Career Test

career test

The Career Aptitude Test is adapted from one of the most widely researched and respected vocational theories, the Holland Career Interest RIASEC Themes.

Used by high school guidance counselors and college career centers, this model identifies work preferences and sorts them into 6 work personality types, often called interest codes, and abbreviated by the first letter of each, or R-I-A-S-E-C, that can be used to suggest college majors, and career preferences.

The interest codes can be combined by first, second and third levels of interest to provide even more inspiration and decision-making value.

Use the Career Quiz as a starting point or to get un-stuck in your career and college major search.

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Selecting a career takes some work. It is helpful to know you’re focused on the right kind of careers – careers that match your expectations and your talents and skills.

There is a wide variety of tools available to those who want a more objective sense of their abilities and aptitudes, interests and personality, and what these mean for their choice of careers.

Modern career quizzes and assessments are products of decades of empirical analysis and improvement, and when they’re taken and interpreted under the guidance of an experienced career advisor, they can prove highly effective for anyone seeking greater clarity about their choice of jobs and occupations.

Taking one of the many career quizzes can help you come to a clearer sense of what it is you want from a major, program of study, college degree and career, and help you determine what career paths this suggests.

Understanding your own strengths and ambitions, is an essential first step to a rewarding major – and self knowledge has benefits that go beyond work to enrich every aspect of your life.

Now more than ever, it could be argued that the only constant you can rely on throughout your career is you, so taking some time to understand yourself is an excellent investment in your own future. The world of work is changing at a rapid pace. While you’ll most likely change over time as well, a career path built on a foundation of self-knowledge and consistent self-reflection will help you flex, grow and adapt as the world around you changes.

In order to understand yourself--what you like, what your skills and abilities are, where your values lie—consider assessments and inventories which can help define those ideas. Career assessments can be a valuable tool in building knowledge around who you are, what you’re good at, what you like to do.

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The more you understand yourself and how your strengths, skills, values and talents play out in the career world, the more educated, and most likely positive, decisions you can make. Ultimately, this can save time and money—by picking the right level and mode of education that fits you and what you’d ultimately like to do and reducing the amount of change or wasted time spent on indecision. Career assessments are great tools for starting to build that framework of understanding.

For a middle or high school student, assessments can give you a better idea of what the options are to explore and how to find a college that will give you the best experience for you and the program you’re seeking.

For students in college, they can identify possible majors, narrow down what types of occupations exist which use those skills and help you figure out how your skills, values and wants combine to find the best work environment for you.

For anyone out of school, whether recently or after a period of time in a career, assessments can help fine tune our understanding of skills and abilities, refocus those skills on a new path, and help people understand how their ways of working and viewing the world interact with others to be most productive on a team or in a specific environment.

The insight that an assessment offers can be broken down into four basic categories – your personality, your work related values, your interests, and your skills and aptitudes.

Your personality is who you are psychologically – your traits, motivations, responses, emotional makeup. This tends to be stable from adulthood.

Your interests are the things that you enjoy – physical activity, deep discussions, nature, participating in events as a spectator. This is different from aptitude – many people are good at things they don’t really like doing, or doing for long periods of time.

Your work values are the specific criteria that shape your attitude towards work. What kind of work or organizational culture fits you best? Is your sense of self tied to money, status or power? Do you value autonomy, the opportunity for impact, varied work responsibilities, security? This can change over a lifetime.

Your aptitudes are the capacities, learned or innate, developed or, as yet undeveloped, and perhaps even unknown, that you can bring to your working life.

How to Select the Aptitude Test for You

Some career assessments are more scientifically based than others, and some are more widely used than others. There are many different quizzes available, from free career quizzes (some of which tend to actually require payment if you want complete results or interpretation) to expensive.

You’ll probably want to stick with the most well-known, which often come with a fee, but they tend to be more scientifically based, and be more accurate as a result. They sometimes require some form of interpretation with a trained facilitator, which can help you make sense of the results you get, reflect on the information and how it fits with your self-perceptions, and gain the biggest benefit from taking these assessments.

A mix of free and paid, to get a range of perspectives, might also be a good option, but recognize that you might get varied, and potentially conflicting, feedback.

Important to keep in mind, here’s what college major assessments and inventories CAN’T do

Tell you what job you should have

 

 

Even those that give you a listing of job titles, are really more about the environment, skills and values which are associated with that specific job. For instance, if your report lists “Bartender”, you probably want to work in a helping profession, with high interpersonal contact, with an unstructured, social environment that is often different day by day.

Define you into a box or “personality type” permanently

 

 

People are often hesitant to take a personality quiz because they don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a specific type of into a particular role. These assessments are simply ways to examine your personal traits and how they relate to work and interaction with others. They help you better understand the work roles and environments which you might be best suited for and how to work with strengths and weaknesses of other people for the most optimal productivity.

Determine whether or not you can do a job

 

 

Cognitive reasoning tests especially are often used by companies to determine a good “fit” with potential employees. While these can be indicators of success, they do not determine that people can NOT also be successful in that job despite the test result. Inventories and assessments should be used as guidance, not law, especially as many of them can have biases on race, gender, culture, language, and other factors.

Again, career assessments are tools, not authorities. As you review your results:

Think more deeply than the job title--what do these recommendations have in common for skills, values, and environments?

 

 

Remember that this is a starting point for your own reflections about what you want out of a career, out of life, and about which vocations and what training are most likely to get you there.

 

 

Question the answers. The act of arguing with the results of tests offer can be a path to greater insight about yourself, and can validate your existing thoughts about strengths and possibilities.

 

 

Self-assessment through focused reflection

Reflection is bound to play a part in any life-defining decision, so look past answers that have been “provided” for you and reflect deeply on your personal interpretations. Answers are great; they have a place. But it would be hard to overestimate the value of self-reflection, and it would be hard to reflect too much concerning decisions as important as choosing a career and the means of getting there.
If the results of the assessments aren’t consistent, or produce results that you feel aren’t right for you, then “Why is that?” would be a good reflection question. If you feel that the results of the algorithm-based assessments are consistently off, either in the judgments they offer about you or the career directions they suggest, look for commonalities in interests, values or tasks associated with each result.

Many other colleges and universities offer similar resources – designed to make you wrestle with the questions that assessment tools offer to solve for you. Though they’re offered by colleges and universities, they can be very useful even if you aren’t considering post-secondary education – or if you’re well into your working life, thinking of changing careers and want some direction in your search for the right choice, with or without further education.

Even if you’re satisfied with the results of the assessment tools discussed on this site, and feel like you connect with the career options they’ve led you to, this sort of reflective process is well worth the effort.

To be clear - Reflection is not indecision. In fact, indecision is one of the roadblocks that self-reflection can help you get around. Why would you hesitate? Is it because you just don’t find any career suggestions that appeal to you, in the results that the battery of assessments have produced? Or is it because they don’t seem to describe a person you recognize? Is it because they seem to point in a career direction at odds with your self-image or expectations, or the expectations of your family? Do the stakes seem too high, given the cost of education and the uncertain future of the field you’re drawn to? Is it because you’ve taken the results of the assessments as something more than helpful suggestions and pointers – a starting point? That’s all they are; the final decisions will always be yours.

Don’t take the results of the assessments as anything more than helpful suggestions and pointers. They’re a starting point; the final decisions will always be yours. There is a best answer for you out there (or multiple). And in this case “out there” really means inside yourself. The real question you have to deal with is what’s best for you; and you have to know yourself well enough to be able to answer that question effectively.

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An overview of popular quizzes and assessments

Personality

Our personality is who we are psychologically, undeniably and inescapably. It certainly can’t be changed or chosen off the rack to suit a job. So it’s a very good idea to choose your career path in the light of a clear understanding of the type of person you are, and the traits that most thoroughly and deeply define you. Here are some of the best-regarded personality assessment quizzes. Their value lies not just in the answers they give you, but in the opportunity to think of your qualities and the world of work in the same terms.

Big Five (Five-Factor) Personality Model

The Big Five personality model, sometimes known as the five-factor personality model, characterizes individuals according to five basic personality traits - our degree of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism, measured as relative qualities that can include their opposites.

Big Five tests have many questions and are often administered online. While not specifically geared towards career development, tests based on the Big Five are accepted by the psychological community for measuring personality most accurately. Therefore, the Big Five personality assessment is less applicable to figuring out a specific career field, and more towards whether or not you’re a good fit for a specific role.

Personality
Holland (RIASEC)

Holland (RIASEC)

In the 1950’s, a researcher named John Holland came up with a Theory of Career Choice which stated that people are most happy doing jobs with people similar to them, which utilize their skills and abilities, and which fit their values. Do what you are good at, with people you like, who share the same values and goals as you, and you will be more satisfied professionally and be less susceptible to career burn out. As obvious an observation as this may seem, it has been the main basis for career development theory for decades.

Quizzes based on the Holland model use the Theory of Career Choice types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Entrepreneurial and Creative, or “RIASEC”) to point people towards jobs for which they’re suited. Holland takes into account the fact that no one is simply a type – we all have combinations of first, second and third order preferences, so often RIASEC based quiz will give you a 2-3 type code.

Many career quizzes integrate this model. Organized by Holland code (RIASEC), jobs are categorized by type, and similar types are linked together to help people see how certain occupations are similar, even when in different industries. Each occupation lists statistics and information about topics of interest - education required, what kind of technology is used, future forecast, salary range, etc.

Tests for College and Career Guidance

Aptitude

Aptitude is an innate or natural ability to do something—things that we do that come naturally to us. A skill is something that we spend time learning and practicing to do well. Aptitude tests can help to identify our natural talents to steer us towards areas where we might excel intuitively.

Taking inventory of your aptitudes is even more worthwhile if your career path includes extensive education or training; as these represent a serious investment of time and money. Online tests can’t tell you whether you have the coordination to be a or a, or whether you’re strong enough to be a, but they can help you explore such things as your organizational and leadership strengths, your capacity for autonomous work and for working with others.

Values

A career choice that’s at odds with your values can lead to a rocky career path and a chronic lack of work-satisfaction. This is true whether the issues concern intrinsic values – honesty, autonomy or security, a desire to be of service, the need for intellectual fulfillment – or extrinsic values such as the desire for a high income or recognition and respect from others.

No algorithms here. Values assessments let you choose the values most important to you, from (alphabetically) Advancement and Autonomy to Variety and Visual Results, then invite you to consider how you came to choose these values, and how your planned career path matches with these values. Many other post-secondary institutions offer similar tools. You can find this one here.

Values Assessments offers useful analysis of your choice among a host of values, from accountability and achievement to well-being and wisdom. They help you identify your core values (making a difference, self-esteem, etc.) and invite you to both reflect on the results and to discuss them with your partner, family and friends.

Many tests offer tools that help you assess and prioritize your values. Some involve results gleaned from your answers to questions, and others involve reflection and self-assessment. It’s best to try both sorts.

Skills

Skills can be learned or they can be ‘natural’ talents. They can be ‘hard’ – computer skills, mechanical know-how, languages – or ‘soft’ – interpersonal skills, leadership or self-discipline. Taking thorough stock of your capacities, learned or innate, is a valuable step to take when considering a career path. Some skills and talents are naturally suited to particular career paths, and some career paths absolutely require better-than-average capacities in particular areas.

Skills Matching

There are also resources that will match your skills, both abstract (“leadership”) and practical (“mathematical”), to jobs that make use of them.

Whatever your circumstances – there is a quiz option for you

Modern career tests are products of decades of empirical analysis and improvement, and when they’re taken and interpreted under the guidance of an experienced career advisor, they can prove highly effective for anyone seeking greater clarity about their choice of jobs and occupations.

Career Quiz for Adults (mid-career, career change, etc.) – Identify career interest areas, transferable skills, job search strategies.

This group can benefit in many ways from career assessments—people who have been in the working world tend to have better context for how to apply what they learn about themselves and their skills. It can also identify areas of growth or potential opportunities to pivot in their career path. Additionally, knowing traits and types can help someone work better with others who might identify differently than them in this aspect, which can lead to higher productivity and job satisfaction.

Career Quiz for College Graduates – Find an awesome job by identifying career fields that relate to academic
studies and major, and facilitate transition from college to career because of awareness of specific fields of work and their related job
opportunities.

Certainly, the college grad, or senior approaching graduation, is one of the biggest consumers of these assessments. Exploring how their coursework can be applied across industries, identifying areas of interest and job titles for application purposes, and understanding what work culture or environment might best suit their type/traits are just a few ways in which this information can be applied.

Career Quiz for College Students – Career tests help you select a major or minor, and increase awareness of career options within a field, even potentially allowing for added courses that will provide more skills or employability.

One of the biggest benefits in career assessments at this stage, besides steering students toward a major or industry, is discovering how to best work with and understand people prior to entering the workforce.

Career Quiz for High School Students – Career tests for high school students help them refine likes and dislikes, which gives them a better idea of what field of study they possibly want to pursue.

This group can benefit most by exploring careers to help them make a good decision on which school to choose—the quality and rigor of programs in different fields can differ greatly from one university to the next. Aptitude tests can help high school students understand their skills and where they can be used—which can be helpful in determining if college is the best next step, or if vocational training, apprenticeship or on the job learning would be best.

What is the best Aptitude Test?

There are hundreds of career tests and assessments available, the good news is that among them, there a a few that are used extensively, and are deemed to be quite accurate.

The problem with determining the best (most accurate and therefore useful) career, personality, or other psychometric (measuring the mind) tests is that often there is limited information about how the results are calculated by the assessment tool.

Two things are important then to know about the accuracy of a quiz you are considering taking - validity and reliability. These terms refer to statistical measurements that quiz designers and researchers use to determine confidence in results. Validity refers to the quiz actually measuring what is claims to measure. Reliability refers to the accuracy of that measurement, particularly if a person takes the same quiz at different times, will they get the same results.

There are lots of quizzes/assessments out there - how do you choose?

Free (academic/government) Useful, sometimes limited information.

Sort of free (commercial) A short sample report, then there is a fee for the full report.

Fee based quizzes/assessments from recognized publishers. These offer the highest confidence in the results. Developing well designed quiz costs a lot of money. Many of these are worth it and offer proprietary data that comes from comparing you and your responses to their large databases of research (for example, using your responses to identify careers that people similar to you are highly satisfied with). And because the reports are well laid out and provide a lot of actionable information.

 

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