Holland Code Career/Personality Quiz

I took the Holland Code Quiz today.  On the site I used it was free and took about 5-10 minutes.

The Holland Codes is a system to classify jobs into job categories, interests , or work/personality environments. In the Holland Model, these categories represent work personalities.  John Holland (the fellow who came up with the matrix) categorized jobs into 6 different work personality categories:

1. Realistic - These people like to work with their hands.  They are practical and would rather get something done than talk about it or learn about the theory behind it.  I'd categorize the jobs aligned with this category as trade/journeyman related.
2. Investigative - People in this category enjoy working with data.  They prefer to think, organize, and observe rather than act and persuade.  Jobs associated with this category seem to be related to engineering and sciences
3. Artistic - These creative and inventive people tend to be emotionally driven and abstract.  They avoid structure and rules and follow their heart.  Writers, visual communicators and designers populate this category.  
4. Social - This work personality likes to talk thinks out, teach, and work with people.  Careers in this category seemed inclined to teaching, administration, and therapy.
5. Enterprising - Effective communicators land in this category, along with entrepreneurs and leaders.  This group likes to work with people and data.  Jobs related to this category appear to be directors and mangers.
6. Conventional - Precision and attention to detail are key motivators in this group.  They value order and status.  Data entry related positions fill out the majority of the jobs in this category.

My results came out like this:

1. Realistic (12)  - Considering I worked as a printing pressman on a number of different presses for almost a decade, this makes sense.
2. Social (9) - I enjoy teaching.  Currently I'm involved in three related activities: teach part-time at SAIT, lead a student band in a local high school, and work on this Blog
3. Investigative (8) - My current full-time work is as a computer consultant (software) so I can't argue with this result either.
4.  Tie - Artistic and Conventional - Since I play several music instruments, I thought I might score higher in Artistic....
5. Enterprising (4) - not much argument here.

I wonder based on my results if a person's results can change over time...   Can there is an evolution or migration from one category to another?  I guess I'll have to read 'Making Vocational Choices' by John Holland (2005) to find out.  I remember taking a similar, more extensive 'quiz' in high school and a couple of the jobs that were a 'good fit' for me back then were plumbing and firefighting.  Its interesting that those results line up pretty close to my high 'Realistic' score today.  

In conclusion, there definitely seems to be some value here.  Don't discount the results of career or personality tests you take (I did, long ago).  Mind you, I wouldn't take them as 'the Bible' either.  I'm not really comfortable with being labelled or put in a box so easily.  My Advice?  Seriously consider your results and get creative in seeing how you can fit them into career possibilities.