Often the myriad of career options available today can actually work to confuse or even create a sense of fear avoidance in people, causing them to ignore the need for a proper process of career exploration. The consequences of avoiding career exploration however is that people can, often years down the track, find themselves working in occupations which provide little or no job satisfaction.
When this occurs people often find it difficult to understand how and why their career journey has taken them to where they are. It’s easy to miss the sign posts on the road of career exploration, and in deciding not to take a path toward career satisfaction people can find themselves reaching a career deadend and needing a career change.
Taking a career advice test, or assessment while useful at any stage of the career exploration process can be particularly beneficial in those early stages of career exploration process in order to help people actively think about the type of jobs they may be interested in. This may sound simple, and in some respects it is, however you would be surprised how many people work unhappily in a job or career for many years without every having really thought about the types of careers that may be best suited to them.
Career advice tests are often used by career counsellors because although they are unlikely to be the only answer in finding your ideal career, they are often an excellent starting point to help flesh out ideas and provide options that can be narrowed in on and explored in greater detail. From a career counsellors perspective a career advice test can provide a client with an opportunity to explore career interests in a well structured and productive manner.
One cautionary word before you rush out and take a career advice test, or assessment however. While any process that gets people to actively think and explore themselves and career options can be a good thing from a career counselling perspective, it’s important to recognize that many career advice tests or quizzes on the internet are not designed to be valid or reliable tests, but rather just fun tools to explore interests or career options. If such career quizzes are taken with this understanding and with this knowledge then there is no harm in taking a career quiz for a bit of fun, however unfortunately many of these test purport to be something they are not and this can have negative consequences. Although no career advice test is likely to provide “the answer” (as there is never just one answer), there are certainly some career advice tests that are better than others.
One of the ways people can spot a good quality career advice test from an unreliable quiz is to see if the test developer is prepared to make their research data available. Two of the better tests available on the internet that do always for uses to review their research reliability and validity data are the Strong Interest Inventory and Myers Briggs career advice test. These are very popular tests and importantly their validity and reliability data is freely available on the internet and can be access using a quick search engine search. Readers will find that, unlike the career quizzes, these better quality career advice tests are not free but when one considers the importance of making good career choice then perhaps spending a small amount of money on a proper career advice test is a wise more!
