Self Assessment

SELF ASSESSMENTS

WORK VALUES

In Understanding Your Values, I learned quite a bit about myself. When looking at working conditions I realized that I am not to keen on manual, physical labor. I would not do well as a carpenter or construction worker. The same holds true for high pressure occupations. I often get stressed out when I feel control it out of my hands. I find that I perform at my best when there is precise work to be performed with little room for error. This is especially true when I have clear cut guidelines for my task and are given independence from others to accomplish my project. When I was a loan officer for a few different mortgage companies it was simple, either follow regulations or find a new job or worse yet face criminal charges. We also worked whatever hours we wanted. Most of the time I would not get to work until noon or later. Many people thought I was a slacker, but little did they know I didn't leave work until around 8:00 p.m. I found that it was harder to contact people during the day. There was a lot of down time in between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. One thing that I realized when the market started to dry up was the uncertainty of the future. It was great when you could show someone 5.25% on a 30 year fixed note, but as the refinance boom came near an end, it became clear what a cut throat business I was in. People were resulting to bait and switching, stretching appraisals and blatent fraud in order to close a loan. It's hard to say that you can't sympathize with people for sometimes walking the grey area. We had to close $8000 in fees a month in order to keep our job. If you had two months in a row under this mark you were canned.

When it comes to work purposes I am mainly driven by expertise and material gain. I knew when I was training to be a loan officer I wanted to have the best working knowledge of all our lenders and their products. I took all of our lenders programs home and studied them each night. It didn't take long before I knew where I could get the best rate and term while making myself a substantial profit. Of course I wanted to make money, otherwise why bother. I found myself maxing the fees as often as I could, many times ending up in Section 32. Many times I would present a deal with a ridiculous amount fees and see if the customer bit. If they didn't I told them I would look into things to see if I could find them something different. I would call them back the next day and lower the rate but increase my fees stating that the lender required a certain amount to which I had no control of.

Relationships at work are very important to me. While I do like to work alone with minimal contact, it still helps to like the people you work with. It makes life so much easier when you can get along with your coworkers. Although you do not need to be best friends with coworkers, it is still important to share a mutual respect for one another. I know I learned a lot from my previous coworkers. You pick up certain skills that you would not otherwise attain without contact with them.

PERSONAL VALUES

Personal values are extremely important to me. Most of my values were instilled in my when I was growing up. Upon growing older I very much want a family. I want to pass my name on. It is very important to me have children and a happy marriage. I believe life is much easier when you don't go it alone. I need the partnership in order to feel whole. Many factors play into this equation. First off, I need a fulfilling stable career. There is nothing worse then going to work everyday hating what you do. This easily carries over into other aspects of your life. I know many people who hate what they do and it poisons almost everything in their life from relationships to self worth. In this career I need to have financial freedom to where I can own my house and not live check to check. This eliminates an abundance of stress. So many people worry month to month how they are going to pay their bills. With financial freedom comes the ability to do what I want in life. I want to be able to send my children to college. I also want to travel the world someday. All this cannot be achieved without an above average income.

INTERESTS

I guess this was the most confusing part for me. My Holland Code was Social, Realistic and Artistic. This is strange to me because this goes against my values. I am not anti-social but I would not consider myself a social butterfly. I do like to help people and interact but I wouldn't say that this is at the top of my priorities. All of the occupations that were associated with the Social theme do not interest me. These most likely would be near the bottom of the barrel in my choices for a possible career. Also none of the majors appealed to me. I find government and politics to rather boring. Next was the Realistic theme. Now this I could kind of relate to, sort of. I really enjoy the outdoors and all it has to offer. When comes to almost everything else listed though, I am not into it. I don't really enjoy working with my hands. I am not good with tools and I don't posses any skilled crafts. I like astronomy but I don't believe I can wrap my brain around the concepts and theories relevant to the study. My last Holland Code seems to be the most far off. I know for a fact that I am not an artistic person. I really do love music and photography but do not consider myself worthy of being an artist. I would love to be a musician but there is one simple problem, I lack any sort of talent. Another great job would be photographer, but here again I don't believe I have any vision. I take pictures for my own personal enjoyment. They mean something to me and not necessarily anyone else. I mainly enjoy doing simple photography versus trying to create something that is somehow moving or something that envokes certain feelings. The same holds true with music, I am more of a spectator rather than a player. I simply appreciate good music. I think that interests under each theme were not well thought out. I would like to believe that my interests would be better represented under the Enterprising theme. These are the majors that I am most interested in such as finance and business administration. With one of these majors I would expect to get a job in finance or related fields.

OCCUPATIONAL SECTION

INDUSTRIES OF INTEREST

The three industries that I am most interest in are Banking, Finance and Golf. I chose Finance because of my interest in lending. I chose Banking for my interest in money. Finally I chose Golf because it is my true passion in