Sep 30 2009
Testing Your Career Aptitude
When I was in my junior and senior years of high school, the guidance counselors started coming around to all of our classrooms and giving us career aptitude tests. The idea was to help us prepare for college by giving us a better idea of what we might like to go to college for in the first place.
If you are considering going to college, or perhaps going back to school, but don’t know yet what you want to study, you can take these tests even if you aren’t in high school or (if you are) don’t have conscientious guidance counselors. There are plenty of career aptitutde tests online that you can take for free.
Basically, the idea of a career aptitude test is to highlight in which industries you might be most interested in working. They don’t tell you a specific career you should pursue, but they identify the areas that you are most interested in.
For instance, if you enjoy working with your hands, a career aptitude test will note this, and provide you with a list of careers that should interest you: auto mechanics, woodworking, HVAC, etc. On the other hand, if you are interested in math, the test might suggest careers in the financial sector, such as banking or investing.
Once you get the results and identify a general direction for your career, it is up to you to find out what education will set you on that path. Usually college admissions counselors can help you with this. For instance, if you want to be a mortgage broker, they can tell you what mortgage training is necessary for SAFE mortgage licensing.
However, it is important not to expect miracles from a career aptitude test. Because the test is self-reporting — that is, it is based on the answers YOU give — it can only make sense of what you already know (even if you don’t realize you know it) by making generalizations about what jobs you might enjoy or be good at.