What a surprise

Your Career Type: Investigative

You are precise, scientific, and intellectual. Your talents lie in understanding and solving math and science problems. You would make an excellent: Architect - Biologist - Chemist Dentist - Electrical Technician - Mathematician Medical Technician - Meteorologist - Pharmacist Physician - Surveyor - Veterinarian The worst career options for your are enterprising careers, like lawyer or real estate agent.

What's Your Ideal Career?

You got that right. I contemplated a job selling one summer when I was in high school, but the very thought of it drove me away. I can spend incredible amounts of time and put in incredible amounts of work doing research and writing grants and papers. I can handle high-pressure situations in the trauma bay, undergoing my thesis defense, or giving a scientific talk to hundreds of people. However, the thought of trying to persuade someone face-to-face to part with their hard-earned cash for a product makes my blood pressure go up at least 20 points.

Of course, writing grants is, in essence, asking people to give you lots of money on the basis of your prior work and what you plan to do. You have to be able to write very persuasively to convince reviewers that your project is worthy. Although there is what is known as "grantsmanship" (techniques--some almost ritualized--to frame your data and proposal to make it more appealing), there isn't nearly as much B.S. and schmoozing as doing sales requires. Unfortunately, I'm not so good at schmoozing. If I were, I might be on a fast track to Division Chief or Department Chair...