Today was relatively interesting. For starters, the psychologist reviewed my assessment with me this afternoon. Other than the fact that the tests reveal that I am a "normal" person and am actually not an "odd duck," there were no real surprises. Basically, my greatest strengths can also translate into weaknesses, which is generally how it works. I set high standards for myself and others, but I don't always clearly communicate those standards to them. I am very tuned in to people, but I can be empathic and accomodating to a fault. I am sometimes overly receptive and tolerant of different opinions and ideas and I have trouble asserting my own ideas. I work well under pressure and with a variety of work and I'm very flexible (especially for an insurance company), but the psychologist was concerned that I might get bored in my current role. *Ding, ding, ding!* Tell me about it. Maybe we'll come up with a plan to alleviate some of that.
Also, I tend to underestimate my abilities. The psychologist asked if I thought I was humble, which struck me as a weird question. I hesitated and said, "Uh, I guess so," but then I wondered if a humble person would ever really admit to being humble, anyway. I would definitely rather show someone what I can do than talk about it, though. My last two jobs started as a two or three month deal and ended up being a heap of full-time responsibility. Apparently, I should still talk myself up a bit. So...I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me! There.
He gave me the results of the critical thinking test, too. I wanted to know how I did because it seemed pretty hard, but I got almost perfect scores on interpreting data, deductive reasoning, and evaluating arguments. I'm not so good at recognizing assumptions, though, which means that I can be a little too trusting (ties into that too tolerant thing). That brought my score down a fairly significant amount, he said, but I still ended up in the 88th percentile. I think that test was mostly a bonus, though--I mean, I'm not evaluating claims for a living, like my coworkers.
At the end of the work day, I met with a financial adviser (not associated with my company) to help me sort out my future investments, now that I can make them again. Oh, that sounds so grown up. The adviser is my age, I'm not personally paying her, and she seems to really know her stuff. I don't find many people that are truly peers, but I consider her one of them. That's not meant to be nearly as snobby as it sounds, but honestly, many people don't have the same level of competence and experience in their field at 25 years old. Hell, many people still don't even have a "field," exactly, because they can't find a career-oriented job or they're in school (which is not necessarily a bad thing). I just hit the ground sprinting 4 years ago and I've already been through the ringer in professional business. I think this is the smartest thing I can do with my (future) money, too...which reminds me, pay day is Friday and I still have to decide how I want to celebrate! I'll be getting paid for the last 3 weeks of part-time and the first 2 weeks of full-time. Woo hoo!
All this talk about "the future" is exciting and unnerving at the same time. What about a potential future spouse? Kids? House? Retirement? Sheesh, how do I know? I have an eye on the future, but I'm still taking it one day at a time. "In The Year 2000" has been randomly popping into my head for the past week. If only I had a futuristic hat and haunting vocal accompaniment to guide me, like Conan does...(Conan should totally be kicking Leno's ass off the air, by the way):
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