CAREER TESTING?
Career testing is a term that refers to career evaluation tools or psychometric tests that are used to aid in the development of self-awareness. These can assist you in identifying your hobbies, personal values, preferences, motivations, and abilities by examining the numerous and complicated components of your personality, talents, and abilities in greater detail.
There are several career evaluations, and each one is unique in terms of its structure and questions, the factors assessed, and, of course, the findings.
USE OF TESTS IN CAREER COUNSELING
Psychometric methods are useful in various contexts, including relationship and career counseling, employment testing, occupational health and safety, and some commercial functions, such as customer contact management. All sorts of testing are valuable – to a certain extent – when applied correctly and prudently.
WHY TAKE A CAREER TEST?
A career test can be beneficial in a variety of ways. First, it enables you to determine your strengths and limitations to maximize your potential. If you’re unsure of what you need to accomplish in your profession, you may take a test to determine your current position and discover your strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge may assist you in developing a strategy, setting realistic objectives for the future, and determining the measures necessary to achieve your dreams.
Taking a career test is beneficial because it:
- exposes you to other job alternatives;
- assists you in developing a career strategy; and
- enables you to assess and better understand yourself.
When should you take it?
A psychometric test can be taken at any moment in your life, regardless of your job stage. This information will benefit you regardless of whether you are a high school student, a college/university student, a graduate, a job seeker, or an established professional. Additionally, it may be utilized for a variety of additional purposes.
You might want to consider taking a career test when:
- You’re unclear about your job goals.
- You wish to assess your abilities, interests, and abilities.
- You’re applying for a position that requires special abilities – in this instance, you may be needed to possess them.
- You’re meeting with a career counselor to explore your job alternatives – the exam can serve as a complement to assist the adviser in better grasping your needs.
PERSONALITY TEST
What is the definition of personality?
Personality is frequently referred to as an individual’s distinctive way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. A growing body of research has established significant links between personality traits and a variety of career behaviors, including an individual’s approach to learning, vocational interests, career choices, self-esteem, confidence in performing tasks, career counseling interactions, job searches, and subsequent job performance, satisfaction, and tenure.
Personality tests are intended to assist you in developing a better understanding of yourself in terms of your emotions, behaviors, and interactions with people in various situations. This is accomplished through a series of well-considered questions designed to unearth your ‘secret self.’ Personality tests can assist you in identifying previously undiscovered facets of your character through a more systematic and scientific approach. Unlike aptitude tests, these focus on personal interests, hobbies, and motivation rather than talents or skills. They are interested in learning how you perform various tasks, how you act in specific situations, and what your preferences and views are.
The benefits of taking personality tests are plenty as they can:
- Assist you in determining how you wish to work, e.g., in a group or independently.
- Assist you in establishing your preferred work setting, such as inside, in an office, or outdoors.
- Assist you in determining your abilities and inclinations through your interests and hobbies while allowing you to pursue your passions.
- Assist you in determining your most probable behavior in specific scenarios and identifying your strengths and limitations.
When Should You Consider a Personality Test?
Personality testing may be beneficial during job transitions. If you’re looking for your first job or considering a career change, a test can help you determine which options are best for you. None of these exams will offer a conclusive answer to the question of what to do with your life. Rather than that, they can serve as a tool in your overall career planning, assisting you in making a more educated decision.
Defining the Personality Types
THE MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TEST AND YOUR CAREER
The Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator is a personality assessment tool that assigns individuals to sixteen distinct personality types. The exam, which consists of a lengthy sequence of questions, indicates whether you lean toward Extroversion or Introversion, Sense or Intuition, Thinking or Feeling, or Judging or Perceiving.
Here’s how to understand the four categories within the Myers-Briggs test:
- Extroversion (E) or Introversion (I): This is about your energy sources – do you go yourself or outward for sources of energy?
- Sense (S) or Intuition (N): Which one you gravitate toward reveals how you perceive and absorb information. People who get an “S” result are more likely to use experience and common sense to evaluate situations, while intuition-focused people readily see the big picture and patterns.
- Thinking (T) or Feeling (F): Your decision-making style is revealed with this personality trait. Thinkers are guided by logic and common sense, whereas feelers may rely on values and, well, feelings. The decision-making process may be guided by how a decision would affect others’ feelings.
- Judging (J) or Perceiving (P): This last letter of the personality type reveals lifestyle preference or how you like to live your life. Judging types are organized and comfortable working within rules and frameworks. You can count on someone of this type to have a five-year plan. Perceiving types are more likely to prefer a flexible environment and form and adapt plans as needed.
BIG FIVE FACTORS OF PERSONALITY
The Big Five dimensions of personality have proved beneficial in providing a framework for organizing personality characteristics studied and used in industrial, work, and organizational psychology. They have conducted research on various topics, including occupational attitudes, practices, and results.
INTEREST TEST
A questionnaire elicits information on a person’s preferences for particular fields or hobbies.
What is Interest Test?
- Interests tests are designed to assist you in determining your primary interests by assessing your hobbies and a variety of activities. It is a sort of exam that often consists of a sequence of statements representing a situation or action you may encounter in a certain career or sector.
- An interests test might be beneficial when deciding on a vocation. If you’re unsure of what you want to do with your job, examining your hobbies and interests might be a great place to start.
Strong Interest Inventory Test
The Strong Interest Inventory is a test that assists individuals in matching their interests to future educational, professional, and leisure activities. It does so by utilizing an individual’s preferences in various areas to determine what they would like doing with their work and free time.
KUDER OCCUPATIONAL TEST SURVEY
- The Kuder Occupational Interest Survey (“The Kuder”) is a self-report vocational interest test used for vocational guidance and counseling.
- The Kuder is frequently used with other vocational interest assessments, such as The Strong Interest Inventory. Whereas the Strong compares an individual’s interests to those of specific groups of individuals with certain jobs, the Kuder focuses on the individual’s broad fields of interest.
Thus, the Kuder will produce the individual’s scores as well as ten scales of occupational interest:
The Kuder will yield the person’s scores along with ten vocational interest scales:
- Outdoor
- Mechanical
- Clerical
- Computational
- Scientific
- Literary,
- Social Service
- Persuasive
- Artistic
- Musical
VALUES TEST
HOW ARE VALUES DEFINED?
Values are a collection of attitudes that are unique to each individual and regulate our conduct and shape our perspective on the world. Each individual has certain life goals, and in an ideal world, their values align with these aims.
Prioritizing your life based on your principles will help you avoid disappointment and misery. Living by your values is critical since it decides what is most meaningful to you.
PERSONAL VALUES ASSESSMENT (PVA)
What you cherish, what irritates you, and what informs your choices are all tied to your values.
The Personal Values Assessment is a brief questionnaire that will take no more than a few minutes of your time and give you a wealth of information on why you do what you do.
Values Assessment
The Values Test can assist you in gaining a better understanding of your underlying work demands and motivations and determine what is most important to you in your employment. The exam does this by scoring several elements of work that correspond to six fundamental work values. Knowing your work values might assist you in determining the kind of jobs and vocations to pursue.
Work Values
Identifying the career path that is best for you
When you’re unsure what job to pursue or which career path to take, you may be astonished to learn that you already possess all of the answers. You have career and work values, the aspects of your work that are most important to you.
By identifying your career values, you can answer the following questions:
- What type of work should I do?
- Which job path should I take?
- What type of employment will I enjoy?
- Which career is a good fit for my personality?
- What type of work environment is most suited to me?
Hope this article will help you understand the basics of Assessment in Career Counselling. Stay connected for more updates.
