Have you ever found yourself wondering what kind of job or career you would be best suited for? If so, you are certainly not alone, as there are millions of people who will go through the very same thing each and every year. There are many reasons for this too. It may be because your job simply disappeared when the economy went sour. There were thousands of people who came into work one day only to be told their job didn’t exist anymore. It may also be because you chose your career many years ago, and now you are not the same person. Sometimes we grow into different careers, and should make that change in order to keep ourselves happy.
Another issue that plagues primarily young people is that, perhaps, you have just graduated from high school, and feel like you have absolutely no direction in your life. Choosing a career could be a daunting task, and there is no shame in asking for a little help. You may be wondering what kind of help we are talking about here, and the answer is career assessments.
The Career Assessment
Maybe you heard about career assessments while you were still in school and didn’t take them very seriously. However, you should know that career assessments have come a long way in the last few decades, and there is a much longer list of possible careers to match you with than ever before. Many people did not take these tests very seriously for this reason alone. But when you have 10 skills that match you to freelance writing, but only one that would match you to Park Ranger, and it just so happens that Freelance Writer is not on the list, then you know that you are going to be matched to a job you wouldn’t be very happy in. This is because it only matched one skill or personality trait.
Fortunately, the personality based career assessments of today are so much better. You can easily find great career assessments online, and be matched up with a list of perfect careers in just a matter of minutes.
When to take an assessment
These career assessments are particularly good after a job layoff, as many people in this situation find themselves depressed and at a loss for what to do. However, understanding yourself is the key to moving on. If you know your personality traits, then you can take the online assessments and they will work great for you. If you happen to find yourself disagreeing with the results, you should retake the test. You may even want to take a different test. This is because either you do not know yourself well enough, or the test you are taking is of poor quality. The best way to go about this is to take a few personality based career assessments, and then just take all of their suggestions in. Just because the test says it doesn’t mean you have to do it.
As long as you take the suggestions as suggestions and realize that the final decision is up to you, then you should be able to find the perfect job through a career assessment.
David Couper is a career coach and writer who for the last twenty years has worked in Europe, Asia, and in the USA with major organizations including the BBC, Fuji Television, Mattel, Sony, and Warner Bros.
He has successfully coached individuals at all levels including CEOs of major companies wanting a new challenge, frustrated souls wanting to make their dream come true, and front-line employees laid off and desperate to get a job.
David has published seven books. His works on interpersonal skills, counseling in the workplace, and management issues (published by Connaught, Gower, HRD Press, Longman, Macmillan/Pearson Publishing, Oxford University Press) have been translated into Swedish, Polish, and Danish, and published in the UK and the USA.
David has a degree in Communication, a postgraduate qualification in education, is certified in a number of training technologies, and has a Masters in Psychology. He is a member of the American Society of Training and Development, Society of Human Resources Professional, Writers Guild and the British Academy of Film and Television.
He has dual US/UK citizenship and speaks French and Japanese.
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