Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, right? So what do you call it when you take the same online career quizzes you took a month ago (and a month before that) and still find them completely unhelpful? Right, insanity.
I think what I really want is to be sat in a 1960s high school guidance counselor's office, learning the results of my aptitude test, administered in order to identify the career that I am best suited for. Of course, in the 1960s, there were really only five careers. And my being a Lady would have cut that down to two or three. But still, how comforting to imagine a standardized test for life, a path to self-discovery guided entirely by filling in little bubbles on the scantron sheet (or whatever they used back then). The thought of someone just telling me what to do is, at least in theory, wildly appealing.
What about in practice, though? The thought of someone actually telling me exactly what to do with my life feels incredibly icky. Imagine, someone walks up to you in a great suit and an authoritative but comforting tone, and you think, "sweet, a leader!" Only to have them command, "Be an accountant." Who in their right mind would follow such well-dressed but ultimately unappealing instructions?
If anyone reading this feels or knows someone who feels that they have a life calling, please, shoot us a message. Because I cannot fathom being that certain of anything. Really, I cannot fathom being that certain of the value of any one type of work. With infinite possibilities laid out before me and not a clue as to how I should even begin sorting, I turn to the same old vices. That is, online quizzes whose results I can barely remember the next day. Some people have romantic flings, I have weekend-long "what should I do with my life" rabbit holes from which I emerge, well, unchanged.
All the same, I found myself in just such a rabbit hole this past weekend, when I took The Princeton Review's online career quiz. After answering an assortment of the most vanilla "would you rather" questions I've ever faced (would you rather be an auditor, or a musician?), I was informed that I am a blue person with a yellow type. Or something. And then, Mr. Review generated not one, not even five, but seventy-two careers they would recommend for my particular type. My seventy-two recommended life paths included, but were certainly not limited to, the following:
- Clergy
- Disc Jockey
- Inventor
- Philosopher
- Travel Agent
Maybe I was wrong about modern career quizzes- maybe we aren't that far off from the 1960s after all.
Of course, because I was already in too deep, I wound up writing down every single option and systematically crossing off the ones that did not sound right for me. Needless to say, the previously listed choices did not make the cut.
And what did I learn? Absolutely nothing. Because ultimately, the shortlist staring back at me at the end of all this was composed of each of the things I already know that I am interested in. Hell, some of them involved things I already do. Nothing was missing, either, so at least my blue personality type was accurate.
From personality quizzes to astrology to good old-fashioned games of Would You Rather, we are constantly on the lookout for what the outside world can tell us about ourselves. As far as tools for personal development go, I think these can all be pretty useful. But I can't rely on what's Out There to tell me what's In Here all the time. Clearly, I am already pretty clear on some of the things that I do want to do. Maybe it's just a matter of admitting what I want and moving forward from there, instead of going in circles again.
-Helen
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