Types and Validity of Career Assessments
– Methodology: Quantitative and qualitative assessments
– Measured attributes: Interests, aptitude, skills, values, and key development indicators
– Validity: Assessments should have evidence for validity
– Target customer profile: Assessments designed for broad markets lack reliability and validity
– Career assessment interview: Interview with a trained career counselor or psychologist is crucial for integration of test results
– Lack of sources and evidence: Assessments offered on the internet often lack evidence for validity, psychologists using tests should explain limitations to patients, no systematic studies on how often people change careers
Benefits of Career Assessments
– Discover skills, aptitude, and talents
– Help candidates choose a career in line with their goals and talents
– Increase career options and satisfaction
– Increase self-understanding
– Enable candidates to make the best career decisions for personal and professional growth
Specific Career Assessment Models and Instruments
– Psychoanalytically-Informed Career Assessment: Developed by Dr. Lynn Friedman in 2000, aims to understand unconscious factors and resolve conflicts, interventions may include career counseling, psychotherapy, or psychoanalysis
– Career interest tests like Strong Interest Inventory and Campbell Interest and Skill inventory
– Self-assessment through career books like ‘What Color is Your Parachute’
– Holland Codes
– 16PF
– Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
– Occupational Outlook Handbook
– Enneagram of Personality
Career Assessment and Counseling
– Career development
– Career scope
– Career counseling
– Career guidance
– Career planning
Additional Resources
– Standard Occupational Classification System
– National Career Development Association
– Washington Business Journal
– Journal of European Industrial Training
– Wikipedia page on Career Assessment (Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Career_assessment&oldid=1183201828) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Career_assessment
This article needs additional citations for verification. (July 2007) |
Career assessments are tools that are designed to help individuals understand how a variety of personal attributes (i.e., data values, preferences, motivations, aptitudes and skills), impact their potential success and satisfaction with different career options and work environments. Career assessments have played a critical role in career development and the economy in the 20th century (Whiston and Rahardja, 2005). Individuals or organizations often use assessment of some or all of these attributes, such as university career service centers, career counselors, outplacement companies, corporate human resources staff, executive coaches, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and guidance counselors to help individuals make more informed career decisions.
In part, the popularity of this tool is due to the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which funded career guidance in schools. Focus was put onto tools that would help high school students determine which subjects they may want to focus on to reach a chosen career path. Since 1958, career assessment tool options have exploded.
