10 May Will Psychometric Tests Help You Choose a Career?
Getting Tested: Can Psychometric Tests Help You Choose a Career?
There is one quiz from The National Careers Service which can point you in the direction of some careers, and might a good place to begin. The list of careers however is quite small, and hardly up to date with all the opportunities open to use today. Information architect is just one example of a modern career that wouldn’t be listed, for instance.
Psychometric Tests As A Diagnostic Tool
I feel these tests are better used to help narrow things down or double check on your possible career choice. Does it match your personality? Will you need to completely change your behaviours? Will you be playing to your strengths or will this new role show up your weaknesses.
Personality
There are tests out there that will look at your personality type: big picture or small detail person for instance. You can then assess your possible new career against your own characteristics. So, if you are a big picture thinker and hate detailed work, knowing this means you know a career spent pouring over Excel is not going to make you happy, no matter how much it pays. Likewise, if you are an extrovert who needs people around them, embarking on a career as a freelance writer isn’t out of the question, but you do have to be prepared for long periods of time with just you and your keyboard.
Strengths
A good strengths test will reveal your strengths and weaknesses. There is no harm in working on the latter, as self-improvement always pays off. However, career success means choosing a path that plays to your career strengths, and uses these.
Risk
Knowing your risk comfort zone can be really useful. If you are a Wary type, for instance, a career on the trading floor may be very hard for you, and you probably won’t have the personality to take enough risks to satisfy your clients. Move one classification over, to the Prudent type however, and you could a be a good choice for some careful clients.
Likewise, you may have to take on a loan for training, go back to school or take a step back salary-wise. Knowing your approach to Risk will help you think carefully, and assess whether your risk type could be holding you back. It also helps you identify other’s risk type – people who could be affected by your decision. Knowing this can help you to get them on board too.
How Psychometric Tests Help You Choose a Career
To make a thorough analysis you will need as much information as you can get about your possible career or job. This may mean conducting some research as I suggested here, if you haven’t done it already.
Using what you have gleaned from your tests, you can assess it against the criteria above. So, if we discover that you hate being told what to do, and maybe even secretly undermine, you’ll know that a rigid hierarchical career may be hard for you to enjoy.
Workplace Matters
However, it’s not just the career choice. Where you work matters too. You may have the perfect skill set and personality for a career in PR, but a smaller more intimate agency would suit better than a large organisation. IN the latter, you would just feel like you are part of a machine.
This also means that we can measure up your test results with where you are working right now. It may be that you need a change of employer/workplace rather than a whole new career. This is a wise thing to double check as it could save you a lot of time and energy.
If you’d like to experience this process with me, take a look at my career coaching programmes.
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