Students and those who are about to face the challenges of getting a job and experiencing a new life after formal education would greatly benefit from career assessment. You can say that it is like a self-assessment with the understanding of your attributes in various disciplines. There are some important attributes in career assessment that will be addressed to better understand your career readiness. Employment right now is pretty challenging, but that doesn’t mean taking everything with a grain of salt. What it involves is finding a way to uncover and discover possibilities you may not have thought of before or things that reinforce your original plans.
It’s both exciting and scary to be employed in a new job and it’s quite a feat to find careers that you really like. It takes time and a little patience to get to that point. So what can career assessment do for you? First of all, with this, it is very likely that a counselor or a professional adviser will address certain areas of the self. These facets would be your interests, your personality, skills and preferences. As you can see, you will be combining your educational background along with your personal aspects to find the most practical options for your careers.
There are a number of criteria in this field, to be used for your purpose. The first is the methodology to be used. There are some career assessment methods that are quantitative in nature and some include qualitative measures. Balancing these methods will help the counselor provide you with the best jobs for your future.
The next criteria would be the measured attributes. Some tests will focus more on personality and others will focus more on skills. Some will focus on ability. Again, it would be better to take a rigorous route to thoroughly evaluate the dimensions.
Check the validity of the test. There are a number of popular tests that are morphing online and they really do cost a lot for a test, but some might just be snippets of the actual test. You should know the validity by consulting scientific journals about the tests. If possible, have a counselor administer the career assessment.
One of the most popular career assessment tools is the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator or MBTI. This is used in many educational institutions for students to understand their work styles, the way they prefer to receive information, as well as communicate and make decisions. Another method that can be used is the Strong Interest Inventory, which is great for those who are about to enter college or are in their first year, where things may still be confusing in their future careers and dream projects.
Again, these tools and others can be beneficial to your discovery and understanding of how you really work and how you want to develop your careers. You can take the results with a grain of salt because life’s uncertainties actually add color to the entire job-finding process and discover amazing passions along the way.
