Month: May 2020

I. What am I good at?

I am a strong communicator, whether it be written or verbal. I am not scared of public speaking and I am very articulate on paper as well. I have well-developed interpersonal skills and I love working with others and meeting new people. I have a good balance of being a leader while also knowing when it is time to be a follower. I am very hardworking and am good at putting my all into many different commitments or areas of my life simultaneously.

II. What do I value?

I value having solid, concrete relationships with many different people in my life, including family, friends, and co-workers. I value working hard in order to be able to afford the comfortable lifestyle that I imagine for myself. I value travel, and the ability to be able to see the world and all of the amazing things it has to offer. Lastly, I value my faith, and I want to continue to use this as a mantra for the way I live my life. 

III. How did I get here?

There are a lot of different things that got me to where I am today. I chose Oregon State five years ago as my college of choice simply because I liked the campus and they awarded me with a very large merit scholarship. I had no idea what I wanted to do at that point. I started as a double major in education and business, but after my first two years I realized my passion was more in business because I loved how wide of a range of careers were available to me, and all of the chances to move around and move up in this field. I started as a finance and marketing major, and I chose to add management to this list (making myself a triple major) after I got accepted to go on a study abroad trip to London that revolved around international management. Lastly, I am leaving Oregon State with a job lined up for me as a wine saleswoman in Southern California due to my college job at Dutch Bros. This company has made me the outgoing, energetic, hardworking leader that I consider myself to be today and I would not be where I am right now without this job.

IV. Where am I going?

In June, I will be graduating from Oregon State with three degrees in Finance, Marketing, and Management. In August, I will be moving down to Southern California to start my new job as a wine sales representative for a global wine production and distribution company. Moving to California after college has always been my goal so I am very excited to make this move. Once in California, besides starting this new job and after simply getting acquainted with the area and the people, I have already developed three other areas that I want to “go” in my life there. First, I grew up being a competitive volleyball player, so I want to join a competitive beach league. Second, I have always had a very strong faith and went to church very week growing up, so I want to find a church that I really connect with and get as involved there as I can, whether it be with the youth or the ministry or the community outreach. Third, I was a fitness instructor in Corvallis, so I want to continue doing this at a gym in California because it is something I really enjoy. Currently, I am very happy with where I am going, and I look forward to seeing how my path forms and changes in the coming months and years.

I find taking tests such as this one to be extremely interesting, so I chose to take the full 300 question survey. I did another version of the Big 5 Personality Test my freshmen year of college and I found the results to be pretty accurate, so I was excited to compare those results to the ones I received from this questionnaire.

For the most part, my results were what I expected them to be. I scored very highly on the extraversion facet, meaning that I am outgoing and enjoy being in social settings most of the time, which is a part of my personality that I can actively recognize in my everyday life. I scored a little bit before average on the agreeableness scale, which is the result that surprised me the most. According to the information at the end, this means that although I do care somewhat for the needs of others, in the end I do what I can to personally get ahead. In this case, I think the truthfulness of this analysis depends largely on what area of my life is being discussed. I scored very highly on the conscientiousness facets, which means that I set clear goals and am a hard worker, which I think is descriptive of my personality. I also scored on the higher end of the neuroticism scale, meaning that I am very emotional and sensitive. Again, I think the accuracy of this rating really depends on what area of my life is being looked at. Lastly, I scored toward the middle of the scale on openness to experience. This I think is an accurate representation of my personality because I do value routine and tradition but I also love adventure and new experiences.

As an employer looking at these results, I would say there could be some positives and some negatives. On the plus side, it shows that I am very outgoing and get along with others. I also think that scoring towards the middle on the agreeableness scale would be a positive aspect, because I think in many jobs it is beneficial to be able to work with others but also strive for your own personal success. Being a conscientious employee would also be viewed as a positive; employers love employees who work hard and set high standards and goals for themselves. A rather high score on the neuroticism scale could be viewed as a negative. Generally, I feel that employees who are overly emotional and sensitive and not always the most-desired candidates. The last facet I feel could be viewed as a positive or a negative aspect of my personality, depending on the job and the company I am applying for.

Overall, as it says in the summary at the end of the test, I do not think in many cases there is necessarily a “good” and a “bad” way to score for each of the different facets. Depending on the job context, I think that a variety of scores on the different scales could be viewed as strengths and weaknesses. For example, as a salesman, it would be a good thing in most cases to score highly on the extraversion scale because this is a job that requires a lot of social interaction and confidence in unfamiliar situations. On the other hand, in a position like a librarian or a lab technician, having an extroverted personality would not be nearly as important or valued.