JJ Oden

YouScience Paper

The first key learning that I found from this assessment is that I am a generalist.

According to the Strengths Profile, these types of people are the life-blood of any group of

people. They know how people will react to things and how people will feel intuitively, and they

always put the group first. Knowing this about myself helps me to know some of my own

limitations within groups, such as a tendency to avoid sharing my opinion if I feel that the rest of

the group would benefit more from my silence. I certainly use this aspect of myself now in my

daily life, from working extra hours at work to lighten someone else’s load to trying to always

find a way to do something sweet for my wife every day so she feels happier, even if that is

simply remembering to set her alarm for her in the morning.

The second key learning that I had was that I have a masterful vocabulary. This type of

individual uses a lot of fancy words and has no difficulty helping others express their thoughts

with the “right” words as well as having little difficulty expressing my own thoughts and

feelings. This will be helpful in the future as I work with students because it will help me to have

an easier time understanding what they desire or where they are coming from, sometimes even

using this skill to help provide clarity for them as we discuss some issue they are having.

My third concept is that I am a Diagnostic Problem Solver. This means that I tend to find

solutions to problems, and even flaws within those solutions, significantly faster than many other

people. I feel that this is helpful to know because it grants understanding into how my brain

works and helps me to grasp the fact that others may need more time to come to the same

conclusions that I have reached. As the profile suggests, I am constantly in problem-solving

mode, which means there are rarely issues in my life that I cannot tackle on my own or find a
way to tackle with a little extra work or research. In the future, I can use this talent to help

students solve their own problems by slowing my own pace down and helping them work their

way to the best possible conclusion for their lives.

My final concept that I feel is worth mentioning is that I am a Brainstormer. This means

that I can think quickly and come up with many possible ideas in a short amount of time. It

allows me to be creative in any aspect of my life. However, one drawback is I can occasionally

have difficulty thinking for an extended period of time on someone else’s ideas due to having

such a high volume of my own. I also sometimes have difficulty concentrating on a single task

thanks to this skill. In my daily life, I use this through the things I enjoy doing in my spare time,

such as tabletop roleplaying games or writing. With students, I can use this talent to help them

come up with many possible solutions to their problems or recommendations for them to

consider.

Of all of my results, though, the one that was the most surprising to me was that this test

considered me to be an extrovert wholesale. In the past, most personality tests had me in the gray

area between extrovert and introvert (which is called a blended energizer in these results). Over

the last few years, I have slowly been shifted from an introvert toward the extrovert end of the

spectrum, but this is the first time that I have not been a part of the middle ground.

These results are all extremely helpful, as well as the commentary on what each result

means, but perhaps the most interesting part of things for me is the knew knowledge that I am a

diagnostic problem-solver who has a masterful vocabulary. Between these two traits, I can tend

to leave people behind in conversations and while working on tasks because my brain moves

more quickly than theirs can process, and this is compounded by the fact that I rarely take the

time to use language that is easily digestible to help them along. Being aware of this will allow
me to be more conscientious of others’ needs as I work in the future, taking care to help others

know where I am heading and how I got there in manner that does not overload their central

processor.

I feel like YouScience would be helpful with high schoolers because it is an inventory

that helps them match their desires with their aptitudes when considering future careers, and in

some cases helps to spark new desires. As someone who was once in high school and clueless

about where I wanted to go with my life, an aptitude test and strengths profile like this one would

have been extremely helpful in my progression toward postsecondary work. I think that, in the

same vein, this sort of test would likely help high school students find their calling much faster

and be more satisfied with their future, reducing the anxiety that they may feel and keeping it

well below the levels I once felt.

Overall, I felt that the YouScience experience was an interesting one. It seemed to take a

long time to complete the exercises, but in the end it seemed worth it. This entire aptitude test,

along with the following strengths profile were not only enlightening for me, but they were also

extremely useful. By receiving extraordinarily detailed results, I was able to understand

everything that they tests measured and what each result meant to me and for me. I would highly

recommend using this test with students in high school, particularly those who are unsure about

their future. YouScience helped me, and I am certain it will help others.