WHAT IS CAREER TESTING?

Career testing refers to using standardized psychological tests to assist an individual to arrive at the right career choices. A correct career choice depends on multiple factors which are so closely knit and interrelated and have an essential role to play. Therefore, it is important to measure these attributes correctly so that one can arrive at a fairly accurate understanding of one’s personality, interests and aptitude (or ability).?

These tests not only tell us what we are good at but also tell us how much (the degree) we are good at it. For example, they tell us that one has an average or an above-average interest and aptitude in a particular area.?

Career testing is usually undertaken to primarily assess the following 3 attributes:

1. Aptitude: It is defined as the actual power or the potential an individual has, to perform an act, mental or physical, whether or not attained by training and or education. In simple terms, it means, something that an individual is likely to be inherently good at. The fact it is an inherent ability, therefore there is no more accurate way than assessing it using standardized authentic research based tests.
2. Interest: The strength and direction of an individual’s interest affect one’s educational and vocational pursuits. From the point of view of vocational selection and placement, an individual’s interest is of practical consideration. The interest of an individual cannot be obtained clearly by simply directly asking them about what they like because of several reasons as follows:

• First, the individual himself or herself may not be aware of what really interests him or her.
• Secondly, research has shown that often direct questioning results in superficial and unrealistic options. This happens because a couple of careers get glamorized by the media making an individual comment about their interest in that area based more on the glamorized aspect rather than the actual nature of the work involved.
• Thirdly, one cannot comment on whether he or she likes a task till he or she is not aware of the nature of work involved in that task.?
• Fourthly, it is difficult for most people to have all the information (or even sufficient information) about various available vocations?
• In addition, their interest or lack of interest in a career option may come from very limited information about what their day-to-day work in that field involves.

Because of these above-mentioned reasons, the interest inventories are designed to guide students or individuals into areas where they are likely to find the greatest job satisfaction.

3. Personality: Personality is defined as an individual’s unique constellation of psychological states or traits. In simple terms, personality refers to consistent patterns of an individual’s way of thinking and acting. It refers to distinguishable relatively enduring ways in which one person varies from the other. It is these traits that determine how an individual perceives or becomes aware of, and judges or arrives at conclusions about, people, events, situations and ideas. These perceptions and judgments affect how an individual reacts, what interests, values, needs and motivations they hold, and at what are they likely to be really good. Personality assessment assesses these core fundamental personality traits which remain consistent over a period of time.?

This leaves us with the choice of making an accurate evaluation of one’s PIA (Personality, Interest and Aptitude) based on the right career assessment…

Or Make wild guesses, believing them to be correct and investing a major part of our life, time, money and effort, only to realize that this career is not what I ever wanted to do….

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