Career Consultant – Rick Duff….helping you to find your talents and abilities.

Chances are you wouldn’t be visiting this website if you hadn’t imagined yourself in a happier, more satisfying career or to find a career that fits you perfectly and gets you out of bed every morning with a smile on your face.  How wonderful it would be to spend every hour of your work week doing something that you enjoy, something that suits your unique talents, something that you naturally care about! If you are ready to bring that dream into reality and to turn away from the frustration, confusion, and quiet desperation of an ill-fitting job — Rick Duff is ready to help you.

Rick has been certified in five different aptitude assessment tools.  Along with Rockport Institute and Emergentics, he can administer test results in the Highlands Ability Battery, the Strong Interest Inventory, and the Myers-Briggs Personality Profile.  These additional tests allow him to help his clients clearly define their strengths, talents and interests.

The Reasons for taking an Aptitude Test

INNATE APTITUDES are the fuel that drives us, and yet most people, including virtually all students, don’t know what their highest INNATE APTITUDES are…yet they are expected to select appropriate fulfilling careers, or pick college majors without possessing this critical information. This is a recipe for potential career dissatisfaction and unhappiness that could also impact important personal relationships.

WHAT is Aptitude/Innate Abilities Testing?

Testing that determines what your natural aptitudes or innate abilities are. It is the gift that continues giving for a lifetime…personally and professionally.

Aptitude testing is not the same as interest testing. Interests change with time, place, and circumstance…aptitudes do not.

“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” Quote attributed to John Dewey.

 WHY Aptitude/Innate Abilities Testing is Needed:

• It is an essential step in finding a fulfilling career and having a fulfilled life.
• It confirms the abilities you were born with and gives you confidence to verbalize them or use them in college or career environments.
• Unlike self -evaluation tests like the Myers-Briggs Personality Tests, Strong Interest, Holland’s Codes, and others, aptitude testing is a performance based test which measures innate abilities.
• It gives you a new way of looking at your own potential that you likely won’t get from your education.
• Everyone is internally driven by their unique aptitudes/innate abilities. When discovered, they motivate us. When not being used, you often feel that something is “missing.”
• It provides direction for correctly choosing appropriate majors and careers that are the “optimal fit” for your talents, strengths, and abilities.
• It provides increased possibilities for career choices and an in-depth look into your true strengths. It allows you to make better decisions about what path to follow in the selection of college majors and/or future career paths. It will help prevent bouncing from one job or college major to the next.
• Knowing your aptitudes/innate abilities will give you a much better sense of direction, clarity, and self-confidence.
• Over half of college graduates find they have picked the wrong major when they enter the work environment.  A student who knows his or her highest strengths is miles ahead of a student who doesn’t.

ABOUT Aptitude/Innate Abilities

• They don’t necessarily become obvious unless there are opportunities to use them.
• They are like natural resources, often buried beneath the surface where you have to make an effort to find them. It is especially important to determine which ones are the strongest because these are the ones you will want to use most of the time. If you have not been tested, you will just be guessing which aptitudes are the strongest.
• They are in place by age 16, and change less than 10% throughout a lifetime.

The Aptitude/Innate Abilities TEST

The aptitude test is 3-hours long, and can be taken on your own time schedule online, with breaks between each test. There are 19 innate skills measured. It is a highly effective test in finding adeptness in your aptitudes and personality preferences. It is different from most any other test you have taken in that there are no “right” or “wrong” answers.   The 5 prime learning channels are tested: verbal memory, tonal memory, design memory, number memory, rhythm memory.

BENEFITS of Aptitude/Innate Abilities Testing

• Increased self-confidence, motivation, clarity, and direction in school and in life.
• Will define how you solve problems, how you learn best, what work environment is right for you, whether you have measurable musical talents, and how you relate to and are perceived by others.
• Takes most of the guesswork out of knowing your:
  • Natural Abilities (what you do well),
  • Specific Interests (what you love to do),
  • Your “optimal fit” opportunities (where you’ll naturally thrive).
• Saves money and time…by knowing your talents and abilities before going off to college, tuition is properly spent pursuing courses that are meaningful and purposeful to the development of your strengths. Only 24% of students graduate from college in 4 years. Every extra year costs about $20,000 or more.
• You will obtain enormous insight into the courses and careers to pursue.
• Parents are able to understand and guide students, keeping them on the path of their aptitudes and abilities…the nagging is gone.
• The test results help a teacher or school guidance counselor write a better, more focused college recommendation letter.

Career frustrations and disappointments can make life feel so dark and unfulfilling. Rick is  a master at helping people find direction, confidence, and clarity in their work place.

As one enlightened teacher once said: