Whether you are at the beginning of your career or have many years of experience in different fields and still not sure what to do for the rest of your life, taking a career test can be helpful in expediting your process of identifying a new career. Career tests are great for eliminating career mistakes and assisting you choose a new direction for yourself. There are however, facts to keep in mind about career tests and below you can find these.
- Career Tests Do Not Point You One Specific Job: Many people are looking for short-cuts to find the right job for them and unfortunately, career tests cannot tell you one specific job that is right for you. Each profession has many different variables and it is very hard for a test to assess all of these. However, career tests can give you advice by showing different career options according to your skills and interests. Remember, this is not a math test and there isn’t only one right answer. There may be many right answers which you haven’t considered before.
- All Career Tests Are Not the Same: There are three different types of career tests and they all work differently. These are; personality, interest and ability based tests. An example of a personality based career test is Myers-Briggs. It tries to understand how you live your life, make judgments and perceive information. It assesses whether you are an Extrovert or Introvert (E or I), Sensate or I(N)tuitive (S or N), Thinking or Feeling (T or F) and Judging or Perceiving (J or P). Then, it gives you the combination of these choices as a result. Interest based tests, as the name implies, assesses what you are interested in and tries to match these with career paths. Ability based tests tries to figure out your skills and what you are good at to show you different job options.
- One Career Test is Not Enough: Since all career tests are not the same, doing one career test is not enough. It is best to do at least one from each test type and then look for the overlaps in your results. Also, it is very important to give honest answers to questions in order to get the most accurate results. The validity and reliability of the test is another key aspect that needs to be considered.
