Discovering Your Design…The Great Niche Hunt
David Frahm with Paula Rinehart @ Navpress
Take a mental snapshot of yourself doing something you really enjoyed at each stage of your life: 7yrs; jr hi; hi; college; summers; each job. Then answer the following about each.
ACTION SHOT (each decade) Story Line:
- How did you get started in this?
- What were the specifics of what you actually did?
- What aspects of this activity gave you the greatest sense of personal accomplishment and reward?
- What would have made this activity even more rewarding for you?
- Why did you leave or stop doing it?
Put a check mark by each item that reflected in your snapshots.
I. Preferred Style of Processing Information
A. Perception (gaining awareness): Interacting/discussing; Observing/listening; Doing/trying; Fact finding/data collecting; Imagining/ envisioning; Other. .
B. Judgment (drawing conclusions): Analyzing; Evaluating; Interpreting
II. Style of Problem Solving
A. Originality and Invention (introducing the new different or unique into being) Inventing; creating; originating; designing; coining; conceiving; authoring; innovation; giving birth to a new idea; being resourceful
B. Development and Extension (improving upon what exists) adapting a refining; making better; improving upon; advancing, perfecting, honing; modifying; correcting, changing, clarifying; sharpening; enhancing, remodeling, overhauling; strengthening; adjusting
C. Reproduction and Maintenance (implementing past proven solutions) standardizing; troubleshooting; conforming, duplicating, maintaining continuity, sustaining sameness, perpetuating uniformity, following set patterns and procedures
III. Style of Providing Structure:
Budgeting; Building; Categorizing; Collecting; Detailing; Diagramming; Goal-setting; Integrating; Master-planning; Packaging; Proceduralizing; Programming; Synthesizing; Other...
IV. Style of People Influencing
A. Function: Director-manager; Coordinator-facilitator; Promoter-advocate; Frontrunner-pacesetter; Teacher-coach; Counselor-consultant; Craftsman-specialist
B. Form: Verbal; Written; Visual; Environmental
V. Preferred Elements:
The world of: animals; data; equipment; human behavior; the human body; logistics; machines (industrial/office); manmade materials; math; money; natural resources; plants; people; sound; thought; vehicles; visuals; words.
VI. Preferred Environments
A. Preferred Supervision: None; Sponsorship; Delegation; Directive
B. Preferred Teamwork: Group effort; Individualized effort in a group context; Independent effort.
C. Preferred Conditions: academic, aesthetic, cause, challenge, competition, conformity, conservatism, creativity, deficiency, discipline, efficiency, flexibility, orderly, physical, practical, predictability, precision, pressure, repetition, risk, rules, spontaneity, travel, other...
VII. Preferred Ends
A. Preferred Results: Making things; Meeting needs; Moving people
B. Preferred Rewards:
1. Intrinsic: being creative, being unique-different, gaining mastery-expertise, producing quality-excellence, winning-beating the competition, overcoming obstacles-challenges, reaching goals-accomplishing objectives, learning new things, keeping things organized-under control, fulfilling requirements, making progress, acquiring what's needed, communicating, being self-expressive, excelling-being the best maximizing potential, solving problems-making things work, making an impact, other...
2. Extrinsic: money, recognition, respect, reputation, opportunity, inclusion, response, responsibility, authority, freedom, justice, other...
The items with the most checkmarks are the ones most important in a job you’ll love. Seven checkmarks for seven photos = must be in job situation.