SAA6630.

01


Intake Interview and Interpretive Report


by


Lena M. Friend


November 11, 2013

I ntake I nterview-J anae Peters
Janae Peters is an eighteen year old female who is African American. She has two
brothers and five sisters, one of which is deceased. Her mother and step mother are alive and
active in her life. Janaes support system is made up of her family, boyfriend and close friends.
Her work experience consists of summer employment at a non-profit organization where she
performed clerical type work. Janae also volunteered as a reading tutor for elementary school
children. Her current credentials consist of a high school diploma and a certificate of community
service volunteer.
Janae feels her strengths are her ability to complete tasks and to multitask. Motivators for
Janae are earning money and becoming successful. When she needs to make a decision she tries
to think about whatever is the most beneficial outcome in the situation. Her interests are in
helping people, giving back to others, shopping, and graduating.
Janae faces challenges as she strives to achieve career and academic success. Such as in
the subject of math; she struggles to find better ways to study harder so she can grasp its
concepts but finds it difficult to attain. She also finds having no car creates transportation barriers
for her. Financial limitations create barriers for Janae as well.
Janae was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She grew up in a home with her brothers,
step-mother and sisters. She has continued to live in the same house with her step-family from a
very young age through high school, even though her father passed away when she was just ten
years old. Janae graduated from Dunbar High School in June 2013 and began her freshman year
at WSU in the fall of the same year. She plans to graduate from WSU in 2017. Janae is a first
generation student.
The occupational background of her family is that her father was an auto mechanic up
until his death; her mother worked in several fast-food and housekeeping jobs; and her step-
mother has worked consistently as a dietary services employee at a local hospital for many years.
Her career goal is to become a social worker because she wants to help kids. Janae will
complete the five self-assessments in FOCUS to determine compatible career options based on
her work interests, personality, skills, values, and leisure interests.
I nterpretive Report-J anae Peters
Janae entered college directly after graduation and is currently in her first semester at
Wright State University. She elected to see a career advisor because she was undecided about
which career field she should go into. She thinks she wants to be a social worker, but express
some uncertainty about whether that was right for her. She feels passionate about helping
children who are in the welfare system. She wishes to assist them with getting with food,
housing, health care and other services because she was once one of those children. We decided
that Janae needed to complete the five self-assessments in the online career and education-
planning tool called FOCUS. I assigned Janae to complete the Self Assessment portion of the
inventory at her leisure and bring her profile summary to our next meeting.
At our second meeting Janae and I reviewed her profile summary together. According to
career theorists, individuals are more likely to be satisfied in his or her work when there is a
good fit between a persons characteristics and the work tasks of the job (Harris-Bowlsbey et al).
The objective of this exercise was to clarify Janaes interests, look at her values, assess her skills,
and generate goals. In addition, we hoped to determine if there was a good match between
Janaes characteristics and tasks associated with social work, her desired field of work. If we find
a match, Holland would call this congruence, where both Janae and the jobs Holland codes were
closely aligned. On the other-hand, she may discover new career options that would be
potentially better matches for her based on her work interests, leisure interests, skills,
personality, and values. Super would consider this step as taking a look at her self-concept and
then attempting to translate her results into work.
As noted in my Kendra paper, the trait-and-factor theory of John L. Holland focuses on
aspects of a persons career choice and development at a given point in time. According to
Holland, there are two key factors involved in career planning; the unique characteristics of both
the individual and of the work environment. The distinct characteristics of both can be measured
and then represented by two or more of six types, in what are called Hollands codes. Hollands
six types are identified as R=realistic, I=investigative, A=artistic, S=social, E=enterprising, and
C=conventional. The codes are defined as a combination of types, or traits. An individuals traits
are related to his or her interest, abilities, needs, values, and personality. Work tasks, skills
required, demands, and rewards are measures used to identify a jobs Holland code. The more
ones code matches a job code, the more satisfied and productive a worker is in performing that
work. Assessment results revealed that Janaes Holland code is SEC; social, enterprising,
conventional.
According to Janaes profile summary, the SEC designation is a result of her self-
reported responses to work interest questions. We reviewed these results together. As one who
possesses a social characteristic, Janae would prefer to work with others, be verbal and enjoy
group work. It would also indicate that she prefers to solve problems in a team setting and sees
herself as cooperative, friendly, and understanding. As a person in the enterprising category,
Janae prefers selling and promoting activities. She also enjoys the challenge of persuading others
and is self-confident, talkative and energetic. The conventional distinction would indicate that
Janae prefers orderly, systematic work and likes things to run smoothly and is attentive to
administrative details.
Janaes personality profile summary confirmed these characteristics by indicating that she
would prefer work that is orderly, with clear expectations, and where attention to detail is valued.
As a person who cares about others, she would want to be tactful, sympathetic, and able to
provide clients with practical help to support their needs. When working on projects, she will
prefer to gather all the facts before making decisions. She will need time to review all the details
before setting a plan of action. According to the results of her summary, Janae will likely be
attracted to jobs that combine her ability to make careful observations, as well as her skill to use
factual data to provide help to clients. Jobs in the following fields would likely be a close match
to Janaes characteristics and therefore provide congruence in her work life: healthcare services,
teaching, human resources management, community services, counseling, and selected areas of
business.
As noted in my Kendra paper, the developmental theory of Donald E. Super places
emphasis on the importance of an individuals self-concept in the process of career choice and
development. Our self-concept is defined as a blend of how we see ourselves, how we would
like to be seen, and how we think others view us (Harris-Bowlsbey, et al, pg 4-14).
Furthermore, Super propones that people seek out employment based on a vocational self-
concept. Janae agreed that the results of the FOCUS assessment were in congruence with her
self-concept. She sees herself as organized, detail oriented, one who enjoys persuading and
helping others. When asked how she sees these characteristics being translated into work, she
replied that as a social worker she could see herself helping kids by providing assistance to meet
their needs. According to the Self-Directed Search (SDS) Career Options Finder, a Case Worker
or Social Worker occupation would have an SEC Holland code matching that of Janaes
characteristics. The traits of social work would be congruent with Janaes personality and is
therefore, likely to be a satisfying and productive career for her.
After reviewing the list of occupations on her FOCUS assessment results, I asked Janae
to choose her top three jobs. She chose in preference order: Social Worker, Parole Officer, and
Childcare Center Administrator. We investigated the details of each of these positions, such as
the work tasks, credentials needed, job outlook, work setting, and salary. One notable fact is that
the outlook for Social Workers is bright, with an expected 25% growth between 2010-2020.
When asked, Janae replied that each of these salary ranges would certainly provide a viable
income for her and her household. If she were given an opportunity she would like to job-
shadow a Case Worker or Social Worker for a day.
Janaes comfort level with making a decision about a major is still a little shaky at this
time. She would like to explore the occupations in her results a little further before making
definite plans at this time. She understands the credentialing requirements better for each of the
jobs now and would like to consider them more in depth (her conventional trait in operation)
before moving forward with a decision. She has a strong desire to help children, with a high
interest in social work, but may consider related work that involves fewer credentialing
requirements.
For now, Janae will continue with her plan to complete a 4-year degree at WSU, but she
is not sure about education beyond that. A possible barrier for Janae is if she decides to become a
Social Worker, she will need to consider the additional time and resources required for graduate
school. She is uncertain at this time if that is feasible for her.

Short term plans include:
1. Pick a major by fall of 2014
2. Get good grades
3. Get a part-time job
4. Get car
5. Come back to see me in 6 months to re-evaluate career options and choose one
Long term plans include:
1. Graduate from WSU in 2017
2. Get a job or go to graduate school
3. Get an apartment
According to Super, Janae is in the second of the five life-stages which relate to career
development. She is just learning about areas of work that match her interests, skills, personality,
and values, as well as the credentialing requirements for her preferred occupations. She is in the
process of crystallization where she is exploring the possibilities and commitments involved in
pursuing a chosen career path. She hopes to enter the process of specification by next fall when
she declares a major and commits to a program of study to achieve the credentialing required to
obtain employment in her desired field of work. Implementation has begun for Janae as she has
entered college and fully intends to finish with a degree. She also took initiative to visit a career
advisor to seek guidance in choosing an appropriate career. Stabilization and consolidation will
come much later for Janae, as she wont be done with her training and education for several
years. According to Super, she would be considered vocationally mature if she were to complete
all these tasks on schedule. Given her determination to succeed and commitment to finding the
right job; both being definite strengths for Janae, I would fully expect Janae will attain vocational
maturity on time.
My Reaction to the Assignment
The most difficult part about this assignment was that my pseudo client is a student
worker in our office. To make it worse I am her supervisor. I didnt want to make her feel
uncomfortable about the exercise, so I was very careful to assure her that by participating or not
participating would not affect her job one way or the other. This was completely separate from
her work. She agreed that the exercise would be good for her and was looking forward to
completing it. I picked her for my pseudo client because she was a new employee and I recall
during the interview that she was not sure about what she wanted to do, but thought she might
like to be a social worker to help kids.
I think her results were right on the mark for Janae. She is social, enterprising and
conventional in her working role. I was extremely pleased to see that her code was consistent and
matched her desired work field. She is struggling with the amount of education needed for social
work license. I hope she will decide for it since it is a passion that she possesses and it works so
well with her personality. I plan to talk to her more about it as time goes on and help connect her
to people and resources that will help her decide.
One thing I would do different is perform the interview her away from the work place.
We met in the department conference room, behind a closed door. While we didnt really have
any interruptions, it was just a little too close to her actual work site to feel at ease. She chose to
do the inventory at her workstation and had some slight distractions while completing the
assessments. I would rather have her do them in a room elsewhere on campus or have her
complete them at home.
I love the discovery part of the exercise, where she was finding out about the different
jobs, such as the facts about salary, job outlook, tasks and work environment. She was so excited
about finding out these details and wanted to explore more and more. Her excitement was a
delight to me. I showed her a couple sites to further her research; she agreed to explore them at a
later time. I will share additional ones that you provided us on Friday evening with her as well.