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Matching up our personality with a suitable role is vital to a successful career change. Here, Nisa Chitakasem tries out online personality tests to see what insights they offer.
I don’t know about you, but my personality has so many facets, I still don’t know how to break it down into separate traits. And even if you do have a finely-tuned awareness of your characteristics, how do you know which jobs they’re suited to? I mean, how do you know which career is appropriate for which personality type if you only have knowledge of one or two careers?
With this in mind, I’ve been trying out a few free, online psychometric personality tests specifically targeted towards career changers. Here the links to some of my favourites.
Jung Typology Test
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
You take the test by answering ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a series of statements in order to determine the combination of characteristics you possess. You’re then identified as a particular personality type based on these results. Finally, they feed back a list of suitable career options and also some educational institutions where you can receive the relevant skills training for the specific career areas.
Finding Potential: ‘Individuals’ Personality Questionnaire’
http://www.findingpotential.com/PERSONALITY/
This test takes around 15 minutes to complete and gives you a 15 page report that shows you to what extent you possess certain personality traits; gives you a detailed breakdown of these traits; and then matches work preferences and possible jobs to you in accordance with which personality traits you strongly possess and which ones you don’t.
SimilarMinds.com: ‘What Career Suits Me’?
http://similarminds.com/career.html
This one is slightly different. First, it asks what your ‘current or desired’ career is before the test begins properly. The test itself gives you a list of statements and you indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each one. Based on the results, you’re identified as a certain type of person (I am an ‘Idealist’) and given a list of possible professions.
Of course, we career changers don’t base decisions solely on the results of an internet career test. But they can offer useful suggestions we hadn’t thought of, or confirm the suitability of options we were already considering. Plus, the tests themselves can be quite fun to do! Let us know how you get on with them and if there are any other ‘Idealists’ out there!
Have you ever been surprised by your results after taking a personality or psychometric test? Leave a comment below.
