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EVEN PEOPLE WHO have terrific jobs sooner or later wonder whether perhaps they haven’t blown it. This might be why most people are more than a little intrigued when a computer program such as The Perfect Career comes along, purporting to tell them which career they are best suited for out of the whole universe of possibilities.
According to the manual, the author of The Perfect Career, James Gonyea, is a nationally recognized expert who has counseled more than 13,000 students, adults and private clients in the last 20 years. His background shows in The Perfect Career’s approach--at the heart of the program is one of those maddeningly simple-minded, general-purpose self-evaluation exams we’ve all come to know. It lists 180 tasks from various professions such as, “Examine fossil remains,” “Apply facial makeup to actors,” “Serve food to airline passengers,” “Study bacteria to learn about disease,” and “Bag or wrap items purchased by store customers.”
To take the test, you rate your interest and ability in each task on a scale of 1 to 3. The program tabulates the results and prints out charts showing your interest and aptitude in 12 occupational areas (artistic, scientific, mechanical, humanitarian and so on).
The graph can be a bit of a shock--it is entirely possible to discover that you may not have either the aptitude or the interest to succeed in the field in which you have been gainfully employed. On the other hand, if you are considering a change of career but so far don’t have a clue what to do, you may very well welcome a program that says--as The Perfect Career did during one recent trial run--that you are equally qualified to be a radial saw operator, experimental psychologist, waste resources recovery engineer, data entry operator, sociologist and deputy sheriff.
Available in IBM compatibles and Apple II family for $39.95 from Mindscape Inc., 3444 Dundee Road, Northbrook, Ill. 60062; telephone (312) 480-1938.
