Have you ever been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Or “What’s your next career goal?” Or even just thought, “What am I doing with my life?”. When it comes to making career decisions, wouldn’t it be amazing if there was a magic answer to these daunting questions? Rather than waiting for the clouds to part with “A sign” or pulling out your magic 8 ball and hoping for the best, the good news is there are tools available to help guide you through making these decisions.
While there is no magic answer, there are career assessments (aka career tests) that help you understand your interests, values, personality, work styles, and strengths etc. Unlike a Magic 8 Ball or those random career tests that somehow show up in your social feeds, these assessments are formal psychometric tools developed using real data, and are based on years of research to prove their validity.
Many people like taking a career assessment as a starting point to answering those daunting questions about what they’re going to do with their life. While it’s likely there’s not just one right answer for you, career assessments can help you:
1. Get started with career exploration and planning.
Whether you’re just starting out or thinking about making a career change, trying to choose a career or determine your next move can be overwhelming. With so many options and so much information out there, it can be hard to know where to start.
A career assessment can give you insight into your interests and work preferences, and provide you with a list of occupations that might be a good fit for you. It may help you confirm career interests you already have or give you new ideas to consider. You can use these suggestions as your starting point for researching career options.
2. Choose an educational program.
There are many reasons why you might be exploring education and training options. Perhaps you’re a high school student planning courses for your final year or preparing to apply to a college or university program. Maybe you’re looking for a new career and want to retrain for a new field. Or possibly you’re looking for ways to upskill within your current industry. Similar to exploring careers, there are endless options when it comes to education and training programs.
It’s common to want to search for ‘the perfect fit’ or information that makes you feel 100% certain about your choice. A career assessment can give you ideas for types of programs that match your interests and job titles that relate to different careers. You can then use this information to search programs at whatever school or training institution you’re considering.
3. Make your current career more fulfilling.
Career assessments provide insight into things like your personality strengths, interests, preferred ways of communicating, work preferences, and areas for growth and development to name a few. You can use information from assessments to determine what tasks, projects, training opportunities, roles within your company etc. might be aligned with who you are, your strengths and the things that come most naturally to you (hint hint, which all lead to greater career satisfaction!).
Taking an assessment and learning more about yourself can be a great way to open a conversation with your employer (or business partner) about the direction you’d like your career to go in.
At Windrose Coaching Studio we use the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strong Interest Inventory in our assessment coaching services.
The MBTI gives you information about your personality preferences, communication style, and areas for growth and development. It can help you answer the question, “Who Am I?” and gives you a better understanding of both who you are as a person and how your personality might be similar or different from others. This information can be applied to all aspects of life, not just your career.
The Strong Interest Inventory can help you discover the careers that match your interests, work style, and preferences, while narrowing down options and providing direction for you to explore further. It gives you a profile of what you enjoy and suggests occupations that may be fulfilling based on your interests and work preferences.
Overall, the only way to feel confident in your career decision making, is to do the work to truly understand yourself and what you want for your future, then research options as part of the whole career planning process.
Get started today by reading more about these assessments, reviewing sample reports or booking a career assessment appointment.
You are in charge of where you go from here.
~Ashley & Larissa
