By Nathalie Perreault, c.o.

Hi Everyone,

Some of you may remember me from past conferences where I co-presented for Contact Point’s sister site OrientAction. Since I’ve decided to return to career counselling after a maternity leave, I thought I would update you on what I am doing now. As a career counsellor who worked mostly on specialised website development, I wanted to refresh my counselling skills.  I was able to do this last year while working in a school setting. Recently, I had the opportunity to do a more in depth investigation of a great assessment tool that I have used in the past and which was updated last year. This test is already very popular in Quebec and francophone communities across Canada. The main reason I am taking this opportunity to introduce it to you is that it is now available in English!

This interests and personality inventory was conceived by counsellors who had extensive experience with clients, so they were aware of the need. This psychometric questionnaire (what we call test) has an excellent reputation due in part to the fact that a renowned PhD from Montréal was engaged for all the scientific method of analyses (validated and standardized).

The test is called GROP which is an acronym for « Guide de Recherche d’une Orientation Professionnelle » in French which translates as « Career Orientation Guide », but is still known as GROP even in English. I think that career professionals who like the concepts behind psychometric tests such as the Strong Interest Inventory or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) would be curious to know more about the GROP.

This questionnaire is a multidimensional tool, because it assesses interests as well as values and personality characteristics. It refers to two very well known typologies so the counsellors can easily use the results with the many different resources they already know. First, the test uses the Holland RIASEC typology (same as that used by Strong) with the addition of a 7th type that introduced in light of analyses and experience. This new type is called Advocate (« Z » to make it different from the A for artist) and it refers to the characteristics of people who are sensitive and actively engaged by subjects such as justice, social equity, respect for the environment and various other “pure” causes. The second theoretical that is used with this test is the 3 pairs of preferences, or dichotomies, from Carl Gustav Jung which are also used in other tests such as the MBTI. As Briggs Myers did, so too the authors from Psymetrik also added a 4th bipolar dimension to the GROP, but the last type of preferences revealed by the analyses were different from the Judgement-Perception lifestyle from the MBTI. In addition to the 3 first attitudes and functions, the GROP gives interesting clues about the preference to Ambition versus Circumspection. All the definitions of the terms are available with explanations and examples in the test manual.

The first edition of this test was created during the 70’s and 80’s and it was mostly addressed youth, especially teenagers and young adults in high schools. However, some counsellors chose to use it with adults experiencing a career change or in a career development process. The second edition was still targeted youth even though there were more and more adults clients including those in the human resource sector. The most recent third edition has many updates compared to the second one, including more mature content so it is as relevant to youth and adults.

This test is available in two formats: printed or online. The web version is very secure and user friendly. The test takes an average of 45-60 minutes to do whatever format is used. This is an interesting detail for guidance counsellors, for example, who might like to use this test with groups of students during class.

If you are interested in learning more about the GROP, I will be leading a presentation at Cannexus 2010 in Ottawa. Also, you can visit the Psymétrik website (www.psymetrik.com), send me an e-mail at:  nathalie.perreault@psymetrik.com or call at 1.418.839.5005.

Nathalie Perreault has her undergraduate degree and master degree in Career Counselling from Laval University. She is a member of the OCCOPPQ, the regulated professional association in Quebec. During the last decade, she worked on different projects including the development and the contents management for the OrientAction website. Currently, she works part time for Psymetrik (www.psymetrik.com), the editor of the GROP and she also teach at Laval University in the career counselling bachelor program.