A Career Profile

On October the tenth I interviewed Mr. Jonathan Franklin Raymond. Mr. Raymond intrigued me because
he graduated from a prestigious college, yet he has never utilized his degree. With Mr. Raymonds
permission, I will refer to him as Jon throughout the interview and paper.

Jennifer: What were your hobbies as a child?

Jon: I read a lot of comic books. I also had a chemistry set. In fact, I had my own little laboratory. It
consisted of my chemistry set, a microscope, and a weather station. I also liked to build things.

Jennifer: Would you consider yourself has having been a social child?

Jon: Yes, I guess so. I had a few really close friends. I never really cared what other people thought of
me. I was quite unmindful of what other people thought.

Jennifer: What did your father do for a living?

Jon: My father was a jeweler. He worked for my grandfather up until I was in high school, then he had
his own business.

Jennifer: What did your mother do for a living?

Jon: She was a schoolteacher all of her life. She taught choir until I entered high school, then she started
teaching elementary education.

Jennifer: Did either of your parents go to college? If so, where?

Jon: My mother got her bachelors degree in drama at Mac Murray College in Abilene, and she got her
Masters degree in education. My father also went to college, for two years, in Abilene. He was pre-law
major.

Jennifer: Did your parents stress the importance of a good education to you when growing up?

Jon: Oh absolutely! My whole life there was no doubt that I would go to college.

Jennifer: What were your favorite subjects in high school?

Jon: Latin, chemistry, and current events.

Jennifer: Did you do well in high school?

Jon: I did pretty well. I was a B honor roll student. I mad the A honor roll once, when I was a sophomore.

Jennifer: I am surprised that you still remember that. Your parents must have praised you highly.

Jennifer: Did you graduate from high school?

Jennifer: What was primary reason for your decision to go to college?

Jon: I didnt want to be a laborer all of my life. I wanted an education and I found out that the more you
learn, the more you found out that you didnt know.

Jennifer: So your parents prodding did not play a role in your choice to attain a college education?

Jon: Well, of course they had ingrained that in the back of my mind so much that the thought of not
getting a college education was just psychologically repulsive. They

made it very clear to me that they would have been extremely disappointed if I had chosen not to go to
college. I would have been disappointed in myself as well.

Jennifer: Did your parents pay for your education?

Jon: They paid for a lot of it. What they didnt pay for grants and loans covered.

Jennifer: What did you major in college?

Jon: In journalism, broadcasting, and film production.

Jennifer: Did you ever change majors?

Jennifer: I find it odd that with your love of chemistry in high school that you would major in journalism.
Why didnt you major in chemistry, or biology?

Jon: There were not any journalism classes in high school but I enjoyed my English classes. Journalism
just came easy to me.

Jennifer: Did you not do well in you science courses in college?

Jon: No, I did quite well in organic and inorganic chemistry, I just didnt want to pursue what I saw as a
life in a laboratory.

Jennifer: Did you go to graduate school?

Jon: I have gone to secondary school for Microsoft certification. I didnt go to graduate school however,
because I had a family.

Jennifer: What was your first job after college, and did it involve using your bachelors degree?

Jon: No, it didnt. My first job was as an account executive for a commercial refrigerator corporation.

Jennifer: Why didnt you search for a job that would be complimentary to your degree?

Jon: The field was not as open, especially in this part of the country, to white males. So it was difficult to
get a high level job. The pay scale was also quite low. I had also relocated to Colorado, and a degree
from Trinity is not as impressive in Colorado as it is in Texas.

Jennifer: Did your brother go to college?

Jon: Yes, he majored in pharmacology.

Jennifer: Do you ever regret not majoring in something in college that could have been utilized fully in
your career?

Jon: Not really. If I had it to do over again, I would probably stick with just straight journalism, or
alternatively, just a business degree.

Jennifer: How many jobs have you had?

Jon: Not really that many. I would say eight or nine.

Jennifer: What is your current job title?

Jon: Director of e-commerce for MailWell.

Jennifer: Is that a corporate position?

Jennifer: What are your responsibilities?

Jon: To refine e-commerce strategies, define customer needs, solutions, implementations, and on line
support. E-commerce is really just customer empowerment. That sound sounds clich, but it is basically
a method that allows customers to interact via technology.

Jennifer: What is your annual salary?

Jennifer: Do you get along with your boss?

Jon: Definitely. My boss is actually the C.E.O. of the corporation so it is imperative that I get along with
him.

Jennifer: Do you get along with your co-workers?

Jennifer: Do you feel appreciated at your job?

Jon: I have to travel at least twice a week.

Jennifer: Does it bother her that you travel so much?

Jon: No it really doesnt because we are empty nesters and she has her own interests that she pursues
so; the time we spend apart allows her time to pursue those interests. We also appreciate the time that
we do have together a lot more.

Jennifer: What are your hobbies and interests?

Jon: Computers are by far my number one interest. To relax, I like to build things with my hands.

Jennifer: So, youre telling me that you found a great paying job that also fosters your interests?

Jon: Yes, I consider myself very lucky.

Jennifer: Without the current state of technology, your job would not exist. Do you ever fear that the
technology boom may slow down and you may not be needed anymore?

Jon: Yes, anybody in an I.T. position fears that. I think that I have personally positioned myself at a level
in the industry that is well insulated.

Jennifer: What do you do to insure that you will retain your job?

Jon: The best thing you can do is to be at the top of the pyramid because when they generally start
layovers its from the bottom up. My workload is greater, being at a higher level; my job however, is
more secure.

Jennifer: If you found yourself in a position to have to look for another job, would you seek career
counseling? Why or why not?

Jon: No, I wouldnt seek career counseling, I would probably contact an executive placement firm.

Jennifer: If a technical position were not available, what other job might you be interested in?

Jon: I have a real estate license and I sold real estate for a few years, so I might go back to that.

Jennifer: What is more important to you when looking for a job, financial or emotional security?

Jon: Financial. Its like I tell people, and I dont care what your job is, the reason you get out of bed in the
morning is because they pay you to do it.

Jennifer: When do you expect to retire?

Jon: I hope to retire within the next ten years. However, with the stock market collapsing, that could be
somewhat problematic.

Jennifer: On a scale from one to ten, ten being the best, how would you rate your career choices thus far
and your current position?

Jon: I would give it a nine or a ten. There is so much involved in a career. You do not just pick a career
and go out there and become successful at it. It involves a lot of hard work and some luck, but mostly
recognizing opportunities and taking advantage of them.

Conceptualizing Jons Career History

In two domains, Jons history suggests a stable personality type of investigative and realistic; he
pursued activities in these domains even in childhood. For example, as a child he had a chemistry set, a
microscope, and a weather machine. And in high school he enjoyed his chemistry classes and did quite
well in them. He has always enjoyed activities that provide him with tangible results. Realistic
personality types are also quite shy and modest. Jon stated in his interview that he only had a few close
personal friends and that he never put much though into what other people thought about him. Jon also
appears to be consistently realistic, in that he has traditional values. For example, he did not choose to
pursue a graduate degree in lieu of his family. Jon is investigative in that he has always enjoyed his
independence.

It is interesting to note that Jon shows a bit of inconsistency, reflected in his enterprising and
artistic interests. He stated that one of his favorite courses was a political science class, reflecting his
entrepreneurial interests while his love for language lends credence to his artistic side. These
inconsistencies may be the signification of a multi-diversified individual, or more probabilistic, the result
of Jons upbringing. For example, Jons mother was a schoolteacher, which would typically be
considered a social occupation. Her focus however was in drama, which would prove to be an artistic
occupation. Jon may have been verbally well learned due to a partially artistic upbringing. Jons father
was a jewelry store employee and later became a small business owner. This most certainly could
account for Jons interest in the entrepreneurial field. Jon later told me that his brother, after having
obtained his pharmacology degree, became

the manager of a pharmacy. This also suggests an enterprising situation. It would appear that Jon grew
up in an environment in which he was exposed to artistic, social, investigative, and enterprising,
personality types and activities.

Jon entered college sure of his journalism major. He did not pursue a science degree because he
did not want to be in a laboratory all of the time. Jon didnt appear to do a lot of exploring in college,
which may have hindered the fostering of his artistic abilities. Jon also expressed that journalism came
easy to him. This statement was unfortunately not delved into or we may have found that other
interests, (i.e., science or law-hence the interest in political science), may not have been pursued due to
their perceived difficulty.

Conceptualizing Jons Present Situation

Using Hollands theory to understand Jons current career choice focuses attention on both his
characteristics and the features of his environment. First, Jons personality type of realistic-enterprisinginvestigative (REI) can be furthered examined in terms of the constructs in Hollands theory. It is
believed that if Jon were to complete the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), his profile would be well
differentiated, with the realistic and enterprising interests representing a high peak in his profile and the
investigative

interests representing a somewhat lower point. In terms of Hollands hexagonal arrangement of types,
Jons realistic, enterprising, and investigative interests represent an inconsistent pattern- that is,
interests are not all adjacent to one another on the hexagon. Finally, Jons vocational identity is
relatively strong: He knows where his interests lie,

even though a pattern of inconsistency is shown, and he has maintained these fundamental interests
since childhood.

An analysis of Jons current work environment proves to be further supportive of Jons

personality type. Jon has to solve problems through thinking while working on ambiguous and abstracts
tasks (investigative), he is performing in a job that provides him with tangible results (realistic), and he
manages people and projects while having to give speeches and presentations (enterprising). The
aforementioned factors show Jons work environment and personality to be congruent, which is said to
be related to important outcomes, such as job satisfaction and job tenure.

Bibliography: