One of The Career Profiler’s many skills is handwriting analysis. She recently came across a handwriting sample of an employee at financial planning firm. This sample displayed unique handwriting. It was significantly different than the norm.

Most college-aged women’s (the age range of this employee) handwriting shows that they are warm, caring, careful to be accepted, and intelligent. But in this particular handwriting sample, The Career Profiler saw what she called as aggressive intelligence. The handwriting indicated an intelligence that was sharp and highly perceptive – more so than any other sample she’d seen. It demonstrated the writer critically analyzed every concept, idea, opinion, and piece of data. This analysis can be done

To an untrained eye, most handwriting is simply legible or illegible. To The Carer Profiler, your handwriting is an entire world describing you

automatically, as an instinctive response. With these analysis skills, the employee could easily find flaws in data. This is a talent any employer, especially a financial services company, would love to hire. Or is it?

What’s “Wrong” with That?

The problem was, there was one particular letter in her handwriting that indicated she would use information to her advantage at the expense of others. With a high level of character, this person would be an opportunist. But if her character were of an average or low level, this person would be cunning and deceitful.

What would this look like at work? She would see a weakness in a work relationship and take advantage of it in some way. If she disliked someone, she would exploit that person’s weakness to gain the upper hand – a promotion, or even secure her adversary’s firing. If her work involved handling money, she might quite naturally take the path of embezzlement. Of course, this boils down to a character issue, but it was through handwriting analysis that The Career Profiler could alert both the employee and her employer of this personality tendency.

The Bottom Line: Know Yourself and Your Employees

The same kind of information can be found for you! Do you want to know more about yourself or your employees? Do you want to protect your company and find the best employees? As in this example, you might be warned of the early signs of a problematic worker. Or you can keep an eye out for personal flaws that you were previously blind to.

With over twenty years of experience in career coaching, The Career Profiler has all the tools she needs to help you know yourself and your business. You can send a handwriting sample to her today. In the analysis consultation, she will walk you through the meaning of your handwriting and what it tells about your work performance, personality, and abilities. Take advantage of all the ways you can know yourself! Get your handwriting analyzed today.

In addition to handwriting, The Career Profiler knows all about aptitude tests, career tests, and personality tests. The Highlands Ability Battery is one of the main tools in her toolbox and is a great way to find out more than just your handwriting. You can take THAB today too!

Now that we have looked at Classification and Concept Organization separately, let’s see what careers are available for the whole spectrum of scores.  Want to be a successful writer?  A teacher?  Have a specific career in mind?  Double check that the career you desire uses the scores you have in Classification and Concept Organization. If you still don’t know your Convergent Thinking score, take The Highlands Ability Battery today!

Convergent Thinking is a driving ability, which means that if you pursue a job that requires a CL or CO score you do not have, you will not be very happy or successful in that job!  Find out if you are an inductive reasoner or a process thinker, a decisive reasoner or deductive reasoner.  Then consider a job that uses both of those aptitudes.

Which reasoning combination are you?

High Classification, High Concept Organization

High Classification, Low Concept Organization

Low Classification, High Concept Organization

Low Classification, Low Concept Organization

High Classification, High Concept Organization

These thinkers think “to the max.” They are called consultative because of their ability to solve problems quickly and explain well to others. A lot of outlets are needed through which to express their full-steam-ahead way of organizing, thinking, and explaining. Take note that follow-through is not your strong suit. You are better at thinking up solutions to problems, not implementing those solutions.

Find a career that requires solving lots of problems quickly and explaining the ins and outs of them. Consultative thinkers are known as the classic “law combination.” The Highlands Ability Battery notes: “A lawyer sizes up the facts of a case, works with curveballs along the way, and must communicate with clients, other lawyers, and judges their rationale.”

The Consultive combination: the law combination.

Many professionals who score high in Concept Organization are in the sciences and mathematics. Other careers include engineers, accountants, secretaries and office managers, writers and editors, teachers, travel agents and tour planners, event planners, political and advertising campaign planners, and computer programmers.

Adjust to your high Classification need to explain problem-solving by working in environments within these fields that require human interaction. For example, a computer programmer might find a niche in customer service, where she could explain solutions to customers. Accountants can find a niche in financial advising, where they discuss the solutions to financial problems.

High Classification, Low Concept Organization

This combination is called diagnostic, which gives you a clue as to what kind of job would suit this person. A medical doctor can use these aptitudes to come with the solution to a problem quickly. She can put many seemingly unrelated pieces together and come up with a diagnosis.  Unlike the consultative combination, these people find

High classification, low concept organization: Diagnostic

it tiresome to explain their reasoning to others. They would rather just connect the dots, solve the problem, and move on with it! According to Highlands Ability Battery test-takers, diagnostics feel “at home in fast-paced environments [requiring] a strong need to problem-solve.”

However, their low Concept Organization sets them apart from consultants in that diagnostics are not always great at explanations and communication. Like a doctor, they’d rather figure out the problem, prescribe the solution, and go to the next patient! If you are a diagnostic thinker, take this tendency to not communicate well into account and try to find a way to minimize that kind of activity in your job.

Low Classification, High Concept Organization

“Naturally logical in problem analysis and thorough in ensuring all things have been considered, [the Analytical combination] can be slower to arrive at conclusions.” These well-organized, thorough thinkers

Low classification, high concept organization: Analytical

work better in slow environments.  These thinkers are analytical. Most careers will reflect this title: financial advisors who analyze a financial situation and discuss solutions with their clients. Or

statisticians who think through all the information before forming a conclusion. They go deeper in problems, more slowly. They are excellent researchers, in it for the long haul.

If you are an analytical thinker, be sure that your job provides you with enough time and depth to understand information. If you work in a fast-paced environment that is only interested in surface-level explanations, happiness and success will be hard to come by!

Low Classification, Low Concept Organization

Don’t overlook these “low” scorers! Called experiential workers, they gather most of their knowledge and problem-solving ability from past experience. The Fundraising Coach says, “This is probably the ideal executive or managerial problem-solving type. Given their ability to apply past experiences to present situations, it may be advisable for people with this combination to get as much varied work experience as possible early on in their careers.”

Experiential thinkers can make great teachers

They tend to be patient with people, and thus are usually better implementers than the impatient diagnostics or consulters. The latter are better at brainstorming ideas, rather than following through with a plan. Experiential thinkers often find success as teachers. After years of teaching experience, they know how to address a learning block and how to best approach explaining a concept to students.

What Now?

Now you know the many careers that best fit people with different combinations of Classification and Concept Organization thinking. This information is highly valuable for people who are looking for a new job, trying to improve in their career, or are planning their career trajectory.

If you don’t know your Classification or Concept Organization scores, it’s time for you to find out! The Career Profiler recommends The Highlands Ability Battery as the best aptitude test. Then you can get a FREE consultation with her to discuss your results. If you already know your Convergent Thinking score but are not sure how to apply it to your life, a meeting with The Career Profiler will help you! Make a plan that guarantees happiness and success in your career.

In our last blog we looked at Classification, which is how a person organizes information. This week, we’ll learn about Concept Organization, or CO. Similarly to Classification, CO measures the ability to organize concepts and arrange ideas in logical sequence. The Career Profiler differentiates between low CO scorers and high ones. She calls low CO scorers decisive reasoners and high CO scorers deductive reasoners.

Deductive Reasoners

These high CO thinkers go through all the logical steps before making a decision. While this is thorough, it can be hard for them to make a decision because they take so many different elements into account. They have highly organized minds and well developed internal organization systems. But this doesn’t always translate to an organized workspace. They’re good at organizing systems and plans into logical steps. Creating structure is where these thinkers thrive.

Concept Organization tells how you receive and organize information and then make decisions

Decisive Reasoners

On the other hand, decisive reasoners prefer to walk into a situation that has already been organized for them. Going through all the thorough steps it takes to organize a problem and find the solution is not for them. The single most important element in a decision or problem jumps out at them so they don’t have to weigh all the possibilities.

They are much more decisive for this reason and don’t ponder over what decision to make. The right decision jumps out at them quickly because they are constantly thinking about the “bottom line.” 

When communicating with a decisive reasoner, cut right to the chase – that’s all they care about! They don’t want to go through all the rationale of a decision you made or the reasons why they are being assigned the task you are giving them.

Decisive reasoners complete one task at a time (in order of importance), rather than multi-tasking like many high CO thinkers do. They can get overwhelmed if too much is expected of them at one time.

But How do They Work?

We will answer this question in our next blog, which will bring together Concept Organization with last week’s Classification! As you know, you should never pick a career based on only one attribute or personality factor. It’s important to know how your many interests, aptitudes, and abilities can work together to make you happy in successful in a career. As driving abilities, it is even more important to understand how these two can help you find the right job for you. If you are ready to find out about your strengths and find the perfect job for you, you can start with The Highlands Ability Battery. This is an ability test that the Career Profiler loves. Stay tuned for our Thinking Series Part III: Careers for Classification and Concept Organization!

You may not have thought of this before, but the way we think has a huge impact on our lives. Oftentimes we only consider whether or not a person is thinking, not how they are doing it. But this has huge consequences!  Classification is an aptitude that answers the question “How do I organize my thoughts so that I solve problems?” Knowing the answer to this question actually helps you succeed and be happy in life.

Welcome to the Thinking Series that explores the many ways of thinking and how they are understood in the career world. Career tests call these ways of thinking by different names, though they may be talking about the same way of thinking. The Highlands Ability Battery, for example, calls them abilities. Other tests call them aptitudes. But both refer to the same phenomenon: the innate skills that determine what kind of career you can excel in.

Classification

Today we’ll be looking at what The Highlands Ability Battery calls Classification. The Career Profiler, however, differentiates between a high and low score in Classification. She calls a high score in Classification inductive thinking, and a low score in Classification process thinking.

Classification is the organization of ideas into different classes or compartments. When a person tests low in Classification (process thinking), you can think of them as sitting in front of two boxes and deciding if an object belongs in one or the other.

Low Classification (Process Thinking)

Those who score low in Classification are process thinkers. They organize ideas meticulously

Process thinkers categorize in the following ways:

• ask appropriate questions
• patient with the process of organization
• feel comfortable with structures and rules
• think in a step-by-step way

In the workplace, this kind of person is easy to manage and often works well in a position that uses tried-and-true methods of procedure. Sometimes they can come off as slow thinkers or workers. But this does not mean they are not intelligent. It’s simply that compared to those who score high in Classification, they are perhaps not as noticeable.

High Classification (Inductive Thinkers)

Those scoring high in Classification (inductive thinkers) bring to mind, in juxtaposition to low Classification, a whirlwind. These are the kind of people who “get” things easily and quickly. Inductive thinkers:

• Recognize problems and answers almost immediately
• Are fast thinkers
• quick problem-solvers
• become impatient or bored in slow environments
• Sees pros and cons easily
• Finds commonalities among different things

It’s easy for them to follow a common thread in a sea of information, forming conclusions based on those relationships very quickly. On the negative side, they sometimes have difficulty following through on an idea, or slowing down to learn a process. Unless they have a high vocabulary, they often have trouble

Inductive thinkers connect puzzle pieces easily

explaining themselves and their reasoning. Without vocabulary or lots of knowledge, they may not know exactly why they are right about something. Like other kinds of reasoning abilities, this aptitude is dependent on knowledge for its proper use. To be able to make the diagnostic leap from symptoms to disease, for example, a doctor first has to know the disease. People with inductive reasoning and little knowledge generally face continuing difficulties.

The Series

Our next blog, Concept Organization, looks at a different style of thinking. Like Classification, those who score low and high on this test are called by different names: deductive reasoners vs. decisive reasoners. Then we will look at what happens when these four ways of thinking are paired with each other to make Convergent Thinking.

Why It Matters

You may be thinking, “this is a lot of jargon for some silly personality stuff.” But it’s not just jargon, and it’s not even just personality. These aptitudes determine how you function in the world – in your career, your relationships, your education. They help you understand yourself and the people around you.

If you are in a leadership position in your company, it helps you understand how to get the best work out of your employees. If you’re an employee struggling with your work load or feeling bored and dissatisfied with your job, it helps you understand how to best engage with your work and succeed. All of these things lead to career happiness. The Career Profiler wants to help you achieve success and happiness! Find out what your Convergent Thinking style today by taking The Highlands Ability Battery. All of this information is tied together in Convergent Thinking, the combination of Classification and Concept Organization. It will give you an even more detailed picture of the best job for you.

Did you know handwriting can tell not only about individual people, but whole generations?

The Career Profiler has studied handwriting for over 10 years, collecting samples from a variety of people over many generations. You may never have thought of the fact that handwriting changes over time. But it does. In the few generations between WWII and the end of the century, the differences in handwriting are like night and day.

But what does career profiling or coaching have to do with handwriting in the first place? If you have ever had your handwriting analyzed, you know that a trained expert can describe your key characteristics, traits, and behaviors with pinpoint accuracy. For some, this is just plain freaky.  For others, it is intriguing and they want to learn more. In short, handwriting is a proven, accurate assessment tool. If this is all new to you, you may feel skeptical. Let me convince you.

Handwriting analysis is a highly regarded skill in Europe, particularly Germany and France, where it first began.  Businesses often use it during the hiring process. But in the U.S. and Canada, it is still largely misunderstood or not even recognized as a viable assessment tool. Ignorance, however, doesn’t mean it’s not viable. Have your handwriting analyzed and see for yourself! See if an expert can glean your traits from your handwriting. Let me demonstrate in broad terms what handwriting analysis can tell us about groups of people – namely, generations.

The Generations Overview

The Silent Generation are those born between 1924 and 1945. This is probably your parents’ or grandparents’ generation. This group of adults has a distinctive handwriting style that depicts the characteristics of this generation. They use exclusively cursive writing. One significant aspect of cursive writing is that all the letters in a word link to the one next to it.  The bottom of each letter connects to the next with a gentle, curving line. This consistently connective writing tells much about the way the generation views each other, the world, and how things are accomplished.

In contrast, Generation Y falls into the most recent handwriting analysis group. Often called Millenials, their writing is marked exclusively by printing. Much of the reason for this decline is because of the rise of typing and the decrease in the necessity of cursive in everyday life. Some schools no longer teach cursive writing.

Bridging this gap are the Baby Busters and Baby Boomers. These generations have the most variety in writing style. They use both connective writing and print script (various forms of connective and disconnective writing). However, it is rare to find someone from the Baby Boomer generation that exclusively prints. There are some among the Baby Busters. So what does this say about each group? Of course, these are broad generalizations that certainly do not apply to each person in a generation. We are simply looking to see what conclusions we can draw from the fact that the older generation uses cursive, the middle uses a mix, and the younger uses printing.

The Silent Generation

The connective writing style of the Silent Generation says that this group thinks in terms of “us.” They feel connected to their peers and think like each other. There is a mutual understanding and a group-think. Therefore, they also understand each others’ needs, wants, and goals. An individual’s needs are woven into other’s needs. They understand that helping others achieve their wants and goals enables them to fulfill their own wants and goals. That is because they essentially want the same kind of things. The needs of the group is paramount. Personal needs are always subject to the filter of group needs.

As one would expect, the Silents attend church and serves on church committees. They participate in not one but multiple civic organizations within their lifetime. And as seniors typically do, they join hobby or leisure groups that share their interests.

As an example of the Silent culture, The Career Profiler recently became vice-president of a long-running garden club in her area. In looking through the historical records of the group, she found that every member held multiple positions during their tenure. But, even more significantly, if a member missed more than one meeting, their membership was dropped automatically. Reminders were never sent out before a meeting. Today, there is no one in the club under the age of 45. As you can imagine, the members are mostly Silents, plus a few Baby Boomers. There are no Busters or Millennials in the group at all. The conclusions we draw from this example should be taken with a grain of salt, given that older people are more likely to own a house and therefore have space for a personal garden, and leisure gardening is usually a hobby taken up by older people. But in general, the older generations take community responsibility very seriously and understand that if a group is to function well, everyone has to pitch in.

The progression from Silent to Boomer handwriting: 50’s already showcases a mix of print and cursive, though most letters are still connected or close together

Baby Boomer and Buster

It’s important to remember that generations are connected to the ones before and after them.  So as we move on to the Baby Boomer and Buster generations, remember that Boomers are the children of Silents, and their children are Millennials.  Boomers and Busters have the most variety in writing styles and in their work, thinking, and life styles.  Boomers and Busters are experimenters.  They explored all the following and more: 60’s mod styles, 70’s hippy lifestyles, 80’s achievement pursuits, and 90’s leisure living.  Within these eras were the high-flying financiers and the peace corp supporters, along with the 9-5ers and the druggies.  Their various handwriting styles reflect the variety of thinking and living styles.  

There are other distinctives too.  Silents raised their Boomer children in Sunday School, but most dropped out of church.  More than likely, they didn’t raise their Millennial children in any religious tradition.  This generation gave up on commitments, not just to church but also to marriage.  More than any previous generation, this one divorced in ever increasing numbers, especially among those without strong, intergenerationally networked communities.  One reason Canadians file for less divorce than Americans is in part because of their more historically networked communities.  However, the fact that this generation had the gumption to break with community and work traditions means that they were able to trailblaze the Information Age.  Without this growing individualism and experimentation, the world as we know it would not exist.  Their life experiences greatly shaped the lives of their children, the Millenials.

The changes continue: the late Boomers mix print and cursive with more obvious spaces between words and letters, while some Busters opt for print only. Millenials, though still young, showcase a print style different than any of the others: not a hint of cursive, and larger spaces than ever

Millenials

Let’s jump to Millennials.  They have the exact opposite writing style of the Silent Generation. Their print-only style of writing says that their thinking is disconnected from others.  Every letter stands alone.  Every thought is about how to meet my needs, goals, and wants.  Much of their culture and lifestyle is a result of the way their parents raised them – in reaction to the Boomer/Buster experience of the world.

Millennials weren’t raised in community; Boomers and Busters didn’t spend much time in intergenerational, interconnected network of people. Thus, their children didn’t experience this either. A network like this includes friends and peers, as well as people they don’t necessarily like.  A community is multi-generational, sharing a sense of history and a common goal.  Most Millennials weren’t even raised by two parents!  So it’s not surprising that Millennials have an aversion to intimacy and a complete lack of cultural understanding of community.  To them, community is a gathering of friends or strangers in the same place at the same time.  They have no exposure to a multilayered, networked group of others.  Additionally, Millenials’ parents raised them with the ideals of individuality, creativity, and uniqueness.  This American feature of individualism has developed over time and is a defining feature of the younger generations.

Another part of the reason for that is this is that Millennials have, for the most part, not been raised in church.  Church is a community which naturally teaches the fundamentals of groupthink or democratic processes.  It functions completely at the will of the people, around a common value, to achieve a common goal.  Millennials’ parents threw out groupthink in the 60’s and 70’s, when individualism and building a unique identity prevailed.

THAB Confirms

The Highland Ability Battery confirms this generational thinking shift. One of the 19 test modules measures generalist vs. specialist thinking styles.  Generalists think like others.  Specialists, on the other hand, think uniquely and use words with meanings other than the masses might assume.  Within the last five years, test results have uncovered that Millennials scores significantly higher as specialists than as generalists – in a greater percentage than ever before in the history of the test.  As a result, they created a “student” version of the test which adjusts for this shift to comply with historical standards.

This is just a brief, general example of what handwriting tells us about people.  There are many more characteristics one can learn from a person through handwriting.  Find out what it could mean for your career by getting in touch with The Career Profiler.  She can analyze your handwriting and let you know how your personality characteristics affect your work.

We also have more blogs on handwriting analysis if you want to know more. Our next handwriting blog is a case study and why handwriting should matter to employers and managers.

Many of our clients want to know: is there a way to get new aptitudes? Of course people are interested in getting new aptitudes – after all, the more aptitudes the have, the better you are at various activities!

Unfortunately, because aptitudes are inherent, there is not much you can do to acquire them. Furthermore, you can do little to develop those you have. However, no matter what set of aptitudes you have, you can become more proficient in the skills associated with them. In order to do that, you must first know your aptitudes. The aptitude test that we recommend the most is The Highlands Ability Battery. It’s the best way to find out what your aptitudes are. And knowing your aptitudes is the first step in developing them!

To develop your aptitudes, you must simply “exercise” them. Find ways to use them at work and at home. For example, you may have been lucky enough to have been born with the two engineering abilities to reason spatially. Find projects to work on at home: build something from scratch, repair things, remodel a room, serve on the building maintenance committee at church, or the office remodeling committee at work. Doing activities that use your aptitudes will increase skills that that aptitude allows.

How to develop your aptitudes

Now, there is definitely nothing you can do to acquire an aptitude you do not possess. But there is hope. In certain situations, people are able to “work around” the lack of an aptitude. You can use an aptitude you do have to overcome a lack of an aptitude in a specific situation.

For example, let’s say you lack reading comprehension. You find it difficult to recall the details of something you’ve read. But, you possess two other learning aptitudes – design and rhythm memory. Take the smart route and use your aptitudes instead of struggling through an activity that requires an aptitude you do not have.

You can get into the habit of recalling what you have read in a way that doesn’t require reading comprehension. Rather than remembering the words on the page themselves, you can underline certain sections of text and later remember the pattern of underlines you made. Your memory for design and rhythm will recall the feeling of underlining through body movement. In this way, you can use your strengths and sidestep your weaknesses to get the same job done.

Practice makes perfect! Exercise your aptitudes every day

However, there are many careers that require a set of aptitudes in order to be successful in that job. A person can not learn how to reason spatially if they want to be an engineer. It’s not a matter of working hard or being “smart” enough. There is no amount of study and memorizing that enables a person to deal with the variety of engineering situations and problems naturally. Perhaps even more importantly, if you get into a job like engineering when you don’t have those aptitudes, you will not be happy or successful. Instead, know your aptitudes, learn how to use them better, and land the job that’s perfect for your unique set of aptitudes.

Are you interested in developing your aptitudes? Or finding out ways to use your aptitudes to enhance the areas of your life where another aptitudes seem required? The Career Profiler can help you brainstorm ways of exercising your aptitudes. She can answer your career aptitude questions and start on a plan to improve your personal life and career today.

Brain Health Part II: Career Choice

In the last post we looked at how developing your brain’s gray matter can help in your career success. In this blog we’ll talk about how a well-developed brain makes a career choice.

It seems logical that a brain developed to its greatest capacity gives one the freedom to choose from a greater number of careers, and to be successful in those careers. Unfortunately, the reality is that people with great brain capacity often find that they are not successful or happy. Multi-talented people find career choice difficult. They can feel pigeonholed in only one career or one skill set. One career choice shuts off another, despite the person being capable of doing both. Multi-talented people often get stuck, not becoming really successful in anything. Career coaching is important for these kinds of people because it can be hard to find a career that uses their multiple talents. Without a career that uses all of their capacity, they end up feeling underused or undervalued. Furthermore, if they choose a career that doesn’t utilize their driving abilities, they will not be successful or happy.

Those with great brain capacity can have trouble with career choice

Are you one of these people? You know you are talented, bright, and driven. But you just can’t find the right job for you?

It’s hard to find a career that uses all of a well-developed person’s many abilities, interests, and aptitudes. But The Career Profiler can help find a field or fields in which you can take advantage of your great potential. Real estate development, visual arts, and film directing are all careers that utilize many aptitudes, skills, and facets of talent. Some multi-talented folks pursue different careers and switch it up every few years.

An Example

A client of The Career Profiler graduated from MIT and taught in academia for several years. He worked with both the hard and soft sciences. Then he worked in South America for several years, then was a legal counselor for an oil shipment company. He also designed his own house and does contracting work for other building projects. In his spare time, he participates intensely in recreational sports like tennis and downhill skiing.

Someone with all of these abilities and interests could never be satisfied staying in one place and doing one thing! Furthermore, a person with all of these gifts to share shouldn’t limit themselves to a mediocre job, or even one great job.

It can be daunting to plan on changing careers every few years, but it is possible! Get in touch with The Career Profiler to find your aptitudes, work on a career plan, or talk about how to develop your aptitudes. Don’t pigeonhole yourself! Work and live to your fullest potential! This is the best way to be successful and happy.

Brain Health Part I: Career Success

Are you concerned about your brain health as you age? Gretchen Reynolds, a physical education columnist for The New York Times, often writes about how learning a new sport as a midlife adult may be good for your brain. In fact, learning anything new produces positive benefits in the brain. But until recently, studies have only focused on higher cognitive learning in children. This study presents the need for adults to improve both physical and motor learning. And of course, this will affect your career!

Grey and white matter in the brain

How do different kinds of learning impact the brain? Physical learning develops gray matter in the motor control region of the brain. Language learning develops white matter in the language processing area. Familiar physical exercise, while beneficial to overall brain health, does not result in the same benefits as learning a new sport. This means your daily walk won’t necessarily cut it. Sedentary activities such as filling in crossword puzzles or playing video learning games have limited benefit on brain development.  

Brain Health and Your Career

Why does this matter to The Career Profiler? There are two main ways. The first is how brain capacity affects career success. The second is how high brain capacity affects career choice. This article will focus on the first. Greater success can be found in those careers with a well-developed brain.

For example, a 21-year-old man recently took the BullsEye Career test package. He was raised without a television in his house. His mother, a preschool teacher, encouraged him to engage in non-screen activities like outdoor play. Much of his playtime included tinkering, building, music, reading, and journaling as required by his mother. In high school, he played all the team sports until injuries sidelined him.

Juggling is a great activity to improve brain health

He also earned top grades, becoming a valedictorian. Of all the people who have completed my BullsEye Career test package, he scored the highest on the ability profile as a whole, if not the highest on all individual ability test modules. Even if he was smart to begin with, his activities, as we now know from motor and cognitive learning studies, no doubt expanded his brain capabilities.

The same is true when you learn a new physical exercise as an adult. Especially for second career applicants, picking up a new hobby like juggling or snowboarding might be a way to ensure your brain stays sharp for your next job. 

What’s a sport or activity that you want to pick up? Maybe this is an area that you need coaching in, either from a physical fitness coach or a career coach. The Career Profiler can help you identify your driving aptitudes and develop your capacity in the areas that you are already fit to expand in. Keep your  brain healthy by learning new things and working with a career coach to expand your potential.

Aptitudes are a new way to find happiness. Do you feel bored and dissatisfied? Ever wonder why certain kinds of work bore you? Why do some people love paperwork when it drives others crazy? Or have you ever cleaned up and organized your work desk or room and felt a sense of relief and happiness afterward?

All of these questions have to do with aptitudes. Few people know that using your aptitudes is one of the surest ways to find happiness. An aptitude is a natural ability that someone is born with. Read more about aptitudes and how to test yours at TestEts.

Next, it’s important to know that many aptitudes demand expression. This means that if you are not using this aptitude, you are not happy or productive. Think of an artist who is moody and unfocused unless they have an outlet for their creative expression. The Highlands Ability Battery, a top-of-the-line aptitude test, calls these aptitudes driving abilities. The THAB organizes them into five groups:

Know your aptitudes and find what makes you happy

1. Classification
2. Concept Organization
3. Idea Productivity
4. Spatial Relations Theory
5. Spatial Relations Visualization.

Most people test strongly in at least one of these aptitudes. Doing things that use that aptitude more than others will probably result in success and happiness. On the other hand, if you consistently do things that require an aptitude you test weakly in, it will probably be difficult, draining, and may result in a sense of boredom or dissatisfaction.

So What?

There are many ways understanding aptitudes can change your life. It can help guide you in different day-to-day activities. After understanding your aptitudes, you will be able to recognize others’ aptitudes and improve your personal relationships. Perhaps most importantly for this website, knowing your aptitudes helps you know what to do and be with certainty! Knowing your aptitudes helps you find the right career for you.

Getting a job that uses your driving abilities and avoids the ones you lack most likely will result in your career success and happiness! This is one reason why it’s important to know your aptitudes and to find a job that uses them. Johnson O’Connor, a leader in the aptitude testing world, says, “It has been our experience, from over half a century of measuring aptitudes, that people tend to be more satisfied in occupations that challenge their aptitudes and that do not demand aptitudes they lack.”

Finally, one of the best ways to find your aptitudes is to take The Highlands Ability Battery, mentioned above. The Career Profiler strongly recommends this test. So much so, in fact, that she offers two free consultations to interpret your results and make a career plan! Get in touch with The Career Profiler today!