Category Archives: Career Success

Why I Recommend the Highlands Ability Battery

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Reviewed October 28, 2026

I have been involved in career coaching in one capacity or another since high school. I have seen the frustration of looking for a job without knowing what work fits, and the confusion of choosing a career from possibilities that all sound reasonable on paper.

That experience is why I value assessments that reveal different parts of the person. Interest and personality assessments are useful tools. The Highlands Ability Battery is the foundation I most strongly recommend for understanding the natural abilities and internal needs that belong in a career decision.

In my experience, Highlands answers more questions about career direction than any other career assessment I have used. Its ability findings give you a reference you can return to for a lifetime—as you choose a career, change direction or take on new responsibilities.

The Career Profiler owns TestEts, which sells Highlands assessments and profile packages. This is my professional recommendation, based on how I use these tools in consultation. Clients coming through this website work with me, Marjorie Wall Hofer.

Each assessment answers a different question

I am familiar with interest assessments ranging from the accessible Self-Directed Search to the Strong Interest Inventory and its different report options.

The Self-Directed Search, developed by John Holland, uses his RIASEC framework: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional. These themes organize interests and connect them with work environments and educational possibilities.

The Strong Interest Inventory provides another way to explore activities and subjects you enjoy and their connections with occupations. Depending on the report, the findings can help clarify what engages and motivates you in work.

Personality assessments add information about your preferred approach to work. With MBTI, Step I covers four preference pairs; Step II explores 20 facets within those pairs. The publisher explains this in its Step II overview.

Career reports and the Introduction to Type booklet series apply type knowledge to subjects such as career choice, communication, decision-making and development. Specific resources may be separate purchases; not every booklet or report is included with one assessment.

Highlands asks you to do the work samples

What makes Highlands central to my practice is its objective, performance-based approach. You complete timed assessment exercises rather than guess how much ability you have. Your performance supplies information about your ability patterns.

The publisher’s overview describes online work samples involving activities such as memory, reasoning and spatial visualization. The battery takes about three hours in total and can be completed in separate sittings.

This gives us a different kind of information from your answers about interests or personality preferences. Those self-reports remain important: knowing what you can do does not tell us everything about what you enjoy or how you prefer to work. Together, the assessments create a fuller profile.

Information you can return to over time

Highlands describes natural ability patterns as relatively stable over time. That makes the findings an enduring reference as your career, responsibilities and opportunities change. Skills still develop through education, practice and experience; an ability report does not replace that preparation.

The publisher discusses assessment from about age 14 in its guidance for students. My recommendation is generally age 16 and older. We can discuss the timing in relation to the student’s decision and circumstances.

Four functions I examine in your work

A career title is only a starting point. In consultation, I connect your ability patterns with four functions that help describe the work itself:

  • Work environment: The role, setting and way of working that fit how you operate.
  • Problem-solving: The problems you work on and how you approach them—the contribution the job needs you to make.
  • Communication: How you exchange information, explain your thinking and work with other people.
  • Learning: How you take in and use information as the work changes and you develop your skills.

This gives us useful language for comparing roles across different fields. It can also help describe transferable work functions during a career change. When using that language in a resume, we connect it with skills and contributions you can demonstrate from your actual experience.

The needs behind the strengths

Highlands is especially valuable to me because some abilities show up as more than capacity. They feel like a need for expression: a pull toward solving certain problems, generating ideas or working with the tangible world.

In my work, I use the term REASONabilities™ to explain meaningful ability patterns and the functions a person feels driven to contribute. This is my interpretive framework for discussing what is behind the work you need to do.

I often use hunger and thirst as an analogy for that pull. A strong need seeks an outlet. If your work provides little opportunity to use an important ability, dissatisfaction may be a reason to examine what is missing. Read how driving abilities need expression for a fuller explanation.

Finding work that satisfies these needed functions is central to my approach to happiness, wellbeing and success at work. We look for opportunities to use what drives you, so the work provides satisfaction as well as a place to contribute successfully. That is why I examine the work you actually do, rather than stop at a career title or a list of strengths.

Work that fits your needs can support feeling more engaged and at ease, with less frustration from a poor fit. That is different from promising that a particular career will prevent or resolve anxiety or depression. Highlands and career consultation do not diagnose or treat a mental health condition; the National Institute of Mental Health describes depression as involving multiple contributing factors.

Choose reports that serve your goal

Highlands offers reports for different applications, including student and adult career exploration and leadership. The value is in using the reports relevant to the decision you face, then interpreting the patterns together. Report selections and other resources vary by package.

Ability findings also need to be considered with your interests, work style, external needs and circumstances. The Highlands explanation of abilities in context supports considering the whole person. My role is to bring that discussion into the specifics of your life.

Your profile gives us information to work with. Consultation addresses the factors a test cannot settle for you: the life your work must support, your responsibilities, priorities and practical choices. This is part of the wider career model behind profiling and the next steps you choose.

Through your completed profile and consultations, you will know the careers in which you can achieve success and satisfaction—and what those careers need to offer you.

Start with your profile package

Find My Profile Package to compare assessment coverage, reports and debrief formats. Current prices and specific inclusions are on the linked TestEts product pages.

First, buy and complete the package you choose. Each assessment includes consultation. Some packages offer step-by-step video interpretation followed by a comprehensive consultation with me; others use consultations alone.

Decide your next step at the final profile consultation. If you want to continue with Targeting or Landing, those phases involve further coaching sessions with me. We agree on the goal, plan and scope of that work.

If you have questions before choosing, request a free 30-minute introductory consultation. It clarifies the process and package choices; it is separate from the assessment debriefs included in your paid package.

Knowing aptitudes makes you happier

Know Your Aptitudes for Career Success and Happiness

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Reviewed October 28, 2026

You can do a job well and still want a different career. Natural abilities help you perform the work, and using them may meet important internal needs. But your interests, preferred work style and external requirements also need attention.

Career profiling brings those factors together so you will know the careers in which you can achieve success and satisfaction. The question is bigger than “What am I good at?” It is also “What work do I want to do, how do I want to do it, and what must it provide in my life?”

Ability is one part of career fit

A natural ability is different from an interest or a learned skill. Someone can reason readily about three-dimensional objects without wanting a career devoted primarily to machinery or structures. Someone else may be interested in mechanics but still need training to develop the skills.

The Highlands approach considers ability patterns alongside other dimensions of a person’s life. In my consultations, I bring your assessment findings together with your experience, priorities and circumstances.

Four parts of that discussion are:

  • Abilities and internal needs: What comes naturally, and which abilities need opportunities for expression?
  • Interests: Which activities, subjects and purposes engage you?
  • Work style: How do you prefer to approach information, decisions, responsibilities and people?
  • External needs: What income, schedule, location, training route and other conditions must the work provide?

A capable engineer with different interests

I met a woman who had been recruited by a defense contractor soon after college. Her strong spatial abilities had helped make her attractive for the work. Yet working primarily with things did not engage her in the way working with people did. Her deep interest was sports medicine.

Returning to college for another degree did not feel feasible to her. She moved instead into a more people-oriented position within the company.

The lesson is not that her abilities were wrong for the technical work. Her interests and practical circumstances were pointing toward a different use of her strengths. A suitable next step needed to account for all of them.

A student whose interests pointed elsewhere

Another young woman with strong spatial abilities attracted interest from a highly selective college’s engineering program. Engineering was an opportunity others could see for her. Her own deep interest, however, was clinical psychology.

Her faith also mattered to her choice of college. She chose a faith-based institution where she could begin a path toward doctoral study in psychology.

Her spatial strengths did not disappear because she chose another direction. They simply did not decide the whole question. Her interests, values and educational setting were essential parts of the decision.

These examples are drawn from people I met; identifying details have been kept general.

Why using an ability may still leave a gap

Certain abilities can be experienced as needs for expression. A person may find an outlet for those abilities in a technically suitable job and still feel that something important is missing: the subject does not interest them, the work style is uncomfortable, or the conditions do not meet their needs.

For example, a role might use your problem-solving strengths while giving you little contact with people you want to help. Another might involve work you enjoy but a schedule you cannot sustain. Performing successfully is important; it does not answer every question about satisfaction.

Read how driving abilities need expression for that part of the picture, and how to develop the skills associated with your abilities for the preparation involved.

Use your profile to choose a direction

Your profile package can examine ability patterns, interests and personality factors, depending on what you select. Different assessments and reports contribute different information; no single score replaces the combined discussion.

During the debriefs, I get to know who you are, what you do best and what you need from work. We connect the findings with the circumstances that affect your choice. For the fuller process, see Find a Career That Achieves Satisfaction.

Find My Profile Package to compare assessment coverage and debrief formats. First, buy and complete the package you choose. Decide your next step at the final profile consultation. If you want to continue with Targeting or Landing, those phases involve coaching sessions with me; we agree on the plan and scope of that further work.

The Career Profiler owns TestEts. When you come through this website, Marjorie Wall Hofer is your consultant. Each assessment in your selected package includes consultation, using its available video-plus-consultation or consultations-only format. If you have questions before choosing, request a free 30-minute introductory consultation.

components of career personality

Career Personality: Your Personal Style at Work

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Reviewed October 28, 2026

Career Personality and Career Personality Tests — Part 2

Career personality is mainly about your personal style: how you approach and do your work. Personality assessments examine aspects of that style. Interest assessments focus more specifically on the activities and subjects you enjoy.

Your style can illuminate some interests, but the two are not interchangeable. Knowing how you prefer to work does not fully answer what you want the work to involve. That is why I consider personality and interests separately, then bring the findings together in your profile.

What does personal style tell you?

Personal style concerns the way you engage with work and other people. Depending on the assessment, it can help you explore questions such as:

  • How do I prefer to take in information and make decisions?
  • How do I organize my approach to responsibilities?
  • How do I communicate, collaborate and respond to other styles?
  • What does my style contribute to leadership, and where do I need to adapt?

Different instruments use different models and measure different features. A personality type or style is a way to understand patterns, not a complete description of a person or a substitute for their skills and experience.

Career direction and career development

Career direction concerns the fields and kinds of work you choose. Career development concerns how you perform, relate to others and grow within your work.

Personality information can contribute to both, but the report matters. A report designed for communication or team development answers a different question from one designed to explore occupations and work roles.

Why I use MBTI for career direction

I use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for personality-based career direction because its career reports connect personality preferences with work tasks, environments, job families and occupations to consider. The Myers & Briggs Foundation describes applications to career exploration and development.

MBTI Step I identifies four preference pairs. Step II adds detail through 20 facets within those pairs. The more detailed report can help explain differences between people who share a four-letter type. See the publisher’s explanation of Step II.

The available report determines which career or development questions you can explore. A type label alone does not provide everything in a career report, and a suggested occupation is something to examine alongside interests, abilities and circumstances.

Personality tools for development and leadership

MBTI also offers applications to communication, relationships, teams and leadership. DISC-style assessments and their many variations are useful in development conversations about how someone works with others and applies their style.

For example, Everything DiSC offers workplace and leadership learning applications. Other DISC products come from different publishers, so their reports, methods and guidance should be checked individually.

The practical aim is to understand what your style contributes, recognize where it may create difficulty, and develop ways to perform effectively with people whose approach differs from yours.

Strong: interests with broad style information

The Strong Interest Inventory is an interest assessment. Its central contribution is a more specific exploration of the activities, subjects and occupational interests that engage you. Its Personal Style Scales add broad information about how you prefer to work and learn.

The established Strong Profile includes five Personal Style Scales: Work Style, Learning Environment, Leadership Style, Risk Taking and Team Orientation. These are described in the publisher’s Strong documentation.

The newer Strong 244 has six. It separates the former Work Style scale into People–Things and Data–Ideas; the other four scales remain. See the Strong 244 technical supplement. Use the version and report you actually receive when discussing your results.

Those style scales are helpful, but they do not turn Strong into a comprehensive personality assessment. For a fuller discussion of personal style, I use a personality instrument alongside the interest findings.

Why combine Strong and MBTI?

Strong helps us explore what you enjoy. MBTI helps us explore how you prefer to approach the work. Used together, they let us consider activities and fields alongside suitable ways of working within them.

Illustrative example: Two people may both enjoy healthcare. One may prefer careful analysis and an orderly approach; another may prefer frequent interaction and flexibility. We need to discuss the actual duties, responsibilities and setting rather than assume that an interest in healthcare points both people toward the same role.

The publisher explains how Strong and MBTI can be used together in career conversations. Some packages include combined career reports; check the specific package rather than assume every report is included.

Personal style within your full profile

Personality is one part of your career profile. Interests, natural abilities, internal needs and external circumstances contribute other information. Consultation brings those findings into the decision you face.

Find My Profile Package to compare assessment coverage, reports and debrief formats. First, buy and complete your chosen package. Each assessment includes consultation, through its available video-plus-consultation or consultations-only format.

Decide your next step at the final profile consultation. If you want to continue with Targeting or Landing, those phases involve further coaching sessions with Marjorie Wall Hofer, with the plan and scope agreed together.

The Career Profiler owns TestEts. Marjorie is the consultant for clients coming through this website. If you have questions before choosing, request a free 30-minute introductory consultation.