Oh wow, how interesting that you used to work for a company that did that sort of thing! The thing that was neat about the Highlands test is that they actually give you a whole slew of tests to do... they call them work-samples, rather than asking you to self-assess. When I took it (many years ago!) I actually could do it at home, on my computer. Pitch discrimination was measured by playing two pitches that were either the same, or very very close together (less than a half-note - super tiny difference). I think (iirc) you had to say if they were the same, or if the 2nd was higher or lower. It was supposed to give an indication of how "picky" or "sensitive" you are to details, but frankly, I think I should have scored higher (I'm super picky and detail oriented, but only scored in the 60th percentile. For most of these, 65% was the lower cutoff for "high" - I think.)

It also may have been wrong b/c I didn't use headphones (duh) and had crappy speakers. Or, I may have just gotten confused lol. They don't give you a lot of time, because they want to be able to really assess how well you do.

It was interesting to take, and I still have my results, but I just haven't been able to apply it. One thing they do is send you a report with how different combinations of skills might work together, in either a specific domain (like obviously if you score high in rhythm memory, tonal memory, and pitch discrimination - it's a good clue that you might enjoy and be good at music!) but also in work styles.

Hmm... I can't find that separate report, but my main report shows, for example, that I'd be great at strategic planning, consultative problem solving, general research, writing... and a few other things, but terrible at making contact with others, motivating (!), selling (ok all three of those have to because of the introvert score) -and "managing, structural and engineering".

One thing that I learned that really fit for me was... Highlands has 5 abilities that they call the driving abilities. The idea is that these are so important to people that if you score high in any of them, you really *need* an outlet for it, even if it's not your job, or you won't be happy. I scored in the high range for 4 of the 5 (the 5th one was the ability to visualize 3d objects and manipulate them in your head... bottom 5% for me there, no surprise, lol!) The coach I worked with mentioned that he sees this alot, and it makes it difficult for someone to find really good, satisfying work - because it's hard to find jobs that let you use all those abilities. He also warned me that I'd probably be miserable as a manager... good managers tend to be low in driving abilities, because they need to focus on helping their employees do their best work, not on doing their own thing. That made sense to me.

Really fascinating stuff though. I'm feeling old today. I really wish I had been able to make this stuff work for me way back when I did the testing. I'm kind of depressed, as I just got a copy of an old psych consult from 2001 that I had done, and I wish I had been able to fix my issues then. But, I kind of got shuffled around through several different therapists, and finally gave up and just sort of went heads-down into work mode (at a job that I don't really like or care about!). It's been great for becoming more stable, but... *sigh* I feel old and like things are never going to really be better. Sorry, don't mean to dump on you, just struggling a bit here lately.

Good luck tomorrow! Hopefully you're already off to sleep so you can be well-rested for your first day! Hopefully, since you've already done work for this company, it's not too stressful. I hope it goes smoothly, and they don't spring any more surprises on you!

I'll be thinking of you, and hope everything goes well. Hey, at least you've already had lots of good learning experiences, right?

Take care!