Jill, an 18-year-old about to enter college, had always thought of herself as an introvert.
But the Highlands Ability Battery showed that this wasn’t really the case, opening up new possibilities for her.
We found that she could succeed in roles in which she has to learn new things quickly and with little stress. She was particularly well equipped for rapid-fire problem-solving and decision-making. And her high vocabulary score showed she should aim high in her career goals.
Jill clearly was best suited for work that involved tangible outcomes. “It could be for a company that makes things,” I told her her, “or building up the technological side of the world.”
Almost everyone who gets feedback on the Battery is dazzled not so much by new discoveries as by the clarity, the illumination of parts of themselves and their strengths in ways they had not connected or fully considered.
Don had gone to one of the top public high schools in Pennsylvania, but had received little career guidance, there or in college.
What he learned through the Highlands method surprised him.
As Don and I were chatting early in the feedback session, he told me he had been in a college football fantasy league.
I quickly pointed out that our hobbies are often a clear indication of strengths we can use in the world of work.
“The draw there is kind of using statistics, analyzing and probabilities,” I said. “You want to pay attention to those kinds of events, those kinds of situations because they can tell you a lot about what your interests are, what excites you, what brings you some pleasure and enjoyment. You can begin to see a pattern.”
As Don and I reviewed his results on the Highlands Ability Battery, we could see confirmation of his natural talents for numbers, spatial thinking and problem solving. When we moved on to a review of Highlands’ new cutting-edge tool, the Highlands Career Exploration Supplement, Don was able to explore online dozens of careers that aligned with his natural strengths.
His mother later wrote me that she was happy to hear Don say, “It all makes sense now.”