these characteristics are referred to by the acronym OCEAN. The Big 5 is often used in business – it is accepted as a test that accurately assesses the personalities of potential employees and candidates for promotion. (Wikipedia, 2010) The numerical scale used in this assessment ranges between 8 and 40, with 24 representing the median. If one scores below the median, this indicates that one is not strong in that characteristic; an above-24 score should indicate strength in a characteristic described by the assessment. Working through my own scores, in the OCEAN order, it becomes clear that I needed to look beyond the Myers-Briggs assessment only. For Openness to Experience (O), I scored just over the median – 25. So, as revealed in the previous test I had completed, I am organized, but I can also learn new things and accept new experiences. Since the score is only just over the median, I should work towards making myself more open and flexible in dealing with new things and new people. My Conscientiousness (C) measurement was exactly at the median. This does contradict the Myers-Briggs result a little but I do understand myself as a hard worker with a good sense of duty. I am also practically minded and apply myself to the completion of tasks. Since the Big 5 measurement, though, was quite low, I aim to reflect carefully on my approach and make sure that I do work hard and take tasks seriously. While my personality was measured as outgoing and sociable in the Myers-Briggs evaluation, in this test I scored below median – 17 – for extraversion. I thought that I was able to be quiet when necessary and also friendly and sociable when I needed to be. For me, this result highlights that I should try to become a little less shy and quiet. I would like to become more open and spontaneous, especially around people I have just met. In the area of Agreeableness (A) I am very pleased that my score – 28 – is above the median. Even though I realized that I am fairly quiet, I am not unsympathetic, harsh or rude. My ability to consider other people is good and, as I will discuss later in this essay, this may be a necessary character trait to possess for my potential career. When I calculated my score for Neuroticism (N) I noted that it was higher than I had thought it would be. This score (28) does to some extent reflect the type I was identified as in the previous assessment. I do think carefully and try to consider what I do logically. Sometimes this can lead to becoming nervous and even anxious. Definitely, my aim is to learn to control these aspects of my emotions more fully. At the same time, though, I do think that organization and careful planning help me to set goals clearly and work hard towards achieving goals. At this point, I felt that I had learnt a great deal about my personality but I wanted to learn even more. The self-monitoring assessment I completed indicated that I am reasonably good at self-monitoring. I am able to think about what I do and understand my motivations quite well. I did, however, proceed to another test – this time the Rokeach Value Survey. In this evaluation, the aim is to establish what values are important to you. In the context of wider values, I determined that I am not inherently a selfish person. I tend to place the good of society ahead of my own good. “Happiness” ranked lower on my list than “A World at Peace” and “Freedom”. In the section of this test that reflects actions and approaches, this evaluation confirmed the general conclusions I had reached in the personality tests. I do believe I think logically and it is important to me to remain honest, sincere and truthful. One more purely personality-based test should be included in my discussion as this is the test I found most motivating. I completed a Self-Efficacy Test and these results encouraged me to have a positive view of my ability to succeed. Even though I recognize that there are some aspects of my personality on which I should focus to improve, the self-efficacy result persuades me that I can face the future with confidence. This test indicates that a score higher than the median of 20 reflects a person who is able to work hard and achieve goals. My score was 34. I believe that I will succeed in a chosen career because of my ability to deal with challenges effectively. As I grew closer to understanding myself, I tried to test whether my personality would support my choice of potential career. So I completed the RAISEC evaluation, which allows one to identify strong vocational interests, as a result of the personality category one falls into. Each letter stands for a personality type (See Appendix 2) and one checks certain descriptions, and totals them, to find one’s strongest characteristics. My scores revealed that I was strongest in the Realistic, Social and Conventional categories. The Realistic and Conventional definitions confirm my thoughts from the other tests I completed, while the Social score leads me to believe that I can overcome some of my shyness. I do also believe that I can care for others, and definitely enjoy working with people in my career. Section 2: Understanding Work The understanding I gained from the personality testing I had completed led me to the research I discuss below. In order to fully understand the roles and activities of someone in human resources management, I consulted O*Net (http://online.onetcenter.org), where information concerning the parameters of most careers is accessible. Of most value on this site, are the personality guidelines provided. They indicate the type of person who would be suited to a particular career. For my purposes, this is ideal. I hence examined the requirements identified as necessary for particularly Human Resources management. A person with an enterprising, social and conventional occupational interest is highly suited to this field. These personality types presented in the first 3 rankings of the table provided. The abilities and skills highlighted by the website as essential for my ideal career are varied: Oral and written comprehension and expression are emphasized. Important, too, are the abilities to listen actively, speak clearly and be socially perceptive. A strong requirement is the ability to reason deductively. Communication skills, as referred to above, are important because the HR Manager must be able to resolve conflict. Alongside this ability, integrity and respect for interpersonal relationships are necessary. Stress tolerance and the ability to lead should be fundamental to the personality of someone in this job. What was also important to me was the fact that the potential for employment in this field was good, and the demand for personnel in this field was predicted to grow between 7 and 13% annually. It is likely then that job opportunities in this field will be available once I do qualify appropriately. Section 3: Integration and Insights – Personal Discussion My values as established by the Rokeach Value Survey do inform many of my decisions. It seems that these values are in a general sense, in line with the requirements of the human resources field. It is very important for me to be able to give assistance to those around me and be able to be trusted. I also believe that fairness, which goes with freedom of the individual, is extremely important. To be able to manage the human resources of a company would require that I respect all the people around me and try to work towards fair treatment for everyone. This aspect of my potential career is highly suited to my personality. Since the balance of the personality testing did confirm that I am a social type, with concern and value for inter-personal relationships, and these traits were clearly emphasized as favorable to the field of HR, I feel more confident that this is the field in which I would be satisfied. One of the abilities emphasized on the website, O*Net, for success in human resources management, was deductive reasoning. As mentioned earlier, I do feel that I am able to think logically and plan effectively. Especially in the results of the Myers-Briggs assessment, this was confirmed about my personality. Not only would I be able to carry out fair and logical decision-making, I would also enjoy the process. This aspect of the work really appeals to me. When I first acknowledged the finding that I was considered as “Conventional” I thought that this was a negative thing to be. As noted, however, the field of human resources is ideal for the conventional personality – adherence to the rules and frameworks of the work, attention to the detail required, and the administrative aspects of the career are appropriate to my ability to be accurate and conscientious. (Although the results of the Big 5 test may have suggested that I am not completely conscientious!) Going with this aspect of conscientiousness, the ability to be enterprising is also a prerequisite for the job I intend to do. The Openness to Experience measure I scored in the Big 5 test suggests to me that I can be enterprising and resourceful. The ability to plan and find practical solutions (from the evidence in the Myers-Briggs test) will also go well with this aspect of the job. I would like to think that I am a good listener. I mentioned earlier that I was able to be quiet when it was necessary, and I should work to develop my ability to listen and watch. Fundamental to the career I plan is the ability to listen actively – so the timing of good questions and accurate listening are things I believe I am able to do. What I may have to consider is that the shyness I identified in myself must be overcome. I do know this is possible as it was also evident that I like people and the social setting. I think that with the appropriate academic qualifications, and with people who I need to support in a work environment, I could forget that shyness. I do think that I am socially fairly perceptive, though, and would be able to gauge when conversation is necessary and when just active listening would be better. One area in which I will have to continue improving, as it is an area identified as significant as an ability of the HR manager, is that of oral and written expression. I do not think that my language abilities are bad, but I do need to keep improving in this area so that I can meet this expectation of the job, too. An important aspect of the job is to make sure that rules, rulings and practices are completely understood by employees. This is a challenge which will be ongoing in the work as I believe that one’s language abilities can be constantly improving. Conclusion What has encouraged me most about this assignment is that I do have many of the character traits identified as important for the career I am hoping to follow. It has been interesting to realize that some of the beliefs I have had about myself – that I was very much a social and extrovert person, for example – are not as clear cut as I had thought. It has also been an eye-opener to realize that a particular job needs more than just academic study and qualifications. While these are essential, it is also evident to me now that people need to be emotionally, and in terms of their personalities, suited to particular jobs. The combination of these aspects is all that will enable their success. I trust that I will be able to combine these things to achieve my own success. My understanding of the results of the self-efficacy test referred to earlier encourage me to believe that I am an effective and resourceful person. With this in mind I trust that I will be able to achieve success in the job that I now truly believe I want to do. References Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Test available at http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics accessed 10 February 2010 Occupations available at http://online.onetcenter.org/ accessed 6 February 2010 Wikipedia accessed at http://en.wikipedia.org search term “personality tests” accessed 6 February 2010 Appendix 1: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator describes contrasting characteristics as follows: E v. I (Extrovert / Introvert) S v. N (Practical / Imaginative) T v. F (Cool / Warm) J v. P (Organized / Easygoing) Appendix 2 The RIASEC acronym R - Realistic I - investigative A - Artistic S - Social E - Enterprising C - Conventional Read More