Changing Careers with Self-Assessment
Most Americans Will Have Two to Four Careers in a Lifetime
Differing Types of Useful Assessments
In my line of education, career counseling, and psychological practice, testing instruments are often called "assessment." Actually, the results of a battery of two or tests are examined in an overall evaluation of findings.
The evaluation helps to present the whole picture about a person. Added to client interviews, role playing, and several other elements that can be important, all these results can help a client make decisions.
Such an assessment can be useful in determining one's future direction and goals.
An employment or career-change assessment is the interpretation of tests and questionnaires that you complete in order to find your Dream Job.
Many test-givers call tests "assessments" in case the test taker is afraid of tests; however, there are at least two steps in an assessment process:
- Gathering information and
- Assessing or evaluating what the information means and how to apply it.
The test giver must be clear about the importance of the test, or the test taker may not take the test seriously. This brings me to an experience of my own.
Before Grade 1, several of us children were given a test in a classroom. I asked the teacher what the purpose of the test was and she said,
"Oh, it's not important."
So I didn't do the last page.
It was an IQ test and I scored 135 anyway, but some of that cohort of children was held back from entering first grade. Test givers must be serious without frightening test takers of any age.
Assessment Results
In today's competitive world of work in which so many people are unhappy in their jobs and therefore unable to do their best, everyone needs to understand that the assessment profile based on the results of vocational testing is vitally important.
The results will set a benchmark for what will make you happy and what will be most valuable about you to a potential employer.
As GED administrator, I found a small group of students that blew off the reading entrance test, just marking any boxes at all on the answer card to be done with it. They thought it was a meaningless government program that had to accept everyone and pay them a stipend.
They were incorrect. Some otherwise intelligent people were referred to remedial reading classes in a decrepit part of the downtown region. Only one or two admitted to tanking the test and they re-took it.
So, do your best in a career or vocational testing set and answer forthrightly. There exist no right or wrong answers in subjective tests like:
- an interests survey,
- a work values survey,
- a work motivation survey, and
- a work burnout scale
These tools can reveal much about what you really would like to do (subjective) and therefore would do it well.
On short math and reading tests, just do your best (these are objective and have right and wrong answers).
All of these surveys and questionnaires pose sets of questions that can provide you with a sense of your personality and career interests.
The results may be a good beginning in discovering more about yourself and your best suited careers. Of course, they do not work for everyone. In my own case, some of them have only 50% accuracy most of the time, and a few are usually correct.
My last three assessments show that I would be a good explorer, map maker, stellar cartographer, and researcher. NASA is hiring in these jobs, but the qualifications are high and the list of applicants is long. Making maps for another company is logical.
Many People Changed Careers During The Great Depression
Self Assessment May Be For You
- Career Assessment and Life On the Job
Work should not be punishment. In fact, workers are entitled to find the work that suits them the best. This will serve their employers the best as well, even if they are working for themselves! It takes a little research and here's how to do it... - How to Find Your “Job Personality”
"Personality" is a psychological term that means "a set of behaviors." Certain skill sets and behavior sets are required for work in the jobs and careers in which you may be interested. Some simple tests can help a job-seeker to begin to look for wor - Self Assessment Tests
Take some online tests for free. Take the results with a grain of salt and take more than one to compare reuslts. You can come up with a holistic picture of yourself in this way.
© 2008 Patty Inglish MS
