Career Planning & Research
Career Assessment
Career assessment used to be a process of simply following your gut feelings and doing a little research into your fields of interest.
Today, career assessment is much more refined and looks not only at job fields but also spotlights the focus on you, the individual. This is critical to finding a career that will bring you happiness and satisfaction.
Testing is an integral part of the process. Each of us is unique and career assessment tests help us identify personal traits that match up with skills and competencies for various fields of work. Your talents, abilities, values, likes and dislikes are all measured to narrow down the choices to jobs that fit your lifestyle interests. As a result, the feedback will give you an opportunity to explore careers that you'll enjoy and find highly motivating and personally rewarding.
Testing methodologies vary but in general career tests ask a battery of questions that attempt to:
- Clarify your interests
- Match your skills and competencies to specific fields
- Identify your strong points and individual work style
- Determine whether you like people jobs, analytical jobs, hands-on jobs, etc.
- Point you to jobs that will lower your stress
- Guide you in your education
What's Next?
After you've taken a career test and have identified particular career paths, you can begin exploring and investigating jobs in each field knowing you're not going about it blindly. Instead of being overwhelmed by the choices and possibly ending up in a career of drudgery, you'll be looking at specific jobs that will give you satisfaction and a sense of purpose.
Your exploration should include:
- Reading job descriptions to learn required skills, and competencies
- Identifying education paths
- Talking with employers in the field
- Talking with people already working in the field
- Learning about the typical work environment in your chosen field
- Learning about related jobs
- Reviewing compensation and advancement opportunities
- Gauging the future
The End Result
By testing first and then exploring jobs you'll save countless hours and will be focused in your efforts. After you've completed your investigation you'll be prepared to make informed decisions about your education and which jobs you'll apply for when you're ready.
Career assessment tests and your subsequent investigation of the job market will give you an edge on landing the job of your dreams because your personality, skills, and interests will line up with what the employer is looking for in a new hire. This competitive advantage, combined with the knowledge that you'll be embarking on a career likely to bring lasting happiness and satisfaction, makes testing a very sensible part of your personal career development plan.
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