Make Career and College Major Decisions Based on Research: What we might learn from Bill Gates

Given our obsession with using research to help students make better career and college major decisions – this particular quote stuck out to me from Bill Gates’ Wall Street Journal interview last weekend, “Was the $5 BillionWorth It?”:

"I bring a bias to this," says Mr. Gates. "I believe in innovation and that the way you get innovation is you fund research and you learn the basic facts." Compared with R&D spending in the pharmaceutical or information-technology sectors, he says, next to nothing is spent on education research. "That's partly because of the problem of who would do it. Who thinks of it as their business? The 50 states don't think of it that way, and schools of education are not about research. So we come into this thinking that we should fund the research."

Fortunately for people making career and education decisions, a huge amount of peer-reviewed research has already been done.

Research shows what leads to job and career satisfaction – using Holland’s Theory to match your personality to careers and college majors. And for you to see the benefits, you have to use a scientifically valid assessment of Holland's 6 personality types. To learn more:

• Holland’s Theory of Career Choice 
• Choosing a College Major 
• Choosing a Career Cluster, Field or Pathway
• Choosing a College Based on Your Personality; What does the research say? (PDF for students, parents, counselors and career development professionals)
• Key Piece in College Completion Missing: Personality Major Match (PDF for educators, counselors, and policy-makers)
• The Career Key Manual (more about our scientifically valid Holland assessment and our personality match to careers, college majors, and career clusters)

Excellent Review for Career Key E-Book "Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors"

Choosing a college major? "Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors"(Canadian link), a popular Career Key® and Career Key Canada e-book, will help you make smart career and college major choices. Thanks to an excellent review from National Career Development Association President, Dr. Debra Osborn, you can be confident of our e-book's quality and helpfulness. 

The American Counseling Association just published Dr. Osborn's review in its July 2011 issue of Counseling Today.  Click on this link to see her Match Up! review at our website.

According to Dr. Osborn, 

“Match Up! will be of great use to students and counselors who quickly need a list of options related to personality.” 

She also found “the e-book makes reading not only easy and enjoyable but reader-centered.” She continues...

"The authors state that their goal is to “help young people and adults make the best career and educational decisions possible.” Jones and Jones have created an interactive book that provides a strong framework for accomplishing this goal. I wholeheartedly recommend this book for busy school counselors, and others who work with adolescents and young adults and have that same goal. It is a great resource that provides solid information necessary for making effective career decisions."

 In “Match Up!” readers see:

• Which majors fit their personality, 
• A description of each major,
• Related occupations, and
• How to find colleges that offer those majors.

 “Match Up! Your Personality to College Majors” contains over 1,400 college majors in the U.S. and Canada. It is available for sale in the Career Key eBookstore: Adobe® PDF, 343 pages, US $14.95, 2011. There is a special discount when you purchase both The Career Key test and the "Match Up!" e-book together.  For information on group discounts, please contact me.

More information...

“Match Up!”, by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC and Juliet Wehr Jones, J.D., GCDF, is the first publication to show students and adults returning to school all college majors matching their Holland personality types.  All of the majors (1400+) currently used by the U.S. Department of Education (and Canada) were scientifically analyzed and organized according to the Holland personality types.  Studies show that the closer the personality-major match, the more likely students will earn good grades, persist, and graduate on time.