free Personality Career Key Manual here

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YOUR PERSONALITY CAREER KEY PROFILE
(Ages 12 through Adult)
Copyright ©2013 Headwise Developments (Pty) Ltd
2013/059436/07
Hold The Key To Lifelong
Success And Happiness!
Disclaimer
The developer and author have taken care in the preparation of this Ebook but make no expressed or
implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is
assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the
information or programmes contained herein. This assessment is a personality-type profile based on
the six personality types suggested by Psychologist John Holland. It is NOT in any way intended as a
definitive tool or to replace professional therapy, other psychometric instruments or one-on-one
counselling. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Headwise Developments (Pty) Ltd.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Your Personality Career Key Profile
The Construction
The Research Underlying its Construction
Self Assessment of Personality Types
The Classification of Occupations
Use of Your Personality Career Key Profile
Technical Aspects
Reliability
Validity
Helpfulness of Your Personality Career Key Profile
Mean Time To Administer
Relationship to Career Clusters / Pathways
Career Clusters
Holland Types – Work Groups Classifications System
RIASEC Map of Career Clusters
Introduction
Access to Basic Education in South Africa is no longer a problem and most children stay in school until
they are sixteen-years old. The problem now is that large numbers of them leave without completing
high school. Of the children who started school in 2000 less than half wrote the matric exams in
2012. Those who drop out of school must compete with better-educated people for jobs. Of those
learners who do go on to tertiary education, only 15% graduate! With the current rate of
unemployment at 24% this is a daunting outlook for the future of South Africa.
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Educational researchers also point to another problem. They say that South African schools are not
producing sufficient students with the skills for higher education in math and science.
Notwithstanding the difficulties in the delivery of education in South Africa children need to be
guided from as young as possible into the academic subject areas in which they will most flourish.
This will ensure enjoyment of learning and a desire to complete high school and go on to tertiary
education.
The mission of Your Personality Career Key Profile is to identify your personality-type (which
determines your everyday patterns of behaviour) and match it to a career pathway which will be most
suitable to ensure your lifelong success and satisfaction.
This Profile is designed to help you (or your guardian) make academic subject choices that are most
compatible with your personality type to ensure achievement and enjoyment throughout your
formative years and then to make sure you choose the most satisfying career to provide you with
lifelong success and satisfaction.
We endeavour to empower and enrich you by providing you with quality self help guidance based on
the best science and practices of professional counselling.
Our methods are based on tested and proven (accurate and reliable) theory; what is most practical,
affordable and immediately available; and, the latest technological innovations.
Your Personality Career Key Profile (PCKP) will assess your resemblance, across 32 dimensions, to
the six Personality Types theorised by Psychologist Dr. John Holland: Realistic; Investigative; Artistic;
Social; Enterprising and Conventional.
You will learn more about yourself as an individual and you will be able to identify promising career
options that match your personality traits and interests. Your results will help you have an improved
understanding of yourself and will allow you to take further action to make the most of who you are.
The Personality Career Key Profile will link your promising career options with comprehensive,
accurate occupational information.
The CKP will help you to:
1) Assess your resemblance to Holland’s six personality types;
2) Relate your personality pattern to matching occupations and;
3) Encourage career exploration by describing further steps you can take.
The CKP features include:
 A Brief period for completion. Taking an average of only five minutes for the web-based
version and fifteen minutes following PDF download and printing out for the paper and pencil
version, allowing more time for career counselling and other career exploratory activities.
 The results are immediate. There is no waiting for scoring. You can pursue further career
exploration right away, while your motivation is at its highest.
 The assessment process is open. You will know how your scores are calculated and the theory
upon which they are based. This transparency fosters self-reliance and self-understanding.
 Comparable Results: The assessment of personality type is comparable to that found with
recognised valid measures of the Holland six types.
 Many compatible occupations are identified.
 A unique classification system provides a clear and easy path for users to move from their
interests to groups of occupations – from Artistic interests for example to a group of
occupations called “literary Arts” with occupations like Creative Writer and Poet.
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The Construction
The best way to become familiar with the PCKP is to actually take it. It is an educational tool with a
sophisticated message. Intensive research guides its content and form.
The Research underlying its Construction
In 1981, Holland, Magoon and Spokane reviewed the research done with career guidance instruments.
They concluded that all tools generally have a beneficial effect. They speculated that these effects
were the results of several factors including exposure to occupational information; cognitive rehearsal
of vocational aspirations; acquisition of some cognitive structure for organising information about
self, occupations and their relations. This assessment has been designed with all three of these in
mind.
Holland’s Theory Summarised
 Most people are strongest in one of six personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic,
Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
 People of the same personality type working together at school or in a job create a school
clique or work environment that fits their type and in which they will flourish. For example,
when Artistic people are together on a job, they create an environment that rewards creative
thinking and behaviour -- an Artistic environment and those that work well together achieve
well together.
 There are six basic types of work environments: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social,
Enterprising, Conventional.
 People subconsciously keep searching for environments that best match their personality
types in which they can use their skills and abilities and express their values and attitudes. For
example, Investigative types search for Investigative environments; Artistic types look for
Artistic environments and so on.
 People who choose to work in an environment similar to their personality type are more likely
to be successful and satisfied throughout their adult lives.
Holland's Hexagon
John Holland created a hexagonal model that shows the relationship between the personality types
and environments. The personality types are referred to as The Holland Codes or the RIASEC Model.
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Your Personality Type
Compatible Work Environments
Most Compatible

Realistic
Realistic

Investigative
Investigative

Artistic
Artistic

Social
Social

Enterprising
Enterprising

Conventional
Conventional
Other Compatible
Conventional & Investigative
Artistic & Realistic
Investigative & Social
Artistic & Enterprising
Conventional & Social
Enterprising & Realistic
Holland’s Six Personality Types
Realistic • Likes to work with animals, tools, or machines; generally avoids social activities like
teaching, healing and informing others; • Has good skills in working with tools, mechanical or
electrical drawings, machines, or plants and animals; • Values practical things you can see, touch, and
use like plants and animals, tools, equipment, or machines; • Sees self as practical, mechanical, and
realistic. Realistic Environment
Investigative • Likes to study and solve math or science problems; generally avoids leading, selling,
or persuading people; • Is good at understanding and solving science and math problems; • Values
science; • Sees self as precise, scientific, and intellectual. Investigative Environment
Artistic • Likes to do creative activities like art, drama, crafts, dance, music, or creative writing;
generally avoids highly ordered or repetitive activities; • Has good artistic abilities - in creative
writing, drama, crafts, music, or art; • Values the creative arts - like drama, music, art, or the works of
creative writers; • Sees self as expressive, original, and independent. Artistic Environment
Social • Likes to do things to help people - like teaching, counseling, nursing, or giving information; •
generally avoids using machines, tools, or animals to achieve a goal; • Is good at teaching, counseling,
nursing, or giving information; • Values helping people and solving social problems; • Sees self as
helpful, friendly, and trustworthy. Social Environment
Enterprising • Likes to lead and persuade people, and to sell things and ideas; generally avoids
activities that require careful observation and scientific, analytical thinking; • Is good at leading
people and selling things or ideas; • Values success in politics, leadership, or business; • Sees self as
energetic, ambitious, and sociable. Enterprising Environment.
Conventional • Likes to work with numbers, records, or machines in a set, orderly way; generally
avoids ambiguous, unstructured activities; • Is good at working with written records and numbers in
a systematic, orderly way; • Values success in business; • Sees self as orderly and good at following a
set plan. Conventional Environment
Holland Types – Work Groups Classifications System
Realistic Persons having a Realistic Personality Type create a "Realistic" environment. They value
people who are practical and mechanical - who are good at working with tools, mechanical or
electrical drawings, machines or animals.
Examples of occupations with a Realistic environment are: Farmer
Forester
Fire Fighter
Police Detective Engineering Technician Aircraft Pilot Carpenter Electrician Diesel Mechanic
Locomotive Engineer Truck Driver Dental Laboratory Technician
The two work environments that are closest to the Realistic type are Conventional and Investigative.
The farthest away is the Social type.
Investigative Persons having an Investigative Personality Type create an "Investigative"
environment. They value people who are precise, scientific and intellectual -- who are good at
understanding and solving science and math problems.
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Examples of occupations with an Investigative environment are: Chemist
Mathematician
Environmental Scientist
Biologist
Dentist
Physician Veterinarian
Pharmacist
Medical
Laboratory Technologist Computer Programmer Economist Civil Engineer
The two work environments that are closest to the Investigative type are Realistic and Artistic. The
farthest away is the Enterprising type.
Artistic Persons having an Artistic Personality Type create an "Artistic" environment. They value
people who are expressive, original and independent -- who have good artistic abilities in creative
writing, drama, crafts, music or art.
Examples of occupations with an Artistic environment are: Dancer Book Editor Talent Director
Fashion Designer Graphic Designer Multi-Media Artist
Actor
Disc Jockey
Comedian
Composer Musician Architect
The two work environments that are closest to the Artistic type are Investigative and Social. The
farthest away is the Conventional type.
Social Persons having a Social Personality Type create a "Social" environment. They value people
who are helpful, friendly, and trustworthy - who are good at good at teaching, counseling, nursing,
giving information and solving social problems.
Examples of occupations with a Social environment are: Counselor Probation Officer Social
Worker Dental Assistant Nurse Physical Therapist Teacher Librarian Athletic Trainer
The two work environments that are closest to the Social type are Artistic and Enterprising. The
farthest away is the Realistic type.
Enterprising Persons having an Enterprising Personality Type create an "Enterprising"
environment. They value people who are energetic, ambitious and sociable -- who are good at politics,
leading people and selling things or ideas.
Examples of occupations with an Enterprising environment are: Hairstylist
Sales Person
Travel Agent
Engineering Manager Judge
Lawyer City Manager Sales Manager
Bank
Manager
Financial Examiner Customs Inspector Camp Director Hotel Manager Real Estate
Agent School Principal
The two work environments that are closest to the Enterprising type are Social and Conventional. The
farthest away is the Investigative type.
Conventional Persons having a Conventional Personality Type create a "Conventional"
environment. They value people who are orderly and good at following a set plan - good at working
with written records and numbers in a systematic, orderly way.
Examples of occupations with a Conventional environment are: Court Clerk
Secretary
Bookkeeper
Bank Teller Post Office Clerk Mail Carrier Air Traffic Controller Title Examiner
Tax Preparer
The two work environments that are closest to the Conventional type are Realistic and Enterprising.
The farthest away is the Artistic type.
The PCKP focuses on helping users understand the relationship between themselves and occupations.
This emphasis in the PCKP begins on the first page of the Profile with the more general idea that
choosing a career is a matching process finding an occupation that best suits you:
YOU
Your Needs, Your Values, Your
Skills, Your Interests and Your
Aspirations
CAREER (Occupation / Jobs)
The Career’s (Occupation/Job)
Demands And It’s Potential To
Make Full Use Of And Satisfy
Your Needs, Abilities, Skills,
Interests And Aspirations
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This is then followed with the more specific framework provided by John Holland’s theory. Six major
ideas from the theory are presented and then illustrated by the figure below:
YOU
Your Personality Type
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
(matched with)
Career
Compatible Work Environment
Realistic
Investigative
Artistic
Social
Enterprising
Conventional
Will likely lead to
success and satisfaction
Holland’s framework is presented further in the assessment sections and the way occupations are
grouped and listed near the end of this manual. Therefore, the PCKP teaches you a way to organise
your thoughts about yourself and your career strategy and to apply the concepts to career choice and
exploration thereof.
Most people, in reality, are a combination of types -- like Realistic-Investigative, or Artistic-Social.
Therefore, you will probably want to consider occupations in more than one category.
For Example: Your Personality Type = Realistic (Strongest) Investigative (Slightly Strong) Artistic
(Traces) Social (Fewer Traces) Enterprising (Few Traces) Conventional (Little to None)
Most Compatible = Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional
Other Compatible (in this order) = Investigative & Conventional; Realistic & Artistic; Investigative &
Social; Artistic & Enterprising; Social & Conventional; Enterprising & Realistic
If your two strongest personality types are Realistic and Social, Investigative and Enterprising, or
Artistic and Conventional, read on ...
Sometimes personality types (Holland Codes) combine in unusual ways in people. For example, if you
read the descriptions of the Investigative (I) and Enterprising (E) types, you would not expect a
person to have them both as his or her two strongest personality types. Investigative persons
generally avoid leading, selling or persuading people. Enterprising people are just the opposite; they
like these activities. But, there are people who have this unusual IE or EI combination. The two other
combinations like this are Realistic-Social (RS or SR) and Conventional-Artistic (CA or AC).
Does your personality fit together in this unusual way? Someone who has an InvestigativeEnterprising personality pattern might ask "Are my results abnormal? And more importantly, how do
I go about choosing a career with these 'conflicting' results?"
The answer would be: “Your interpretation of your results is exactly right: there are occupations
where 'inconsistent personality patterns' work especially well. The example of a sales person (E)
working in a technical field like science (I) or engineering (I) is a good one.
So, some patterns may be somewhat unusual but that makes us each a little more unique and gifted.
There's nothing wrong with us. It can make life more challenging but also very rewarding. Having
knowledge about our personality differences helps us understand ourselves and value who we are as
individuals.
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Testing has shown that Your PCKP users understand and value learning Holland’s theory. They report
that Your PCKP helps them clarify their career choice process.
Counselors and career educators using the PCKP should be well acquainted with Holland’s theory.
Dr. John Holland’s third edition Making Vocational Choices (1997) is highly recommended if you want
to learn more.
In summary, choose a job that you love and you will never have to work a day in your life!
Several basic ideas of Holland’s theory such as the hexagon and the notion of congruence are omitted
from the paper-pencil PCKP because of space limitations and their complexity.
Self Assessment of Personality Types
Users assess their resemblance to the six Holland personality types by combining the results of two
sections. First, you will tick the occupations that appeal to you from a list of occupations carefully
selected to represent the six Holland personality types (Holland 1985a, 1997: Holland’s original
measure, the Vocational Preference Inventory, used this approach exclusively).
Secondly, you will rate statements for each of the six personality types for how well they describe you.
These statements are drawn from Holland’s theory (1985a, 1997) where he describes each type
according to four characteristics: preferred activities, competencies, self-perceptions and values.
Statements 1 & 2 for each of the types, refer to activities that people enjoy engaging in and those they
avoid. Statements 3 & 4 are the competencies associated with the type, or the lack of them. Statement
5 represented the characteristic values of the type. Statement 6 refers to the types’ self-perceptions.
The following example is illustrated for the Realistic Type.
Self-Assessment Statements For The Realistic Type
Activities preferred or avoided:
1. I prefer to work with things I can see and touch like animals, objects, tools or machines.
2. I generally avoid activities like teaching, giving help to others or giving information.
Competencies associated with the type, or the lack of them:
3. I have abilities in working with objects, animals and machines.
4. I do not have many abilities in the areas of teaching, developing or providing information.
Characteristic values:
5. Money, power or status are important to me.
Self-Perceptions:
6. I see myself as practical, frank and hard headed.
This same pattern is followed for the statements describing the other five personality types.
Counselors can sometimes use this knowledge with the other information provided by the PCKP as a
foundation for positive discussions with a client.
The Classification Of Occupations
The PCKP classification system uniquely combines two major systems for classifying occupations: a)
the interest-based system of Holland and (b) the interest and worker trait-based system.
The Holland classification system is based on his 6 personality types. The USEC system is based on 12
interests and 66 work trait groups. In an article in 1980, Jones (1980) described how these two
systems could be integrated, capturing the best features of both. This combined system was first used
in the Occ-U-Sort (Jones, 1981), an occupational card sort system and now with Your PCKP.
As a practical matter, the combined system of Your PCKP allows users to relate their Holland
personality type to groups of occupations, “work groups” where the traits of the workers are similar
with respect to interests, aptitudes, temperament, skills and abilities.
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For example, a person having a high score for the Artistic type is led to groups of occupations with
titles like “Literary Arts” and “Visual Arts”. Under Visual Arts he or she will find occupations like
architect, graphic designer, painter and photographer.
Your PCKP classification system has several advantages:
It is based on John Holland’s Theory (1997). Hundreds of studies have investigated Holland’s Theory
(Ruff, Reardon, Bertoch, 2008) and many of its key concepts have been supported. One of these,
“congruence”, the extent of the match between personality type and career/education choice – has
been shown to be positively correlated with both career and educational success and satisfaction.
This is the theory that most counsellors use now.
It is based on the expert work of job analysis.
Occupations are grouped according to the easily understood concepts of “work groups” as compared
to two or three-letter codes used by other systems: Compare “Literary Arts” as a grouping of
occupations to “ASE”(for Artistic-Social-Enterprising).
In 2009 the classification system was revised and updated. For this revision all the work groups were
reviewed in light of changes in occupational work since 1987. In general, few substantive changes
were made. The classification system continues to fit the occupational world well. The major changes
under Realistic, to delete Crafts-Sewing and to expand Crafts-Metal to include wood, plastic and fabric
and to add “Computer Science and Technology” under investigative. The names for several of the
work groups were updated and made more explicit.
Career Exploration
Research (e.g. Greenhaus & Sklarew, 1981; Stumpf, Colarelli & Hartman, 1983; Sugalski & Greenhaus,
1986) has shown that career exploration is positively correlated with more satisfying career choices,
receiving more job offers, increased job motivation and higher job satisfaction. For these reasons
Your PCKP emphasises the importance of career exploration.
Use of Your Personality Career Key Profile
Senior primary, Junior and High School learners, tertiary learners and adults. Your PCKP is helpful in
identifying ideas about suitable and unsuitable occupations stimulating interest in finding out more
information about subject choices and increasing confidence in learning about and choosing
occupations.
Technical Aspects
Reliability
The error rate of incorrectly calculating your score is very low. The rate for a study conducted with
175 high school learners returned a 1% error rate for a mistaken high-point code (incorrect first
letter of the three-letter summary code) and 4% for a mistaken three-letter code (letters incorrectly
omitted or letter in wrong order) compared with reported error rates of between 12 and 26% for
similar instruments.
Validity
A study of the same number of learners found that when the three-letter codes from Holland’s
(1985c) Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) were compared with the three-letter code from Your
PCKP, the mean Iachan (1984) Index was 20.4 which is the range of “reasonably close matches”.
In another test of construct validity, the inter-correlations among the PCKP scales were examined to
determine how many violated the relationships expected for Holland’s hexagonal model. For example,
his theoretical model would predict a stronger, positive correlation between R and the letters adjacent
to it (I and C) than those a greater distance away (e.g. S). There were only four violations. In other
words 44 of the 48 possible relationships were consistent with the theoretical model. As a point of
comparison, an identical analysis was done with the VPI and it did not do as well as the PCKP; 41 of
the 48 compparisons were consistent with the hexagonal model.
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To further test the construct validity of the PCKP in this study, the degree of agreement between the
PCKP three-letter codes and those for the VPI were completed. The result was an Iachan Index of
21.2, again, a reasonably close match.
Criterion-related validity of the PCKP scales was tested in one study that compared tertiary learners’
first-letter PCKP codes with the first letter of their major subjects. Forty percent of the comparisons
were “hits” which according to Holland’s Theory is in the range of hits found with most inventories
examining criterion-related validity. When the hits for Your PCKP were compared with those for the
VPI, using weighted Kappa, Your PCKP did significantly better.
Helpfulness of Your Personality Career Key Profile
68 Tertiary learners were randomly chosen seeking help due to their career indecision. At the end of
the experience they rated the helpfulness of the instrument based on a nine-item Student
Questionnaire. Overall, the rating was 84% who found the test helpful and would take it again.
Mean Time To Administer
Average 15-minutes including self-scoring following download and printing out of the PDF
Assessment and average 5-minutes for the web-based version.
Relationship to Career Clusters / Pathways
A growing body of research shows that people do better and are more satisfied in instructional
environments that match their interests. For example, Tracey and Robbins (2006) investigated
interest-tertiary major congruence in a longitudinal study and found that this match predicted
persistence in school among individuals with low interest levels.
These and other findings show the importance of helping individuals to indentify instructional
programmes that match their interests (Holland Personality Types).
Career Clusters
Career Clusters are broad groups of occupations and industries that almost always require the same
grouping of academic subjects for higher education, for instance “Health Sciences” which would
include doctors and dentists. Career Clusters are then sub-divided into Career Pathways of which
there may be many.
Cluster
Pathways
Health
Sciences
Therapeutic Services
Diagnostic Services
Pathways
Health
Information
Services
Biotechnology Research & Development
Health Support Services
Career Pathways
Career Pathways are a series of courses that prepare you for an occupational field. For example,
courses in the Therapeutic Services Pathway will lead to jobs like Radiologist, Physician or Physical
Therapist.
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Note: Career Clusters and Career Pathways are not organised according to interests or personality
types. Some jobs are found in more than one cluster and pathway.
Which Subject Choices, Pathway Or Field Matches My Interests?
A good match reflects:
1) How much you enjoy going to school or work;
2) Your grades at school or performance at work;
3) How well you get along with your peers;
4) Whether or not you can easily find a job and enjoy success in it.
RIASEC Map of Career Clusters
Full details available at the end of the PCKP.
Headwise Developments (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 650
Glenvista 2058
Tel: 079 853 4150