Have you ever wondered if you were created by God for a certain sort of job? CHC member and certified practitioner of Career Direct Rick Quek helps individuals and married couples discover their God-given gifts and talents and in what careers they would thrive.
Rick Quek, 51, is a technopreneur and the founder of DeXT Pte Ltd, an integrated agency offering digital solutions to SMEs. A cell group leader with City Harvest Church, those who know him see him as someone who has touched the lives of many. Rick is married to Sherie Ng and the couple has two grown children.
Rick has taken on many different roles throughout his career, from being a certified Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) trainer to being a management consultant. His particular area of interest now is in helping individuals understand their unique God-given talents so that they are better equipped to chart their career path. He is a certified practitioner of Career Direct, a career assessment system that prides itself on being one of the most comprehensive in the market today.
Career Direct was founded by renowned Christian financial author and speaker Larry Burkett back in 1976; it was first known as Career Pathways. Burkett discovered that almost none of the assessment tools in the market then reflected a biblical worldview. After almost 30 years of development and revision—from a paper test to a CD-ROM version—the online version of Career Direct, which is what the practitioners use to this day, was released in 2006.
“I had been doing personal profiling for a few years,” explains Rick. “I had also been conducting Career Direct sessions for corporate training. But I only began focusing on this during the Circuit Breaker last year, when we were all ‘stuck’ at home. I felt that was a good time to really get into Career Direct actively.”
While there are many personality profiling systems in existence, from Briggs-Myers to Enneagram, Career Direct is unique, not only because its roots are Bible-based, but that it looks not just at a person’s innate talents and inclinations but his interests as well. Utilising a 500-word questionnaire, this system assesses four essential components of a person’s career selection: Personality, Interests, Skills and Values.
“It helps a person understand carefully, first of all, his personality and whether it suits his career choices or not. It also helps to discover his interests along with the skills and values of the person. When we are able to match up the four components, this person won’t be working in places that don’t suit him; also, it makes sure he is happy with his career choice.”
There is also a spiritual component to the program that Rick explores with fellow Christians who go through the program. “We are all designed by God and we are all designed differently,” he points out. “When you find that design and live by it, you are basically living in the will of God.”
But Career Direct is not just for Christians. “When I conduct this in the corporate sector, I don’t usually bring in the God factor,” Rick explains. “However, to me or another profiler using this system, our subject is still created by God, so he will still have a personality, interests, natural strengths and values. Knowing that, I can still help the person align his career path with his personality and interests.”
HELPING MARRIED COUPLES
Beyond the individual, Rick also uses Career Direct to help married couples to better understand each other and their differences, strengthening their marriage in the process.
CHC staffer Schumann Tong, 33, and his wife Sabrina Fonseca, 30, an associate director in a bank, shared with City News how their experience with Career Direct enriched their lives.
“I think the most impactful part was when the results showed what my personality was like, and what things that I tend to gravitate towards,” Schumann said.
“It showed an accurate analysis of who I am and why I react or respond in a certain way in different circumstances,” he continued. “I can see what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I see the things that I can definitely work on. I also gained a new perspective of certain aspects of my life, so that instead of those being a weakness, I now see them as a strength. This exercise helps increase our compatibility as husband and wife.”
Sabrina added, “For me, the most helpful part of this exercise was getting to know our strengths and weaknesses, which is a key element of self-awareness. This has helped my career in a sense that it has given me a newfound confidence at work. It has changed the way I make decisions and because I am more aware of what my strengths are, it helps me take up certain roles that plays to that strength.”
Adding on, Schumann said: “I think more than just the personality test, the consultation with Rick was also very important. It helped us see, from a third party’s perspective, on how both of us can work together and also on ourselves. It gave us a fresh perspective on how we look at things such as work, family and life in general.”
To find out more about Career Direct, head on to www.edgebyrickquek.com
MY CAREER DIRECT EXPERIENCE
Being the skeptic that I am, I initially found it hard to believe that one session with Rick would have great impact on me. I would soon find out that my presumption was wrong.
First, Rick sent me a questionnaire to complete—it had over 500 questions. There was no shortcut for this—I had to answer all of them truthfully. After submitting my answers, we arranged for a one-on-one consultation, where he would explain my personality profile to help me better understand what career best suits me.
This consultation lasted about two and a half hours. My completed questionnaire was run through the system, and Rick went through the detailed analysis with me: what my personality was, what my strengths and weaknesses were, as well as an assessment of my character and values that was shockingly accurate.
The test results revealed a few things about me: that I was strong in languages and had a strong desire to work in a foreign country, enjoy entertaining others and had a strong interest in athletic pursuits (surprise!). Along with the skills that I scored well in, namely being strong in writing, music and athletics (yes I used to do sports despite my current size), Rick asked if I had ever wanted to pursue a career in sports.
Now, it’s worth noting that Rick and I didn’t know each other well personally before the session. So I was surprised he was able to even uncover my most secret career choice—being a World Wrestling Entertainment pro-wrestler!
Mervyn’s wrestling aspirations in 2015
I am, however, thankful that the assessment did also show that I am currently very happy with where I’m working at (as CityRadio’s program editor and a bassist in CityWorship), with me scoring high points in religious activities as well.
I’m thankful to have gone through this session. It has helped me see and understand the way God designed me and given me insight as to why, in my past, I made decisions a certain way.
What was probably the most reassuring result of going through Career Direct was that I saw that God’s hand was in all that I had been through, guiding me through my path in life.
