It is very important that your career is one in which you are fully invested, in which you are happy and which gives you the remuneration you deserve. Many people go through life in careers that they took up only to keep the wolf from the door, or, even if it was something that interested them, it never got them the recognition or remuneration they thought they deserved.
It is for this reason that knowledge of your aptitude for different careers be gauged so that you can make the right decision early on in life. Many schools and colleges have included career aptitude tests in their final year programs so that students know what they should do next.
What are career aptitude tests?
These are designed to help you understand how your personal attributes like interests, values, aptitudes, and skills will impact you as far as success with a different career options are concerned. Out of a variety of career paths the one that suits you most will emerge based on your responses to a certain set of questions.
They are the first step in the process of career counselling and career planning, which includes information gathering, skills evaluation, skill development and enhancement.
A career aptitude test is one way of testing, which career suits you best. It tests your skill for specific tasks. Some say that a career interest test should be taken before an aptitude test, because if you are certain of where your interests lie, then you can develop the skill set for it.
Career aptitude tests measure your ability in the following – verbal and numerical reasoning, your analytical ability, perceptual ability, spatial ability, and technical ability.
Though it gives you an idea of your abilities, you cannot look at a career based on that, rather you should find out what interests you and then develop the abilities for that.
Evaluating and acquiring new skills has its basis in career skill testing. It is only after doing these tests you come to know where your interests lie. Then it is a lifetime of learning ahead, so the career aptitude tests must be designed properly so that you are on the right track from day one.
Some of the different popular career tests and their methods of suggesting careers
1. Test One examines your working style, your energy style, decision making style and your values – it uncovers your working preferences
2. Test Two outlines six personality types – you will be analyzed to fit any three of these. What sort of career fit this combination of three will be explained to you
3. Test Three analyses your personality and directs you to a specific career model within which you will hopefully find your dream job
4. Test Four gives you different career options to suit your personality type (which it analyses)
5. Test Five helps you to discover your personality type, and outline your ideal work environment and lists careers that match these two parameters
