< Lessons
The current massive disruption of work poses increased challenges to career planning. Wide audiences are experiencing confusion, insecurity and anxiety over their future. Career planning is becoming no less a challenge than search for identity in the new world. The concept of identity crisis as part of development in youth launched by the psychoanalyst Erik H. Eriksonin (1980) appears to depict feelings of wider audiences facing the disruption of work. The following presents a concept initiating self-directed career planning getting its impetus from discovery of one's identity. Its discovery sparks the person's genuine interest and engagement to planning of career and competence.
As first step, counselees discover their identity by choosing among 20 personified characters, “Experts in work”, from a Quality seeker to an Optimist, six most relatable characters to oneself. This provides an answer to the identity question: Who am I at work. Descriptions of the socially equally desirable expert characters cover their ways of working, thinking, core competencies as well as suitability to different educational, occupational and job contexts. E.g., “Quality seekers” are best suited to technical jobs with focused responsibilities. The playful and mind captivating discovery step helps counselees locate their work identity with accompanying core competencies that is, answer the question: Who am I at work. Try it yourself.
Often the discovery step serves as a sufficient "springboard" for counselees in arousing self-driven navigation in the world of education and work. An optional continuation involves elaboration of the person's work identity where he/she takes a standardized personality test with 224 questions used in recruitment (Work Personality Inventory; WOPI) yielding comprehensive, detailed and empirically validated measures of the expert characters. Testing widens the perspective from the six expert characters chosen by the counselee to encompass all the twenty experts in work. Standardized test scores indicate a profile of the relative strength of the characters: which of them are most and which least important to the person, thereby enriching the picture of oneself. In addition to this internal profile of experts the test's norm referenced scores enable comparison to other people.
Important scrutiny takes place when the self-chosen and test-produced identity/expert profiles are compared. Generally they tend to coincide thereby confirming the validity of the found competencies. However, when the test results don't coincide with the self chosen six expert characters, confusion arises the discussion of which adds important information. For example, social desirability effects tend to appear in the self-chosen identity profiles which are controlled for in construction of personality tests. However, standardized testing can also reveal hidden expert characters and competencies that the counselee was totally unaware of. But, neither profile is considered as the absolute truth which is always concluded by the counselee. The back and forth comparison of the profiles invites lively and multifaceted perusal which strengthens the counselee's awareness of one's identity and core competencies. The following presents examples of cases where the test has produced added information on young professionals.
Police officer
With regard to the aforementioned social desirability effects, a young police officer's choices concerning planning behavior appeared as if taken directly from police work brochures: concrete perception (Practical viewer) and tried-out solutions based on reason and logic (Analytic thinker). But, the test taken in the elaboration step reflected an almost opposite picture that is, intensely creative way of thinking and planning of things (Idea generator and Intuitive thinker), for which it may be challenging to find proper use in standard police work. However, as being usually more important than planning, the person fulfilled on an exemplary level the core behavioral requirements in police work. Both the self-chosen and test produced results showed Action leader as the first choice character. The second choice character, Communicator changed in the test to Advisor of others which can be even more important than communication as a competency in police work. All in all, the philosophical question may arise whether any perfect person-job fit even exists.
Psychologist
Job burnout was included as a theme in the career counseling of a young psychologist working in health care. In the self-choice phase the individual identified with the detail oriented, perfection seeking and time consuming Quality seeker, thinking that such an attitude was the main reason for developing burnout symptoms. The explanation is in itself logical, perfectionism is often related to (in addition to situational factors) etiology of burnout. But, according to test results, the Quality seeker score reached an average level in norms which excludes the individual's view on excessive perfectionism. Instead, test results displayed very strong listening to others, even up to the level where one abandons one's own interests in favor of serving others. According the norms, only six individuals in hundred receive the same or higher score on the Listener dimension. Unquestioning listening to others and settling oneself to serving others may be the real reason for the burnout symptoms. Uncontrollable identification with patient suffering burdens care professionals excessively nor is it appropriate in realizing the care.
HR professional
The third example comes from a situation where the test reveals a competency of which the counselee was only faintly or not at all aware of. The individual works in a smaller organization as a HR generalist responsible for multifarious and daily changing practical duties. The individual expressed dissatisfaction with the job without being able to specify reasons for it. The test displayed a high score on the Complex viewer dimension which means that the person perceives things on a highly abstract level according to the norms. In contrast to concrete perceivers, Complex viewers perceive things more by contextualization and capturing the big picture. Instead of tackling daily changing practical duties the person could use the wider perception competency better in planning centered HR jobs, dealing with research and HR policy-level issues. This piece of information came as a surprise although the individual expressed interest in pursuing further education on top of the current degree.
Research
An abstract of the preceding lesson was presented at the European Conference of Psychological Assessment (ECPA) in Barcelona, in 24.7.2025. Prior to the presented reports on the working professionals, development of the counseling concept began with students entering work life, on MBA students from a New York university on their visit to Aalto University, on students for organizational behavior masters degree and students for psychology masters degree, both from Tallinn University. Facilitation feedback has been given on group and individual level and follow-up study is projected on the focus groups.
From identity to career planning
Career counselling has traditionally focused on free-form discussions or psychometric testing. Pros in the former are in the explorative intent and egalitarian relation to the counselee and cons relate to the method’s lack of structure often leading to discussions going in circles instead of forward. The pros in the latter are in the targeted structure while cons are in the top-down constellation: an expert telling what the counselee is or has. The world of work is now changing dramatically and both methods fall short of properly arousing genuine engagement to career planning in the counselee.
The current massive disruption of work poses increased challenges to career planning. Wide audiences are experiencing confusion, insecurity and anxiety over their future. Career planning is becoming no less a challenge than search for identity in the new world. The concept of identity crisis as part of development in youth launched by the psychoanalyst Erik H. Eriksonin (1980) appears to depict feelings of wider audiences facing the disruption of work. The following presents a concept initiating self-directed career planning getting its impetus from discovery of one's identity. Its discovery sparks the person's genuine interest and engagement to planning of career and competence.
Discovering identity
As first step, counselees discover their identity by choosing among 20 personified characters, “Experts in work”, from a Quality seeker to an Optimist, six most relatable characters to oneself. This provides an answer to the identity question: Who am I at work. Descriptions of the socially equally desirable expert characters cover their ways of working, thinking, core competencies as well as suitability to different educational, occupational and job contexts. E.g., “Quality seekers” are best suited to technical jobs with focused responsibilities. The playful and mind captivating discovery step helps counselees locate their work identity with accompanying core competencies that is, answer the question: Who am I at work. Try it yourself.
Elaborating identity
Often the discovery step serves as a sufficient "springboard" for counselees in arousing self-driven navigation in the world of education and work. An optional continuation involves elaboration of the person's work identity where he/she takes a standardized personality test with 224 questions used in recruitment (Work Personality Inventory; WOPI) yielding comprehensive, detailed and empirically validated measures of the expert characters. Testing widens the perspective from the six expert characters chosen by the counselee to encompass all the twenty experts in work. Standardized test scores indicate a profile of the relative strength of the characters: which of them are most and which least important to the person, thereby enriching the picture of oneself. In addition to this internal profile of experts the test's norm referenced scores enable comparison to other people.
Comparing the chosen and tested identity profiles
Important scrutiny takes place when the self-chosen and test-produced identity/expert profiles are compared. Generally they tend to coincide thereby confirming the validity of the found competencies. However, when the test results don't coincide with the self chosen six expert characters, confusion arises the discussion of which adds important information. For example, social desirability effects tend to appear in the self-chosen identity profiles which are controlled for in construction of personality tests. However, standardized testing can also reveal hidden expert characters and competencies that the counselee was totally unaware of. But, neither profile is considered as the absolute truth which is always concluded by the counselee. The back and forth comparison of the profiles invites lively and multifaceted perusal which strengthens the counselee's awareness of one's identity and core competencies. The following presents examples of cases where the test has produced added information on young professionals.
Police officer
With regard to the aforementioned social desirability effects, a young police officer's choices concerning planning behavior appeared as if taken directly from police work brochures: concrete perception (Practical viewer) and tried-out solutions based on reason and logic (Analytic thinker). But, the test taken in the elaboration step reflected an almost opposite picture that is, intensely creative way of thinking and planning of things (Idea generator and Intuitive thinker), for which it may be challenging to find proper use in standard police work. However, as being usually more important than planning, the person fulfilled on an exemplary level the core behavioral requirements in police work. Both the self-chosen and test produced results showed Action leader as the first choice character. The second choice character, Communicator changed in the test to Advisor of others which can be even more important than communication as a competency in police work. All in all, the philosophical question may arise whether any perfect person-job fit even exists.
Psychologist
Job burnout was included as a theme in the career counseling of a young psychologist working in health care. In the self-choice phase the individual identified with the detail oriented, perfection seeking and time consuming Quality seeker, thinking that such an attitude was the main reason for developing burnout symptoms. The explanation is in itself logical, perfectionism is often related to (in addition to situational factors) etiology of burnout. But, according to test results, the Quality seeker score reached an average level in norms which excludes the individual's view on excessive perfectionism. Instead, test results displayed very strong listening to others, even up to the level where one abandons one's own interests in favor of serving others. According the norms, only six individuals in hundred receive the same or higher score on the Listener dimension. Unquestioning listening to others and settling oneself to serving others may be the real reason for the burnout symptoms. Uncontrollable identification with patient suffering burdens care professionals excessively nor is it appropriate in realizing the care.
HR professional
The third example comes from a situation where the test reveals a competency of which the counselee was only faintly or not at all aware of. The individual works in a smaller organization as a HR generalist responsible for multifarious and daily changing practical duties. The individual expressed dissatisfaction with the job without being able to specify reasons for it. The test displayed a high score on the Complex viewer dimension which means that the person perceives things on a highly abstract level according to the norms. In contrast to concrete perceivers, Complex viewers perceive things more by contextualization and capturing the big picture. Instead of tackling daily changing practical duties the person could use the wider perception competency better in planning centered HR jobs, dealing with research and HR policy-level issues. This piece of information came as a surprise although the individual expressed interest in pursuing further education on top of the current degree.
Research
An abstract of the preceding lesson was presented at the European Conference of Psychological Assessment (ECPA) in Barcelona, in 24.7.2025. Prior to the presented reports on the working professionals, development of the counseling concept began with students entering work life, on MBA students from a New York university on their visit to Aalto University, on students for organizational behavior masters degree and students for psychology masters degree, both from Tallinn University. Facilitation feedback has been given on group and individual level and follow-up study is projected on the focus groups.
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. Norton: New York.
Close
Helsinki (HQ)
Competence Dimensions LtdHelpdesk
GMT +3:00 - ± 1:00helpdesk(at)wopi.net