| Date : 05/09/2010 | Call
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Psychumé™ What is a psychumé? A psychumé is a professional assessment of specific individual competencies, aptitudes, and skills, and is designed to accompany and add value to your resumé. While a resumé is typically self-developed, a psychumé is prepared by an objective, third-party expert—a qualified industrial psychologist at L. Stefan and Associates Inc. Adding a psychumé component to your resumé can give your job candidacy greater credibility because of the specialized information it contains. It also assists in marketing your unique skills and abilities. In preparing a typical psychumé, industrial psychologists assess a variety of skills and abilities. These include intellectual skills, specialized aptitudes such as quantitative skills and mechanical aptitude, management skills, leadership style, interpersonal skills, work approach, drive and motivation, career and occupational interests fit, conflict-resolution style and skills, and specific aspects of personality. You choose which of these skills and abilities you want emphasized in your psychumé to a potential employer. For example, you may choose to emphasize your intellectual skills, or specialized aptitudes such as quantitative skills or mechanical aptitude. Most managers will want to emphasize the strengths and characteristics of their leadership and management style. A psychumé is designed to provide potential employers with an accurate measure of the key attributes that are important for the job for which you are applying. Why have a psychumé? In today’s workplace, a psychumé gives you a significant competitive edge over other job candidates. It does so in several ways: • First, a psychumé is a valid and reliable measure of your unique skills and abilities. There are scores of specific individual and managerial skills and abilities that can be measured by an industrial psychologist. Because the main ingredients of a psychumé are developed by an independent, highly credible third party, it carries significantly more weight and impact than your resumé. • The second way a psychumé adds value is through the self- knowledge it provides. Job candidates who know their strengths and potential weaknesses and, importantly, overall potential and value in the marketplace present as more confident and optimize their potential (translation: earn more and/or obtain work that provides higher job satisfaction). Sometimes job candidates are unaware of their weaknesses and often do not understand why they are not hired for jobs for which they are qualified. The process of obtaining a psychumé can assist in identifying any potential weaknesses and provide recommendations on how to improve in those areas. An individual who acknowledges a particular weakness to a potential employer and can demonstrate that he/she is working on improving it has a significant competitive advantage over other candidates who are unaware of their weaknesses and attempt to present themselves as the ‘perfect’ person for a given job. • Third, a psychumé provides ongoing value in that you have the option of having it stored in our new database that employers can search when looking for individuals with specific skills and aptitudes, background, unique personality, interpersonal skills, etc. This service is free and strictly confidential. An employer can review your psychumé without any of your personal identification information. If the employer then wishes to contact you, we will first send you information about the company and the position to review. If you so choose, you may then give us permission to release your contact information. This enables you to market your unique skills and abilities while keeping your intentions and identity protected. How does one get a psychumé? The process of obtaining a psychumé will require some effort on your behalf. Depending on the characteristics you want to emphasize in your psychumé, you will need to complete a number of on-line tests. After analysis of the tests, the psychologist will produce a psychumé, and email it to you in a PDF format within a couple of days of the testing. Who should have a psychumé? Psychumés are appropriate for almost anyone in the workforce, but they are especially valuable for individuals who are seeking to change careers or find a new job, and/or want to maximize their earning power in the marketplace. Most of our requests for psychumés are from managers, but there is no occupation or age restriction. It can provide university graduates with a competitive edge in starting a career and be of equal value for a senior manager who is unemployed or simply wanting to change career directions. What is an industrial psychologist? Industrial psychologists have Ph.D.’s and are formally registered by the province in which they practice. They specialize in dealing with human resources/individual personnel in organizations and provide comprehensive career planning and development. Industrial psychologists are not clinicians, therapists, counsellors, or experts in mental health. Instead, they are experts in organizational and individual work behaviour/performance and career progression. Each of the psychologists at L. Stefan & Associates has conducted more than 5,000 individual management and psychological assessments. Who is L. Stefan & Associates? L. Stefan & Associates is a boutique firm of industrial psychologists that specializes in individual assessments. They are located in Vancouver and mostly work in western Canada, but they also have global clients. Many of the larger organizations in western Canada use their individual assessment services to assist with hiring and promotion decisions. How much does a psychumé cost? The cost for developing a psychumé varies depending on the number of specific characteristics, abilities, or competencies a person wants to emphasize. A required base cost of $275 is charged for a comprehensive personality assessment. Such an assessment provides critical information on a number of human factors such as work style, interpersonal skills, conscientiousness, confidence, social presence, personal strengths, determination, motivation and many of the words and concepts general used to describe individuals. We consider personality factors to be the core aspect of a psychumé because it provides critical information how you are likely to perform on other key competencies such as leadership skills and style or how you use your intellect to solve problems and learn. For some people, a personality assessment is all that is required in their psychumé. For others, testing and professional commentary on other competencies such as leadership, conflict-resolution skills, occupational fit and career potential are recommended. The cost for measuring additional competencies is $150 each, plus test costs (approximately $15-20). Most people can add value to an employment application by having a basic personality-based psychumé, but significantly more value can be added, especially for management professionals, by adding other competencies. For example, a senior manager may want to emphasize a number of skills and abilities that emphasize and details their management abilities and leadership in addition to unique personal characteristics. The cost for an extensive psychumé rarely exceeds a $1,000. What if I do not know what competencies I should have assessed for a specific job? Ask us! We are experts in understanding competencies for hundreds of different jobs and can measure the vast majority. We can also accommodate unique requests, e.g., “I want information in my psychumé to tell a potential employer how I would deal with conflict situations in a foreign assignment.” In this way you can customized your psychumé to properly reflect your unique skills and abilities giving you a competitive advantage over other job candidates. Where is the psychumé stored and how does a potential employer access it? Part of the value and credibility of a psychumé is that the critical elements of human abilities are measured, summarized, and stored by a professional third party (L. Stefan & Associates Inc.). Many resumés are over-inflated, and employers tend to discount much of their content. A resumé interspersed (or ending) with direction to seek the objective, third-party information on key competencies contained in your psychumé adds significant credibility to your employment application. We will require your permission to release your psychumé to a party of interest. You can provide a copy of your own psychumé to an employer, but this is less credible than having a professional third party perform this service. Can I see what a psychumé looks like? Email lstefan@shaw.ca and request a sample psychumé of some typical competencies. If you require more information, you are welcome to contact one of the psychologists directly at 604-688-9830. How quickly can I obtain a psychumé? The rate-determining step is you. The process from start to finish typically takes a couple of days. Some individuals may have a different psychumé for different jobs they are applying for and thus will need to do more tests, which can take more time. How do I get started? Email L. Stefan & Associates, or call at 604-688-9830 and request a psychumé assessment. |
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