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Career Personality and Career Personality Tests: part 5

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Part 5: Career Personality Test Types – The Right Career Test for You

All career personality tests fall into three categories: occupation generating, occupation matching, and neither occupation generating nor matching. Each type of career personality test has unique features and addresses different career needs. This blog should help you find the right career test for your situation.

Occupation Generating Career Tests

Take a paper test to generate

Some career personality tests are paper tests that generate jobs lists

These are inexpensive, simple to use, and quick tests. They are most appropriate for persons wanting many career options, needing an inexpensive test, wanting a paper test (as opposed to online), and for lower level jobs in corporations, trades, or front-line service. Among the most common and best on the market are: COPS system tests and SDS tests.

Occupation Matching Career Tests

Next, occupation matching tests are meant to align personality traits and jobs that require those traits for success and satisfaction. That means that after taking this test, your personality traits will be matched with a career that will most likely result in your success and happiness. These are, therefore, especially useful for persons seeking to discover their first career, a new career, a career direction, an ideal career, getting clues to define a career niche, and changing careers because of career dissatisfaction. The best tests of this kind include Strong Interest Inventory and Myers Briggs Type Test.

Non-occupation Generating or Matching Career Tests

Lastly, non-generating or matching tests do not produce a list or a set of occupations matching your personality. Instead, they give descriptions of how the test-taker would likely behave on the job.  For example, the FIRO-B test describes how one relates to others on the job such as a boss, co-workers, teams, and colleagues. Another such test, the DISC test, measures one’s natural and adapted ways of communicating, contributing, leading, interacting, and performing at work. These tests, therefore, are usually used for job performance improvements, employment screening, and career development.

The test you choose depends on your life context. What is your current career? Do you know your purpose (career change, satisfaction improvement, etc.)? What is your income or desired income? Choosing the right career test might be tricky. Fill out the form below to ask The Career Profiler for help if you need it.

 

Career Personality and Career Personality Tests: part 4

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Part 4: Other Career Theories (not Career Personality theories)

Some of the career trait theory tests do not measure personality characteristics but instead measure abilities, aptitudes and values. While these do not fall into career personality theories, tests of this nature should be considered as part of your career decision process.

Career ability tests are almost the same as career aptitude tests with an expanded and more detailed explanations for career applications such as the Highlands Ability Battery. They identify where a person’s ability to perform in a certain career role and could be viewed therefore as providing some insight to career success.  Career values tests, of which there are few useful ones on the market with the exception of Career Anchors, assess ones current priorities critical for making a final career decision.

In addition to career type and trait theories, there are factor and life span theories.  Holland’s typology could be categorized as factor theory in that it classifies occupations by certain task factors.  The Strong Interest Inventory is the best career test example of this career theory.  Others include Self-Directed Search and Campbell Interest Inventory.

Life span career theory is the final other type of career theory.  Donald Super constructed the life span and life space theory identifying the critical influences on a person in different roles and life stages. Few tests are available for life span theories.  Assessment of life span typically relies on paper pencil exercises or career interviews with a career counselor or career coach.

Career personality testing is usually one of the first steps a career coach or career counselor should take you through once they have assessed a person’s career needs.  A Life Span assessment should be included in the assessment or career profiling phase and ideally should follow the career personality testing phase.

Career Life Span Assessments identify key career and work values and the current priority of these values which a person uses to ultimately decide upon one of the possible suitable career paths.  It also identifies current lifestyle needs and influences of others on the decision.  If ever a person struggles with choosing between career options, it is wise to engage in a  type of life span assessment.  The Career Profiler identifies the life span assessment phase as the nurture part of the profiling step.  See Career Steps Model.