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Subject:Re: Careers For People Who Don't Like People From:Ken Stitzel <kstitzel -at- symplified -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:43:03 -0600
Big grin for Gene's idea about the Harry Potter character test!
I missed most of this discussion, but one non-fad test that I did find very
helpful (if expensive) was an aptitude test from the Johnson O'Connor
research foundation. It told me why I wasn't happy with some of my tech
writing jobs, why I sucked as a pure editor, why I'm happier working by
myself (even though I'm good at communicating with others), why I get so
distracted by some things, why I changed majors so many times in college,
and what types of tech writing (or other) jobs I should steer for when I
can.
I knew a lot of that vaguely and intuitively, but the tests gave me some
numbers and terminology to better define and discuss parts of myself.
They have a pretty huge control group and have tested a lot of
professions--although I don't think they have yet included technical
writers per se. Interestingly, they say there is not one aptitude or
combination of aptitudes that suggest who would make a successful writer.
Ken
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