Overview of the Five-Factor Model of Personality, also called the “Big Five”

The Five-Factor Model of Personality is a trait approach to personality. Watch the following Ted Talk to learn more about the five areas below, before proceeding to step one:

https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality.

1. Openness to experience/intellect: Are you eager to try new experiences and ideas, or are you more comfortable having experiences stay the same most of the time?
2. Conscientiousness: How organized of a person are you? Are you a reliable person, or are you generally careless with your actions?
3. Extraversion: Are you a social person who feels “recharged” when interacting with other people, or are you a quiet, more reserved person who prefers solitude?
4. Agreeableness: Would you say you are a compassionate, forgiving, and understanding person, or do you tend to be more critical and blunt to people?
5. Neuroticism: Are you someone who is nervous, anxious, and worries about the future, or are you calm and hard to fluster?

Step 1: Take the “Big Five” at the following link: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/.

Write a thoughtful one or two paragraph essay that addresses the following:

• Briefly summarize your personality test results. Do not copy/paste the results from the personality test; instead, summarize your results in your own words.
• Explain the ways in which you agree or disagree with the results. Next, think of someone that knows you well. Explain the ways in which he or she would agree or disagree with your results.
• Based on your results, identify one area you might like to improve. Explain specific strategies you might use to implement the improvement.

Overview of the Holland Code

In the corporate world, research is done to pinpoint certain trait profiles that will result in a successful employee and help people in selecting careers. One assessment used to evaluate career decisions and occupational fit is the Holland Code. Completing the inventory provides you a three letter code with your dominant personality traits out of six categories:

1. Investigative (Ideas): People who like to observe, learn, investigate, analyze, evaluate, or solve problems primarily of a scientific or mathematical nature. They prefer working with ideas instead of people, and they do not like highly structured settings.
2. Artistic (Creativity): People who have artistic, innovating, or intuitional abilities, and like to work in unstructured situations, using their creativity or imagination. They prefer working with self-expressive ideas.
3. Social (People): People who like to work with people – to inform, enlighten, help, train, cure them, or help them live up to their potential. They prefer solving problems through discussion and usually do not prefer to work with things.
4. Enterprising (Tasks): People who like to work with people – influencing, persuading, leading, or managing them for economic gain or for goals of an organization. They enjoy leadership positions and dislike details.
5. Conventional (Order): People who like to work with data, have numerical or clerical ability, carrying things out in detail, or following through on other’s instructions. They prefer structured situations over ambiguous ones.
6. Realistic (Things): People who have athletic or mechanical ability, prefer to work with objects, machines, tools, plants or animals, or to be outdoors. They prefer working with things as opposed to ideas or people and prefer concrete problems over abstract problems.

Step 2: Take the Holland Code provided through SPC’s Career Coach program: https://spcollege.emsicc.com/. If you have not worked in this system previously, you will need to create a profile. To set up a profile, use the following steps:

• Click “Sign Up” in the upper right-hand corner
• Use your school email address to create this profile.
• Complete your registration and click “Create Profile.”
• Once you have created your profile, in the Welcome! box (on the right of your profile information), click “Take Career Assessment.”
• Select the Detailed Assessment – 60 questions

**If you already have an account, please login and click “Take Career Assessment.” Select the Detailed Assessment – 60 questions.**

Answer the questions based on your interests without considering the amount of money you would make performing the task and the level of education/training necessary.

Once you have completed the assessment, you will receive your Holland Code with detailed descriptions and your top career matches based on your results.

Write a thoughtful one or two paragraph essay that addresses the following:

• Briefly summarize your results. Do not copy/paste the results from the Holland Code inventory; instead, summarize your results in your own words. Explain the ways in which you agree or disagree with the results.
• Select one career match that you are interested in and explain why you would be a good fit for this career based on your results. How does this career relate to your selected degree program?