The O*Net Exercise Step by Step ž¢ The website, www.onetonline.org is the result of years of extensive data collection by the Department of Labor. It contains a wealth of information that HRM professionals can and should use on a regular basis. ž¢ One piece of the O*Net project is a career-matching exercise. This career-matching exercise is based heavily on the Vocational Theory developed by John Holland. ž¢ According to Holland, people are dominated by one of six personalities. These six have been labeled: o Realistic o Investigative o Artistic o Social o Enterprising o Conventional ž¢ According to Holland, occupations also possess one of the six personalities. In other words, occupations can also be measured and classified as Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. ž¢ Hollands entire theory is therefore based on a simple concept. The better that an occupations personality matches a persons personality, the more satisfied that person will be within that occupation. For example, IF I am an investigative personality, then I will be well-suited to investigative occupations, and so on. ž¢ Most of us cannot, however, be described by just one of the six personalities. Thus, we need to determine each persons PATTERN among the six. ž¢ The Interest Profiler contained in the O*Net pages was designed to do precisely that. It measures (if you fill it out honestly) your pattern of personality types. ž¢ Then, years of data collection have classified literally hundreds of occupations based on each of their pattern of personalities. ž¢ Completing the exercise will provide you with your pattern and it will provide you a rather lengthy list of occupations whose personalities fit well with your pattern. ž¢ To get to the point of knowing your pattern and knowing what occupations might be a good fit, follow the step by step directions that Ive provided here: 1. Go to www.onetonline.org 2. Click on the link titled find it now which can be found on the right hand side of the page under I want to be a ¦ 3. This link will take you to My Next Move: What do you want to do for a living? Click on the tell us what you like to do START button located on the right hand side of the page. 4. You should now be at the home page of the O*Net Interest Profiler. The directions for using the profiler are very easy to follow. If you follow its directions, you will end up responding to 60 questions that ask you what youd like and what youd not like doing. 5. When you have responded to all 60 questions, you will be shown your Profile. The profile will be comprised of six scores, one for each of the six personality types. PLEASE NOTE: You can also get additional information about each of the personality types by clicking on its corresponding name that is located on your Profile page. 6. Next, you will have to select a Job Zone. Information about each of the five zones is also provided. In a nutshell, the zones range from (1) doesnt require a lot of education and training up to (5) requires extensive preparation. My guess is that most of you will end up choosing either zone 4 or zone 5, but not necessarily. 7. Once you have chosen a Job Zone, you will be provided a typically long list of possible occupations to consider. The list is based on how well an occupation matches your personality pattern. 8. In the example that Ive posted along with this supplement (O*Net Exercise Sample Pages), I chose Wind Energy Engineers¦..purely as an example. 9. If you click on the name of the occupation, you will be taken to a page that summarizes information about the occupation. This page tells you what wind engineers do; it gives a brief summary of the KSAs necessary; it tells you what the educational requirements are for the occupation; and it gives you a Job Outlook estimate of salary and growth. 10. Dont stop now. I repeat, dont stop now. This is just a summary. 11. At the bottom of this summary page, you will find a hyperlink titled, See more details at O*Net Online about wind energy engineers. Click on this hyperlink and you should be amazed at the information about wind energy engineers that O*Net contains. It is extensive to say the least.