Thursday, February 20, 2003

Aptitude

There are more jobs out there then I could ever hope to know - so how can I know which one is perfect for me?? I've been taking various aptitude tests and suchlike to try to figure out WHERE I might fit in. Most of them are either dreadfully obvious, or so vague I would be better off throwing a dart at a phone book to come up with a likely job. I often feel overwhelmed by the huge number of CHOICES out there. Almost literally - I can be/do anything!

I found an aptitude test today called the MAPP test - and reading over the conclusions they have drawn about me through my answers, it pretty darn accurate. Even my top pick job (social worker/family & children counselor) is something that I've often thought I would be good at - but I think I have too MUCH heart for that kind of job, and would be spiritually burntout in under a year. Besides, they don't get paid well enough. If I wanted to work in a heartbreaking job for pennies a year, I would have stayed at Spelman.

So... the other top ten options are:
Employment Interviewers
Teacher Assistants
English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary
Educational, Vocational, and School Counselors
Residential Advisors
Public Address System and Other Announcers
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists
Funeral Directors

The employment interviewer actually sounds rather interesting...and the funeral director is just a BIT more into the dead than I want to be.
The interesting part - and what I am going to go and talk to the career counseling people here about - is how to I market myself? I have a computer science degree. I've never done a THING that deals with anything OTHER than computer science (at least not on a professional level). I know that I have the skills, the aptitude, and the intelligence to do other things - but how can I represent that well enough on a resume that someone would even take the CHANCE of calling me in for a first interview?

I have a pretty good idea of the enviroment I want to work in - small, mostly autonomous teams. No huge projects that deal with thousands of people and in which I'm just an itty-bitty little cog. No meetings to plan meetings about meetings. No obsessions with metrics and numbers rather than with the WORK that actually gets done. Sweet heavens, a desk WITH windows! Or even a window in visual distance...I miss the sun.

No comments: