#johnsonoconnor

So Today I want to write a bit about a NEW discovery and boy am I excited.

I was really going to commit to the whole Nutrition/Dietician path the other day because I thought that was the right path for me, but that’s before I searched up what Product Marketers do. Honestly, I had no clue what advertising or marketing people did in there careers, the only person I knew that went into advertising was Chandler from Friends...so yeah that was my only reference. I didn’t know what skills, aptitudes, or interests lead to a career in marketing.

But, after researching and reading some online articles, I think I have an alright understanding of it now. Marketing and Advertising was suggested as a possible career consideration that would utilize my ideaphoria aptitudes. I kind of just skimmed over that recommendation because well...what the fuck really was marketing...didn’t know what that was and didn’t sound that interesting.

Well...good thing I changed my mind and my curiosity came into play. I looked it up and actually, actually it is quite the opposite from what I had thought. It is incredibly interesting and basically utilizes every fucking thing I had ever been interested in.

So let me start off with why.

Product Marketers are very people oriented and have to possess an aptitude for communication. I notice I’m very good with that. Whether I try or not. As long as I’m even better when I’m trying to work towards a goal. For instance, I know I’m good at marketing myself. I read on an article that in order to be a good marketer, you have to first be able to market yourself. Oh and boy can I market myself. You know how I proved that. I had 13 offers for internships and co-ops this past year. I nearly received an offer for every company I interviewed with (only rejected by the ones I absolutely failed the technical interview because I’ll admit I didn’t know what the fuck I was talking about). But all of the other companies that interviewed me and asked me generally to solve simply technical problems and talk about past projects, I received an offer.

I actually got so good at reading people/interviewers that I knew when I would recieve an offer. Most of the time, I knew I would. It was something I could just sense. Honestly, I’m not here to brag, but just want to inform you that aptitudes really do mean something. Although some of my likability and personable traits were developed, they were developed because I read and listened to audio books that were genuinly interesting to me. Therefore, I was able to pick up and learn their tactics very well. I applied these tactics to my life and wahh laa...I became a very likeable and marketable person!

If you want to grow in this manner, I’d suggest reading and listening to self-help and self-improvement books. I always was curious why I was drawn to these books, but now I know. I’m definitely a self-improvement junkie and love learning about tactics to persuade people into doing things. It’s very enjoyable and fascinating. So these things definitely are naturally appealing to me, therefore leading me to pick up these skills quite quickly. Once I learn them, I notice that I just apply them to myself quite automatically.

It’s funny, this is kind of a side track, but the first time I listened to Dale Carneige’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” I was so shocked at how these little things affect our entire life. It was just so easy for me to understand. It was actually the First self-help book I listened to and boy did it lead to many others. I actually listened to it about maybe 5-6 times now. Every time, it still fascinates me the little tips and tricks that people should apply to there lives.

So anyways back to marketing...I know that I would make a great product marketer because of the skills that are required.

Communication, Likeability, marketing individuality all CHECK.

next is the challenge, long hours, and travel.

Ordinary people might see these as putt offs, but those things are so appealing to me. I know I’m a workaholic. I’ll put all the time and energy into my work if I enjoy it and I don’t give a fuck about anything else. Hell even if I made a goal for myself and I don’t enjoy it I’ll still dedicate my energy to it. That’s just something about me I am aware of. I’m a dedicated person. I also know I’m a very disciplined person, this meaning even if something doesn’t come easy I will still put all the energy and sweat into reaching my goal. I proved this with my dedication to Electrical Engineering. Honestly, I knew that EE wasn’t for me last year, but decided to keep going because quite frankly, I didn’t know what else to pursue. I thought I’d find it later after working for awhile. But now I know, I am destined to be a marketer.

Travel and long hours. No problemo. I love traveling and long hours are my forte. Especially for something I love.

Next is ideas, oh boy. You bet your ass I can generate ideas. I can generate ideas like no fucking other. Sometimes I want to not generate ideas but they just come and I have to work so fucking hard to meditate it’s not even funny, but I did it and know I can overcome anything. Ideas. No problemo

The only part that is a con for me right now is getting into the position I want. I know with my EE undergraduate degree I can easily move into marketing. I mean what the fuck an engineer that actually wants to go into marketing. hah isn’t it supposed to be the other way around. Well. Right now I know that is something that interests me and know I will excel in. Also it’s a risk and I need to take more risks to be honest. So my next steps are to minor in marketing at my University, and improve on my Psychology, Business, and Marketing knowledge. Therefore, once I land a position at a company I can have a strong foundation. I applied for a marketing minor, but don’t know if it’s too late to get into the program. If I don’t get in, I don't’ mind at all.

(****I’m sorry for the excess cussing in this post, but when I feel strongly about something I tend to cuss...a lot..so I apologize beforehand)

So this past week I made the decision to get my aptitude’s tested by the Johnson O’ Connor Research Foundation. They are not well advertised so usually people who get there aptitudes tested discovered it by word of mouth and apparently podcasts.

Anyways, this test cost a shitload of money, $720 to be exact, which is why I had put off taking it for so long. I had actually scheduled an appointment with them last winter but didn’t go through with it because I just couldn’t justify paying that amount.

But after being here in Massachusetts and becoming more aware of my passions and interests (which don’t really revolve around engineering), I became interested in what my aptitudes were.

So after some debating with myself, I decided to go through with it. Because all in all, this is lifelong knowledge about yourself is worth the measly $720. It honestly IS a lot of money, but personally I would rather be aware of my natural aptitudes than go on with the rest of my life not knowing what my natural abilities are and knowing what environments I would strive in. Personally, this knowledge exchange is worth it to me because I struggled a lot with choosing a major and currently am struggling with keeping that major because of failure to find any passion in it. I don’t want to live my life doing something that I do not love and making all the money in the world cannot change my feelings about that. I notice that for me at least, money is not that much of a motivator, of course it does matter a bit in the end, I wouldn’t become a hippie doing nothing with my life, but I wouldn’t specifically scout out and do something for the rest of my life just for the sake of making a steady living. I think that living that way is not the way I want to live my life and I don’t want to be a slave to that sort of fear. Personally I have seen that much too often and heard too many stories involving being a slave to money that I KNOW I cannot live my life that way.

I particularly notice this at my internships. I just see these sad little engineers doing there job, who knows if they’re actually happy because half of them are so antisocial and cannot even look me in the eye when they talk to me. I can’t even tell if they’re depressed or just afraid of girls, but whatever. They don’t look happy to me. The few that WILL actually talk to me, I can tell right away if they’re passionate about what they do or if they are staying in the career just because it is a “safe” option and they’re too afraid to take a risk on something else.

I met an engineering intern who I work sometimes with and he it is him who makes me question why I’m doing engineering. It’s people like him that make me question my choices and life. When i talk to him, I see so much fucking passion in him, so much passion in engineering, passion that I do not have, have never felt for engineering. The only feelings I’ve had for engineering are pain, suffering, anxiety, stress, and hardly ever anything positive. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’ve gotten through 3 years of Electrical Engineering, but god fucking shit it is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. Let me tell you engineering is fucking hard. Especially electrical.

Well anyways, it’s people like him that make me want to fucking switch of of EE and never look back. I think that I tried so fucking hard to convince myself that I would eventually like Engineering, that I would eventually grow to love it and find something just the tiniest something in engineering that I would like. Then only then I would be SUCCESSFUL! But what the FUCK. Why is my mind conditioned to think this way!? Like what the fuck. Why do I think I can only find success in Engineering, being a doctor, dentist, optometrist, things that you’re guaranteed to make a steady living in?! Do I even want that? Does that even appeal to me in the slightest?

I’ve always been one to do things based on feeling and doing engineering just doesn’t FEEL right. If anything it feels all the fucking wrong. I’ve tried so hard to just find some small passion in it, but I’ve failed to find much. I will admit I do like the challenges as it makes me feel like I’m learning something new and doing something useful in my life, but I just can’t find any passion. Whenever I’m free of whatever test, work, project involving engineering. I always want to get the fuck out. I don’t want to think about it or hear it or look at anything related to it. It all feels like forced work to me and nothing passionate.

God why couldn’t I have noticed this sooner.

Well anyways...let me move on to tell you about my Aptitude results.

So for my aptitudes, I tested in the 99th percentile for Ideaphoria and Foresight. So what that means is that I’m able to generate ideas very quickly and constantly. It doesn’t necessarily mean my ideas are good or smart in any way, but I’m able to constantly generate ideas. Which is totally fucking true, which is why I’m always unable to focus and concentrate in class and other mundane tasks. This means I’d make a terrible clerical worker, receptionist, data entry person, anything that doesen’t involve the use of ideas. I need to pursue a career that lets me talk, communicate generate ideas constantly, like a consultant, nutritionist, guidance counselor, teacher, etc...

Well this fucking broke my hear, because none of those careers sounded particularly successful to me as I’ve been conditioned to thinking I could only be successful as an engineer or doctor. So when I heard those results, I honestly thought shittttttt...MY FUCKING hard work...my hours, months, years of studying engineering...fucking wasted...godddd fuckkkkkkk. arjalskdjf;laskjdf;lsf

But then, I calmed down...I calmed myself down and reailzed it’s not the worse thing in the world. It might not even be a bad thing. Like actually this is a good thing. This aptitude test just told me something about myself that I kind of already knew. But it clarified it and confirmed it. I knew deep down actually not even that deep down that I didn’t want to do engineering and now I really know why. It’s because engineering doesn’t utilize my fucking aptitudes!

So let me tell you a little bit more about my aptitude results that I found pretty interesting. So I scored high in ideaphoria, but the low to average scores were in the fucking engineering aptitudes! Like holy shit. OF FUCKING COURSE...

It’s so funny, because the lady who was explaining my aptitudes to me actually knew that I was majoring in Electrical Engineering and I could already sense the sympathy in her tone when she was telling me I scored average/low in the aptitudes engineers usually score high in. It was really funny actually because I could really feel her sympathy. I don’t know. I just thought it was funny because she knew how hard engineering was. Then when I assured her I knew it wasn’t the right field for me she relaxed and joked around.

She even said something that I found quite interesting. She said how she was surprised I had stuck with engineering for so long(knowing Junior year was the most difficult) since my aptitudes were not cut for engineering or hardly anything technical. She said this was most likely due to another aptitude I had tested high in, which was Foresight. Foresight meant that I tend to look at the future and constantly make goals to hit. I usually stick with these goals no matter what and make sure to accomplish it.

And fuck yeah she was right. Before transferring, I had promised myself I would stick with my goal to pursue Electrical Engineering and get my degree, because I knew it would be hard, but I believed that no matter how hard it was, I could overcome it. So yeah I studied fucking day and night and memorized the shit out of that textbook. But no matter how hard I studied, I just couldn’t retain the fucking knowledge, no wonder. It’s because engineering doesn’t utilize my aptitudes in anyway nor my passion. I mean if I had any passion in engineering I could overcome those obstacles, but honestly I fail to find any passion in it. I’ve tried so hard, so fucking hard. But I honestly can’t find passion. It saddens me because through hard work all things are possible right?

Well I realized that no matter how hard I work, I can’t create passion out of nothing and passion was just simply never there for engineering.

But this opened up a new door. The aptitude review lady told me she herself tested high in Ideaphoria which is why she was a counselor and she loved it.

She believed that I too could find something I loved doing and commit all my time and energy to something I loved. She suggested Nutritionist/Dietitian because she noticed that I had wrote that on my sheet that asked what my past career choices were(even if I had no real intention to pursue them). I had listed Nutritionist/Health Psychiatrist because I remember my mom had one time mentioned that to me because I became extremely aware of my health one day and that has kept up until today. I had never really thought too much about it until this lady pointed it out. Yeah, I guess I do pay attention to nutrition and have struggled through an eating problem for the past 6 years. Maybe I can use these skills to help others and make a difference in the world. Maybe I can be successful through something other than engineering.

At least I know that I am an extremely disciplined individual that can obtain an Electrical Engineering degree through only discipline and hard work. While not having any passion for the subject whatsoever. I mean I think that’s pretty impressive if I say so myself.

I’ve always been the type to go after exactly what I want and I’m a pretty drastic person as well. If I think of something I want to do, I usually do it right away. Which isn’t always a good thing, actually most the time it hurts me more than it helps me. But I think that this is something I need to speak with more people about and research. But I definitely feel better after writing this out. Hey I guess I do generate a lot of ideas haha. I wrote so much now that I’m scrolling up to the top. hahahhahaa. oh god. But in all honesty I fully extend my support out to the Johnson O’ Connor research foundation. And I honestly believe everyone should just spend the money and take this test, because it is honestly not that much money to spend on something that can change your life forever. I mean everyone is different of course, your aptitudes might not help you as much as they helped me. But, please if you are struggling to find your calling in life, please take this test. It has changed my perception on things and helping me move on from something that was holding me back and leading me to a new adventure.

I've recently noticed I've been spending a lot of money on random crap. It's honestly not all that random, but mainly things I don't honestly need. I spent like $100 on just books. Like seriously I could just get them at the library, well if they had them!!! But I honestly really like reading actual paper books and not just books on my Nook. Well it's just a different feeling, and if I really enjoyed the book I want to keep it, kind of like a memento. I probably won't even read it again because I have a million other books I want to read. Haha. But seriously though, I like keeping books and collecting them. Honestly, one of my goals when I'm older is to have a collection of books that I really love and support. I want people to come over and appreciate the beauty of books. The knowledge obtained from books is truly beautiful and I can't believe I didn't realize that until recently! You just learn so much it's absolutely crazy.

Okay, well I did some impulse thing today and spent about a weeks worth of pay (a total of $720). Honestly, this wasn't really an impulse buy. It wasn't even really a purchase, it was basically an investment towards myself. I spent this $720 on a Aptitude test known as the Johnson O' Connor Aptitude Research test. I was referred to it by my mentor about a year ago, and finally committed to doing it while here in Boston. I had actually scheduled an appointment back home last winter, but never went through with it because god it was too fucking expensive and I couldn't bring myself to spend the money. But the more I pondered this aptitude test, kind of keeping it in the back of my mind all this time, the more I wanted to commit to it. I mean okay it's really a lot of money, just a few short of $1000. But really, this is a small investment to have knowledge that is useful for the rest of your life. I honestly convinced myself to just go through with it with this logical argument.

So I came into work pretty late today because this test was a total of 3.5 hours long. (p.s. this was just the first part of the test too). I was telling my co-working interns about this and one girl...I could already sense of judgement in a second. She is clearly not open to the idea of a test telling you your natural abilities and I could see she would never justify spending that much money on something she claims "she could just figure out on her own". Okay to argue her point, yeah you might "think" you know what your apitudes are and go into whatever career you choose, but do you really know? Do you REALLY KNOW? Do you think you could know more than a fucking research team who has been studying this for 70 years. Yeah I don't think so. All in all, I need to just let this go because it's draining my energy just thinking about her negativity and judgement. It's honestly making me more judgemental and I'm even judging her right now and wasting energy being upset about this FUCK. Okay let it go..let it go...It's not her fault she dosen't believe in this aptitude test. It's all about her upbrining and if I were in her case...I wouldn't believe it either. It's not her fault she is closeminded...This is her belief and will lead her to whereever the fuck her life ends up. It's not my problem.