If you’re struggling to find your dream job or unsure of what your next career move should be, career assessments might be the next right step. Here’s how to do it.
Take career assessments test to find your dream job
If you’re struggling to find your dream job or unsure of what your next career move should be, a career assessment might be the next right step. Career assessments aren’t tests for you to pass or fail, but rather a way for you to discover more about who you are, what you like and what you’re good at. Knowing all these details about yourself can be crucial when trying to navigate a job search, explore career options or even pitch yourself in an interview.
So, what do you actually get out of a career assessment? Tangible results that explain your personal VIPS (values, interests, personality and skills) and point to career paths that are a good match for you. Let’s take a deeper dive into how career assessments and your VIPS can help you find your dream job.
How Career Assessments Can Be Effective for You?
Identify Your VALUES
Career assessments that clarify your values as a professional and employee are exceptionally helpful when trying to find a company that will be a good fit for you. Most companies have mission statements that outline what their organization’s values are and you can think of your values as your personal mission statement. When your values align with the values and mission statement of a company, you will believe in the work that you do and most likely have higher levels of commitment and satisfaction at work.
One excellent example of any assessment that can help you discover your values is the Knowdell Career Values Card Sort. This is a more interactive assessment than some of the other examples, but it allows you to sort and rank physical or virtual cards with different career values on them. You will quickly learn what’s truly important to you and then you can make sure to align those values with the organizations you’re applying to.
Uncover Your PERSONALITY
Different personalities can often lead to different career paths. While a person with any personality can do any job, certain jobs might not align with who someone inherently is as much as others. When a job doesn’t match your personality, it sometimes leads to burnout because it can be exhausting to work in ways that are outside of what comes naturally to you.
A very popular career assessment that produces results that explain personalities is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®). This assessment uses dichotomous scales to explain how you get your energy, how you gather information, how you make decisions, and how you perceive the world; all components that make up your personality. While there are several similar versions of this assessment, the original version is most likely to produce the best results.
Discover Your INTERESTS
Discovering your interests is pivotal in finding your dream job. If you aren’t interested in the work that you’re doing, you’ll quickly lose focus and may not give your all at work. Some of the most popular career assessments can remedy this issue by guiding you toward career paths that align with your passions and interests.
The Strong Interest Inventory® is a great assessment to use when you’re looking for a dream job but not sure where to start. After answering a comprehensive questionnaire, this assessment compares your results with the responses of people who work in a wide range of industries to see where they align and connect. These connections can make it very clear what type of work and industries you’re interested in and may want to consider moving forward.
Learn Your SKILLS
Not only do you need to be interested in and aligned with the work that you do, but you also should be good at it! Several skills can be learned and developed over time, but to an extent, we are all naturally inclined to excel at certain skills. When you understand what skills you have, you can look for those skills in job descriptions to help you find your dream job. This will also allow you to rest assured that you will enjoy your day-to-day tasks at work.
CliftonStrengths is a career assessment that ranks 34 strengths in order from strongest to weakest to let you know the areas where you exceed. There are descriptions that explain the skills associated with each strength and all 34 strengths are broken down into four categories that demonstrate what role your play on a team; a great detail to know in a job interview!
Here is a list of more assessments to consider to help you find your dream job:
- The Holland Code
- The DiSC Model
- The Enneagram of Personality
Before you jump into any of these career assessments remember these things:
- Answer all of the questions honestly. Go with your gut and make sure that the answers you’re giving are the true answers, not the answers that you want to be true.
- These assessments are just a starting point. Sometimes it can feel like you’re being put in a box when you take a career assessment or that whatever the assessment tells you is your only option. But that’s not true at all! Use these assessments as a guide and a piece to a larger puzzle.
- It can be very helpful to have a career coach walk you through dissecting all of this information. They may be able to make connections related to your assessments that you never would have made yourself.
There are no grades and no right or wrong answers. Just valuable and insightful information that can lead you to your dream job. Career assessments give you the opportunity to self-reflect and build your excitement about what’s in store for your future. Give an assessment a try to learn what’s important to you, what you like, who you are as a person, and what you excel at. When all of those things are combined, you can find your ideal position with ideal daily tasks at an ideal company.
