For those not sure what type of career they are interested in pursuing, career assessment tools can provide help. There are assessments available at career centers that are designed to help people figure out a good career option. They explore your personality, skills, interests, and values, and can suggest potential careers for you, many of which were not considered before. 

Career assessment tools show students and job-seekers their individual niches, making it easier to choose a career path compatible with their strengths. One common mistake in career assessment is picking a career you’re not interested in. No matter how much money you make in this career, if you don’t like what you do, you won’t be successful. It is much better to pick a career you enjoy that pays less, instead of picking a career you don’t like that pays more. If you want to have a successful career, income is just one of the things you should pay attention to. You should also look at the career growth, as well as your skill in performing tasks that are related to the field.

In the last decade, career assessment tools have become extremely valuable. In a day and age where the cost of attending college is very high, it has become more important for students to pick the right career paths. If you pick a career that is in decline due to globalization, or you go into a field you don’t like, you may have wasted a great deal of time and money. This is something that you must avoid at all costs. Learning how to use the right career assessment tools will ensure that the field you pick is perfectly matched to your capabilities and skills. Generally, most people either use the left or right side of their brains proficiently. While some people are more artistically oriented, others are better as subjects such as math, science, and engineering.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

The MBTI personality test is time-tested and research-validated. Although not an actual career test, it has been used in career counseling for many years, and today it’s a standard test used by career counselors. It is designed to identify four major personal preferences (introvert or extrovert, how we take information, how we form conclusions, and how we relate to the outer world), and career professionals use these results to match someone to a related career field.

From it, you can learn how your personality type can contribute to an organization, what your leadership style is, what your preferred methods of communication are, and how you learn and solve problems. The MBTI is often given to those looking for a wide range of career possibilities. Tests such as the MBTI are extremely important, because it allows you to learn more about your strengths and weaknesses, and this can be extremely valuable.

Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS)

People, in general, tend to enjoy doing things that they are good at. Further, they tend to perform well in areas of interest. The CISS is a great way to take the things you enjoy doing and then match them to a career. The survey assists you in identifying your interests and skills that pertain to jobs, and then matches them with jobs which has needs for those interests and skills at the very level you displayed.

To enhance the data that the survey provides, the CISS also measures one’s confidence in his/her ability to perform certain job duties. The CISS mainly concentrates on careers that require college education and is usually given to those in their college years. As you can imagine, this is an excellent survey for those who are students in college.

Self Directed Search (SDS)

The SDS is a self-administered, self-scored, and self-interpreted tool. Test-takers evaluate and record interests and disinterests in six different categories based on personality type: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. The theory is that people who choose careers that match their own type will be happier and more successful at their job. While the SDS is taken by people searching for a college major, looking for their first job, or switching careers, it was designed to help young people start planning for their future. With its simple framework, the SDS is frequently used by middle school students.