How do I study for a basic linux competency test?

In need of a job/career -- from a psychological perspective...

• For what seems like the past several months, I have been pondering whether or not my current career path is for me. After much thought, I've come to a conclusion: My current career is not the ideal environment to satisfy my ambitions and further my development as a person. To understand the situation, however, I need to explain a few things. I realize a lot of what I'm about to say should be brought up with a psychologist rather than a career advisor or someone I have never met on the Internet. I have, however, already gone down that path with different doctors, and I keep coming to the conclusion: there's no quick fix to my problems. I know what I need to do, and I know it will take time. I have never brought this issue up with a psychologist, but I feel I express myself much better on paper when I'm alone and can organize my thoughts. Every one of the points I will make is important, and when explaining how I feel to someone in person, many times I forget these important points. I am currently employed as a software tester at a relatively large company. There I am responsible for testing one of the top selling products we offer. When I first started the job roughly a year and a half ago, I very much enjoyed it. For the most part, I was able to keep to myself, and "play" on a computer all day. Once the novelty wore off, however, I began to question whether or not it was really what I wanted to do. There were several things that bothered me... The reason I want to go into so much detail is I want you to get an idea of what goes on in my head on any given day. It might not be every day that I experience what I mention (I know that I can judge myself quite harshly at times), but I need a career that will challenge me both mentally and socially, yet at the same time be forgiving enough of my social perplexities to allow for breathing room. I hope there is such a career. I grew up not having very many friends. The friends I did have were obsessed with video games and computers. It definitely had an effect on me, and much of my life, to this day, has involved computers and video games. Unfortunately, I have always viewed computers as something "nerdy". Perhaps more troubling than nerdy, is that I feel that I am not progressing socially. I feel that I have a lot of untapped potential, but due to the vast amount of time I spend on the computer, this potential is being held back. More than anything I ever wanted was to be "cool". I'm not quite sure what this entails, but I have always admired people who emit a sense of self-confidence and belief in themselves. I envy those people. The problem is I feel that I can't get to that point in my current state as a software tester.. the whole day is spent in a dark room. One of my worries is that it may be a case of "the grass is always greener on the other side". I could see myself getting overwhelmed if I chose a different career path, and wishing I had just stayed with computers. It's the worry that I just have to face the music, and work is work... I just have to find a way to be happy with what I have. As much as I desire change, at the same time I crave familiarity. A perfect example happened at work the other day. Being bored with my usual task of sitting at my desk and testing software, I got up and started to try another test that required more equipment. I soon found that in order to get the equipment needed, I would have to fill out certain forms, talk to certain people, and basically go through a process that I was unfamiliar with. I noticed that I was getting tired and very quickly, and I soon desired to return to my desk to resume normal testing. I was uncomfortable with the new assignment. Situations such as these, with abrupt change, tend to throw me off. Throughout my various jobs in life, I have noticed I don't take change too well. But the perplexity is at the same time, I do want to do something else... I'm just not always ready to pay the opportunity cost. On the positive side, however, once I stick to something new, I eventually get used to it. The point I'm trying to make here is what I want and desire when I'm alone and pondering life, such as at this very moment, I tend to want things that are more challenging socially, such as leadership roles, more reponsibility, etc. The paradox is when I'm in the "heat of battle", or when I'm in the very situation around people, I tend to isolate myself, feel anxious in talking to people (especially at work), and just get real jealous of the people that do have what I want. I feel overwhelmed at how much I seemingly lack as compared to my peers. Whether or not that's true is another story... the fact of the matter is, that's the way I feel. On another topic, and perhaps most importantly, I don't like the feeling I get when studying computer science, IT, etc. I can appreciate the deep logic and planning that goes with programming, or the intricacies of learning a different OS such as Linux... but to me, at the end of the day, I kinda feel like I'm missing out on what really matters in life. When I learn about history, science, the economy, political science, or even accounting, I get this sense of "oh, I get it!". I feel accomplished, in that I get a better sense of how the world works around me. I feel like my character grows upon learning things that pertain to everyday living. I feel more satisfied, and appreciate the world around me more. I don't get that with computers. Unfortunately, due to my seemingly complex social problems, as well as other things (as far as I know/heard, there aren't many jobs in the areas of study I mentioned, unless you want to be a teacher) I have shyed away from seriously pursuing any of these paths, nor have I come to a conclusion on what I would study if I were to choose. Lastly, I'd like to comment on one of my "social complexities" that prevent me from performing my best at work. I have this nasty tendency to judge people on their looks. If someone has a certain look to them that I deem threatening in some manner (such as someone who appears very outgoing), I immediately start thinking bad things about them in my head -- I'll tend to look for faults in them. If the person comes across as a confident person, while at the same time being a certain race, I immediately label that person as my "enemy"... perhaps enemy isn't the word, but in my brain I definitely set that person aside and say, "I don't like you". This type of thinking scares me. Whew! Having said all that, hopefully I gave you a glimpse of the way I view the world. My ultimate question is: What careers/jobs are there that would satisfy me, and be compatible with my "social complexities"? Seeing as how 8+ hours of your day are spent at work, I feel it would be wise to have the right one.

• Answer:

  Hello Billy Bob, It's good to meet you again. I hope you find this answer as useful as you found the one I provided you about sleeping problems. I'll address your current subject in two aspects. First, following your own thoughts about it, I do encourage you to bring up these issues with a psychologist, counselor or the psychotherapist of your choice. I do believe that you will find some orientation in this answer, but even if you do, a professional's support will help you walk the chosen path. I notice in your recounting a possible added challenge to deal with. Just like it happens to many people, some of your desires seem to be contradictory -- namely, you do feel more comfortable (if I understood you well) when working by yourself; still, you crave for a more outgoing social behavior. One possibility is that two real characteristics of yours mutually interfere. But you should also consider that, maybe, what you crave might be not an actual characteristic of yours but a way of being that for some reason you idealize (the neighbor's "greener grass"). If this was the case, compelling yourself to achieve that goal might be the highway to a painful and unhappy living, by constantly forcing yourself to play a role that is not in your nature, that takes you a lot of energy and that you ultimately dislike. One thing is the alleged social reward of being extrovert -- popularity, recognition -- and a very different thing is the effort of playing every working day a character that is not really you. Of course, social realization is an aspect of life that everybody looks for, and most people achieve it to the degree of their needs, which differs from one another. Thus, an introvert person surely needs a much lesser amount of social recognition than, say, a standup comedian, a lecturer, a politician or a high profile businessman -- and still may have a social life as much or even more happy than any of the latter. (In terms of happiness, which should be the measure of any type of success.) In any case, your determination to better the social aspect of your life sounds very auspicious -- just be aware not to unnecessarily distress yourself in search of more social reward than what would actually make you happy. Anyway, all that was mere speculation, not even a hypothesis, and your wish to expand your sociability may very well be the manifestation of a genuine impulse that has been inhibited for some reason and is pushing its way out. Now, in either case, a therapist's assistance would be most useful -- to help you visualize what is your real drive, and clear up any obstacle from your way. Even though I have training and practice in social psychology, it is not possible for me to provide you with that assistance from the distant perspective of a Google Answers researcher. Now, the core of your question is what would be the type of job that would better fit your personality. I believe that a good approach for this is the widely accepted standard of the Holland Codes, created by psychologist John L. Holland, who identified 6 types of personalities, matching as many groups of preferred careers and work environments. These categories are Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional (the whole categorization system abbreviated as RIASEC). Combining information from (1) the Occupational Interests page (http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/cfe/eggs/occupationalinterests.htm ) at the University of Central Lancashire's Centre for Employability, and (2) the article Human Behaviour in Business (http://www.chuckiii.com/Reports/Business/Human_Behaviour_in_Business.shtml ) at Chuck III.com, I compiled the characteristics of each category: REALISTIC: "...careers such as laboratory based work, environmental, agriculture, horticulture, forestry, mechanics, catering, production and manufacturing, professional engineering, sport, leisure, tourism, direct health therapists, production planner, building inspector, safety engineer and marine surveyor." (1) "Personality characteristics include being shy, genuine, persistent, stable, conforming, and practical. (2) INVESTIGATIVE: "...work in any field of science or technology, such as chemist, physicist, astronomer, biochemist, orthodontist, anthropologist, economist, researcher, management analyst or specialist in one of the natural or physical sciences and many other forms of intellectual and academic work." (1) "Personality characteristics include being analytical, originality, curiosity and independence." (2) ARTISTIC: "...visual or plastic arts, occupations such as architect, copy writer, technical editor, story editor, composer, stage director, interior decorator, and commercial designer all aspects of design, music, writing, multimedia, film, video, broadcasting, theatre etc." (1) "Personality characteristics include imagination, disorder, idealism, irrationalism and impracticality." (2) SOCIAL: "...careers (such as) lecturing, teaching, health professions and therapies, marketing and sales, leisure and tourism, event management, psychologist, psychiatric case worker, HR or personnel manager, legal careers, speech therapist, counselling, advice and welfare work, charity and fundraising." (1) "Personality characteristics include sociability, friendly, cooperation and understanding." (2) ENTERPRISING: "...management, public relations, financial planner, estate agent, stockbroker, investment and pensions management, some legal work, finance management, sales and marketing, buying and procurement, or setting up your own business or consultancy." (1) "Personality characteristics include self-confidence, ambition, energy and domination." (2) CONVENTIONAL: "...accountancy, bookkeeping, budget analysis, business programming, finance and administration, IT and computer related work, data management and research, quality control and testing." (1) "prefers rule-regulated, orderly, unambiguous activities. Personality characteristics include conforming, efficiency, practicality, unimaginative, and inflexibility." (2) [For a more comprehensive list of careers for each category, visit Holland Codes article at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Codes )] No one is so simple to have only one of the six characteristics, or even only one dominant. In fact, most people have all of them, and normally two or three are dominant, typically -- and preferably -- compatible. However, some people have incompatible dominant characteristics, what usually becomes a challenge to overcome. Dr. Holland arranged the six categories in a hexagon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HollandHexagon.png ) -- one for each triangle within the hexagon -- so that contiguous categories are best compatible, and compatibility decreases as the categories grow farther. Ultimately, categories opposing each other in the hexagon are the least compatibles. Thus, if you fill each of the hexagon's inner triangles in clockwise direction with each category in the order listed above (RIASEC), you'll visualize that the most compatible combinations are: Realistic-Investigative; Investigative-Artistic; Artistic-Social; Social-Enterprising; Enterprising-Conventional, and Conventional-Realistic. Conversely, the most incompatible combinations are Realistic-Social; Investigative-Enterprising, and Artistic-Conventional. The only way to rigorously determine one's dominant characteristics is taking a Holland-type test. You can access the one available at The Career Key website (http://www.careerkey.org/asp/your_personality/take_test.asp) for a $7.95 fee, or else the one at The Self-Directed Search ( ) for $9.95. (There might be others -- these are the ones I've found.) Also, at the abovementioned Occupational Interests page (http://www.uclan.ac.uk/facs/class/cfe/eggs/occupationalinterests.htm ) at the University of Central Lancashire's Centre for Employability, there is a short version that you can perform manually -- I prepared a rudimentary automation of it on an Excel spreadsheet that you can find at http://h1.ripway.com/mirarki/Holland_Test.xls Now, following your thorough description of your characteristics, I could make a guess that in no way can be taken as an actual assessment of your type of personality -- rather as a supposed approximation, ultimately fictional -- to orientate your further thinking over. However, I would suggest that you TAKE THE TEST BEFORE CONTINUE READING, to avoid being influenced by my suppositions when you do. ------------------------------------------------------ Well, whether you decided to take the test first or not, these are my thoughts: You said that you're very attached to familiarity in your job, and that often your attempts to engage in a change end by throwing you off. Also, you seem to be a very meticulous person, who cares about details and likes to address issues orderly and methodically. That would suggest that you might have a strong Conventional component in your personality. On the other hand, you seemingly need to have your curiosity stimulated, and once you feel sated of a subject, it loses interest for you, and starts to bore you. You find improving your understanding of the world gratifying (history, economics). And rationality seems to be your preferred approach for comprehension, rather than intuition. That would point to an Investigative component of your personality -- thus, I'd say that your two dominant characteristics are Conventional and Investigative. According to this, you may consider to orient yourself towards research in any of the fields you expressed interest about, such as history, science, economics, political science, etc. Even though the widest job opportunities probably lay on teaching, there is the possibility of research. You might get to know people with similar interests and personality features as yours, and join research teams in the academic world, which tend to be more smoothly approachable than those in the faster-pace, more competitive environment of business organizations. Changing a bit the focus, you may think of training yourself as a writer -- I wasn't thinking about fiction (although one never knows), but of research journalism, history again. One way of becoming a writer can be the preparation of a doctoral thesis if you decide to train yourself in any of the research fields of your interest. At the same time, writing courses might be a good environment to meet people, exposing you, yes, but with the mediation of a teacher and a task. Also, you may take advantage of your IT knowledge with a different approach, by developing one or more websites on subjects of your interest -- which may very well be the same fields mentioned above. Chances are that eventually a website provides a decent income, and also a community builder -- online communities are often a good start for real life relationships. Finally, you may also consider -- as a goal in itself or else as a way to improve your present life at work while you start walking your new path -- to keep on looking for more challenging tasks in your current job, and -- without stressing you to an unbearable point -- face an deal with the expectable and understandable anxieties that doing so would trigger. It is to overcome this type of obstacles -- whatever the path you chose, there'll be such -- that I suggest you walk through changes with the professional assistance of some sort of therapist. I believe that you will find this answer helpful, otherwise please let me know via clarification request. Best of luck in your search for a change! Warm regards, Guillermo