CAREER ASSESSMENT AND THE 16 PERSONALITY FACTOR QUESTIONNAIRE

A client taking a personality questionnaire responds to a series of se lf-descriptive questions. Someone has described the process as ''a sel f-administered interview.'' Interpretation of the scores is based on c omparison of the individual's responses with those of some general pop ulation. As I see it, using a personality questionnaire for occupation al assessment is similar to the basic interpretation described above, except that the individual is being compared to one or more occupation al groups in addition to the general population. The client has answer ed a series of questions about self in some particular circumstance: p rejob, career advisement, midlife change, early retirement, college-ma jor choice, and so forth. The counselor compares the client's scores t o known occupational group profiles, sometimes with known job relatedn ess in mind.