Identifying your potential through career workshop

A self-discovery session with Navamani Nagappon

UTAR Department of Student Affairs of Sungai Long Campus’ Counselling and Guidance Unit (CGU) organised a “Career and Guidance Workshop” via Microsoft Teams on 21 May 2020. It was designed to assist students in making better career decision by identifying their potential. It also aimed to provide them an opportunity to glance through their career path and better understand their interest, skills, personality and value.

Invited to be the speaker was CGU Senior Assistant Manager-cum-Counsellor Navamani Nagappon. A registered and licensed counsellor at UTAR, she provides counselling on life skills as well as personal and career development. She is also a certified Leonard Personality Inventory (LPI) Trainer and Psychotherapist, and a certified Hypnotherapist by the American Board of Hypnotherapy (ABH).

Career interest inventory to better understand students’ personalities

A career interest inventory based on John Holland’s Self Directed Search (SDS) was conducted before the talk. It was a guide to educational and career planning and a tool used widely in the world. The test consisted of three sections, namely Activities, Competencies and Occupation. Each section contained 84 questions respectively. The participants were required to answer all the questions in the limited time given.

Speaking of the workshop’s objectives, Navamani Nagappon said, “Interest, skills and ability, value and types of personalities are the most important elements of self-awareness that we have to see in ourselves. Interest is about knowing our likes and dislikes. Understanding where our passion lies is one of the many factors that brings us further in our career. Burnout and career change often happen when we are not passionate about our career. The skills that we learnt from young can be utilised in our study and career. Value refers to the cultural value and family value that we have. It is also connected to our career satisfaction. Personality is about exploring the fit between the career and our personality. It is a must for us to understand our own character and attitude. This can be carried out through the personality test.”

“There are six types of personalities best-fitted to occupations respectively, namely Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Artistic (A), Social (S), Enterprising (E) and Conventional (C). R is a type of person who values nature, honesty and practicality. They enjoy manual and mechanical activities, using machines, tools and objects. I is a type of person who values inventiveness, accuracy, achievement and independence. They enjoy analytical or intellectual activities, learning by reading, study or investigate. A is a type of person who values beauty, self-expression, imagination and creativity. They enjoy creative working in music, writing, performance, sculpture and intellectual work. S is a type of person who values service to others, fairness, understanding and empathy. They enjoy working with others, prefer team approaches. However, they are not suitable to become a leader. E is a type of person who values success, status, responsibilities and initiative. They enjoy leading, selling, motivating, persuading others and producing a lot of work. They are the type of person who can become a leader. Lastly, C is a type of person who values accuracy, honesty and persistence. They enjoy working with things, numbers or machines to meet precise standards,” said Navamani Nagappon.

The Holland Hexagon

Speaking of the Holland Hexagon, Navamani Nagappon said, “The Holland Hexagon represents a person. We may have all or zero personalities in ourselves when we were born. However, our personalities are influenced along with our environment which we grew up in.” Meanwhile, she also related the courses offered by UTAR with SDS three-letter code to give participants a clearer direction for their future or current situation.

The workshop then ended with an interactive Q&A session. It saw the participation of more than 40 people.