How The Strong Interest Inventory® Test Reflects Counseling Preferences

In Blogs, Strong Interest Inventory by Jonathan Bollag, Owner and Founder

Strong Interest Inventory® Counseling Preferences

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“Image courtesy of basketman/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net”

Each college student is different and therefore approaches college counseling in different manners. The Strong Interest inventory® Themes reflects on how each student approaches college and career counseling differently. Learning your counseling preference can help you choose the right career, guidance and career counselor that best fits your needs.  If you are a career or college counselor, learning your client’s preferences can help you be more effective and be of the most help to your clients and students.

The Strong Interest Inventory Themes include:

  • Realistic
  • Investigative
  • Artistic
  • Social
  • Enterprising
  • Conventional

Realistic Students Counseling Preferences

The student who falls into The Strong Interest Inventory College® Realistic Theme prefers a counseling session that has structure, a means to an end, and is goal oriented. They want the session to be concise and to the point with expert opinion and stay rather quite as opposed to interacting in-group exercises (Prince, 2012. CPP).

Investigative Students Counseling Preferences

Students who fall into The Investigative Strong Interest Inventory Test Theme prefer intellectuality, equality between the counselor and the student, and like research-oriented assignments.  Furthermore, they want to be inspired to self explore. Investigative themed college students can however become bored once a fact is already understood and explained.  (Prince, 2012. CPP).

Artistic Students Counseling Preferences

Students, who fall into this category, prefer using their imagination during a career search. They do not enjoy routine career counseling, and want their out of the box ideas relating to The Strong Test and their career search to be validated. In addition, these students may not take into account, or overlook, financial needs and family expectations when choosing a career

Social Students Counseling Preferences

Students who fall into the Social Theme category want a personable and casual relationship with their college counselor. They also want the counseling session to focus on how it will be personally helpful. These types of college students also prefer to be personally expressive and want a counseling environment whereas they can express these feelings, as well as their ideas and thoughts. Furthermore, these types of students relate their assessment results to work as well as family relationships (Prince, 2012. CPP).

Enterprising Students Counseling Preferences

Enterprising college students want a counselor with high energy and enthusiasm. They want to move quickly through a well thought-out counseling process, and want to know how the counseling process and their Strong Interest Inventory results will equate to practical success as opposed to theoretical and abstract ideas (Prince, 2012. CPP).

Conventional Students Counseling Preferences

Conventional college students want clear, concise, predictable and structured counseling.  They prefer an organized and planned approach to counseling, without much social or interpersonal interaction.  They are generally uninterested in creativity or artistic expression in the counseling process. They want logical and down-to-earth applications to their Strong Assessment results (Prince, 2012. CPP).

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Reference

[Information referenced from Strong Interest Inventory Manual Revised Edition, Donnay et al., 2005, CPP}