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Career Testing for Revealing Talents, Interests and Potential

Career Testing: Taking Tests to Reveal Talents, Interests and Potential

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." - James M. Barrie

Self discovery is an important part of career planning. Within each career seeker lies the spark... potential... dream... will... drive... to do a life's work, but it may lie undiscovered if he or she doesn't delve into specific motivations and heartfelt desires.

By doing a little digging through the use of career assessments, career seekers can be more informed and confident about chosing a career that will be the most successful and satisfying for them.

What are Career Assessments

Career assessment tools are created by psychologists who specialize in career development. The results often offer insight that can be enlightening and useful. The simple-to-take tests ask multiple choice or yes/no questions. They are not about passing and failing - they measure and categorize the individual's unique results, in order to match them to careers that people like them have found rewarding.

Each test measures and matches differently, so taking more than one can be beneficial for gaining additional insight. They're not designed to match the individual with one specific career, but instead to inspire him or her to consider fields of work not previously considered, and to confirm that a career decision was a solid one.

To optimize career tests results, the career seeker should take the results and compare them to what his or her own soul searching has revealed. Read Soul Searching: Discovering The Career Planner Within

Types of Career Tests

Most career tests are made up of one or more of three types:

Interest Inventory Tests

Interest inventories help determine types of work and potential careers that an individual might find appealing based on his or her background, values and preferences. They are most helpful in identifying types of work for which the individual has a passion or desire to learn, but not intended to measure practical skill. For example, a career seeker may find that he or she enjoys hands-on work, interacting with people, physical activity and intellectual challenge; therefore, suggested careers could include surgeon, aerospace mechanic, and pharmacist.

Popular interest inventories include:

• The Career Key
• O*NET Interest Tests
• What Color is Your Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles
• Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)

Aptitude Tests

Designed to measure an individual's knowledge and abilities in specific skill areas, aptitude tests identify how well he or she can currently apply knowledge and skill. Areas of assessment include:

• Verbal and numerical reasoning - understanding of words and basic math
• Perceptual and spatial ability - ability to see similarities in shapes and visualize in 3D
• Technical and analytical - technical and word problem solving skills
• Acuity - ability to do things accurately and quickly

The results of aptitude assessments are compared to jobs where the individual's unique skills are necessary to succeed. They cannot, however, anticipate what that person might be capable of after study and practice in specific skill areas.

Popular aptitude tests include:

• Career OneStop Skills Profiler
• ISEEK Skills Assessment

Standardized aptitude tests, which are often required for entry into college, graduate school, and specialty schools include:

• ACT standardized test for undergraduate schools
• PSAT/NMSQT, SAT, AP and CLEP standardized tests for undergraduate schools
• GRE standardized test for graduate and business school
• LSAT standardized test for law schools
• TOEFL standardized test for English as a Second Language students

Personality Tests

These in-depth tests delve into your work styles. From them you can learn a lot about how you like to work -- what motivates you, energizes you, and rewards you. The personality traits these tests usually compare include:

• Extravert / Introvert
• Cautious / Risk Taker
• Patient / Impatient
• People Oriented / Idea Oriented / Things Oriented
• Decisive / Indecisive
• Leader / Follower / Team Player
• Big Picture Oriented / Detail Oriented
• Self Starting / Likes Direction

Personality tests can be insightful about the kind of workplace environments that are preferable, and ways to approach working with people who are similar or different. For example, if a career seeker's test results indicate that he or she is pretty outgoing, energized around lots of people, and rewarded by entertaining people, they might be matched with jobs in the performing arts, event coordination, catering, sales, etc.

Popular personality tests include:

• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
• Keirsey Temperament Sorter
• Strong Interest Inventory
• CareerMaze
• Princeton Review Career Quiz

Combining the results of interest tests and personality tests can be particularly useful in narrowing down a list of careers that are well-suited.

Most universities offer career testing services to the public for a fee. Current students and college alums may be able to take career tests for free through their school's career development or alumni services. Some tests are offered online, but may be abbreviated versions.

It's important not to place too much stock in the results of any career test, since they're designed to be somewhat useful to as many different kinds of people as possible. Results should be taken under advisement -- they should be allowed to challenge the caree seeker's self-perceptions, but not to override what the individual knows from experience is true for him or her.

Read Matching Personal Passions to Promising Careers

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