I’ve had a lull in my work, and instead of powering ahead with my ideas of an exhibition to do with stuff, I’ve been clearing out stuff from our cupboards. I’m sure the two are linked in some fairly powerful way, so I’ve just been going with it.
One of the interesting things I found was a vocational guidance test that I thought I did when I was about 14, but is dated 1973 when I was 20! My parents must have been worried about me… I certainly had little idea at that time about what I wanted to do. This is how the test profiled my interests:
1. mechanical
2. artistic
3. literary
4. outdoor – natural world
5. computational
6. social service
7. scientific
8. musical
9. persuasive
10. clerical
The first 2 were way above average, the last 3 far below average. The mechanical interest surprised everyone. Looking back it amazes me now how accurate and consistent these results were, and how muddling along eventually brought me to making for the theatre and sculpture, which dovetail so neatly. The persuasive and clerical ratings are funny. I still have hardly a persuasive bone in my body when it comes to manipulation and telling people how and who they should be. And what little record keeping and book keeping I have to do is always a bind.
The occupational recommendations are typed by hand on a typewriter, pre-computer, of course. I think the asterisks are for careers that accommodate multiple areas of interest.
I did enjoy volunteer work as a public radio announcer at one time, and love radio, so it’s surprising to see radio announcer considered only in it’s commercial role. No mention of librarian, which is strange. A beautician under artistic is a stretch. The female forms actress, tailoress and authoress look quaint, we just don’t use those terms anymore, do we? I did try editing and teaching, and never had any aspirations to be a chorus girl!
