Yahoo Finance Should Assessment Tests Determine Your Next Career Move?
Are you wondering what career you should go for? Are you looking to make a mid-life change but still feeling like you don't yet know what you want to do when you grow up?
Whether you are at the early stage of your professional life or have decades of experience, a fruitful first step to figuring out your professional development may be to find a career counselor who is skilled in personality and skills assessment testing.
Perhaps you are not sure of the value of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other assessment tools, such as the DiSC Profile and the Strong Interest Inventory. Amy Connelly is a career coach with a private practice in Indiana, and she also serves as a trainer and resource development resource for REA -- Partners in Transition. She offers this very short exercise to get a perspective:
Take a piece of paper and a pen, and write your signature as you normally do. Pause, and ask yourself: "How did that feel?" Typically, people will answer: "fine," "normal" or "so what?"
"Now," she continues, "Take the pen in your nondominant hand, and write your signature below the first one." Pause again. She says: "You were able to do it, but how did it come out, and how did you feel when you were writing?" Typical answers: "It looks lousy," "It doesn't feel natural" and "It was more of a chore and required more concentration."
Matching your personality, preferences and natural abilities to the kinds of requirements of work, pressures and environments of a given career can be one among many predictors of your ease of achieving success. When you work at a job that aligns well with your personality, it will likely feel as natural as your customary way of writing your signature.
Connelly says assessment tools like Myers-Briggs can enable you to understand your preferred way of getting energy, perceiving information, making judgments and organizing your life. This tool assesses people in terms of their inherent tendency toward being Extravert or Introvert (E or I), Sensate or I(N)tuitive (S or N), Thinking or Feeling (T or F) and Judging or Perceiving (J or P). Your overall personality is the combination of one of these choices in each of the four category sets.
There are many ways that various tests dissect human personality and behavior and correlate them to types of jobs that fit well. For example, individuals oriented toward working with things and ideas might fit well as scientists, forensic types or in other problem-solving fields. Alternatively, someone orientated toward working with ideas and people might do well as writers, artists or other creative types.
Of course, it might be that you have a particular interest in a field that isn't generally associated with your personality type. You may be able to handle it, but it will feel less natural and take much more energy to get it done the right way -- like writing with your nondominant hand. It isn't that you can't or shouldn't do the job. Testing is one of many considerations that should go into deciding on one's career direction.
Syndee Feuer, president and founder of the Florida-based Career Tactics and team leader at REA, says various personal assessment tests have value insofar as they can help an individual in the process of self-discovery. While she is well experienced with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and other assessment tools, she is partial to the 360Reach survey.
With this tool, a person surveys friends, colleagues, relatives or others. The results can provide valuable feedback about how you are seen and help you determine what differentiates you from everyone else in the marketplace. The 360Reach survey is different than the 360 reviews that take place within companies, because those are limited to people with whom you work.
On the flip side, many employers require job candidates to undergo the MBTI. The test may have some benefit to employers as part of an overall candidate assessment, but career counselors often warn against using any one result as a litmus test for a particular job.
When it comes to hiring, Feuer says that it really comes down to "three Cs." First is Competency. An employer needs to know: Can you do the job? The second is Compensation. "Can I pay you what you want and what you are worth?" And last is Chemistry. Feuer says: "I think that this last C, Chemistry, plays into the hiring decision, truthfully, as much as anything else. Is there a chemistry with the hiring manager, the team and the culture?"
When used appropriately by both employers and job seekers, Feuer concludes: "Testing can be a useful element of the Chemistry part of the equation." But then she hastens to point out: "It isn't the final decision point."
Happy hunting!
Arnie Fertig, MPA, is passionate about helping his Jobhuntercoach clients advance their careers by transforming frantic "I'll apply to anything" searches into focused hunts for "great fit" opportunities. He brings to each client the extensive knowledge he gained when working in HR staffing and managing his boutique recruiting firm.
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