Career Counseling Profile

Name: Summer Hopkins
Age: 19
Date of Report: 4/17/15
Social History: 

Summer Hopkins is the second oldest from a family of seven kids. She has moved eight times in the last ten years, and has lived in various places in both Utah and Colorado. Her mother is a registered nurse and her father drives concrete mixers. She has always acted as the leader amongst her siblings, initiating activities such as parties and was the leader of her friends’ and family’s childhood club at a younger age. She has always had an active imagination and has never lacked drive or ambition. Despite this, Summer is unsure of her direction. She has a natural aptitude for mathematics, which has inspired school counselors, friends, and former school acquaintances to suggest that she pursue a career in STEM. However, she has always harbored a desire to explore and develop skills in creative arts. She loves to write, specifically fiction novels. Summer is currently living with her parents in Santaquin, Utah, and expects to remain in Utah for a considerable time or perhaps indefinitely.

Work History: 

Ms. Hopkins has limited work experience. She has worked at Subway and currently works at Oriental Garden as a waitress. She has had no internships and little volunteer experience outside of church service activities. Summer’s experiences in the food industry has helped her to realize her desire to associate with people in her career, excluding certain jobs in the STEM field, such as laboratory work.

Assessment Results:

Summer’s Strong Interest Inventory results identify her top three themes as ASI (Artistic, Social, Investigative). This code means that she strongly values creativity and imagination, and has a high appreciation for music and arts. Additionally, her second highest theme was Social, meaning she values cooperation and working with others. Her third theme was Investigative, indicating her curiosity as well as her interest in research and science related fields. The inclusion of Investigative in this theme code means that Summer has the potential for a STEM career. However, it is important that she consider integrating art and social elements her work as well. Her top five areas of interest, based on comparisons of average female scores, were 1. Performing Arts, 2. Religion and Spirituality 3. Healthcare Services, 4. Medical Sciences 5. Politics & Public Speaking. Because her results were similar to those of women working in the following fields, Summer should consider careers related to arts management, teaching English as a second language, music, speech pathology, etc. She should likewise avoid careers related to the following: Athletic Trainer; Florist; Mathematics Teacher; Sociology. Her results suggest that her work environment preferences seem to be fairly moderate, as she enjoys working alone and with people, enjoys academic learning, may like taking charge, may like taking a few risks, and seems to like working on a team as well as independently. Because of these results, I suggest that Summer look into jobs which, if possible, combine two of the following: arts, medicine, and occasionally working with others. On the whole, Summer feels that these results were helpful, but she disagrees with the assessment that she would dislike sociology.

Summer’s Myers Briggs/Type Focus results indicate that her personality is INFP (Introverted, iNtuitive, Feeling, Perceiving). Introverted, in this sense, means that Summer gets re-energized when she’s alone and her energy is drained during social activities. The “N,” which represents intuition, signifies that Summer’s thinking is more abstract and less focused on plain facts. The “F,” indicates that Summer’s decisions are mostly made based on “Feeling” or emotion rather than logic. The “P” means that Summer prefers spontaneity and is flexible. These results suggest that Summer should avoid STEM related careers due to her tendency to act on feeling rather than logic and her desire to focus on abstract concepts and ideas rather than assessing factual data. She should instead consider areas such as fine arts, counselling, writing, teaching, library work and entertainment. Summer’s opinion of these results are that they seem to fit her well enough in some respects, but she thinks that her behaivior at times defies these definitions. She asserts that she is quite capable of making decisions based on logic, and that at times she relies heavily on a precise schedule.

Concluding Recommendations:

Summer is clearly not suited for a career void of artistic imagination. Both the SII and the MBTI tests indicate that she ought to include art in her career to some extent. Just what this “art” might entail, however, remains unfixed (it could mean writing, music, or visual art). Summer should keep in mind that her tendency to act based on emotions could cause her to being indecisive and frequently change her mind about her career choice based on her mood. This combined with her tendency to avoid planning could prevent her from moving forward.

In summary of the results mentioned above, Summer’s desire to work with others and individually, her appreciation for academic learning, her compatibility with women who teach English as a second language, her creative tendencies, her writing skills, etc, Summer could consider a career in teaching languages, specifically in a post-secondary education setting. She could, then, work with others through teaching, have opportunity to work alone by grading and researching, continue in academic learning, and have the opportunity creative expression through writing.

 Summer should continue her search by taking classes of interest, such as music and language classes, to help her assess her desires and talents. She should also strongly consider minoring in music.