< 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 amidst the change. The following program will initiate self-directed career planning which gets its springboard from the discovery of one's identity. This creates interest, engagement and knowledge to developing one's career and competence.
The program comprises two phases beginning from seeking and finding one's work identity where identification produces interest to self-directed career planning. This phase is often sufficient in arousing interest and engagement to self-directed action. As optional continuance the counselee takes a test for elaboration and specification of the identity, see below.
In the first phase, the counselee seeks and finds one's identity by choosing among 20 personified characters, “Experts in work”, from a Quality seeker to an Optimist, six most relatable 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 more focused responsibilities. The playful and mind captivating seek and find phase helps counselees discover their work identity and core competencies i.e., answer the question: Who am I at work. Try it for yourself.
Often enough the seek-and-find phase creates a sufficient springboard for arousing counselees' 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). It yields a comprehensive, detailed and empirically validated measures of the expert characters. Testing widens the perspective from the six self chosen expert characters to all the twenty characters. The test scores indicate an internal profile of the characters: which of them are most and which least favored and perhaps which are particularly unfavored by the person enriching the identity of the individual. In addition to the person's internal profile, population standardized test scores enable comparison to other people.
Important scrutiny takes place when the sought and self-chosen and test-produced identity 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, many corners illuminating perusal thus elaborating the counselee's awareness of one's work identity and attendant core competencies. The following presents examples of cases where the test has produced important elaboration of identity of young professionals.
Police officer
With regard to the social desirability effects, a young police officer's character choices appeared as if copied directly from brochures of police work. In terms of behavior, the counselee’s first choice character, ”Action leader” reflects assertion in social situations. The second choice, ”Communicator” reflects friendly, proactive social interaction. In terms of planning and problem solving, the individual’s first choice, ”Practical viewer” reflects perception of concrete things and based on sensory data. The second choice ”Analytic thinker” reflects rational, reasoned problem solving. All in all, the counselee’s work identity matches well with what could ideally be expected from a police officer.
The test confirmed the individual’s found identity in terms of behavior in that ”Action leader” attained the highest score. However, the second highest score was on ”Advisor of others” which may be an even more important quality than communication initially chosen by the counselee. However, the test scores in planning and problem solving ran counter to the self chosen characters. The highest score was on ”Idea generator” indicating that the individual approaches planning and problem solving by looking for new, unforeseen ideas (as opposed to facts). The second highest score was on ”Intuitive thinker” indicating instinctual, emotion influenced problem solving (as opposed to rational, reasoned solutions). In summary, the counselee showed intensely creative elements in planning and problem solving which may be challenging to realize in standard police work.
Psychologist
Job burnout symptoms were included as an issue in the career counseling of a young psychologist working in health care. The individual identified with the ”Quality seeker” reflecting detail orientation, perfection seeking and time consuming behavior style. The counselee assumed that such perfectionistic tendency would be the prime reason for developing burnout symptoms. The explanation is in itself logical as perfectionism is often related to etiology of burnout, in addition to situational factors.
However, the counselee’s test score on ”Quality seeker” reached only the average level in norms excluding the individual’s notion of excessive perfectionism. Instead, the test results indicated very strong score on ”Listener to others” reaching the level where an individual abandons one's own interests in favor of serving others’ (presumed) needs. According to the norms, only six individuals in hundred receive the same or higher score on the ”Listener to others” dimension. Unquestioned listening to others and settling oneself to serving others’ interests reveal important vulnerability and may be the real reason for the burnout symptoms. Unquestioned identification with patient suffering burdens care professionals excessively nor is it appropriate for realizing treatment goals.
HR professional
The third example comes from a situation where the test reveals a competency 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 multifaceted, daily changing practical duties. The individual expressed dissatisfaction with the current 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. As opposed to ”Practical viewer” the counselee tends to perceive things by contextualization and seeking broader and deeper-probing pictures. Instead of tackling with daily changing practical duties the counselee could use such broad, complex perception competency better in planning centered HR jobs, dealing with research and HR policy-level issues. This finding came as a surprise although the counselee had expressed interest in pursuing further education on top of the current academic degree.
Research
An abstract of the lesson was presented at the European Conference of Psychological Assessment (ECPA) in Barcelona in 24.7.2025. The development of the concept received its impetus on student groups, first with MBA students from a New York university on visit to Aalto University and thereafter with organizational behavior and psychology student groups in Tallinn University. They have been given facilitation feedback on group and individual level. Follow-up studies are projected on the two Tallinn groups. The book "From identity to competence - amidst disrupting work" is in preparation.
From identity to career planning
Career counseling has traditionally focused on free-form discussions and psychometric testing. The former's pros are in the voice given to the counselee and in the generally egalitarian setting while 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 guiding structure while cons are in the top-down setting: 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 self-directed engagement to career planning.
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 amidst the change. The following program will initiate self-directed career planning which gets its springboard from the discovery of one's identity. This creates interest, engagement and knowledge to developing one's career and competence.
The program comprises two phases beginning from seeking and finding one's work identity where identification produces interest to self-directed career planning. This phase is often sufficient in arousing interest and engagement to self-directed action. As optional continuance the counselee takes a test for elaboration and specification of the identity, see below.
Seeking identity
In the first phase, the counselee seeks and finds one's identity by choosing among 20 personified characters, “Experts in work”, from a Quality seeker to an Optimist, six most relatable 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 more focused responsibilities. The playful and mind captivating seek and find phase helps counselees discover their work identity and core competencies i.e., answer the question: Who am I at work. Try it for yourself.
Elaborating identity
Often enough the seek-and-find phase creates a sufficient springboard for arousing counselees' 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). It yields a comprehensive, detailed and empirically validated measures of the expert characters. Testing widens the perspective from the six self chosen expert characters to all the twenty characters. The test scores indicate an internal profile of the characters: which of them are most and which least favored and perhaps which are particularly unfavored by the person enriching the identity of the individual. In addition to the person's internal profile, population standardized test scores enable comparison to other people.
Comparing identitities
Important scrutiny takes place when the sought and self-chosen and test-produced identity 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, many corners illuminating perusal thus elaborating the counselee's awareness of one's work identity and attendant core competencies. The following presents examples of cases where the test has produced important elaboration of identity of young professionals.
Police officer
With regard to the social desirability effects, a young police officer's character choices appeared as if copied directly from brochures of police work. In terms of behavior, the counselee’s first choice character, ”Action leader” reflects assertion in social situations. The second choice, ”Communicator” reflects friendly, proactive social interaction. In terms of planning and problem solving, the individual’s first choice, ”Practical viewer” reflects perception of concrete things and based on sensory data. The second choice ”Analytic thinker” reflects rational, reasoned problem solving. All in all, the counselee’s work identity matches well with what could ideally be expected from a police officer.
The test confirmed the individual’s found identity in terms of behavior in that ”Action leader” attained the highest score. However, the second highest score was on ”Advisor of others” which may be an even more important quality than communication initially chosen by the counselee. However, the test scores in planning and problem solving ran counter to the self chosen characters. The highest score was on ”Idea generator” indicating that the individual approaches planning and problem solving by looking for new, unforeseen ideas (as opposed to facts). The second highest score was on ”Intuitive thinker” indicating instinctual, emotion influenced problem solving (as opposed to rational, reasoned solutions). In summary, the counselee showed intensely creative elements in planning and problem solving which may be challenging to realize in standard police work.
Psychologist
Job burnout symptoms were included as an issue in the career counseling of a young psychologist working in health care. The individual identified with the ”Quality seeker” reflecting detail orientation, perfection seeking and time consuming behavior style. The counselee assumed that such perfectionistic tendency would be the prime reason for developing burnout symptoms. The explanation is in itself logical as perfectionism is often related to etiology of burnout, in addition to situational factors.
However, the counselee’s test score on ”Quality seeker” reached only the average level in norms excluding the individual’s notion of excessive perfectionism. Instead, the test results indicated very strong score on ”Listener to others” reaching the level where an individual abandons one's own interests in favor of serving others’ (presumed) needs. According to the norms, only six individuals in hundred receive the same or higher score on the ”Listener to others” dimension. Unquestioned listening to others and settling oneself to serving others’ interests reveal important vulnerability and may be the real reason for the burnout symptoms. Unquestioned identification with patient suffering burdens care professionals excessively nor is it appropriate for realizing treatment goals.
HR professional
The third example comes from a situation where the test reveals a competency 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 multifaceted, daily changing practical duties. The individual expressed dissatisfaction with the current 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. As opposed to ”Practical viewer” the counselee tends to perceive things by contextualization and seeking broader and deeper-probing pictures. Instead of tackling with daily changing practical duties the counselee could use such broad, complex perception competency better in planning centered HR jobs, dealing with research and HR policy-level issues. This finding came as a surprise although the counselee had expressed interest in pursuing further education on top of the current academic degree.
Research
An abstract of the lesson was presented at the European Conference of Psychological Assessment (ECPA) in Barcelona in 24.7.2025. The development of the concept received its impetus on student groups, first with MBA students from a New York university on visit to Aalto University and thereafter with organizational behavior and psychology student groups in Tallinn University. They have been given facilitation feedback on group and individual level. Follow-up studies are projected on the two Tallinn groups. The book "From identity to competence - amidst disrupting work" is in preparation.
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. Norton: New York.
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