# I took a career test and it said I should be.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 12, 2007, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121 "2007-11-12T12:10:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/41 "2007-11-13T19:07:31Z")
[QUOTE=Kuboydal] Airplanes tend to fly in large arcs. [/QUOTE] [Not on the runway.](http://english.people.com.cn/200606/08/images/airplane1.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/42 "2007-11-14T01:38:29Z")
[QUOTE=BMalion] and have you ever seen a lion? [/QUOTE] Oh, certainly. Short little furry fellows with long noses. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/43 "2007-11-14T02:16:29Z")
I took the ASVAB, I think it was called – um, Armed Services V-something Aptitude Battery? … oh, Wikipedia says V-ocational. Anyway, you got almost a whole day free off classes if you took it, so I did. That test is not geared to tell you what career you might enjoy, so much as what career the military would like to exploit you in. It gives results in percentiles. Not to my surprise, I did well on all the language-oriented stuff. Very much to my surprise, I was in the 90s in math and spatial understanding stuff. But I was in the 60s for proofreading applications. The proofreading exercises were finding _Q_s in strings of _O_s, stuff like that. Huh. Well, I figured, all that meant was I could do whatever I wanted to do, except proofreading. My parents were tickled: I was destined for better things than mere proofreading! I am now in my seventh year with a publishing company, by far my life record for any job. I’ve survived two rounds of layoffs that axed almost half the staff in my department. My first four years here, I was a proofreader/copyeditor. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/44 "2007-11-14T13:30:28Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Oh, certainly. Short little furry fellows with long noses. [/QUOTE] and what did this lion eat? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/45 "2007-11-14T14:11:52Z")
[QUOTE=BMalion] and what did this lion eat? [/QUOTE] ::nodding eagerly:: Ants. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/46 "2007-11-14T15:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] ::nodding eagerly:: Ants. [/QUOTE] Ah, well… I’m afraid what you’ve got hold of there is an anteater, not a lion. You see a lion is a huge savage beast, about five feet high, ten feet long, weighing about four hundred pounds, running forty miles per hour, with masses of sharp pointed teeth and nasty long razor-sharp claws that can rip your belly open before you can say ‘Eric Robinson’, and they look like [this.](http://www.gerryriskin.com/Lion.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/47 "2007-11-14T18:58:29Z")
Oh… er… well… I suppose exploring a career in merchant banking _might_ be all right. Just in the short term, mind you… ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/48 "2007-11-14T20:11:16Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Oh… er… well… I suppose exploring a career in merchant banking _might_ be all right. Just in the short term, mind you… [/QUOTE] Time enough I think for a piece of wood. Back on topic. My high-school test said draftsman or FBI special agent. I was a chef, now in corporate travel. They may as well have said “Ninja, or Cowboy” as far as accuracy goes. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/49 "2007-11-14T21:11:28Z")
Or regimental sergeant major. Sah! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121/50 "2007-11-14T21:38:58Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Or regimental sergeant major. Sah! [/QUOTE] and you know I’ve got the hat! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-took-a-career-test-and-it-said-i-should-be/426121.md?page=2)