Assessment for your career

Self-Assessment

Taking the time to assess yourself before seeking a new job or career advancement opportunity is crucial for several reasons:

1. Clarity on Goals: Understanding your career goals helps you identify the right opportunities that align with your aspirations and values.
2. Strengths and Weaknesses: Knowing your strengths allows you to highlight them in applications and interviews, while being aware of your weaknesses helps you address them or seek roles that minimize their impact.
3. Skill Gaps: Self-assessment can reveal areas where you need further development, guiding you to acquire the necessary skills or qualifications.
4. Job Satisfaction: Reflecting on what you enjoy and dislike about your current role can help you find a job that is more fulfilling and aligned with your interests.
5. Market Fit: Understanding your unique value proposition can help you position yourself better in the job market and stand out to potential employers.

​Have you thought about what specific aspects of your career you'd like to focus on or improve?
​

Skills and Capabilities

​Starting your own assessment of skills and capabilities can be a rewarding process. Here are some steps to help you get started:

1. Self-Reflection: Take some time to think about your experiences, achievements, and challenges. Consider what tasks you enjoy and excel at, and which ones you find difficult or less engaging.
2. List Your Skills: Write down all the skills you believe you have. This can include technical skills, soft skills, and any other abilities you think are relevant.
3. Seek Feedback: Ask colleagues, friends, or mentors for their input on your strengths and areas for improvement. Sometimes others can see things you might miss.
4. Use Assessment Tools: There are many online tools and quizzes designed to help you assess your skills and personality traits. Examples include the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), StrengthsFinder, and various career assessment tests.
5. Set Goals: Based on your self-assessment and feedback, set specific, measurable goals for improving your skills or acquiring new ones.
6. Create a Development Plan: Outline the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. This might include taking courses, seeking new experiences, or finding a mentor.
7. Review and Adjust: Periodically review your progress and adjust your plan as needed. Continuous improvement is key.    

​

Use established Career Assessment Tools

​There are several excellent career assessment tools available that can help you evaluate your skills, interests, and personality to find the best career path for you. Here are some of the top options:

1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): This popular personality assessment helps you understand your personality type and how it influences your career preferences.
2. StrengthsFinder (CliftonStrengths): This tool identifies your top strengths and provides insights into how you can leverage them in your career.
3. CareerExplorer: This comprehensive tool assesses your interests, skills, and values to suggest suitable career paths.
4. O*NET Interest Profiler: A free tool that helps you identify your work-related interests and matches them with potential careers.
5. CareerFitter: Provides detailed reports on your work personality and suggests careers that align with your strengths and preferences.
6. 16 Personalities: Based on the Myers-Briggs framework, this free assessment offers insights into your personality and career compatibility.
7. The Princeton Review’s Career Quiz: A quick and free quiz that provides insights into your career interests and potential job matches.
8. Truity: Offers various personality and career assessments, including the Big Five Personality Test and the Holland Code Career Test.
9. ProProfs Quiz Maker: Ideal for coaches and trainers, this tool allows you to create customized career assessments with multimedia elements.
10. Bryq: Focuses on technical career assessments and provides detailed insights into your skills and abilities[1][2][3].

References
[1] Our Expert Picks the Top 10 Career Assessments in 2024
[2] 11 Best Career Assessment Tools & Software for 2025 - ProProfs
[3] 11 of the Best Free Career Aptitude Tests - Monster.com

www.16Personalities.com

Using Your Myers‑Briggs    www.16 Personalities.com 
Results for Career Direction

Many candidates take a personality assessment, get their four letters, and then stop there. The real value comes from applying those letters intentionally to career choices, job searching, and professional development.

The Myers‑Briggs–based 16 Personalities framework helps candidates better understand how they think, work, communicate, and make decisions—all critical to long‑term career success.

⚠️ Important note: Myers‑Briggs is a self‑reflection and guidance tool, not a predictor of success or a hiring test. It helps identify fit, not limits.

Step 1: Understand What the Four Letters Mean

Each Myers‑Briggs result consists of four preferences, each representing how a person naturally engages with the world.

1️⃣ Energy: E or I

• E – Extraversion: Energized by interaction, discussion, and activity
• I – Introversion: Energized by focus, reflection, and independent work

Career Application

• E types may thrive in roles involving collaboration, leadership, sales, teaching, or facilitation.
• I types may prefer roles involving research, analysis, writing, design, or technical problem‑solving.

2️⃣ Information Processing: S or N

• S – Sensing: Focus on facts, details, and practical realities
• N – Intuition: Focus on patterns, ideas, possibilities, and innovation

Career Application

• S types often excel in operations, logistics, healthcare, finance, engineering, or skilled trades.
• N types may gravitate toward strategy, entrepreneurship, product development, marketing, or creative fields.

3️⃣ Decision‑Making: T or F

• T – Thinking: Decisions based on logic, objectivity, and consistency
• F – Feeling: Decisions based on values, people impact, and relationships

Career Application

• T types may enjoy data‑driven, analytical, legal, engineering, or management roles.
• F types may find fulfillment in human services, education, counseling, HR, nonprofits, or community‑focused work.

4️⃣ Structure & Lifestyle: J or P

• J – Judging: Prefer structure, planning, deadlines, and closure
• P – Perceiving: Prefer flexibility, adaptability, and open options

Career Application

• J types often succeed in project management, administration, compliance, or leadership roles.
• P types may thrive in creative work, consulting, startups, gig work, or roles with variety and autonomy.

Step 2: Combine the Letters into a Career StrategyOnce a candidate knows all four letters, they should look at the combination, not each letter in isolation.

Example: ENFP

• E: People‑oriented
• N: Idea‑focused
• F: Values‑driven
• P: Flexible

Career Direction

• Careers that allow creativity, meaning, variety, and people interaction (e.g., communications, training, nonprofit work, entrepreneurship).

Example: ISTJ

• I: Independent
• S: Detail‑focused
• T: Logical
• J: Structured

Career Direction

• Careers involving reliability, systems, and responsibility (e.g., accounting, IT, operations, compliance, healthcare administration).

Step 3: Apply Your Type to the Job Search
Candidates can use their type to improve how they search for work—not just what jobs they apply for.
Resume & Interview Preparation

• Highlight strengths associated with your type (e.g., organization, creativity, empathy, analysis).
• Prepare interview examples that demonstrate your natural working style.

Company Research

• Look for work environments that align with your preferences:
  • Structured vs. flexible cultures
  • Team‑heavy vs. independent roles
  • Mission‑driven vs. performance‑driven organizations

Career Transitions

• If someone feels “stuck,” the issue may be fit, not skill.
• Personality insights can point toward adjustments within a field, not necessarily a full career change.

Step 4: Use MBTI for Growth, Not Labels
A strong career approach uses personality insights to:

• Identify strengths to lean into
• Recognize blind spots to manage
• Improve communication with others
• Choose environments where success is sustainable

A personality type should inform decisions, not limit ambition.

Recommended Free Assessment Resource
​Many candidates use the www.16Personalities.com free assessment because it is:

• Accessible
• Easy to understand
• Written in everyday language
• Commonly used for career self‑reflection

Candidates should always review results with a coach, mentor, or advisor to translate insight into action.

Final Thought for CandidatesCareer success is not about finding a “perfect job.”
It’s about understanding how you work best—and building a career that supports that.
Personality assessments are a powerful starting point.

Sources & Credibility

• Myers, I. B., & Myers, P. B. Gifts Differing – foundational MBTI framework
• The Myers & Briggs Foundation – official explanations and use guidance
• 16Personalities.com – popular free MBTI‑based assessment and descriptions

www.16Personalities.com

​I immediately thought of sharing and suggesting for inclusion this self-assessment tool of ours called "Fingerprint for Success". We provide a psychometric assessment test that measures the 48 different motivational traits that influence the way we communicate and make decisions at work and in our day-to-day lives. This is a very insightful tool for self-discovery and self-awareness.
Here's a brief summary of the psychometric test:

• It contains 40 questions (there is no right or wrong)
• It's free
• The assessment highlights your top five motivations, your blind spots and your other lesser motivations which influence your day-to-day decisions
• You are able to benchmark yourself with our proven success factor models based on 20+ years worth of study on human dynamics
• You get Insights: a unique feature that can be used for career exploration and building a workplace culture
• Your privacy will always be protected

Check it out here: https://www.fingerprintforsuccess.com

Assessment
​
​Branding

LinkedIn

Networking

Resumes & Cover Letters

Occupational Outlook Handbook BLS  
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/home.htm

Learn more about YOU

Ask yourself what elements you want in your ideal career/dream job and consider including these:

1. What you love to do (activities that give you a feeling of joy and fulfillment)

2. Your unique gifts and talents, your aptitudes

3. Skills that you have and wish to use (or further develop) in your next job

4. Fields of interest or industries in which you want to work

5. Work values (what is most important to you in your workplace?)

6. Your essence, your natural qualities

7. Life mission, vision, spiritual path

8. What kind of people do you prefer to work with or for?

9. Salary, benefits, schedule and other factors

10. Working conditions, work environment, location

Free Self Test on Leadership

16personalities.com   
free MBTI personality test

Assess Yourself
Searching for a career that's right for you? An important first step is to assess your skills to help you make the right career choices.

Free Online Resources
O*NET Career Exploration Tools
​
Consider and plan your career options, preparation, and transitions more effectively. The self-directed career assessment tools available from the O*NET Resource Center will help you identify your work-related interests, what you consider important on the job and allow you to assess your abilities in order to explore those occupations that relate most closely to those attributes.

Skills Profiler
Identify your skills and find occupations related to those skills.

O*NET Skills Search
Find occupations based on your skills.

Employability Checkup
Get a snapshot of the likelihood that you can obtain employment for a specific occupation at your desired wage and location.

Coursera Online Courses

One-Stop Career Center
Locate a One-Stop Career Center near you that offers in-person jobseeker services.

Personal Assessment Is A Critical Part of the Job Search Process  -  By Irina Gomelskaya early NhNUSA leader

While the growing array of resources to help with the job search strategies, skills and networking tools are undoubtedly valuable, I find that many job seekers don’t have a clear and compelling answer to a more basic question: what exactly are you looking to do professionally? What is your dream job and why? The purpose of answering these “visionary” questions is to develop a road map for your career journey, and to gain a sense of purpose and direction in your job search. There are many ways to engage in the process of self-exploration and here are some clues to help you get started: 

Ask yourself what elements you want in your ideal career/dream job and consider including these:

1. What you love to do (activities that give you a feeling of joy and fulfillment) 
2. Your unique gifts and talents, your aptitudes
3. Skills that you have and wish to use (or further develop) in your next job
4. Fields of interest or industries in which you want to work
5. Work values (what is most important to you in your workplace?)
6. Your essence, your natural qualities
7. Life mission, vision, spiritual path
8. What kind of people do you prefer to work with or for?
9. Salary, benefits, schedule and other factors
10. Working conditions, work environment, location

In this process, it may be helpful to work with a close friend, a trusted family member or a career coach – someone who can facilitate your self-discovery through active listening and meaningful feedback. Look at your past jobs and consider projects and work environments you have enjoyed and why, activities that come naturally to you, professional involvements that provided a feeling of purpose and satisfaction. Explore dreams and aspirations that never came to be, and accomplishments (personal and work-related) that you are most proud of. When your list is complete, brainstorm and write down a few career options that encompass the largest number of those ideal elements.

If you prefer to take a more “measured” and “scientific” approach to figuring out what you are meant to do, consider taking a standardized test. While helpful, these tests will not give you the ultimate answer to the career path YOU should pursue; however, they may provide you with ideas and clues about viable career options for individuals with your traits. Here are some popular tests and inventories to consider:

· Self-Directed Search—measures Interests and favorite activities, 
        www.self-directed-search.com

· Highlands Ability Battery—measures abilities and aptitudes, 
        www.highlandsco.com

· Hogan’s Motives, Values and Preferences—measures values & preferences,
        www.hoganassessments.com

· Myers-Briggs Type Indicator—measures temperament and work style.     
        www.mbticomplete.com

· The DiSC Sorter, offered online at www.disctests.com and the Birkman Method.
        www.birkman.com.

Other websites you might check for more information:
www.humanmetrics.com
htttp://keirsey.com
www.careergames.com
www.personalitydesk.com
http://careerkey.org
http://careerplanner.com
www.job-hunt.org
www.jobhuntersbible.com
www.truecolorscareer.com/quiz.asp

Useful Books:
· What Color Is Your Parachute? 2012: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers by Richard N. Bolles

· Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type--Revised and Updated Edition Featuring E-careers for the  21st Century, by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger

· I Could Do Anything If I Only Knew What It Was: How to Discover What You Really Want and How to Get It by Barbara Sher

· Please Understand Me II:Temperament, Character, Intelligence by David Keirsey 
· Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You'll Love to Do, by Shoya Zichy and Ann Bidou 



Other Brigg-Meyers free tests

https://www.cpp.com/products/mbti/index.aspx

http://www.celebritytypes.com/test.php

Irina Gomelskaya, Esq. is a Certified Life and Career Coach. Irina can be reached at [email protected].


Help envision and plan your career, job, work future with these self-assessment and career discovery tests. What if you're not sure of what kind of job or career you want? Not sure what to do with your life? Need some career direction? Spend some time here and take one or more of the following self-assessment tests to give you a better idea of your attitudes and interests as they relate to possible career choices. Quintessential Careers Assessment Articles: To learn more about how you can best use assessments for understanding your career passion and direction, read:

• Career Assessments Can Shed Light on Career/Job Ailments
• Career Assessment Do's and Don'ts
• Dependable Strengths®: Finding Your Unique Excellence
• Online Career Assessments: Helpful Tools of Self-Discovery

Find our full list of articles here: Career Assessment and Self-Reflection Articles. And if you are debating the power of self-assessment, read some of these career assessment success stories. More of a paper and pencil test taker? Check out these career assessment books. Quintessential Careers Assessment Tools:

• For Everyone -- Students, Job-Seekers, Career-Changers:
  Dependable Strengths -- developed by Bernard Haldane, Ph.D. Each person has a unique combination of core skills, abilities, qualities and traits that he or she enjoys using and can use easily. Identifying Dependable Strengths can lead to a career pathway and occupations that people will enjoy and do well. Finding your Dependable Strengths is a little like an archeological expedition, where you dig into your memory for experiences that will help reveal your skills and strengths. To begin your expedition, click the PayPal button below. Once your payment of $24.49 has been processed, you will receive an email with your log-on information. Top-rated. Fee-based.
• For Everyone -- Students, Job-Seekers, Career-Changers:
  CareerClover -- a detailed assessment that will help you uncover your interests, behaviors and work style. Use the detailed report from this validated career test to help choose a career that will make you feel more fulfilled at work.
• For Teens and Young Adults:
  QuintCareers Assessment Powered by JVIS -- developed to assist high school and college students, and adults with educational and career planning, the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey will help you discover the college majors and rewarding careers that match your interests. Provides a detailed report, with career implications and jobs that match your pattern. Top-rated. Fee-based.
• For Established Job-Seekers or Career Changers:
  CareerMaze -- if you're looking for some career direction, then taking this assessment might be just the answer for you. This assessment is an online tool designed to help you find your future by increasing your self-knowledge. Provides a detailed report, with career implications and jobs that match your pattern. Top-rated. Fee-based.
• MAPP (Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential) Assessment. Fill in a questionnaire that has 71 triads of three statements. Assessment is designed to guide, motivate, and empower people to achieve your greatest educational and career potential. Provides "teaser" results sent via e-mail; more details and guidance available for a fee. Free.

Other Assessment Assortments:

• TestingRoom.com -- a site dedicated to helping you learn more about yourself. The site includes access to numerous online tests and assessments for self-discovery (including career assessment, values competencies, and work personality). Membership, assessments, and abbreviated results are free, but you must pay for detailed test results.

Other Excellent Assessment Tools:

• Career Directions Inventory at LiveCareer.com -- identifies your career interests (highest and lowest) and then tells you what jobs match your results in your highest scored categories. Also includes workplace fit preferences using seven approaches to work (and based on Holland Scale). Results are presented in text and graphic form. No cost to job-seekers for basic report.
• CareerPlanner.com -- provides online career testing, as well as free career and job-search information, to help job-seekers discover your true purpose in life and their ideal career. A good source for high school students to career changers. Uses RIASEC method of matching your interests and skills with potential careers.Some elements free; others fee-based.
• Keirsey Temperament Sorter. Fill in a questionnaire of about 70 questions, which is automatically scored on the Web. Your results will be in the form of Myers-Briggs Types, and suggestions of appropriate careers are made. Free.

Other Career Assessments:

• Myers Briggs Personality Tests from Ransdell Associates -- personality and career preference tests, including Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory Tests, where you can learn more about yourself and career options. Fee-based.
• JOBehaviors -- provides dozens of job-specific assessments for jobs in a variety of high-demand industries with the goal of helping people find the right job. By identifying the behaviors critical for success and job compatibility, the assessments identify the job that is the best behavioral fit for you. No cost to job-seekers.
• JobDiagnosis -- a career assessment where students, career-changers, job-seekers, retirees -- people of any age and experience -- take a short test to assess your interests, skills, abilities, and competencies to see what career path you should follow. No cost to job-seekers.
• Work Preference Inventory. Based on the premise that the process of values clarification is very important in career planning, the Work Preference Inventory gives you a small glimpse that helps you to clarify what you value in terms of work style to assist you in making more fulfilling and rewarding career and employment decisions. For best results, use Java-script-enabled browser.
• The Career Key. Developed by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, this assessment measures your personality, finds jobs that match your skills, interests, and personality, and then provides links to the U.S. government's Occupational Outlook Handbook to learn more about the jobs that best fit you.
• The Big Five Personality Test. While this personality assessment is not strictly career-oriented, it does provide insight that can be applied to careers. It ranks you on scales of closed-minded vs. open to new experiences; disorganized vs. conscientious; introverted vs. extraverted, disagreeable vs. agreeable, calm vs. high-strung.
• knowyourtype.com -- the only assessment site that offers the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Instrument online. Take the 93-question assessment online and get the results (a seven-page report) emailed back to you. Includes lifetime access to client support area. Fee-based.
• Carolyn Kalil's Personality Assessment (True Colors) -- a personality system that is modeled as a graphical presentation of both Keirsey's Temperament and the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator. The assessment asks you to choose one of two ways to finish 36 statements. The results can help you define your skills and talents -- and possibly direct you to various career paths.
• Sokanu -- pronounced, So Can You, this site's mission is to connect every person with the career they are meant to be in. Using the results of your unique character, interests, and abilities to analyze your compatibility with recommended career. Claims to have the largest, most detailed database of careers. No cost.
• 3SmartCubes -- where visitors will find a variety of tests, including aptitude tests, career tests, personality tests, and relationship tests. Elements of each test may be free, but a fee is charged for full reports.
• WhatHalf.com -- a unique career assessment and aptitude test (that determines your dominant brain hemisphere in relationship to left brain, right brain dominance) that can help you make better life decisions. Use WhatHalf for college search, career change, professional development and more. No cost sample test; full test must be purchased.

Quintessential Careers -- Kettle Falls, WA 99141 - Home Page

• CAI-E (Career Assessment Inventory | The Enhanced Version)
• CAI-V (Career Assessment Inventory | The Vocational Version)
• CDM Internet
• CDM Videos | Tour of Your Tomorrow Video Series
• CDM-R (Career Decision-Making System-Revised)
• CISS (Campbell Interest and Skill Survey)
• IDEAS (Interest Determination, Exploration and Assessment System)
• Loops and Other Groups (Loops and Other Groups: A Kinesthetic Writing System)
• MAT (Miller Analogies Test)
• PCAT (The Pharmacy College Admission Test)
• SSPO (Sigma Survey for Police Officers)

Personal and Career Assessment

Career assessments are tools that are designed to help individuals understand how a variety of personal attributes (i.e., interests, values, preferences, motivations, aptitudes and skills), impact their potential success and satisfaction with different career options and work environments.

Use the assessment tests to determine your career direction           
  (A clear understanding of your skills and those that companies need)

Assessments

•           Self-Assessment (hand out checklist)

•           Peer Assessment (feedback at local networking and support groups)

•           Professional Assessment Testing

Work into your resume what you learn from these tests

There are all kinds of assessments with different purposes. Employers will test job candidates for skills and cultural fit in their organizations.

Myers–Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers from the typological theories proposed by Carl Gustav Jung, and first published in his 1921 book Psychological Types. Jung theorized that there are four principal psychological functions by which we experience the world: sensation, intuition, feeling, and thinking. One of these four functions is dominant most of the time.

16 Personalities: http://www.16personalities.com

 
Leadership Self-Assessment

http://www.yourleadershiplegacy.com/assessment/assessment.php

 
Career Information

Use site O*NET  www.onetonline.org

Career Exploration Tools   http://www.onetcenter.org/tools.html

Plan your career options and transitions more effectively.

Self-directed career assessment tools available from the O*NET

Resource Center identify your work-related interests,

Explore those occupations that relate most closely to those attributes.

Learn qualifications and training needed for specific jobs

See average salaries across nation

See growth projections for jobs

If you prefer to take a more “measured” and “scientific” approach to figuring out what you are meant to do, consider taking a standardized test. While helpful, these tests will not give you the ultimate answer to the career path YOU should pursue; however, they may provide you with ideas and clues about viable career options for individuals with your traits. Here are some popular tests and inventories to consider:

Self-Directed Search—measures Interests and favorite activities,

        www.self-directed-search.com

Highlands Ability Battery—measures abilities and aptitudes,

        www.highlandsco.com

Hogan’s Motives, Values and Preferences—measures values & preferences,

        www.hoganassessments.com

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator—measures temperament and work style.    

      www.16personalities.com

The DiSC Sorter, offered online at www.disctests.com and the Birkman Method.

        www.birkman.com