What Are My Areas of
Work-Style Interest and Skill?
The following
is adapted from Charles R. Martin, Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Career Mastery (Telos Publications,
2001) *Used with permission.
 Both individual career interests and work environments can be grouped into some combination of six broad areas identified by John Holland (1997). The areas he identified are called Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. As an individual, you will have work style interests that represent some combination of two or three of these areas. Work environments can also be described by some combination of two or three of these areas. For Holland, finding or creating a work environment that matches your personal work style interests is a major key to career satisfaction and success.
The activities in each of the six areas also call on different talents or skills. After you have identified your individual work style interests, you can do an informal assessment of where you believe your talents and skills lie.
Step One
Identify your areas of interest—your work style
Read the descriptions of the six interest areas on the following pages. Which two or three areas best describe how you see yourself? Number the two or three areas. Which is first, or most like you? Second? Third? How will you fulfill these interests and find activities like these to do in your career?
Step Two
Identify your areas of talent and skill
Go through the lists of talents/skills in each of the six interest areas. Which talents or actual skills do you have (check those), and which do you want to keep doing or do more of in your career (circle those)? People have skills across all the domains, so as you make your assessment, don’t be concerned about whether the skills fall in your domains of interest. How will you find a way to use these talents and skills in your career?
Step Three
Identify your most powerful adaptive skills or personal qualities
This arena of skill encompasses what you might call “you” skills, or self-management skills that help you adapt to life. They include being an effective planner, kind, ambitious, enthusiastic, and so on. After you assess your interest areas and the skills associated with those areas, take time to reflect on the most powerful personal qualities you bring to your Career Mastery toolbox. How will you bring those qualities to your career?
Realistic
Building-Doing
This area includes working with the body and hands, including work with tools and mechanical objects, building things, and engaging in physical activities such as those involved in athletic, military, and law enforcement careers.
People in this group often have mechanical or athletic abilities; enjoy hands-on learning and doing; prefer to work with objects, machines, or tools rather than people or ideas; prefer working with plants or animals, or being outdoors; have athletic and/or sophisticated motor skills; are oriented to the present more than to the future; and refer action to words.
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Skills in the Building-Doing domain
- Crafting/creating with materials
- Demonstrates
hand-finger agility/coordination
- Manipulating tools/instruments
- Demonstrates whole body agility/coordination
- Operating/driving machinery
- Having bodily strength/stamina
- Constructing/modeling rooms
- Physical risking/daring
- Demonstrating mechanical knowledge/aptitude
- Having skills with plants/animals
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Investigative
Analyzing-Examining
This area includes gathering and analyzing data, experimenting, and using math, logic, and other tools of science and reason.
People in this group often like to observe, analyze and learn; enjoy exploring ideas, enjoy abstract thinking, and are curious about why the world works the way it works; enjoy investigating, evaluating, and understanding; have scholarly or academic interests; and prefer original approaches to problem solving and may have a high level of verbal and scientific skills. |
Skills in the Analyzing-Examining domain
- Researching/investigating
- Analyzing data/information
- Inventing/creating ideas
- Breaking data down into parts
- Building theoretical models
- Solving complex problems
- Turning ideas into useful products/technologies
- Finding patterns in data
- Software developing/programming
- Combining information parts into wholes
- Consulting/advising in area of expertise
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Artistic
Creating-Symbolizing
This area includes designing, innovating, and creating with words, music, images, and other media.
People in this group often are artistic, innovative, expressive, and imaginative; like to use their intuitive abilities and like to work in unstructured situations using their creativity; want opportunities to be original and to create something distinctive and new; and are nonconforming and have artistic or musical skills. |
Skills in the Creating-Symbolizing domain
- Writing/reporting
- Entertaining
- Visualizing
- Acting/performing/singing
- Drawing/painting/sculpting
- Demonstrating musical/instrumental skills
- Having skills in color discrimination/combination
- Demonstrating verbal/linguistic skills
- Spatial/interior/building designing
- Innovating
- Photographing
- Expressing ideas in words/pictures/stories
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The following is adapted from Charles R. Martin, Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Career Mastery (Telos Publications, 2001) *Used with permission. |
Social
Helping-Supporting
This area includes helping, healing, understanding, counseling, and teaching others.
People in this group often are interested in and like to work with people; like teaching, informing, enlightening, helping, developing, or curing others; prefer working with others to cooperate rather than to compete; and are sensitive to the needs of others and are usually verbally and socially skilled. |
Skills in the Helping-Supporting domain
Note if one-on-one (O), in groups (G), or both
- Teaching/training
- Representing/interpreting
others’ ideas
- Informing/advising
- Assessing/evaluating others
- Motivating/inspiring
- Helping/supporting
- Counseling/coaching
- Providing service
- Listening to and understanding others
- Demonstrating empathy
- Conversing/connecting easily
- Building harmonious working relationships
- Facilitating interactions between others
- Resolving conflict
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Enterprising
Persuading-Entrepreneuring-Influencing
This are includes leading, politicking, public speaking, marketing, and taking risks and responsibilities.
People in this group often like influencing, persuading, or leading others; are outgoing and possess verbal skills, acting confidently in social situations; and value political or economic goals, and enjoy performing or managing for organizational goals or economic gain. |
Skills in the Persuading-Entrepreneuring-Influencing domain
- Influencing/persuading/selling
- Feeling comfortable in personal/financial risks
- Public speaking/presenting
- Supervising/managing
- Initiating/starting up
- Leading organizationally
- Negotiating/debating
- Demonstrating political astuteness
- Producing/getting things done
- Taking the lead in social situations
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Conventional
Structuring-Organizing
This area include managing, monitoring, increasing efficiency, establishing standards, and organizing people, data, and things.
People in this group often tend to be practical, precise, and organized; like structure and may value material possessions and economic achievement; like to work with data and may have clerical or numerical abilities; and are good at carrying tasks out in detail, establishing procedures, creating consistency, and following through. |
Skills in the Structuring-Organizing domain
- Gathering/searching for data
- Demonstrating efficient management
of resources
- Organizing/classifying/systematizing
information
- Computing numbers/accounting
- Organizing spaces/environments
- Prioritizing/planning
- Noticing/remembering details
- Evaluating/analyzing/appraising
- Keeping/retrieving data
- Managing time/setting priorities
- Establishing systems/procedures
- Demonstrating follow-through
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Read more:
The following is adapted from Charles R. Martin, Quick Guide to the 16 Personality Types and Career Mastery (Telos Publications, 2001) *Used with permission.
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