Where to After College? A Review of "How'd You Score THAT Gig?" by Alexandra Levit
One of the few things scarier than going to college is graduating from higher. Once you toss that mortarboard in the air, "real life" sets in: it'southward time to go a task. Or ameliorate yet, to starting time a career.
Therein lies the rub. For near higher students, not only has there been petty pedagogy near how to commencement building a career, there's as well been fiddling guidance almost how to choose a career. Universities offer little in the style of self-examination with an eye towards what a educatee might want to exercise for the residual of his or her life — let alone whether he or she might really be well-suited to it.
That's a shame, considering it creates a kind of discontinuity betwixt higher and career that near students never span — leading to a rather detached attitude towards both. Into that gap steps career expert Alexandra Levit, writer of How'd You lot Score That Gig: A Guide to the Coolest Jobs [And How To Go Them]. Levit has worked for years every bit a career consultant as the founder and president of Inspiration@Work, and Score That Gig brings that experience to bear upon the question of how to find a career that best matches both your aptitudes and your personality.
Levit works from the core thought that different jobs are best suited to different personality types. She outlines seven wide graphic symbol types in the book: Adventurers, Creators, Data Heads, Entrepreneurs, Investigators, Networkers, and Nurturers. What suits the particular-oriented Data Head, for instance, might diameter to death the fast-and-loose-playing Adventurer, while the Nurturer's concern for others might not adapt him or her to jobs that stress self-expression over attending to other people'due south needs.
The book opens with a uncomplicated 20-question self-assessment quiz; at the cease, categories that receive the most answer "points" are probable to be the ones yous'd experience most comfortable in. Many people will autumn into two or more categories; others, similar myself, will strongly and clearly favor but i. Each personality type has its own chapter, with around viii or so suggested careers, each featuring interviews with people who already accept "that gig" — as well as a description of the groundwork needed, resource both on and off the Spider web for finding more information and getting started, and information on how to start edifice a career in that expanse.
Classify Me: What Gig Should Dustin Get?
This is a book that'southward meant to be used more than than read, and so employ it I did. After taking the assessment exam, I discovered I am "The Investigator".
Investigators place a high value on learning (ok, I'g a college professor. Check!) and excel at research (aye, I had to do a lot of research in grad schoolhouse and was top of my Chief's grade. Check!). According to Levit, Investigators are "happiest when they're using their significant brain power [her words, not mine – but really, I am super-smart…] to pursue what they deem to exist a worth effort" and therefore prefer piece of work that makes a difference in other's lives — which seem borne out by my choice of a career in didactics rather than, you know, something that pays.
Investigators aren't fans of overly structured environments (I used to have panic attacks every Sunday night at the prospect of returning to work the next morn when I had a 9-5 job) and like to do things their own fashion. Finally, Levit says, Investigators are vigilant about keeping upwardly with the latest developments in their fields — a demand well-suited to both my academic career and my other career as a Web worker.
Of grade, these kind of personality tests can be similar horoscope signs — written broadly plenty, everyone sees themselves in them. But in this case, Levit seems to exist pretty close to the mark, at least and so far as sussing out my personality is concerned. For further confirmation, let's expect at the kinds of careers she recommends for Investigators like me:
- Antiques Dealer
- Art Curator
- Classic Car Restorer
- Criminologist
- Field Archaeologist
- Forensic Scientist
- Futurist
- Historian
- Psychology Lab Banana
Levit isn't trying to be exhaustive here — instead, she's presenting readers with a set of examples of absurd jobs they might exist comfortable doing. That said, it'due south striking how closely this listing matches up to my ain work and academic history.
True, I don't have much interest in classic cars or antiques. But everything else here is pretty shut. I'thousand a trained anthropologist, which in the US encompasses human biology (which is why a lot of criminologists and forensic specialists study anthropology — and a lot of anthropologists become forensic scientists), archaeology, human being culture and history, and linguistics. My item specialty is history of anthropology, especially the career of an anthropologist who, amongst other things, organized a huge futurist conference in the mid-70s.
OK, how weird is all that?
In short, if I had read How'd You Score That Gig? as a college pupil, the recommendation would have been pretty much spot-on — Levit would take told me to do basically what I'm doing today. This bodes pretty well for college-age readers looking for some kind of management in their lives — and for other adults who might accept lost their management for one reason or another.
Final verdict: This is a quite helpful guide to careers for the undecided or faltering. Go along in mind that unless you lot're intensely curious, or perhaps y'all're a nurturer who wants to share Levit'southward insight with everyone, you probably won't be reading it straight through — this isn't a volume y'all have to finish to become your money's worth! The self-assessment test is well-designed — a lot of tests similar this make it clear what the answer "should" be to create a detail outcome, and Levit's avoided most of those pitfalls. If you or someone you lot know is trying to figure out what to exercise with the balance of their life, pick up a copy of How'd You Score That Gig — you're bound to find something you might have never thought of!
Source: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/where-to-after-college-a-review-of-howd-you-score-that-gig-by-alexandra-levit.html
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