Aptitude Testing Can Match Your Abilities To A Career

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Like many college graduates, 24-year-old Dorothy Wright of Fort Worth left school with a history degree and no clue what to do with it. So, for her birthday, a friend sent her to the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation in Dallas for aptitude testing. Wright had no idea that the seven-hour, $675 battery of tests and results sessions would eventually change the course of her entire career.

Results showed that the history major had a high aptitude for spacial and three-dimensional abilities. "I've always enjoyed working with my hands and being outside," explained Wright, "so it just seemed to lend itself to landscape architecture."

Within months, Wright applied to two graduate schools. She was accepted to both. "Literally, a year later, I was sitting in orientation at UTA getting ready to start my Masters of Landscape Architecture."

For as long as he could remember, Max Young of Flower Mound wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. His dad tested at the Johnson O'Connor center when he was Max's age. So, Young decided to give it a try. "Even before the test, I was saying to myself, 'I'm not going to change my major because of this,'" said Young.

But the results surprised them all -- suggesting that engineering, not medicine, was the career best-suited to Young's strengths. "My strengths were in math and in 3-D -- I guess seeing 3-D, like seeing shapes in your head and being able to put pieces together in your head without having to draw it out," Young continued. "They told me I could be a surgeon if I wanted to, I would just have to work harder at it, versus something with math. At the time, I didn't trust the test. I still kept in my mind, thinking that I'm not going to change my mind."

So, Young continued his doctor dream, taking biology and a lab class during his freshman year at LSU. But he also took calculus and physics, and soared. "I decided this isn't for me, and I'm going to go ahead and switch to engineering," Young said. "Now, I'm a petroleum engineering major."

Since 1922, the Johnson O'Connor center has helped about half a million people match their abilities with the right job. Tom Jensen, director of the Dallas branch, said that most people do not know themselves as well as they think they do, and that the results of the aptitude testing is remarkably consistent. "It's genetic, as natural as if you're blue-eyed or brown-eyed, or how tall you're gonna be," explained Jensen. "And it doesn't change over time. It's a very good starting point."

Jensen said that the exercises measure aptitudes such as foresight, dexterity and logic. "It's natural abilities," Jensen added. "That's all we're testing for. It's not interests, what you think you can do. Not what parents have told you you're good at."

However, both Young and Wright agree -- while aptitude testing opened their eyes to fields they may have never considered, hard work is always the key to success. "Something that comes easier for you will definitely make life easier," said Young. "You shouldn't do it if it doesn't make you happy. But if it makes you happy and it comes easy, it's a win-win situation."

And in Wright's case, aptitude testing has already paid off. After her first year of graduate school, UTA reviewed her scores and awarded her with a scholarship for the upcoming year.

So, what about that adage, 'Find something you love to do, then figure out a way to get paid for it?' Jensen provided an alternative explanation. "I'd say that's partially right. Find something you do well, that you love to do, and then see what happens," Jensen said. "And it just seems to work."

Click here for more information on aptitude testing and the Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation.