Aptitudes And Occupations (2nd)

[Music] how many times when you were a youngster did your Aunt Edith or Uncle Fred ask and what are you going to be when you grow up well you probably answered I'm going to be a policeman or a fireman or an airline stus or a ballerina as youngsters you see we often think about jobs that are glamorous or jobs that we can identify with parents or favorite relatives anyway as we grew up we began to think more realistically about occupations seeing space shots on TV for example may have started us thinking about careers in The Sciences a hospital stay may have opened our eyes to careers in medicine summer jobs may have triggered our interests in business careers an interest in art might have led to considering art as a career books and magazines probably suggested dozens of occupations we'd never thought of archaeologist Chef farmer construction worker our list of possible occupations grew over the years now as your counselor I thought we'd get together today to begin some really serious talking about this important matter because it won't be long now until you'll have to make a start toward choosing an occupation okay how do we go about making this Choice well probably the best way is to take a systematic inventory of Scholastic achievements aptitudes and interests now we take this inventory partly by using certain tests I'd like to tell you something about them and we can start yes Mort suppose we haven't decided on the kind of occupation we like to follow will these tests help us choose one good question Mort and the answer is maybe one thing the test will do is suggest occupations in which you may have some success of course the test results are only one of the guides we use your grades in various subjects and your extracurricular interests and activities are also helpful anyway once you're interested in a general occupational field or Fields there are some helpful references you can use this one is very good it's the dictionary of Occupational titles published by the United States government Now volume one lists about 20,000 kinds of specialized work under several key occupations Now volume four of the dictionary list job titles and under each title you'll find the minimum requirements for that particular job yes an getting back to these tests if we're almost sure about the kind of work we want to do will they tell us how good we'll be in it I mean will we know how successful we'll be well not entirely job success depends on too many other factors that can't be predicted how you get along with the people you're working with the organization of the company you're working for and so forth as a matter of fact it's much easier to predict failure suppose Mike here picks an occupation and his test scores indicate he's not suited to the work chances are then he's not the point is these tests can indicate occupations you're not suited for and thus save you a lot of important time Carl well how do you know if you're suited to one kind of work or another well that's really the basic problem generally speaking you will have found an occupation in which you can probably make a good adjustment if you can answer yes to these three questions have I reached or can I reach the proper level of Scholastic achievement the job requires do I have the aptitudes the job requires do I have the same general occupational interests as those who have been successful in the job to help answer these questions we use these tests which point out your individual strength strengths and weaknesses hold on now settle down you don't pass these tests and you don't fail them you just take them so that we can get an inventory of your talents and achievements everybody feel easier now all right let's start with this test it's a Scholastic achievement test which helps us evaluate what you've learned in school all these years in the basic subjects mathematics science language arts by measuring what you've learned we can relate your score to the level of school training required for a particular occupation now generally this kind of test is made up of multiple choice questions like this to make these tests trained researchers check the course materials used in schools to identify the basic information that's being taught then experienced Educators wrote questions covering each school subject at various grade levels test answers are processed and precisely scored the scores are recorded they indicate your present Scholastic achievement high scores May mean good adjustment in such occupations as school teacher mathematician or scientist of course other conditions such as favorable work surroundings and similar factors must be considered along with achievement scores in evaluating job success lower achievement scores might indicate good adjustment in occupations requiring less Scholastic achievement The Confident draftsman and the skilled laborer find great satisfaction in their work and are very necessary in our industrial society as are those who work in professions which require more years of education let's go on to the second question the one about aptitudes question yes sir this may sound stupid but how do I know if I have the aptitudes for a job if I don't know what aptitudes are no no it's a good question let me answer it this way I I know Arlene is a gifted artist truck is a natural athlete and Norah has a flare for cooking and Randy is a talented actor now what I'm really saying is that each of these people has a certain knack for doing a certain thing a special talent an aptitude is simply that a special talent or skill different occupations require different aptitudes for example the aptitude for reasoning the ability to think clearly and to speak persuasively is possessed by many successful salesmen an accountant has to have the aptitude for numerical reasoning the talent for working with quantities of figures a philosopher or historian has to have an aptitude for abstract reasoning the talent for dealing with and manipulating ideas and Concepts maintenance men and others who work with complex equipment have the aptitude for mechanical operations the ability to relate one mechanism to another an architect or designer has the aptitude for spatial reasoning the ability to relate objects lying on different planes and occupying different places in space a secretary or filing clerk has the aptitude of clar iCal speed and accuracy the talent for recognizing and assigning things to their proper place the author and playright must have an aptitude for language usage the talent for using language fluently to describe events places and ideas these then are the basic aptitudes now test that measure aptitudes generally fall into two major categories reasoning aptitudes are measured with paper and pencil tests each test such as this one for spatial reasoning includes many problems in this example the student is being asked to think how this figure will look if folded along the dotted lines will it look like this this this or this mechanical aptitudes are measured with certain kinds of apparatus in this test objects of different shapes and sizes are sorted into spaces on a form board now your aptitude test scores are a measurement we can use to match your aptitudes with those required for the occupation you've chosen or are thinking about they're also a guide for selecting an occupation every bit as important as aptitud udes are interests let's define that word interest we all know Sheldon here is a real baseball fan if his Scholastic achievement and aptitudes indicated he'd probably make a good adjustment to being a baseball reporter because he's interested in baseball he'd probably make a better adjustment than Bob who goes to a game occasionally and a much better adjustment than Tom who doesn't like baseball at all there's a direct relationship between a person's interest and the satisfaction he gets out of his job in other words people work better at things they're interested in so we're going to use these tests to help identify your interest before you go to work now here are a couple of the tests used for this purpose each test contains several hundred questions about many things and activities and as in the sample question you indicate whether you like them don't like them or don't care one way or the other your interest score will help match you with occupations in which you may have some success and we have found that most people's interests fall into several basic categories persons with scientific interest prefer working with scientific and Technical ideas and data occupations in this group include chemists biologists physicists and others who have received Advanced Training in one or more of the Sciences those with Social Service interests like to work with people occupations which utilize these interests include social casework occupational therapy and the ministry persons with verbal interests are generally concerned with written language occupations utilizing this interest include that of lawyer journalist and advertising copywriter those with mechanical interests generally like to work with things the skilled automobile mechanic a trained factory worker and the Industrial Engineer are some occupations which require this type of Interest persons with business detail interests are most concerned with the proper functioning of a successful business operation occupations based on these interests include business clerks accountants and Executives responsible for the many operations of the business office persons with business contact interests like to use spoken language to sell services and products among occupations utilizing these interests are those of stock broker clerks and other retail salespeople and wholesale salesmen those with artistic interest want to express their own personalities and choose such occupations as cloth designing and the many occupations available in Motion Pictures and the theater satisfying to them persons with highly developed musical interests find satisfaction in the occupations of musical performers or composers persons with outdoor interests don't want to be tied down to an office desk for people with such interests there is a wide range of occupations Lumberjack farmer and expert in animal husbandry among hundreds of others of course we might have interests in more than one of these categories but these tests will help us measure your strongest interests before we close this session I want to repeat that these tests help you with considerable accuracy to find answers to three basic questions related to choosing an occupation have I or can I reach the proper level of Scholastic achievement the job requires do I have the aptitudes the job requires do I have the same general occupational interests as those who have been successful in the job so here's what we'll do use these tests check your school grades and outside activities and then I'll discuss with each of you what you'd like to do for a living we'll try to match your achievements apt udes and interests with those required by occupations in which you will most likely find job success class dismissed [Music]