Career Exploration & Planning
Career exploration is a critical step in preparing for students' futures. Knowing your interests and possible career choices is very helpful when it's time to make decisions about what comes after graduation. There are a number of ways that students can begin exploring interest areas and identifying passions and their associated careers.
Personality Tests and Interest Inventories
These types of tests and surveys can be very helpful as starting points for students who have not given much thought to their futures. They can actually be fun and illuminating for families to go through together. Personality and interest inventories can reveal career paths or generate ideas that students had not thought of before and encourage them to do deeper exploration and take the educational steps necessary to pursue one of the results.
Check out some of these options!
Your Free Career Test is a survey targeting students 13 and older. Younger students may still benefit from the test, but may need adult assistance with difficult words or concepts. This test focuses on task preferences and asks students to rate their interest in tasks required by various careers.
Truity is a survey which focuses on task preferences. It divides task types into six primary categories (building, thinking, creating, helping, persuading, and organizing) and then advises about the types of careers which most often fall in those categories.
Keirsey is a personality test which is best suited to older students. It will ask questions which target the taker's habits, values, and thoughts.
Jung's Typography Test is another personality assessment which will help students learn more about themselves, their habits, values, and what's important to them in a career.
Career One Stop is an interest inventory. Students will answer questions about what they like to do and what they don't like to do and the survey will give them a list of careers which match their interests.
16 Personalities is a personality test which is similar to Myers Briggs. It will give students insight about how they approach life which may help them choose careers.
Career Coach is an interest inventory provided by Southwestern Community College. This test is most appropriate for high school students.