Career assessments are instruments designed to help individuals understand how a variety of personal attributes (i.e., interests, abilities, values, preferences, motivations, aptitudes and skills), impact their potential success and satisfaction with different career options and work environments.  They help answer questions such as Who am I? What makes me unique?  What do I have to offer as an employee?  What career(s) are a good fit for me?

Career assessments are often used by individuals or organizations, such as university career centers, career counselors, job centers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and school guidance counselors to help individuals make more informed career decisions.

Assessments come in many forms and are delivered in many ways.  Observation, interview, card sort activities, timed or untimed tests and inventories are all used to discover what is important to a person, what are their values, skills, and/or preferences. All are either Formal or Informal. 

• Formal assessments are administered and scored by a trained, qualified professional.  They are developed with scientific rigor and are tested on norm groups. Based on these qualities, formal assessments are considered to have reliability and validity.  
• Informal assessments are less structured and generally less precise.  Though these require no special qualifications to administer or interpret, the results will be of greater value if the person interpreting the results is familiar with the assessment being used. 

Resources & Links

Here are a few free career assessments

1. Discover which Career Clusters are of greatest interest by completing this survey:  http://careertech.org/sites/default/files/StudentInterestSurvey-English.pdf  (Use this link if you want to download and use the survey in print format.)

• This survey may be taken on-line through MATC-Madison: http://intranet.madisoncollege.edu/career-assess/ 
• O*NET offers several career assessments; some are computerized and can be downloaded, others are paper/pencil tests.  The assessments available through O*NET include:
• Ability Profiler matches strengths with occupations
• Interest Profiler identifies broad interest areas
• Work Importance Locator identifies job features that are important to you
• Employability Checkup provides a snapshot of your employment potential
• To learn more about these assessments, look here: http://www.onetcenter.org/product.html  (Some must be downloaded to use; others are available in print version only)
• Inner Heroes is an informal assessment that organizes and reports your personality results. (Take the free personality quiz on the left sidebar.  http://www.innerheroes.com/ 
• The HumanMetrics Jung Typology Test is based on Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs typological approach to personality. http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp  
• Upon completion, you will obtain on-line:
• Your type formula according to Carl Jung and Isabel Myers-Briggs typology along with the strengths of the preferences
• The description of your personality type
• The list of occupations and educational institutions where you can get relevant degree or training, most suitable for your personality type 
• Life Motifs http://www.lifemotifsprofile.com/lifemotifslite.html is an on-line questionnaire that may be useful to explore relationships between personality characteristics and job satisfaction.
• The Keirsey Temperament Sorter ®-II is a 70-question personality instrument. Use the results to explore how personality characteristics might influence career decisions and job satisfaction.  http://www.keirsey.com/aboutkts2.aspx
• The MAPP (Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential) assessment identifies an individual's motivations toward work and helps match these to job categories.  The test may be taken on-line free of charge. A more comprehensive analysis may be obtained for a fee.  http://www.assessment.com/ 

Other Sources

Several companies offer on-line career guidance and planning systems.  Many of these systems include career assessments.  To access these systems, a yearly fee may be needed to maintain a site license.  Here are the web addresses for some of these companies.

§ Bridges - www.bridges.com/

§ Career Cruising - http://www.careercruising.com/Default.aspx

§ Career Noodle - www.careernoodle.com/

 Wisconsin Career Pathways -  https://www.wicareerpathways.org/ 

§ WISCareers - http://wiscareers.wisc.edu/Default.asp

Many career assessments are based on Holland's Theory of Career Development.  He asserted that a person is attracted to a particular occupation(s) that meets his/her personal needs and therefore provides personal satisfaction.   This theory also assumed that people and careers can be categorized as six different types: Realistic, Artistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, or Conventional. 

Another easy assessment to use in the classroom is the "Behavioral Styles and Personality Profile Activity". This quick survey helps students identify their work behavior styles and offers tips on getting along with people who are different from you. The work style profile also identifies careers that relate to the characteristics selected: Student Profile Worksheet.