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The
JVIS is a complex and detailed instrument, so it's natural
that you might have some questions about it. Listed below
are the most frequently asked questions. Click on a question
to see the answer. If your question is not answered below,
send it to customerservice@jvis.com.
We'll respond quickly, and we may even add your question to
this page.
What
does the JVIS report tell me?
Your
JVIS profile describes areas of career activity in which you
have indicated a high interest. Your scores are compared with
those of a variety of students and with people in different
job groups. Your JVIS Extended Report and the Career Exploration
Guide may be used, together with other information about your
interests and abilities, in making educational and career
decisions.
Will
the results of the JVIS tell me whether or not I will succeed
at a particular job?
The
JVIS measures interests, not abilities. A high score on a
scale or similarity to a job group indicates that you will
probably be more satisfied working in that area. Whether or
not you will be successful is another matter, depending on
your skills, motivation, and opportunities.
Is
this career interest report 100% accurate?
The
JVIS was developed using the best and most modern procedures
available. This report has also been very carefully designed
to help you better understand your career interests, and you
may have confidence in your results. However, no career interest
survey is 100% accurate. Your interests may change somewhat
from time to time. You should also consider other things in
addition to interests in planning your education and career.
Why
are there so many questions?
Accuracy
is important if people use information from an inventory to
help make decisions. In order to enhance the accuracy of your
career interest assessment, the JVIS uses many questions of
high psychometric (measurement) quality. This makes the assessment
more trustworthy. Each Basic Interest Scale contains 17 activities.
There are 34 Basic Interest Scales in the JVIS. Therefore,
the total number of activities you would need to rate, if
you were to answer each one individually, is 17 X 34 = 578.
The unique forced-choice format employed by the JVIS means
that you get a highly reliable assessment having responded
to only half as many questions!
Sometimes
I don't like either option but have to choose one, sometimes
I like both and can only choose one. Does this pose a problem
for my results?
This
is a common concern, but the JVIS looks at patterns of responses
over many pairs of activities. How you respond to one particular
question is not of as much interest as your overall pattern
of results. However, it is important to choose carefully which
activity you like most (or dislike least) from each pair.
Although the JVIS is interested in your overall pattern of
responses, the overall pattern is only as good as the individual
responses. Responding carefully will help you get a more accurate
assessment of your own interests.
Why
compare my answers to those of other people?
By
comparing your answers to those of other people, the JVIS
assesses your relative levels of interest in different areas.
Much like a score on a test in school it is often interesting
to know how others performed on the same test. If you scored
7 out of 10 on a test, it is clear that you answered 70% of
the questions correctly. Whether you consider this to be good
or bad will depend partly on your own score (70%), but information
about how others performed is also relevant. If you also learned
that most people scored between 40% and 50% on the same test,
you might interpret your own score differently than if you
found out that most other people answered all questions correctly.
The JVIS builds in information about how other people respond
to help you interpret areas in which you tend to be more or
less interested than others.
With
whom can I discuss these results?
If
possible, you should discuss these results and your plans
and aspirations with a career counselor, whose professional
training and experience with career interest surveys and with
the world of work may be helpful. Also, your counselor can
tell you where to get additional educational and career information.
You can find career counselors (or advisors) in most schools,
colleges, and universities. In addition, some work in private
practice or in local employment centers.
My
Similarity to Job Groups does not seem to match my Basic Interest
scale scores. Why is this?
It
is possible to obtain a high Basic Interest scale score on
a particular scale like Law, and not have a high score on
the associated Job Group (e.g., Occupations in Law and Politics).
This does not necessarily mean that these sources are providing
conflicting information, or that one or both are incorrect.
Rather, they are providing different information. Raw scores
on the Basic Interest scales reflect the number of times that
you have chosen activities associated with a particular occupation
or activity. Percentiles give information about how your raw
score on that scale compares to scores of other people. On
the other hand, the Similarity to Job Groups represents the
overall similarity of all 34 Basic Interest dimensions of
your profile to those for persons working in various occupations.
For example, lawyers usually obtain high scores on the Basic
Interest scale for Law. They also usually show high scale
scores on Technical Writing, Business, and Finance. If someone
happened to obtain a high score on Law, but lower scores for
the other three scales, this would result in a lower degree
of similarity to the Occupations in Law and Politics Job Group.
My
JVIS Basic Interest profile is not similar to any Job Group!
What does this mean?
If,
on your report, your similarity to all (or most) Job Groups
is "neutral," it could mean that you do not have
a well developed and consistent interest pattern at the present
time. Further exploration and experience in a variety of areas
will help you find those things that interest you, and those
that don't. You may want to explore career areas very widely.
One strategy is to gather information about one or two jobs
relevant to each of the 32 Job Groups. After you've gathered
more information and gained experience in various areas you
may wish to retake the JVIS.
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