Career Placement Test Information

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A career placement test can provide valuable information when you are thinking about making a career change. If you're expecting an easy answer to questions about your next career move, a career test alone won't give you that. It can, however, provide some valuable insight and inspiration that can point you in the right direction.

There are many kinds of career tests out there, so it's important to find the right kind of test for your needs.

Aptitude Tests

What an aptitude test can do:
A career aptitude test measures your capacity to learn a variety of different skills. This kind of career placement test may assess everything from your capacity to learn math, to your fine motor skills, to your spatial perception.

What an aptitude test can not do:
A career aptitude test does not depend on things you have already learned in the past. That means that even if you have not studied math in years, a good aptitude test will assess whether you could easily learn math now or in the future.

An aptitude test does not measure your interests. So, while the test may show that it would be very easy for you to learn math, you may hate math. Your dislike of math will not be shown in an aptitude test.

Example of an aptitude test:
General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB - pronounced gat-be)

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Career Interest Inventories

What a career interest inventory can do:
A career interest inventory will show how your interests compare to the interests of people different types of jobs.

Your interests are compared with the interests of thousands of individuals who work in a wide variety of fields.

The career interest inventory will then indicate the jobs in which your interests match closely with the interests of people who are already happily working in those fields.

What an interest inventory can not do:
This type of career placement test does not measure your skills and aptitudes. So, while an interest inventory can show that there's a high likelihood that you would enjoy a certain profession, it cannot predict whether you would easily learn the skills needed to do a particular type of job.

Example of an interest inventory:
Strong Interest Inventory (SII)

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Career Personality Tests

What a career personality test can do:
A career personality test can provide you with insight into your personality.

What is the difference between an interest inventory and a personality test?
Typically, career personality tests primarily focus on helping you to develop a deeper understanding of your personality. They often note careers that tend to be a good fit for people who fall within each personality type, but that is usually not their main focus.

On the other hand, a career interest inventory typically has a stronger focus toward matching you with potential careers that fit with your interests. Although they provide some insight into your personality, this is not the main focus of most interest inventories.

What a career personality test can not do:
A personality test does not predict whether you have the ability to easily learn the skills required to do a specific type of job.

Example of a career personality test:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

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Work Values Inventories

What work values inventories can do:
This type of career placement test can help you to think through your work values or preferences.

For example, a work values inventory may ask you to rank the importance of things like earning a high salary, engaging in social interaction, contributing to society or gaining status through your job.

What work values inventories can not do:
A work values inventory does not assess whether you have the ability to easily learn the skills required to do a specific type of job.

A work values inventory does not match your personality or interests to specific jobs.

Example of a work values inventory:
Super's Work Values Inventory

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Skills Assessments

What skills assessments can do:
Normally completing a skills assessment involves brainstorming alone or with a professional to list all of the skills you could bring to a job.

Skills assessments help you to understand the skills you already possess as a result of all of the training and professional and personal experience you have.

Skills assessments can help you to see how your skill set may fit with jobs other than the type of work you have done in the past.

What skills assessments can not do:
Skills assessments do not indicate skills that you have never developed, but that you have the potential to learn easily.

They also do not predict whether you would enjoy using a particular skill (we all have things we're good at that we don't enjoy doing).

Example of a skills assessment
You may hear people refer to a transferable skills assessment (TSA). Unlike aptitude or personality tests, a transferable skills assement is not a scientifically developed career placement test, but it can be an extremely valuable tool to help you to understand what you already have to offer employers.

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Keep reading for more career placement test information:

Career Personality Test Information
Taking a career personality test is one effective way to help ensure you make the best career choice for your personality type.

Take a Career Aptitude Test
Have you wondered if it would be helpful to take a career aptitude test? Discover what to expect if you decide to take a career aptitude test.

Transferable Skills Increase Your Job Options
Transferable skills are the skills you develop through any activity. By assessing your transferable skills you can focus on the skills you have to offer employers in a varitey of industries, instead of just focusing on a narrow job title.

Transferable Skills Sets
Use this transferable skills worksheet to brainstorm your own transferable skills and broaden your career options.

Career Decision Test - Decisonal Balance
Are you trying to make a career decision and feeling stuck? Try this career decision test. If you're the kind of person who likes to make pro and con lists as a way of making decisions, you'll like using this decisional balance worksheet.

Decision Making Confidence with Choose It!
Decision making confidence and smart planning will help you gain enormous control over your future. Choose It! is free decision making software that can help you assess different options.

 
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