Personal Evaluation, our first Non-Major assignment, which consists of three parts (as will be described shortly), will be due by midnight on Sunday, September 26.
Personal Evaluation (worth 10 percent of your final grade, like each of our three other Non-Major assignments) should give you a chance to have a little fun exploring aspects of yourself that typically aren’t investigated in Baruch classes. Speaking as someone who’s made his way down a few career paths–publishing, finance, sports management, politics, public relations–the one constant I’ve discovered is this: you have to find the professional niche(s) that enables you to bring your whole self to the workplace, because that will make for the best learning experiences, the most positive memories, and the most engaging and enduring personal and professional relationships. (Please trust me on this!) Okay, so let’s get started!
Personal Evaluation (Non-Major Assignment)
—–Why devote an assignment to Personal Evaluation? Though there is no college course (that I know of, anyway) specifically addressing the subject of Personal Evaluation from a humanistic perspective, it’s essential for anyone undertaking a career to have clear insight not only into what one’s skills are and the discipline(s) one has studied en route to earning a bachelor’s degree, but also one’s personal inclinations and “inner direction” that reflect both who we are and the work for which we are temperamentally best suited.
—–How will the Personal Evaluation assignment be conducted? This one is easy. You’ll answer the questions below (which appear in the section beginning with the words “Now for the heart of the matter”) in the form of an e-mail to me. That’s all you have to do, so it should be pretty easy–though I am (as you’ll see) going to ask you to take a free online version of the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator Test.
Note that because this assignment is intended to help fulfill the attendance/participation component of your final grade, please consider the assignment as a kind of mini (or micro) presentation that you might actually deliver in class. As such, making your ideas immediately accessible and clearly understandable is the most important aspect of the Personal Evaluation project.
—–What will the Personal Evaluation assignment consist of in terms of preparation?
In terms of PowerPoint slides, please review the Careerism 2.0 slides (which are attached: please see the bottom of this e-mail). These are to be used only for background purposes, and are not directly related to the Personal Evaluation assignment.
In terms of Video and website links, you’re asked to take a look at the following for inspiration and insight:
Here’s the link to the late Scott Dinsmore’s TED talk, “How to Find and Do Work You Love” (time: 17:57 )
Here’s the link to Amy Cuddy’s TED talk, “Power Poses” (time: 21:03)
Most importantly (as I mentioned), I’d like you to take a FREE Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator test, which you can find in a number of places online. Here are links to a couple of sources of free tests (which will take approximately 12-15 minutes):
16personalities.com: The link is https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
truity.com: The link is https://www.truity.com/test/type-finder-personality-test-new
Note 1: I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test on several occasions dating back to the early 1990s, when my (finance) employer asked that I undertake the test with respect to a prospective promotion to a job I thought I very much wanted. Fortunately or unfortunately, my test results proved to be unaligned with what my employer was looking for. Though I had the proven quantitative skills and communication aptitude to perform in my prospective new capacity, and though I had consistently stellar performance reviews, my Myers-Briggs reading (INFP) was exactly the opposite of what the company was looking for (ESTJ), and I did not receive the promotion.
Note 2: My recommendation is that you take the 16personalities.com version of the Myers-Briggs test first. If your results are not decisive (if, for example, your dominant readings for each of the four categories are only in the 50-60 percent range), I would suggest taking the truity.com to verify the consistency of your results. In my case, I typically score in the 90 percent range for the dominant readings in each of the four test categories, so it’s quite clear that my accurate Myers-Briggs reading is indeed INFP, as was initially determined by my then-employer nearly 30 years ago.
Now for the heart of the matter. For the Personal Evaluation assignment, your e-mail to me should be divided into the following three LABELED parts:
Part 1. Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator Test. After you’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test through 16personalities or Truity, enter your four-letter Myers-Briggs reading (e.g., ISTP) as a Google search and see what potential professional fields are recommended for your four-letter reading. Do you believe that these potential fields are a good match for what you’re studying at Baruch right now?
ASSIGNMENT (for Part 1): Briefly discuss what these Myers-Briggs-recommended professional fields for you are and WHY (or why not) you believe they are correctly aligned with the career options you’re now pursuing (or are considering pursuing).
Part 2. Personal Compass. Think deeply about the quotes or guiding words (or images) that help you steer your course through life. These could take the form of something you’ve read or heard (from a teacher or a parent, for example, or in a poem or the lyrics of a song), or perhaps personal memories that you visit frequently as a source of psychological sustenance. Try to determine FOUR quotes/images/lyrics/memories that you see as best characterizing the course you’ve charted for your life thus far, or that reflect the preferred direction you envision for your life in the future.
For example, my own four “compass points” are all quotes: “Most things don’t work” (Richard Saul Wurman); “If you don’t ask, you don’t get” (Richard Saul Wurman); “In dreams begin responsibilities” (Delmore Schwartz); and “Lead with either your head or your heart, but make sure the other isn’t too far behind” (my own quote). But please do not consider yourself confined to quotes; if images or memories from your life resonate more with you, please share those instead.
ASSIGNMENT (for Part 2): In just a few sentences, discuss your FOUR quotes/images/lyrics/memories and WHY they have worked for you to this point in your life.
Part 3. Circle of Selfhood. For Personal Compass (Part 2), you were asked to provide insight into the words/images that best epitomize your life direction. For Circle of Selfhood, think about four physical/mental actions you’ve taken–the things you like to do on your own, or can imagine yourself doing–that do not necessarily have any monetary value associated with the appeal they hold for you. These physical/mental actions (whether you actually have done them or not) may help you feel that you’re leading a life of purpose and fulfillment, or make you feel rewarded in some way that has absolutely nothing to do with compensation. Now try to align your four actions with actual fields of employment (however menial or trivial those fields might seem to you, and however unlikely you are to actually pursue them).
For example, my own four “action points” are Filing Clerk (because I like to look closely at things, figure out how they work, and then mentally “file them away” for future reference), Messenger (because running and communication play such critical roles in my life), Talk Show Host (because I like the act of interviewing people and discovering how they think and live, something I did/do a great deal of as a writer), and Plainclothes Mystic (because spirituality plays a hidden but essential role in the conduct of my life).
Your “action points” can take any number of forms, from Singer/Songwriter to Undersea Explorer to Stained-Glass Artist to Ski Instructor to Chess Hustler to Celebrity Chef–you get the picture: absolutely anything and everything is possible here! Please feel free to let your imagination go to its outer limits!
ASSIGNMENT (for Part 3): In just a few sentences, introduce your FOUR “action points” and their relationship to your life (e.g., how they uplift/motivate/sustain you in some meaningful way).
And that’s (finally) it from here! Remember, please simply send an e-mail to me with your answers to the Assignment for Parts 1, 2, and 3 by midnight on Sunday, September 26. Best wishes, everyone, be well, and–as always–please don’t hesitate to get in touch with any questions or concerns you may have, because I want you to succeed on this assignment and in our COM3150 class!
