The era of Facebook quizzes and online personality tests appears to be far behind us, however, there was something very helpful about the frequent self-reflection these assessments evoked. While these tests were based on very arbitrary measures, the constant evaluation of our interests was an invaluable tool for self-discovery. Even today, investing in more formalized measures of self-assessment can be crucial to developing your skills and shifting your attention towards goals that are truly aligned with your strengths.
What Is a Career Self-Assessment Test?
Having a successful career is a common life goal, and yet many of us appear to be engaged in temporary jobs filled with uncertainty. Due to a variety of factors such as job availability, economic conditions, incompatibility, etc., many move from job to job, unsatisfied with the work they are expected to do there. In this endeavor, they fail to establish a career or an overarching domain of expertise in a single field that can define the work that they do.
Among the many causes of dissatisfaction lies the mismatch between the work and the individual’s preferences. Most people work in jobs simply because they are available or because they offer decent pay. Over time, the incompatibility begins to drain them. This is where a self-assessment comes in. Career self-assessments allow people to understand their own characteristics and qualities and use them to redefine their careers. While self-assessment mainly requires you to introspect on your abilities, there are helpful tools available online to aid in the process.
What Are Five Career Self-Assessments?
Countless tools are available to test yourself on different measures, from personality dimensions to personal strengths. Many companies use similar psychometric tools while hiring, so these tests are likely to tell you what these companies might find.
Big Five: The Five Factor Personality Test
This self-assessment test is based on Robert McCrae and Paul Costa’s five-factor model of personality. It looks at five core dimensions that lie on a spectrum: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The test provides a comprehensive look at an individual’s personality and how they might fit different roles.
The Career Beliefs Inventory
This 25-scale inventory by John D. Krumboltz assesses if there are any internal thoughts and assumptions that are blocking one’s career goals and interfering with decision-making. It is a helpful tool for discovering alternatives to achieving one’s career milestones
Character Strength Inventory
Peterson and Seligman developed a list of 24 core strengths that explore an individual’s personal abilities. Using the term character strength, they divided them into five main categories: Wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. The tool is a major component of positive psychology and doesn’t look at “weaknesses” but instead focuses on improving strengths you are low on.
Keirsey Temperament Sorter
Inspired by the research on temperaments by Plato and Hippocrates, and the personality types MBTI provides, the self-assessment tool by David Keirsey provides four temperament types: Artisan, guardian, idealist, and rational. These temperaments evolve from a matrix based on two communication styles (concrete and abstract) and two action orientations (cooperative and utilitarian). The tool provides 16 character types that are linked to the Myers-Briggs Personality inventory, and allow a holistic look into the individual’s constitution.
O*NET Career Exploration Tools
Released by the U.S. Department of Labor the career self-assessment tool has two features: Interest Profiler and Work Importance Locator. The tests are designed to help users understand what they value on the job and what careers can match them best. The tool links to the O*NET database and the occupational information in CareerOneStop to ensure there is a large repository of information to learn from.
What Is the Best Career Assessment Test?
Perhaps the most popular and well-regarded self-assessment personality test in years, the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator was inspired by Carl Jung and developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers.
The test has four personality dimension pairs: Extroversion-introversion, sensing-intuition, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. The personality inventory is freely available online and there are also options available to become a MBTI certified practitioner qualified to conduct and interpret results for other organizations.
In recent times, the personality tool even saw a spike in use from South Koreans who were using its results to find a compatible partner. The inventory presents endless avenues for its application.
How Do I Do a Self-Assessment of Myself?
A lot of popular self-assessment tools are available for free online, which can help you test various dimensions. Logging into these websites and answering some simple questions will give you your results and interpretations at once.
However, conducting a self-assessment does not have to require external tools. You can sit down with a set of questions and answer them honestly, with the intention of identifying what is important to you. These written self-assessments can also be a great way to show your manager your growth mindset and how objectively you are able to review your work.
- Define the purpose of the activity: Be clear on why you are doing the assessment and what you hope to learn from it.
- Define your self-assessment criteria: Set metrics for your assessment, such as technical skills, emotional intelligence, time management, communication abilities, etc.
- Write an introduction to yourself: Reflect on how you would introduce yourself and where you are in your career currently. What would you choose to focus on?
- Write about the career highlights: The moments you select to showcase yourself are good indicators of what you value.
- Mention strengths and weakness: All individuals have both and reminding yourself of what they are is always a good idea.
- Make a note of situations where you displayed your strengths and weaknesses: This is a helpful measure of whether your self-assessment is based on factual data or what you assume to be true.
- List the qualities you would look for in a prospective employee: It always helps to track the values that matter to you and consider them when you approach a new opportunity.
- Be honest and professional: Guide yourself to be frank about the details you write about but also avoid speaking rudely, even to yourself.
- Set goals and plot an action plan: Record what you would like to do differently and in what ways it should contribute to your growth.
- Ask for feedback: Yes, the self-assessment largely requires an internal evaluation, but asking for insights can provide perspectives you might not have considered on your own.
“What Are Some Things I Do Well?” Self-Assessment Examples
Writing the self-assessment can feel awkward at first, especially when it comes to reviewing your strengths positively. Let us look at some positive domains that you can focus on.
- Problem-solving:
- “I pride myself on thinking creatively to find innovative solutions to challenges.”
- “I remain composed and can efficiently tackle problems during stressful situations.”
- Communication:
- “I am able to simplify complex ideas into language that my listener might understand better.”
- “My active listening skills allow me to genuinely understand others’ perspectives in conversations.”
- Attention to detail:
- “I review my work with great care and ensure I allot enough time to do it.”
- “I encourage my team to have multiple layers of checks before a document reaches a client.”
- Leadership:
- “I take charge of situations and ensure work is divided according to everyone’s capabilities.”
- “I maintain an open channel of communication so team members are always able to provide feedback when necessary.”
Innumerable other domains can be used to define yourself, such as being empathetic, having a positive mindset, engaging your creativity, applying organizational skills, etc. While this is a start, regularly conducting an honest review of your skills and recollecting situations where you employed them will help in coming up with more such phrases for your self-assessment.
If you choose to use an online tool to gain some insight, those details can be incorporated into your assessment as well. Organizations might find your knowledge of these metrics to be an additional perk of hiring you and you will be better prepared for any interviews that come up in the future. You will also be able to make better choices for your career following the self-assessment, so taking the process seriously is bound to be good for you.