A career aptitude test cannot tell the future, but it can confirm what you already know and also open new doors for you to explore. Questions about your career skills and abilities never fade away, because people always grow as their thinking style evolves. You can take more than one test to asses your strengths and intellectual assets. Even employers sometime use them to better assign roles for the employees.
A career aptitude test quantifies your career goals and can define a significant aspect of your life and help you make a smart professional decision. A career counselor can recommend certain career paths based on different aptitude tests. Some resemble standardized tests such as the SAT, and aim to reveal the area you have the strongest knowledge about. If math is not your strong point, the test administrator won’t suggest a job in engineering or accounting.
The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) is a popular career aptitude test given to those interested in joining the U.S. military service. It evaluates basic abilities in various fields, including general science, automotive information, general science and also military occupations aptitudes.
As opposed to this, a career personality test focuses less on the specific knowledge and more on personal tendencies and how they relate to various occupations. A personality test can give the employer insight on you personality traits and temperament. Furthermore, it can show if a person requires discipline in order to excel or prefers a more unstructured working environment. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is the most famous personality test. Most of the time it is adapted for career tests and altered, preserving its core, because it has been developed during the World War Two.
Although a career aptitude test can be a valuable tool, critics claim that they are vague and don’t offer sufficient data about the tested subject. Moreover, studies have revealed the fact that most students have the highest grades in the classes in which they have the most interest so they don’t require a test to determine what they like doing and what they are good at.
Career aptitude tests usually influence the career decision people make and play a huge role in their decision to follow a certain path. A test should not be the only factor that influences your choice or limits it. Of course, it can be a helpful guide that can get you to consider alternative careers, reveal new options and help you discover abilities that you were not aware of. Nevertheless, the most important thing is to be self aware and find a job you are passionate about.
