Get Clear on Your Career with a Career Assessment
What’s most meaningful and important to you? What do you value most? What skills do you have and are they applicable to creating the career you desire? What should your priorities be? What do you REALLY want to do?
These are some of the questions I get asked every day, and a career assessment test can be a great place to start looking for some answers.
Why?
Because all too often the difficulties we face in making career and life decisions are either due to a lack of information about our options or ourselves or a fear of change.
Accordingly, whether this is your first time choosing a career direction or your fifth, personality and career self-assessment tests can be a great way for you to gain clarity about what’s most important to YOU – both in your career and in your life in general – as well as the steps you need to take to turn your desires into reality.
This is why I offer career assessment tests to any clients who are looking to change professions or would simply like more insight into their strengths and weaknesses.
So, what kind of career assessment test can help you?
No One Career Assessment Test Is Right for Everyone…
Career assessment tests often include the:
- Strong Interest Inventory (SII) – A test designed to help make career decisions by comparing your interests with those of others who are happily employed in different occupations; and the
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – an assessment test designed to help you better understand your personality, preferences, strengths and weaknesses, as well as help guide you along the path to career satisfaction and personal fulfillment.
But there are other types of tests, and the test that’s most likely to help you will depend on your needs and goals.
However, just to be absolutely clear… regardless of the type or types of assessment tests you take, taking these tests is NOT about having the test “pigeon hole” you or tell you which career would be best for you!
So, how exactly do self-assessments help?
How a Personality or Career Assessment Test Can Help You
Again, self-assessment tests are not about “defining” who you are…
The point of any self-assessment should be for you to gain some perspective about your interests, skills, strengths, and personality as a whole, and we can then use this information to narrow our focus during your career-decision-making and job-search processes.
For example, your results during one or more self-assessments may indicate not only some careers that you might find rewarding, but whether or not you’d be better off working as an in-office employee, a remote contractor, or starting and running your own business.
The results of your test(s) can also help us develop the best means of effectively accessing and utilizing your network of personal and professional contacts, as well as help you better prepare for hiring interviews.
In short, rather than telling you who you are or what you should do, career and personality assessment tests can be an incredibly powerful tools to quickly gain clarity, insight, and understanding about your strengths, needs, values and goals… information that you can then use to guide you in making more confident decisions throughout all other aspects of your career development.
Can’t These Tests Be Taken Online for Free?
Yes, there are a large number of career “quizzes” and self-assessment tests available for free online, and I often use some of these very same tests in my work with clients. However, it’s important to remember that these tests only serve as a starting point.
If you take an online depression-screening assessment and find out you may be suffering from depression, then what? Is your depression due to physical issues such as a lack of vitamins, exercise, and proper nutrition, or is it due to relationship or financial concerns? And, once you know the answer to that question, what should you do to overcome it?
Just as a primary-care physician or mental health professional will work with you to determine the underlying causes of your depression and then come up with a treatment plan that fits your unique situation, a career professional who’s experienced in administering career and personality assessment tests can walk you through the results of your tests and show you how to use those results to develop a personalized plan and map out a rewarding and fulfilling career path.
As someone who’s administered hundreds of career assessments over the years, I can help you not only understand the results of your assessment tests but then use that information in conjunction with our work together to develop a career plan that accounts for your personal and professional needs and goals.
And, if you think you don’’t have the time or money to devote to one or more career assessments, think again…
How much time and energy are your spending moving from job to job, or trying to figure out what you should do, or trying to cope with stress and dissatisfaction you’re experiencing in your current career?
A career assessment accompanied by the guidance of a professional career counselor can help you quickly clarify your career needs and goals, make empowered decisions, and determine the specific steps you need to take to find or create the career path that’s right for you.
Ready to Get Started?
I’ve been providing career assessment tests and helping people implement the results for the past three decades, both in my work supervising career counselors at John F. Kennedy University’s Career Center and San Francisco State University’s Career Counseling and Development Center, as well as in my career coaching and career counseling practice in the San Francisco Bay.
So, if you’re ready to better understand yourself, identify stumbling blocks, develop professional skills, and feel more confident and empowered as you pursue your ideal career, one or more career assessment tests may well be the perfect place to start your journey of exploration into the possibilities that await you!
Whether you’re considering changing careers or pursuing a new profession, realizing the lifelong dream of starting your own business, or you just want to learn more about your work style, needs, and goals, we can use career assessments to create a concrete, step-by-step career action plan to achieve each and every one of your goals.
The best thing about personality and career assessment tests is that there are no wrong answers. You can’t fail… they can only help you succeed!
Remember, you don’t have to navigate career questions and transitions alone…
If you have additional questions about how career assessments can help you or you’re ready to start understanding what you need to feel happy and truly satisfied in your work and create the professional satisfaction and success you desire, contact me today at (510) 486-1188 or schedule a free initial phone consultation, today. I look forward to speaking with you.