The Author of the Ontology of Value Test, Natalia Bielczyk, Comments On Her Own Results and How They Fit Into Her Personal Development Plan.
Updated on March 25th, 2023
August 10th 2021
This text was fully written by humans.
SUMMARY / KEY TAKEAWAYS
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In this article, Natalia Bielczyk, the creator of the Ontology of Value Test, shares her personal journey and the test creator.
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She also comments on her own results as a test participant and discusses her impressions. Does she agree with the test results? Did it allow her to realize certain aspects of her own professional life?
Table of Contents
- Introduction: The Long Process of Developing The Ontology Of Value Test.
- My Predictions and Expectations: Can a Career Development Software Help You Develop Better Career Development Strategies?
- The Experience From Going Through The Test.
- My Results Part 1: The Value-Building Profiles.
- My Results Part 2: The Working Environments.
- My Results Part 3: My Personal Traits As a Professional.
- Conclusion, part 1: What Did I Take Out of the Ontology of Value Test For Yourself? How Did It Contribute To My Personal Development?
- Conclusion, part 2: Is The Ontology of Value Test a Solid Career Development Software?
In this blog post, the author of the Ontology of Value Test, Natalia, comments on her own experience with the test, and the results.
What surprised her the most?
Which results does she agree with?
Which points doesn’t she agree with?
What did she learn about herself from this experience, and is she now more bullish about her test, or rather, the opposite?
Did she change her development plans as well as her career path now when she knows The Truth about herself? 🙂
Introduction: The Long Process of Developing The Ontology Of Value Test.
For the past two years, I was working hard on the Ontology of Value Test. I first dived into Alfred Adler’s theory of human motivation. It was fascinating and enlightening to me, it greatly helped me in my personal development, and inspired me to launch this project.
You can find more information on Alfred Adler’s theory and how to profit from it in our article “How Do We Build Value in the Job Market? Alfred Adler’s Theory and How You Can Profit From It“.
I then spent over a year on intensive field research, trying to dissect human motivation into orthogonal dimensions. It wasn’t easy—to say the least!
About a year ago, the process of building the test started. I came up with an initial set of 140 questions representing a few key areas of professional life: the working style, the type of mind and resilience to stress, the relations with people, and values and beliefs.
Several collaborators reviewed and rewrote the questions dozens of times before we launched the first round of the study in January 2021.
The first cohort of subjects not only answered the questions but also left thousands of further comments. I polished the set of questions and then worked on the model using machine learning routines programmed in Python, and I came up with the final classification tool. You can explore this topic in our article “3 Steps To Find Your Edge in the Job Market: On The Ontology of Value Model“.
We then launched the second round of the study to test whether the test predictions meet the participants’ expectations. Meanwhile, I finished writing the official test booklet. There was so much material to cover that, altogether, it became 260 pages of text!
Since the response from the validating participants was overwhelmingly positive, we decided to launch the test to market in June 2021.
My Predictions and Expectations: Can a Career Development Software Help You Develop Better Career Development Strategies?
So, did I have any predictions for myself? Yes, of course! I always viewed myself as a creative, non-apologetic person who looks into the potential of projects and people rather than focusing on their face value.
I was also a researcher by training and skilled in decomposing complex projects into pieces and executing them. Lastly, I am sociable, I have a relational style of thinking, therefore, and I enjoy connecting people with each others. Therefore, my general prediction was that I might score high as a Creator, an Investor, a Specialist, and a Linchpin.
In terms of the working environments, I feel comfortable in entrepreneurship and freelancing, and I don’t believe I would be the same comfortable living in a “system” such as corporations or public institutions. I was ambivalent about academia where I spent 8 years, but I felt that I left for a reason.
Namely, I didn’t fit this system as it didn’t offer the creative freedom that it promised. However, I spent so much time there that I probably learned all the mental schemes necessary to survive in academia.
So, that would be my prediction for this test.
The Experience From Going Through The Test.
I decided to approach this career test neutrally. Namely, treat it as if I was a neutral participant who doesn’t have an idea what the test is all about. Yes, I wrote the questions. However, I didn’t remember all the parameters of the model, and I was focusing on giving genuine answers as a young professional Natalia representing herself.
I started early in the morning, and I smoothly went through all four parts of the test before breakfast. My total time was 1 hour and 40 minutes. This score falls into the common range as most people take between 90 and 120 minutes to answer all the questions.
I didn’t feel that the questions were particularly hard for me. In a few cases, there were two close answers, so it took me a while to decide upon a final option. But overall, I didn’t feel tired or emotionally drained after the test. Yes, I felt some tension before the final results, but it was mostly because I was the author and I cared about the quality of the results more than anyone.
My Results Part 1: The Value-Building Profiles.
I must say that the results really shook me! I felt exposed, just as if the truth that I didn’t want to get revealed, even in front of myself, lit up on a lie detector.
So, for the most part, the test was highly convergent with my self-belief. I was shocked with how much I related to the results, and how high (or low) the numbers were. I landed in the top 1 percentile as a Creator and as an Investor, which was much higher than I anticipated.
I also scored high as a Linchpin and as a Manager which was flattering. I always felt that although I prefer taking independent decisions, I am also strong at working with people and managing teams. Therefore, getting this ultimate confirmation meant the world to me.
Lastly, I scored high as an Achiever, namely as a person who is driven by measurable goals and becomes a role model to others. I never thought of myself in these categories! It is mostly because I only focus on beating myself rather than competing with others. (as I also described in an article on my personal blog)
I even thought of myself as an anti-leader of sorts―I use to teach people how to develop their own intuition and stop listening to everybody else. Well, apparently, I am an Achiever nevertheless. Perhaps, subconsciously trying to deny it as the bare thought feels scary to me!
On the other hand, I scored extremely low in a few other dimensions. I could understand why my results as a Contributor came short. I never enjoyed working as an anonymous team member working on the backstage of projects.
I also understand why I score low as a Missionary… I coach and mentor people, but one-on-one interactions were never my preferred style. Namely, I prefer teaching groups and teams, as I enjoy observing the dynamics between people. I also feel that my compound impact is higher whenever I speak to 10 or 100 people at a time rather than just one person.
I was initially stunned about my low score as a Specialist though. After all, I graduated from Physics and Mathematics, and I spent more than 8 years on focused projects in the field of Computational Neuroscience.
However, I never enjoyed diving into one highly specialistic problem for a long time, but rather, I preferred to take a helicopter view at larger problems. This was one of the main reasons why I eventually burned out as a researcher.
Now that I saw that my score as a researcher was as low as 4%, I was initially flabbergasted. But after giving it a thought, it came to my mind that this test picked up on the important realization that was hard for me to accept. Namely, the fact that I spent many years on a suboptimal career path!
My Results Part 2: The Working Environments.
My preferred working environments also came without surprise – I scored in the top 1% of the population as an entrepreneur and as a freelancer. Given that I am currently a solopreneur, which is a combination of the two, it was a highly relevant classification.
Interestingly, academia came in third place, with a high score of over 97%. Perhaps, it was because I spent eight long years in this tribe. In this time, I learned many functional self-management techniques to help me survive in such an environment.
I also knew that once I was given more independence and autonomy to make my own projects and people on board as a senior researcher, I would be well-off. The whole problem would be: how to go through the complex and competitive Postdoc phase and get there first?
Startups came next, right in the middle, close to 50%. This didn’t surprise me either, as a few years back I tried to start a career path as a core member of a startup. I wasn’t particularly excited but I was also not traumatized by this story. The whole experience left me with the feeling that it is a career that falls into the category of “maybe.”
The other results were expected as well. I hit the bottom with Corporations, Consultancy companies, SMEs, and Public Institutions. I was amazed by how low the scores were though! I know lots of people who score high in some categories, but then score reasonably ok across the board.
In my case, it seemed that career paths in many working environments were simply closed. Plus, Corporations, Consultancy companies, SMEs, and Public Institutions host perhaps 85-90% of all professionals in the job market!
My Results Part 3: My Personal Traits As a Professional.
My results here also met my expectations for the most part. I am a type of a creative and independent person, highly focused on work in life, and acting intuitively. All this was clearly flashed out here. It wasn’t the case in the past but now, whenever I have a dilemma between my rational and intuitive mind, I listen to my intuitive mind.
Conclusion, part 1: What Did I Take Out of the Ontology of Value Test For Yourself? How Did It Contribute To My Personal Development?
Lastly, I took some time to digest my results. In general, they were spot on! I was shocked by numbers rather than the sequence of the value-building roles and preferred working environments in the ranking.
Namely, whenever I scored high, I was nailing it. Whenever I scored low, I was in the bottom part of the tail. Some of the career paths were clearly good choices for me, while others were clearly closed doors. It was all quite black and white.
I also realized that I need to embrace reality. Yes, I am a type of problem solver. BUT, I am not a Specialist. I have the nature of a generalist and always tend to orient myself toward high-level problems and meta-solutions. This just won’t change!
I was also happy to see that I have potential as an Investor. A few years back, I lost a lot of money, mostly due to being naive. After that, I was a bit traumatized and I stopped learning about the economy, financial markets, and the principles behind investing for years. Now, I see that I still have that spark and the talent to spot value in projects and think like an Investor.
I also realized that now in the twenty-first century, career development or career advancement cannot exist without personal finances. We need to be our own managers and our own banks at the same time.
So, even if I want to run from economy and finance, I can’t. It would simply be irresponsible for a career advisor. Therefore, after taking this test, I made a decision to refresh my knowledge in this department and start learning again now, after a few years of a break.
Conclusion, part 2: Is The Ontology of Value Test a Solid Career Development Software?
The second important conclusion I got from the test was the realization that the test is really good! I previously received overwhelmingly positive comments from users, but only now have I become bullish on my own product!
It gave me a sense of happiness on a whole new level, as only now did I see what we have achieved! I also recorded a YouTube video documenting my experience, posted below:
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Please cite as:
Bielczyk, N. (2021, August 10th). The Author of the Ontology of Value Test, Natalia Bielczyk, Comments On Her Own Results and How They Fit Into Her Personal Development Plan. Retrieved from https://ontologyofvalue.com/the-author-of-the-ontology-of-value-test-natalia-bielczyk-comments-on-her-own-results-and-how-they-fit-into-her-personal-development-plan/
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