Holland's Theory

Holland’s Theory

About five years ago, I discovered John Holland’s work in correlating personality types with occupational classifications while researching Multiple Intelligences Theory, in work as a children’s educational publisher and marketing director.
An unexpected result of this research was that Holland’s work validated my desire to make a career change. I had been having an increasing sense of dissatisfaction with my job over ten years’ time, despite a track record of success, in a creative environment that offered challenging peers and assignments.
Over time, in my work, I had had an increasingly gnawing sense of not doing anything important, although my awards and appointments suggested otherwise. After researching standards for career education for work, witnessing my high school children’s struggles with career awareness, and acknowledging that my own career had evolved more through luck than through planning or preferences, my curiosity about Holland’s Theory was peaked. I took the Self-Directed Interest Survey.
At first, I was troubled and confused by the results, which indicated an overlap between the Enterprising and Social categories, since I actually thought of myself as Artistic. (This week’s readings clarify, however, that two or more categories are quire common.) As a marketer, the Enterprising label made sense but the Social category took me by surprise.
Although I had started my undergraduate studies in secondary education, I had never completed my certification, thinking the job was wrong for me, being a twenty-one-year old college graduate, and having been intimidated by my student teaching experience: supervising eighteen-year-old boys in remedial reading.
Since 1978, then, I had not envisioned myself in a helping profession. I felt that I was on an irrevocable career track, which was my destiny. It was 1998 now, and I found that I had force-fit myself into a profession that, while “creative” (and satisfying my Artistic self-concept), defined success by profits, rather than by bringing “good work to the world“ (which is how I thought of the helping professions and what I increasingly wanted, as I was affected by corporate management decisions being made that seemed incongruous).
I had justified my occupation to myself until this time, because I believed (from parental influence) that being “responsible” meant “making the best financial situation for my family.” My efforts to create “good work” were transferred to a corporate environment, which paid very well and satisfied me for awhile, since I worked in the “social expressions” (greeting card) industry and then in the children’s education business. I felt that the product itself brought a better quality of life to the world.
Inwardly, however, my self-concept was not fully realized through my work, because I always felt that working in a corporate environment, supervising the creators of these wonderful products, was a step away from the personal satisfaction for which I was looking.
When I started to reexamine the career fields identified under the “Social” category, I recalled how much I enjoyed my Psychology classes in college. It had never occurred to me to modify my undergraduate path in education. I had not had the benefit of a career counselor or advisor to guide me, when I had the bad experience in student teaching, and needed to plan for the future. Also, intellectually, my parents had me playing second fiddle to my math-inclined older brother. Lacking confidence in my teaching ability, I backed away from getting the certification and completed college with a “Bachelor of Arts” in Speech and Theatre Arts, which was the only degree I could have completed by my desired graduation date. I never considered taking a different direction, (for example, staying in school a little longer to complete a Psychology degree).
In 2001, however, I decided to make the change that I knew by now was right for me. I was able to envision a fork in the road in my work as an educational publisher, and I developed a workbook for families called “What’s Your Major?” I presented the work to the local community college and was hired to teach some classes, based on my book. The experience was so rewarding that I decided to become an independent educational consultant, which will satisfy my self-concept as a Social personality.