Is the Johnson O'Conner Aptiude Test worth taking in your 30s?
October 6, 2015 11:30 AM Subscribe
I've never really known what I want to be when I grow up, and now that I'm a proper adult in my thirties, I'd like to figure it out. I'm planning on taking a few tests (Meyer Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory), and came across the Johnson O'Conner aptitude test. It looks like a great tool for choosing a college major, but is it worth taking this late in the game?
The test is expensive (>$600), but I'm just as lost now as I was 15 years ago. I'm trying hard not to get consumed by regret about wasted potential, and I'd really like to find a career path I can commit to.
18-23: worked in customer service, always felt it was beneath me.
23-26: Got a BA in Audio Engineering, worked in post production. Took on a lot of student loan debt, made very little money.
26-29: Taught English in Japan, had great fun but still didn't know what I should do as a career.
30-present: fell into Logistics/Transportation. While I'm kicking butt at it, it doesn't *feel* right. When people ask what I do, I get embarrassed.
I've tried to just keep work at work and find happiness in my hobbies. The truth is I feel like my identity is defined by my job, and not having a path/certain salary/prestige is really taking it's toll on my self-worth.
I figure knowing is half the battle, and if I can identify some good options I can work hard on making up for lost time. Any experience with adults taking this test?
The test is expensive (>$600), but I'm just as lost now as I was 15 years ago. I'm trying hard not to get consumed by regret about wasted potential, and I'd really like to find a career path I can commit to.
18-23: worked in customer service, always felt it was beneath me.
23-26: Got a BA in Audio Engineering, worked in post production. Took on a lot of student loan debt, made very little money.
26-29: Taught English in Japan, had great fun but still didn't know what I should do as a career.
30-present: fell into Logistics/Transportation. While I'm kicking butt at it, it doesn't *feel* right. When people ask what I do, I get embarrassed.
I've tried to just keep work at work and find happiness in my hobbies. The truth is I feel like my identity is defined by my job, and not having a path/certain salary/prestige is really taking it's toll on my self-worth.
I figure knowing is half the battle, and if I can identify some good options I can work hard on making up for lost time. Any experience with adults taking this test?
A former employer of mine once paid for me to take it. It was interesting, though in my case, didn't ultimately end up really informing what I do now. I'm not sure it's worth $600. I bet you could get some excellent suggestions on here for alternate jobs if you posted another question outlining what you do at your current job and why you're good at it.
What do you do in logistics? Would you be happier if you were doing it for a more interesting-sounding company? Really, if you're kicking butt at it, and you're happy with money and everything otherwise, it might be a better investment to take up mindfulness meditation or some therapy sessions to get over the hump of wanting a cooler-sounding job. If you're not happy with it for other reasons, that's a different story. But being great at your job is a pretty awesome situation to be in.
posted by three_red_balloons at 1:44 PM on October 6, 2015
What do you do in logistics? Would you be happier if you were doing it for a more interesting-sounding company? Really, if you're kicking butt at it, and you're happy with money and everything otherwise, it might be a better investment to take up mindfulness meditation or some therapy sessions to get over the hump of wanting a cooler-sounding job. If you're not happy with it for other reasons, that's a different story. But being great at your job is a pretty awesome situation to be in.
posted by three_red_balloons at 1:44 PM on October 6, 2015
I still stand behind my comment in the earlier thread that michaelh linked above. I took the tests as a 16-year old and it was very useful... a lot of it wasn't a surprise, but rather a nice confirmation of what I thought I already knew about myself. The rest was new information that made sense when I thought about it a while.
As another reference point, my dad took it in his late twenties and it was very useful for him, too. He took their recommendations, started at ground level with no education in an entirely new career field. 25 years later he's been very successful in that career path, and will likely keep doing what he does until the day he dies.
As yet more reference points: my sister and brother both took the tests, and did not find them as illuminating as we did. My sister's testing pointed toward a pretty clear career path, that I and the rest of my family thinks she would be good at and enjoy, but it doesn't sound fun to her and so she has never given it a shot. My brother's results were not as cut-and-dry in terms of the numbers and career recommendations as ours were.
It's hard to comment on how much $600 is worth to you. For me and my dad, the investment has paid off in at least a couple orders of magnitude. For my siblings, it was useful but not really in a way that has literally paid off. I still recommend it to people with questions like yours - though it's a qualified recommendation.
posted by hootenatty at 2:21 PM on October 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
As another reference point, my dad took it in his late twenties and it was very useful for him, too. He took their recommendations, started at ground level with no education in an entirely new career field. 25 years later he's been very successful in that career path, and will likely keep doing what he does until the day he dies.
As yet more reference points: my sister and brother both took the tests, and did not find them as illuminating as we did. My sister's testing pointed toward a pretty clear career path, that I and the rest of my family thinks she would be good at and enjoy, but it doesn't sound fun to her and so she has never given it a shot. My brother's results were not as cut-and-dry in terms of the numbers and career recommendations as ours were.
It's hard to comment on how much $600 is worth to you. For me and my dad, the investment has paid off in at least a couple orders of magnitude. For my siblings, it was useful but not really in a way that has literally paid off. I still recommend it to people with questions like yours - though it's a qualified recommendation.
posted by hootenatty at 2:21 PM on October 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
So that's my thread that michaelh posted. I also highly recommend looking into the Self-Directed Search before committing $600 to the JOC aptitude test.
While I found the JOC battery interesting and insightful, the SDS is a fantastic tool to pair with a career counselor and some proper research into your fields of interest
posted by Giggilituffin at 4:47 PM on October 6, 2015
While I found the JOC battery interesting and insightful, the SDS is a fantastic tool to pair with a career counselor and some proper research into your fields of interest
posted by Giggilituffin at 4:47 PM on October 6, 2015
Very previously. (I still haven't gotten around to taking the test, but maybe someday...)
posted by spacewrench at 4:52 PM on October 6, 2015
posted by spacewrench at 4:52 PM on October 6, 2015
I took JOC at 22, and my husband took it when he was around 35. It's very interesting and gives you a lot of insight into yourself especially with regard to what you will find fulfilling; it's NOT a thing where at the end of it, you know you want to do x, y, or z job.
I have also had an unconventional, non-linear job/career path, and based on your varied career history, I'd venture to guess that you, like me, might be a person with high scores in a lot of aptitudes. When you have high scores in only a few aptitudes, it's actually very helpful because it narrows your choices down quite a bit. If you have high scores in lots of aptitudes, that means many different career/job arrangements are workable for you.
The idea with aptitudes is that (unlike skills) you're born with them. So whether you take the test at 15 or 25 or 30 or 60, your scores shouldn't change much. The JOC idea is that if you have a high aptitude for something, you'll be more fulfilled if you make sure you do that thing or have it in your life. So despite being someone with a lot of aptitudes, I've found that JOC was still good in my situation because over the years, it's helped me identify where my job/main occupation is lacking so I can get that thing into my life in another way. For example, I have a high aptitude for pitch differentiation, so when I had a job in an office that didn't use that aptitude, I played music in a band and took foreign language lessons.
Personally, I'm a big fan of doing any and all assessments that help me gain insight into myself. I liked JOC and recommend it with the caveat that as far as I've been able to find, neither it nor any other assessment tool can really tell you exactly what path to take, kwim?? The decision is still ultimately yours. If you're looking for someone to say, "Yes! You should be.... A LAWYER SPECIALIZING IN WILLS & ESTATES!" or some other specific outcome, JOC is not that. It's more generalized and is about helping you understand why some things do and some things don't work for you at work.
posted by hansbrough at 5:51 PM on October 6, 2015
I have also had an unconventional, non-linear job/career path, and based on your varied career history, I'd venture to guess that you, like me, might be a person with high scores in a lot of aptitudes. When you have high scores in only a few aptitudes, it's actually very helpful because it narrows your choices down quite a bit. If you have high scores in lots of aptitudes, that means many different career/job arrangements are workable for you.
The idea with aptitudes is that (unlike skills) you're born with them. So whether you take the test at 15 or 25 or 30 or 60, your scores shouldn't change much. The JOC idea is that if you have a high aptitude for something, you'll be more fulfilled if you make sure you do that thing or have it in your life. So despite being someone with a lot of aptitudes, I've found that JOC was still good in my situation because over the years, it's helped me identify where my job/main occupation is lacking so I can get that thing into my life in another way. For example, I have a high aptitude for pitch differentiation, so when I had a job in an office that didn't use that aptitude, I played music in a band and took foreign language lessons.
Personally, I'm a big fan of doing any and all assessments that help me gain insight into myself. I liked JOC and recommend it with the caveat that as far as I've been able to find, neither it nor any other assessment tool can really tell you exactly what path to take, kwim?? The decision is still ultimately yours. If you're looking for someone to say, "Yes! You should be.... A LAWYER SPECIALIZING IN WILLS & ESTATES!" or some other specific outcome, JOC is not that. It's more generalized and is about helping you understand why some things do and some things don't work for you at work.
posted by hansbrough at 5:51 PM on October 6, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
I'd take this one first. http://www.self-directed-search.com/ I'm not affiliated. It was recommended by my college's career counselor. It ranks specific jobs/careers you're most likely interested in and also suggests areas of study. It's nice because it can help you see whether it's worth pushing through the lame part of a field to get to the good part for you. For me, its suggestions were pretty good to the point where it was a little scary. I think I paid $20 or so when I took it and I was in my late 20s. I took 6-7 other tests (no $600 ones, though) and none of the other ones were that helpful.
posted by michaelh at 11:40 AM on October 6, 2015 [3 favorites]