Manage Your Career - Job Fit and Six Interest Areas
What motivates you at work? What keeps you going, besides money (or what it buys), is likely uniquely different from the person working the job next to you. When you know what tasks and jobs you find motivating and satisfying, that understanding can guide us into better productivity and even more energy.
People want work and work environments compatible with their interests. When found, one can look forward each morning to a job that is more energizing than draining. However, when a job becomes boring or job stress becomes overly wearing, the worker may wish he or she could just stay in bed! When a job does not fit, one may profit from a look at those interests that are the strongest in order to consider whether or not they actually fit our current job. Some career management is called for!
Six areas of interest
John Holland taught that personality characteristics draw us to particular kinds of work and work environments. He identified six different themes and matched them with six compatible work environments. No matter what work we do, or where we do it, the interests that motivate us can probably be found in some of the following themes.
The six interest areas
Realistic
| Make it work
|
Investigative
| Solve problems
|
Artistic
| Express individuality
|
Social
| Serve others
|
Enterprising
| Lead others to goal
|
Conventional
| Be efficient
|
These themes are broad interest area designations for both people (their personalities) and work environments. Most people can readily pinpoint two or three of Holland's themes that are their strongest interest areas. When a person is not sure which interest themes are strongest, self-assessment may also be possible through, for example, further descriptions on-line or even low cost inventories that can be taken online.
These six interest areas are not meant to limit choice; "You can't do that job because your Holland Theme code does not match." Rather, they are to guide choices that will be compatible with our natural interests, reducing job and career stress. Take a look at the degree to which your current job fits what you find satisfying. Find a job or career that matches your motivational interests!
© 2010 Deidre Shelden