Predicting Success in Higher-Level Positions: A Guide to the System for Testing and Evaluation of Potential

The career counseling conference described here is a blend between the standardized interpretation of profiled ability and interest measures and clinical or therapeutic procedures that often utilize projective tests and require considerable interpretation on the part of the counselor. The career counseling conference does, however, differ from these procedures in at least two significant respects. The first is that it is firmly anchored in an analysis of the job, and the second is that it employs the two STEP measurement systems that pertain, respectively, to the demands of the job and to the abilities, skills, and attributes of the individual. For effective interpretation and counseling, the counselor should have a strong background in behavioral theory and a sound knowledge of the relationships among the two measurement systems.

The career counseling conference can be used at any stage in the career of the individual. Some of its most frequent uses are for the selection and placement of individuals into key executive or professional positions in organizations, for selection among employed personnel for promotion into a management position, for counseling with a failing employee, and for outplacement. It has also been extensively used, either with individuals or on a small-group basis of ten to twenty employees, in organizational programs for self-directed development of higher-level personnel. The procedure for individuals is described below.

The career counseling conference can be based on the information from either the STEP-STC or the abbreviated STEP-ST program. The major

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