Skill & Career Assessments

[JimC]

I was wondering if any of you know of any career or skill assessment tests. I am having a hard time finding what I am interested in or what I want to do for a career. I know I like computers, but I'd prefer to incorporate other skills in to it. Are there any jobs that include fixing computers and feeding zoo animals? O.o

I'd like a powerful test that can give me a list of careers or skills that would suit my interests based on some questions answered.

I'd like to find a free one, but I don't mind paying for it if it's really good.

Any ideas?

[Brutha]

Choosing a career based on your skills isn't a very good idea.
It is better to seek a career that fun to you.
That allows you to put in the extra mile to be successful in that career. Skills can be learned but having fun doing something is a lot harder to learn.

Take a look at Steves "Find your Purpose"-podcast episode.

[robertanthony]

Hi Jim

This is what I am doing - collecting the tests for clients.

All About Emotional Intelligence for Business, Education, Families, and Personal & Professional Development for sorting your values - see value sorter at right hand side of page.

:: Authentic Happiness :: Using the new Positive Psychology for assessing your signiture strenghts.

Myers Briggs and MBTI resources - applications of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Personality Type, to personal & team work development - Personality Pathways for your personality type.

I have a posting called Personal Development Experiment for people doing these assessments.

[Dwane J.]

I've visited a career counselor before and I recommended going through a Myers Briggs test.

[Rose of Cairo]

Hi Jim,

Maybe I'm biased, but in my ears it sounds like you could be a scanner like me and many others Look at this book and this one. There is a small test here to know if you're a scanner or not. Maybe this could help you?


In any case, I recommend this ebook!

[Mags]

I used to be a career counsellor Here are my two cents worth...:

1. There are millions of free tests out there on the 'net - Google them and you should find quite few. Just remember: free tests are not necessarily regulated like those that you pay for and which are administered by a trained counsellor. Those that you pay for have been through extensive testing to ensure that they are reliable and valid. That said, they are still not perfect

... which leads me on to point 2...

2. Psychometric tests should never be the be-all and end-all of a career assessment. No test is perfect and no test can tell you exactly what you should be (although some counsellors will use them in this way, unfortunately). The value in tests lies in using them as a starting point for discussion and for research, i.e. they may help you narrow down your choices if you are feeling overwhelmed. From this you can start doing research into the types of careers that match up with the highlighted interests and skills. Some tests will provide a list of careers that match your profile, but that doesn't mean that you can only pick from that list - there may be other "non-traditional" ones that also match your criteria, and that's where doing research is invaluable.

Some more things to ponder:

Brutha is absolutely correct - skills and knowledge can be learned, but no company can train someone to feel passion or motivation. Unfortunately, the standard recruitment drive focuses on skills etc at the expense of passion, yet research and experience shows that passionate people are more easily able to learn the skills etc that they need, perform better and stay in the job longer. Common sense one would think, yet amazing how few companies follow it (It's easier to test for skills than it is for passion!)

Passion is key! Through doing exercises like the ones Steve provides, you may be able to identify your passion and purpose yourself. If you want to sound it out with someone, visit a career counsellor, but make sure it is someone who does not only have a psychometric focus. They will be able to help you integrate passion with skills.

And lastly, I think Rose is spot on! But maybe I'm also biased, since I'm a scanner myself

[JimC]

Its not like I'm going to pick the first result that I get. >.<

I am only looking for an assessment that will present me with what exists that uses my skills, which I will choose from based on my interest. For example, at the moment I only feel that people with computer science degrees all must sit in a cubicle and monitor networks, build computers, or answer phone calls to help stupid customers. I know there are others... I am passionate about computers, but none of the above careers. So I want to know what else is out there.

I have been to many different career counselors and they haven't really been able to help me.

In high school we had a career assessment test. It would ask us 60 questions about our interests and our skills, then give us a list of 50 careers, in order, that might best suit us. The school paid a ton of money for the software and it was great. I don't remember the name of it though, but I would like to use something like it again. It was a good way to make up for our unhelpful career counselors at that school.

Originally Posted by Mags

1. There are millions of free tests out there on the 'net - Google them and you should find quite few.

I have been looking for a decent one like explained for the last year or so. I have looked on Google countless times. Most of the ones I have seen are too specific, in that I usually end up telling them a career, then they turn around and tell me just that. A lot of others will just sign me up for spam/newsletters and never actually get around to testing.

I will check some of the links in this thread.

I also don't want books. Career books have never helped me. I want to be presented with options so I know what exists. What would be nice is a massive list of 50,000 different careers. These things change frequently, books are too static and usually just explain about where to get jobs and how to find employment.

And I have listened to all of Steve's podcasts, many times. He gives good advice, but again, it's not what I'm looking for.

[Mags]

Originally Posted by JimC

What would be nice is a massive list of 50,000 different careers.

I just Googled "career list" and got a lot of sites with A-Z listings of careers - would that be what you want? It might be a starting point?

I know you also said you don't want books, but have you looked at Richard Bolles' "What colour is your parachute?"? It gets updated every year. My copy is unfortunately packed away in a box (we recently moved), so I can't check myself on this, but I think he does provide lists of careers in there as well. He has a fantastic approach to career choice.

I'm afraid I don't know which career test you would have done at school - there are just so many out there! When I was counselling, I used to have many parents phone me up (to set up assessments for their teenagers) and ask "So do you do the test?". I'd ask "And which test would that be?", and they'd reply "You know, THE test. The one that will tell my child exactly what they must do with their life." No kidding, I lost count of how many times I had to deal with the "THE test" scenario. Now, you seem much more open than this, but I still get the impression that you're looking for something very specific. Career tests like the one that you did at school promote this kind of thinking - they can be helpful, don't get me wrong, but they do limit choices if the results are not dealt with sensitively by a trained counsellor. Life and careers are much more fluid than such tests will have you believe. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm sure you're approaching this is a fairly flexible way... I'm just trying to gently remind you that tests promote the idea of a traditional career/job path, and don't always take non-traditional ways of working and being into account

[Brutha]

I also don't want books. Career books have never helped me. I want to be presented with options so I know what exists. What would be nice is a massive list of 50,000 different careers.

monster.com provides you a list of different careers.

[JimC]

Originally Posted by Mags

I just Googled "career list" and got a lot of sites with A-Z listings of careers - would that be what you want? It might be a starting point?

I know you also said you don't want books, but have you looked at Richard Bolles' "What colour is your parachute?"? It gets updated every year. My copy is unfortunately packed away in a box (we recently moved), so I can't check myself on this, but I think he does provide lists of careers in there as well. He has a fantastic approach to career choice.

The lists are pretty small, but basically I want an assessment that will give me a pretty large list as results of answering skill/interest questions. I guess I'm just asking too much and like you said- looking for something too specific.

I will look in to that Richard Bolles book.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sorry if I came off a little hostile in my last post, this is just so frustrating.

[Mags]

Hi Jim, this was bugging me yesterday, I couldn't remember the name... The Dictionary of Occupational Titles - all careers, all categorised according to Holland's occupational codes: It is available online as O*Net, and is extensive. Go to USDOL/OALJ: Dictionary of Occupational Titles

[JimC]

Wow Mags! Thanks!

That page also linked to: Find Occupations

...which is also useful.

[Dan.Linehan]

These guys blow the others out of the water, imo.

Brainbench - Aptitude Test, Employment Screening, Assessment Testing, Online Personality Test