Tests That Can Help You Find Your Ideal Job
Fred Burch
September 5, 2012
fred@fredburch.com
Whether you’re looking for your first job or switching careers, it will help if you know what motivates you, what you do well and what kind of environment is best suited to you. This article gives you pointers to several online tests and one testing center that can help.
FREE TESTS
Tests of Values, Motivators, and Self-Beliefs
The Career Orientations Inventory
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If you don't have a focus and don't know what truly motivates you, the other parts of the job hunting process (résumés, interviews, etc.) can easily turn into a waste of time. This test helps you think about your values and what you should look for in a job. |
O*NET® Work Importance Profiler™
Computerized version: www.onetcenter.org/WIP.html
Paper & pencil version: http://www.onetcenter.org/WIL.html
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This test provides you with information about your top two work values and your top ten work needs, and then offers occupations that match your values. It helps people identify occupations that they may find satisfying, based on the similarity between their work values (such as achievement, autonomy, and conditions of work) and the characteristics of the occupations. This assessment is based on Dawis' and Lofquist's Theory of Work Adjustment. |
Tests of Skills and Strengths
O*NET® OnLine Skills Search
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In this Web-based activity, you select from 35
skills in six broad categories. The report provides occupations that correspond to your skills by degree of match. The report links to O*NET OnLine Summary Reports. |
America’s Career InfoNet-Skills Profiler
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The Skills Profiler assessment consists of three tools: the Skills Identifier, Skills Explorer, and Skills Gap Analyzer. It is useful to identify skills, find occupations that match skills, and identify any gaps in skills for desired occupations. Use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills and match them to job types that use those skills. When your skills profile is complete, you can print it or save it. Learn more about the Skills Profiler and how it works or see an example of a skills profile. (This requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in.) |
My Skills My Future
http://www.myskillsmyfuture.org/
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This assessment test helps you find new careers that use the skills you've gained in a past job. |
COMMERCIAL
TESTS
StrengthsFinder
www.strengthsfinder.com
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Do you have the opportunity to do what you do best every day? Chances are, you don't. All too often, our natural talents go untapped. From the cradle to the cubicle, we devote more time to fixing our shortcomings than to developing our strengths. Fixing our shortcomings may help us rise above mediocrity, but developing our strengths can help us excel. |
Once you’ve completed the online assessment, you will receive a comprehensive Strengths Discovery and Action-Planning Guide that is based on your StrengthsFinder results. This guide includes:
The Clifton StrengthsFinder is the culmination of more than 50 years of Dr. Donald O. Clifton’s lifelong work: leading millions of people around the world to discover their strengths. To take the online test you’ll first need to buy the StrengthsFinder book (less than $15) that contains a single-use access code: http://strengths.gallup.com/purchase.aspx
Clear Direction
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Regardless of your strengths, if you’re in the wrong environment you won’t be happy and you won’t be effective. Clear Direction has unique products to assist individuals in understanding themselves and others. Their state-of-the-art reports help people understand what they most need to be effective in their careers. $45 to $150 |
Other Tests
I haven't personally taken these tests so I can't recommend them, but they look interesting and would be worth checking out.
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www.careerkey.org |
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www.assessment.com |
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www.mindsightinc.com |
Click here to see an overview of other career assessments. If your web browser can't display PDF's, right-click the link and save the PDF to your hard disk, then open and print it.
The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation
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The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation is a nonprofit scientific research and educational organization with two primary commitments: to study human abilities and to provide people with a knowledge of their aptitudes that will help them in making decisions about school and work. |
Aptitudes are natural talents, special abilities for doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things. Manual dexterity, musical ability, spatial visualization, and memory for numbers are examples of such aptitudes. There is much more information available on their web site: www.jocrf.org
In a comprehensive battery of tests available at their Dallas office (there are other offices nationwide) these and many other aptitudes are measured. There are two testing sessions, each about three and one-half hours long, and a third appointment to review the results. This last appointment is about an hour to an hour and a half. $675
OTHER RESOURCES
The
Khan Academy
www.khanacademy.org/
About the Khan Academy:
Using the Khan Academy:
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GCF LearnFree
http://www.gcflearnfree.org
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Advance through life and move forward with your career with these free tutorials on Career, Money, Computers, and many other topics. |
O*NET® Center
http://onetcenter.org
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This is one of the primary resources for career-related information; created for the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration, by the National Center for O*NET Development. |
