5 Reasons all students should take career assessments

In today’s world, there is an incredible variety of occupations to choose from that needs a certain set of skills and knowledge. At the same time, such diversity can also cause confusion as people and especially students simply do not know where to start and what to choose.

As the famous jam experiment states, the overload of choice leads to confusion, and someone is less likely to choose something if presented with too many options.

So how do students narrow down the possible career options to make a wise choice that will correspond to their strengths and personality? The answer is career assessments.

Not only do they help match skills to a certain job, they bring other valuable benefits – read about them below.

Identification of one’s strengths and weaknesses

It is rather challenging to assess oneself as we tend to perceive ourselves in a certain manner, not objectively. Assessment tests solve this issue and provide an unbiased analysis of one’s strengths and weaknesses.

With the help of such tests, students can identify their strengths and weaknesses and better understand their own personality. As a result, they can start thinking about the most suitable career, work on the desired skills in accordance with the test results and estimate whether their personality matches their career of choice.

An assessment test can also reveal surprising facts about the student’s personality that can motivate them to try something completely new.

A starting point in the career search

Today, students have access to a tremendous variety of possible career options to choose from. The choice of a future career is stressful enough, and if there are too many options, the students can easily get frustrated or make the wrong choice.

Career assessment tools serve as a great starting point. They narrow down the possible options and provide a few occupations to choose from or, at least, take into consideration. As well, some of the career tests eliminate certain job options which also narrows down the possible options and facilitates the decision-making process.

Evaluation of marketable skills

Career assessment tests not only reveal strengths and weaknesses, but also help evaluate marketable skills in an unbiased manner.

By marketable skills, we mean the ones that are valuable for a future employee such as quick decision-making, ability to work independently or in a team, stress tolerance, etc.

Such tests reveal what kind of skills may be valuable for future employees and what kind of skills need to be worked on. In this way, students can better understand what is their competitive advantage comparing to other candidates. In addition, they can include these marketable skills into the resume and mention them during a job interview which will contribute to the employer’s decision.

An option to learn more about oneself

Students are young people who are willing to learn and are open to new ideas and feedback. Personality tests give them a chance to have a different view on their personality and better understand themselves.

The biggest assessment tests like Myers-Briggs or EQ-i provide students with a detailed report on their emotional intelligence and describe their strengths and areas for improvement in a conversational and friendly manner. In this way, a student does not feel pressed about own weaknesses and can gain more confidence upon learning about the strengths.

The indicator of the EQ

Career assessment tests are used not only to identify skills for a future job. These tests also provide a report on emotional intelligence and soft skills, which is really important in the modern world.

These tests assess skills like leadership, opportunity to work in a team, empathy, negotiation skills and much more. In this way, a student can not only improve the practical skills but better understand what soft skills are critical and which ones demand improvement.

Career assessment tools: the most efficient ones

There is a variety of available tools online that can within a few minutes give you a report on your personality, traits, strengths, and weaknesses. But to get a really informative report with deep insights, we recommend looking at some of the most popular and efficient tools.

The Myers-Briggs type indicator

This assessment tool is very personality-focused and gives users an insight into whether they are more of an extravert or an introvert, how they communicate with people and what kind of soft skills are their headmost.

This test evaluates the users by four indicators:

1. Introvert vs Extravert
2. Sensing vs Intuitive
3. Thinking vs Feeling
4. Judging vs Perceiving

The tool describes the results in an easy and understandable language and provides a great amount of useful information.

EQ-i

This tool is focused on the assessment of emotional intelligence and helps the users improve their skills in such areas as leadership, management, and coaching.

The EQ-i test analyzes the user by five composite scores and thus, gives a 360-degree view on one’s social skills. This tool is great not only for the students but for anyone who wishes to progress at work and improve communication with peers and colleagues.

FIRO

FIRO stands for Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation™ and is also focused on helping the users determine how they interact with people and what can be improved. This is a great tool for a better understanding of oneself and identifying the possible issues that prevent you from building efficient relationships with people around you.

Summing up

Career assessment tools are something any student should use. They reveal hidden talents and possible ambitions, help build confidence and better understand one’s own “self”. With the help of such tests, students can not only choose the most suitable career option but also get a deep insight into their soft skills, get a direction of how to improve them and understand their importance.