How To Choose the Career Path

In this article, you won’t find any job search websites. What you will find here are some useful tips on how to better understand and motivate yourself, how to set the right goals and achieve them. Also, we will provide you with the best psychological tests that will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses and choose a career that will not only pay well but also fulfill you emotionally.

8 Best Tests to Help You Choose the Right Career Path

For starters, we have two universal career aptitude tests for you. Although these tests were created a long time ago, they remain a powerful tool for people to choose the right career path.

The first one is The Career Anchors test. The Career Anchor theory and the relevant test were developed by Edgar Henry Schein, a Swiss-American specialist in corporate culture in the 1970s. Career anchors, or career orientations, according to Schein, are, essentially, a combination of your most important motives, priorities, skills, and perceived areas of competence. The Career Anchor Test was created to help people determine their fundamental values and match their career goals with these values. In other words, the test contributes important information to the understanding of an individual’s characteristics and capabilities, which will help them build a successful career and be satisfied with their life.

As for the second test, it is called The Holland Code and is otherwise referred to as RIASEC, which is the acronym for the six types of vocational choices it suggests. The test’s author is John L. Holland, an American psychologist and professor at Michigan University. The original description of the six types of occupations was "motoric, intellectual, supportive, aesthetic, persuasive, and conforming". However, later John L. Holland changed them to the following: Realistic (Doers),Investigative (Thinkers),Social (Helpers),Artistic (Creators),Enterprising (Persuaders),and Conventional (Organizers). Practically, RIASEC is based on career development theory and occupation choices depending on personality types.

Find Out Your Personality Type and Your Key Qualities

Understanding your personal qualities is crucial for making the right career choice. We selected the three best tests for you that will help you decide on a career path.

Carl Jung's theory about archetypes had a huge impact on the branch of psychology that explores career choices. That is why we would like to present you Jung Personality Test. As a result of this test, you will receive a summary of the strengths and weaknesses of your personality, your preferences in interacting with others, the way of organizing your life, as well as careers recommended for your psychotype.

The second test based on personality types we suggest you take is DISC Assessment. This test is based on the behavioral theory developed by psychologist William Moulton Marston. The acronym DISC stands for dominance, inducement, steadiness, and conscientiousness that according to the theory, these are an individual’s four central personality traits. The test’s results are very accurate, and it can help you understand what your perfect career path is or find the “keys” to your employees if you’re an entrepreneur.

We also highly recommend you take the Big Five Inventory (BFI). This test is designed to measure the Big Five personality traits. These five primary traits are: extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Fun fact: acronyms OCEAN (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism) or CANOE (conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion) are sometimes used to remember these traits effortlessly. If you take the Big Five test, you will better understand yourself and it will be a lot easier for you to choose the career path that suits you best.

Find Out What Your Temperament Is

A person’s temperament significantly influences job satisfaction. A career that does not suit your temperament might lead to difficulties, conflicts, and stress. But how do you find out what your temperament type is? Temperament Test by H. J. Eysenck can come in handy. The test is based on a two-factor model that includes extroversion and neuroticism scales. We highly recommend you take this test and discover your personality type to understand what career is best for you and what to expect from yourself in everyday life in general.

Find Out Your Place in the Team and Your Leadership Qualities

The importance of teamwork in today's world can’t be overstated. And team atmosphere can improve big time if all employees are aware of their team roles that serve to achieve a common goal. Our free Team Role Test will help you understand what responsibilities you would be comfortable taking in a team. Managers can also find this test useful to better distribute functions in their teams. It can also help HR managers in their recruiting job.

Find Out Your Type of Behavior in Conflict Situations

Conflict is natural when we interact with other people because no two individuals have the same expectations, life views, and desires. And it’s exactly why conflict resolution is so important. Are you able to argue with your boss or employees constructively? Can you defend your interests and work-life balance, do you find compromises easily in conflict situations?

If you need answers to these questions, we suggest you check out a questionnaire that is based on two dimensions describing a person’s behavior in conflict situations: assertiveness and cooperativeness. This test is called The Conflict Mode Questionnaire inspired by the Thomas-Killmann conflict modes study.

Set Your Goals and Start Moving Towards Achieving Them

A wise man once said: “Money can’t buy happiness”, it’s undeniable that money plays a big role in human lives and is important for all of us. But it’s even more important to be happy. And exactly because money shouldn’t dictate a person's entire life and choices, the most crucial thing is not the salary an individual gets, but the right understanding of their priorities. How much one enjoys their job work and their lifestyle is what should be at the forefront. For example, working in a great place with cool people for 20 hours a week, even for less money, can make someone much happier than a stressful job where they work 60 hours a week for a lot of cash but with a narcissistic boss or mean co-workers.

Conclusions

Now that you know much more about yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, behavior in conflict situations, and your role in a team, you can think about what exactly motivates you and as a result, you can make a list of 5-7 jobs that are best suited to your skills and interests. A detailed examination of each of them through the prism of your values, desired income level, competitiveness, and demand in the market will help you choose which particular area you need to put maximum effort into.