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Why Career Tests Limit Options
I thought I’d take a break from the stay-at-home drum beat and get on my soap box instead. For as long as I have been in the career development business, (over thirty years now) I have felt that the most common methods of career testing are flawed. I’ll outline a few reasons why:
- Let’s start out with the concept of taking a test. Does that idea inspire you? Are you excited, creative and resourceful? Of course not. Tests are scary and threatening. Not a great platform to design the next chapter of your life.
- Test are authoritative and serious. When you take a test, you trust the result as being the truth, the absolute answer. Thus, you relinquish your power to determine your own truth.
- In order to be both reliable and valid, the test must be standardized and normed. This means your result has been accurate time after time. For example, when I take the Strong Interest Inventory, I consistently receive a high score in social worker. This means I share the likes and dislikes of a happy female social worker. That is awesome, except my values and temperament do not align with social work. Just my interests do.
- The world of work is changing at a pace that is staggering. At this point, in the middle of a pandemic, we truly do not know what work will look like going forward. New careers will emerge and traditional jobs will morph to accommodate a new normal. Standardized tests will not be able to guide us forward.
I do advocate for self-report styled career assessments, especially if it offers a platform to prioritize your values, enjoyable skills, career-related interests and your temperament. You should be able to experience your career exploration without a professional interpretation. You are the author of your future. No one knows you better that you do.
For all the reasons listed above, I created the assessment
I just described. If you are not where you want to be in your life and/or your career, take this time to learn more about yourself. If you know family member or friend who needs direction, share the Elevations
career assessment with them. This unscheduled sabbatical could be the beginning of an amazing future.
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