Millions of people are looking for help in determining what career will be best for them. Many of these people turn to career tests to get help. But do they help? This article will discuss three different popular career testing solutions. This article is not a review or comparison between the tests, and does not attempt to pick a winner. Rather, this article focuses on how career tests work, and how they may be helpful to you.
Career testing from three different companies were reviewed. The reviewed career tests were from:
• Career Key (free)• American Career Test
• Thinking Craft
All 3 companies offered a similar basic methodology for ferreting out your best possible career. The questions are designed to get you to reveal aspects of who you are and your preferences. There are no right or wrong answers. It is important to answer these questions as honestly as you can. After all, you are trying to learn about yourself!
Here is some information on each career test and how they work:
Career Key
Career Key asks you questions about the kinds of jobs you think that you might like, what skills you think you have, what types of things that you like to work with and more. The questions are fairly direct in nature. There are 5 total screens that cover the following information:
• Career test screen 1: Jobs that interest you – you are offered a list of 43 jobs and are asked to check all that interest you.• Career test screen 2: Things you like to do – you choose the best answer for you for 6 different questions about things you like to do.
• Career test screen 3: Your abilities – you choose the best answer for you for 6 different questions about your abilities.
• Career test screen 4: How you see yourself – you choose the best answer for you for 6 different questions about how you see yourself.
• Career test screen 5: Things that you value – you choose the best answer for you for 6 different questions about things that you value.
You need to complete all 5 screens before being provided initial results. These results provide a summary of your major personality characteristics. You learn whether or not you are realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional. Each characteristic is given a numeric score from 1 to 20, with 20 being the highest, and 1 being the lowest. Of course, you have some aspect of all of these characteristics, but the Career Key test seeks to tell you which areas you are most like.
Once you have learned this about yourself, you are offered the chance to see what types of jobs relate to each characteristic. You are encouraged to click on the characteristics that the tests gave you the highest score on, but can click on any of them if you like. Once you click on one of these characteristics, you are given a list of different types of career choices that match up with the characteristic. At that point it is up to you to make sense of the results and relate it to your own career choice. The business model is great – its free. But the test leaves you with limited information about your career choices. You can take the Career Key test at http://www.careerkey.org.
American Career Test
American Career Test offers a career testing service that uses 3 screens to ask you questions about yourself. American Career Test provides 3 screens of questions. The questions as you to evaluate different statements about yourself and provide honest answers about them, as follows:
• Career test screen 1: 30 statements about yourself that you attempt to comment as to “How true is this of me?”. Possible answers are: Rarely, Sometimes, Usually, and Most Always.• Career test screen 2: 30 statements about yourself that you attempt to comment as to “How true is this of me?”. Possible answers are: Rarely, Sometimes, Usually, and Most Always.
• Career test screen 3: A list of 60 adjectives, for which you evaluate whether or not you or others would say it describes your nature. Possible answers are Rarely, Sometimes, Usually. In addition, this screen has 10 questions about different work activities and whether or not you are interested in them. Possible answers are None, Some, and Much.
American Career Test lets you take the test for free. But once you are done you can’t get your test results until you pick a payment plan. Possible payment plans are:
• Basic career test report - $7.95 – You get a personal profile plus a summary of the 25 top career choices for you.• Bronze career test report - $24.95 – In addition to the basic report, your scores are compared against national averages.
• Silver career test report - $34.95 – In addition to the bronze report, your career suggestions are prioritized taking into account your character mix.
• Gold career test report - $59.95 – In addition to the sliver report, you receive a Management function profile, a management type profile, and a management level profile.
These test reports can help you get some insight into your personality, your motivations, how you like to work, how you compare to others, whether or not you are inclined towards management, and of course, the best career choice for you. American Career Test has done a nice job of presenting the questions and the test results. You can take the American Career Test at http://www.acareertest.org.
Thinking Craft
Thinking Craft’s test questions focus more on personality choices. You are asked to choose between two pairs of personality traits. In some cases, you will find yourself choosing a pair where you don’t like either choice, but you still must pick one over the other. An example of the 2 choices is: individualistic / considerate or fearless / industrious. The choices become difficult if you consider yourself individualistic and fearless, but not considerate or industrious. All in all you make 18 such choices.
Once you are done with the test, you get a variety of different types of data to consider. The first is the Assessment Graph. The assessment graph provides you a rating of four key characteristics: Interactor Style, Analyzer Style, Synthesizer Style, and Concluder Style. Thinking Craft offers a detailed explanation as to what each of the various characteristics mean.
In addition, the Thinking Craft test report offers extensive detail in many other aspects of your personality, as well as suggestions on how to act on them. Some of the test report information includes:
• Career Test Result Page 1: The Learning Style Assessment –a report on how you learn.• Career Test Result Page 2: On-line Learning Guides – a report on how you can optimize your study and learning experience.
• Career Test Result Page 3 : Classroom Strategies – a report on how you can get the best results in the classroom.
• Career Test Result Page 4: Study Tips – a report on how you can get the best results while studying.
• Career Test Result Page 5: You on the Job – a report on what you are like on the job.
• Career Test Result Page 6: How They See You On The Job – a report on how others see you on the job.
Thinking Craft’s test reports are very personality focused, intending to help you see more about yourself, how to get the best results for yourself, and how others see you. They can help you learn more about how to succeed. The test reviewed here was specifically career focused, but does a nice job of presenting the questions and the test results. You can take the Thinking Craft test at http://www.thinkingcraft.com.
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