HOMEWORK

Oliver Garner posted Aug 27, 2022 1:55 PM

Subscribe

The thing that is most important to me at this point in my life is my career. I was in the military for most of my twenties, so I often feel a little behind in my career trajectory, compared to the other people at work. Most of them started in the corporate world around age 23-24, with a college degree, where as I started at age 31, with no college degree. I definitely feel that I got a lot out of my 9 years in the army, and have no trouble being the top performer at work, but I also feel I have no time to waste. 

The results of the test were for the most part accurate. Statements like "You have a strong drive to complete important tasks, but struggle on tasks that are meaningless," and "you seek out things that make you happy, such as parties and hanging out with friends," are both accurate. However, the test also said that I avoid things I do not like, which I do not think is very accurate, especially not these days. I often push myself into things I do not like, or things I will know will be extremely challenging, rather than shy away from them or not do them. 

My company Nationwide, uses a lot of different surveys, tests, and reviews of work performance to measure these kinds of things in their employees. With companies these days facing a major employee engagement crisis, they have begun to experiment with the use of personality tests and employee surveys to better understand their workers and know where employees motivations and skills lie (Burke, 2014). My company is no different. When I interviewed for my sales job, they had all the candidates take tests similar to what we took in last weeks assignment, but geared towards finding out whether you have the traits that are suited towards a sales career. I also have four performance reviews each year, where I sit down with my manager and review what I have been doing well, what I need to work on, and what is my next career move, and how we can plan for that. We also talk about things we can do to keep me motivated, and how we can keep team engagement and activity high. Also each year, the company sends out to somewhere fun, like bowling or Top Golf, and the team has dinner and Nationwide pays for everything. I definitely appreciate and believe that a company can get a lot out of doing these kinds of activities. 

-Ollie

Burke, B. (2014). Gamify: How Gamification Motivates People To Do Extraordinary Things. Taylor and Francis Group Publishing.                Available in the Trident Online Library.