My D was tested at Johnson O’Connor foundation, The test results showed that she is a very high multiple aptitudes (MTA) person. As far as I understand it can be a blessing or a curse. Many MTA people often are satisfied with their career and generally unhappy if they not utilize all their major aptitudes. If not guided properly, they can achieve less then a normal person with the average abilities. I was wondering if there are any college or career advisors that work with MTA people? Can somebody advise us on what to do next? So far she is a very well balanced junior who is looking for a college and a career that would be a right fit for her.
I don’t think that there is any particular “next step” – all you have right now is a test that indicates that your daughter can potentially do well in many endeavors. She should let her own interests be her guide. If she is at a loss --has no clue what she wants to do or what sort of major she wants – there’s no hurry, most colleges don’t require students to declare a major until after the first or second year. Encourage your daughter to get involved in volunteer activities, or to get a part-time job or summer internship to explore various types of work environments-- that might help her get a better sense of things.
??? This statement kind of sounds like something you might have picked up from the promotional material of the testing outfit. What’s “many”? There are all sorts of things that go into career satisfaction, but “utilize all their major aptitudes” is kind of silly for someone with a broad range of aptitudes. Keep in mind that many people who are also multi-talented enjoy new challenges as well – so some might seek stimulation and feel very much rewarded by taking on work or education in areas where they did not test particularly well. That would be particularly important for a young person who is still growing and has much to learn about herself. Use the test as simply one more piece of information – but don’t let your daughter be defined by the test, or think that she must somehow fulfill or live up to some sort of ideal potential suggested by positive test results.
Love your D.
this sounds nutty.
Ok…so what was the reason you had this assessment done?
I agree…love your daughter. Let her interests drive her. Even those with multiple talent find one that rises to the top…or a career that combines many interests.
It sounds like you’re trying to create a problem where there is none. Your daughter is exactly where she should be. Encourage her to try new things, support her in accomplishing her goals, and have faith that she will find the path that’s right for her.
I would let her goals and aspirations be her guide. What does she want to do? She doesn’t have to nail down a job or anything right now, but does she have anything that she is really passionate about? Anything hold her interest? It’s great that she is an MTA, but that label is only an attribute of who she is – it doesn’t replace her personality or her heart and it doesn’t tell you anything about what kind of college is the right fit for her by itself.
Remember what you knew about your daughter before you had the lens of this testing as a vantage point and carry on. There will be lots of variables and data points along the way. Stir in what proves useful or relevant to her. Focus on the joy of options. No one thing determines where anyone lands.
This from someone who had a week of J O’C testing at age 16,
Thank you everybody for your replies. I guess my post does sound a little nutty… I did not want to sound like I didn’t appreciate what she had. I love my daughter and I am very proud of her. I want her to have a fulfilling career that will utilize her many interests.
She asked us for this assessment so she can learn more about herself. We do encourage her to try different things and to see for herself what will be the best choice for her.
I just thought that maybe somebody went through the same drills and can help her to look in the right direction.
I never heard of this test. Back when I was 12 or so I took a test of “vocational aptitude” where I topped out on pretty much every section but “clerical speed and accuracy” since I’d never wanted to be a secretary, I didn’t consider this much of a problem. For what it’s worth one of the things I like about being an architect is the variety of work - sometimes I am problem solving with clients, sometimes I’m climbing ladders with contractors, sometimes I’m trying to persuade a zoning or planning board that my project will be good for a neighborhood, sometimes I’m drawing, sometimes I’m writing. One day I’ll be cranking out a deck, the next I’ll be learning about how a gym needs to organized, another day I’m learning what you need in a commercial kitchen. Tons of variety.
I think that if your daughter asked for the test, then the main benefit is that it might boost her confidence.
I am not familiar with the specific test, but I think that sort of testing is more useful for older people who are at a crossroads in their careers or who are having difficulty finding employment and aren’t sure where to turn. For a teenager,at best it is a snapshot of what her strengths are right now – but an “aptitude” comes from a combination of innate interests and educational experience.
I am glad that your daughter tested well in multiple areas, as I would hate to see a 17 year old come to the conclusion that she needs to give up on a potential educational or career path because of a weak performance on a test.
Here’s the link in case somebody is interested in knowing what this testing is all about.
http://www.prettygoodatlife.com/2010/08/my-johnson-oconnor-occupational-experience/
Your challenges as parents will be in helping her and encouraging her to excel. She may have multiple aptitudes, but she will have to dig deep for the personal discipline and maturity to develop them.
I would recommend helping her find at least one physical pursuit she can develop for the long term…dance, martial arts, gymnastics, a personal sport…something more than just a team sport.
If she is a junior in high school, I would focus on helping her find a college that is a fit, in terms of location, size, academics and “vibe.” She can explore interests for a year or two before choosing a major. While it may be nice to know that she has many aptitudes at a high level, aptitudes and interests don’t always coincide. I would try to keep the test results on the back burner and not talk about them much at all. Career choices can come after college and don’t have to guide college choices unless she wants to be, say, an engineer or nurse.
She needs to follow her heart and not be afraid to make a mistake. Sometime mistakes are the best way to learn.
I do not believe in this type of testing at all. I do not think that my kids had any of this type of teting. They both jut floowed their heart. I wouls also add that a different feel in different classes is a good indication. Having staright As does not mean that kid actually love all classes equally. My S’s notes in every class were covered by his drawings. My D. really struggled with History, she still got her A and did not have to take in at college. Her favorite was Bio, which was also hard, but she did not mind challenges in this class. I believe that these type of indications are more accurate than testing for aptitudes.
Well, they were accurate for my kids. S. is a graphic designer and D. is finishing Med. School. All along teacher were saying that S. could have been a staright A student (only if he cared, but he did not) and D. in fact was staright A all thru graduation from college, she just workde harder in classes that were harder for her. Both had great variety of interests and D. ended up graduating with Music minor, even tried to pursue her sport in college, but realized that she is spreading herself way too thin.
So, if your D. is not so sure, then add fer minors or even majors One of D’s pre-med friends at college graduated with triple major. Anyway, it is a good idea to pursue your interests in UG, it provides them with the balanced life.
And suggestion on the gollege that fits personally is the best approach. She may try several things and some may fall out, while she will stick with others. Everything is important, even having pretty campus may make a difference (did for my D.). Visit a lot, talk to current students, go on tours, get a feel. Do not disregard the fact that these will be 4 most important years in a young life, they should be happy rather than miserable.
I have no idea whether my kids have high MTAs or not. What I do know is that my daughter has done exceptionally well in both science and humanities courses (and has always been an A student in mathematics) her entire life. But at one point, she decided that she really enjoyed history, languages, and music more than chemistry, so she’s majoring in medieval studies.
Will she miss the science? Probably, but a person is far more than a sum of aptitudes, no matter what the testing people tell you. We all have preferences, weaknesses, and interests that go far beyond our aptitudes in any field, so the best advice I can give you is what’s already been given: Just love your daughter and don’t worry about grooming her to be something. She will figure out what moves her.
Sorry, but this test sounds like $675 down the tubes. There’s no hurry for your 17 year old daughter to figure out exactly what she wants to do in life. Multiple aptitudes? Whatever. Like many of us who were good at school, I’m absolutely certain I could have relatively successfully pursued careers in law, marketing or nuclear engineering. Finding a fulfilling career that utilizes all your daughter’s interests and talents should not be the goal. Instead, maybe focus on a career that utilizes one of those interests and pursue the others on the side. Doctors can still be writers, accountants can still teach, lawyers can build houses. Finding that one thing that utilizes all those interests can lead you to be a 32 year old blogger who’s still trying to decide whether to be a CEO/leader or a politician.
My D took this test when she was a bit younger than yours. I’ve recommended it to others and for most it was a valuable experience. It explained some of my D’s academic issues.
My D wasn’t MTA, but she actually asked what they recommended if you were when she got the results. Answer? Those people often make excellent managers and do well when they have to manage people doing a wide variety of job functions.
Another way to deal with this is to use one set of aptitudes professionally and another set in leisure time activities.
Your D has nothing to worry about and neither do you.
The test isn’t the end all and be all, but it is helpful to get a sense of your strengths. I was fairly upset when my D didn’t continue to pursue music to the extent I thought she should. Compared to her Dad and I, she’s unbelievably talented. JO’C showed her aptitude was merely high average and that her own assessment of her musical abilities was more realistic than that of her parents!
Her results were very different from your D’s. Basically no scores between the 5th and 90th percentiles. She’s extraordinarily good at some things and just plain awful at some. Average in absolutely nothing.
Oh, thought I’d explain what Johnson O’Connor is for other posters.
Johnson O’Connor was a person. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_O’Connor
Back in the 1950s, General Electric was located in a company town. Many locals came to work at the factory when they finished high school. The practice was to give new hires the jobs that were open and needed filling. There were some new hires who were wash outs and got fired. But in a couple of cases, the managers would say something like “I don’t want to give this kid a bad reference. (S)he’s a good kid and obviously trying, but for some reason (s)he just can’t do the very simple tasks (s)he has to do.” So, instead of firing them, GE assigned some of them to different departments. Almost all of them remained employed and a few were absolute STARS in different jobs.
So, GE asked Johnson O’Connor to develop pre-employment tests which would allow it to match each job applicant with a job (s)he could do well right from the beginning. This was a very innovative approach at the time.
He did so…and some people in town started asking him if people who weren’t going to work for GE could take the tests too. O’Connor got really interested in the study of aptitudes.
Today, his work is continued by the Johnson O’Connor foundation. Some of its ideas are thought old fashioned now, but they make sense to me. Essentially, he believed that we excel at jobs when they match our aptitudes. No matter how much musical aptitude you have, you won’t excel without practicing and O’Connor recognizes that. But on the other hand, if you are tone deaf, you could practice the rest of your life and never be even average. O’Connor tested successful professionals and mapped out which fields matched which aptitudes. So, if you take your student for testing you might learn that (s)he has amazing tonal memory and then you’ll find out what fields others who scored high in this area succeed in. He thought that in the long term, aptitudes were more predictive of which career fields would make each individual person happy and fullfilled than are interests–the sort of thing the Kuder Preference test somebody seems to be describing above purports to measure.
He also figured out that aptitude only explained so much. His research lead him to conclude that the #1 thing that stopped people from advancing was poor vocabulary. Through research, he found that CEOs had extremely large vocabularies—REGARDLESS OF THEIR EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND. He found that Horatio Alger types had, on their own, acquired extensive vocabularies. So, he also pushed hard for programs that would improve the vocabulary of young people, especially children from poor families.
There’s some other aspects of his research that are controversial. For example, you are tested as to how you relate to people. It’s kind of …but not quite…extrovert vs. Introvert. The sort of introvert type–again, it’s not quite that–tend to work best by themselves with little or no supervision.
And, he studied alternate hand/eye dominance. It used to be thought to doom you. It doesn’t, but kids with it are often unusual klutzy when young. For some sports, though, it’s really, really helpful. Golf is one. (Alternate hand/eye dominance is when a person who is right handed has a dominant left eye visually or the reverse. You can usually figure out which eye is dominant by noting which eye you instinctively use when taking a photo…)
Anyway…I just thought I’d explain the theory behind the testing. And I should have explained above that the only score between 5 and 90% my D got was in music.
The person I know who most benefited from the test was a very shy girl who was an average student. She loved to draw. Nobody in her family was the least bit artistic. She’d never had a lesson and nobody encouraged her interest. JO’C testing showed the girl scored very, very high for artistic aptitude. Parents were sceptical but said okay, we’ll sign her up for some art lessons at the local (well regarded) art school. She was about 16 at the time and ended up genuinely excelling. Majored in studio art in college–and thanks to JO’C and the art school had a good portfolio when she applied.
For those looking for this kind of thing on a smaller scale and cheaper (under $20), here are some options from CU. Other colleges probably have similar resources. DD did the Strong Interest Survey a few years ago - http://www.colorado.edu/career/majors-careers/career-assessments