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Can career assessment tests really be helpful to your career development plan?

Joseph LeDoux, a New York University neuroscientist says that there is no such thing as the ‘neuroscience of personality’.

We know from science that no two people who are alive today, or who have ever lived, or who will ever be born in the future, have the same DNA.

In fact, each person has over 3 million base pairs that are different from any other person that has ever, or will ever, live.

That’s astonishing uniqueness!

So is it a little arrogant of us to think that the magnificence, uniqueness, and complexity of a human being could ever be quantified by a relatively crude career assessment test?

On what basis can professional career counselling propose that career assessments are a great way to discover your career personality and from there, make well-informed career choices?

Can the great and mysterious wonder of the human faculty ever be reduced into a neat little set of assessment parameters?

I doubt it!

We are unique in too many ways.

As Dr. Seuss succinctly put it:

Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

~ Dr. Seuss

Uncovering this uniqueness inside of you in the most unrestrictive manner is paramount when considering how to choose a career.

And generally speaking, a career assessment test is restrictive.

I have noticed that some people can become very disillusioned when a career assessment test result doesn’t produce the outcome they subconsciously or secretly hoped for.

At the bottom, every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvellously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

The magic wand of the test fails to produce results that line up with their innate career objective.

If they feel the test results weren’t particularly useful to them, they may think they don’t have the natural abilities they thought they did. (which is often not the case).

Alternatively, if a career objective that you were ‘secretly thinking about’ doesn’t show up as a realistic option during a career test result, you may mistakenly discard it, never to consider it again.

If this ever happened while working on a client’s career development plan, I would always want to put more investigation into the job types the client might have been ‘thinking’ about despite the fact that it didn’t show up as a valid option on test results.

If we can spend some time unraveling the deep heart issues of a person – what in fact makes them tick at the core of their being – then that will inevitably be more effective at uncovering genuine career passion than career assessment testing.

So where good career counseling involving skillful questioning and probing can enhance a client’s career development, career tests are limiting, somewhat finite and contrary to always keeping the door open on the marvel and wonder of our uniqueness as a human being.

Other career development articles relating to career tests that you may be interested in include:

Career aptitude test – Poor career counseling results?
Career placement test – Why they can limit career choices.
Career personality test – Is money the motive?
Career testing – Why the experts are running.

How does the average person make important career choices?

That’s what career development theory addresses.

Vocational Calling

This article takes a look at one career development theory: vocational calling.

Much of recent career theory is based on reductionism. What is reductionism
Career development expert, John Holland explains reductionism as:

… The idea is that you could understand the world, all of nature, by examining smaller and smaller pieces of it. When assembled, the small pieces would explain the whole”

John Holland

But reductionism and the idea of vocational calling appear to be two career theories that are at odds with each other. One theory says that we can go about choosing careers by examining all the small pieces of what makes up a human being. The other career theory implies that this is too simplistic and that we are far more complex creatures than that.

What is ‘ Vocational Calling’?

The word vocation [from the Latin vocare] means “to call”.
And if there is a call, we assume there must be a “caller”.

This caller for most people would be God.

If you believe the bible’s account of how we got here, you would believe that we are not only made by God, but we are made like God (…so God created man in his own image… Genesis 1:27)

Let Your Life Speak

And if we are made like God, it would be reasonable to conclude that we are therefore made with immense complexity, sophistication, and uniqueness.

And this is where reductionist career theory potentially clashes with a calling theory.

Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.
Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody, what values you represent.

-Parker Palmer

Biological science continues to surprise us at how complex the human body is. Take a look at this video to remind yourself just how complex you are.

https://youtu.be/tozEuziqdpg

It is, therefore, a reasonable assumption that a similar level of complexity is present in our psychological makeup. And it is a our psychological makeup that is associated with the issue of choosing careers.

As career expert Dr. Mark Savickas states:

….. the empirical tradition of rational career counseling does not encompass complex human qualities such as spirit, consciousness, and purpose.
Science examines parts; personal stories examine the whole”

Dr. Mark Savickas

Many People Believe They Have a Call

A study of first-year college students found that 42% of the students believed that they have a call.

28% indicated that they were, in fact, searching for a calling.

With the vast majority of the world’s population believing in God as their Creator, I wonder if career counselors are doing an injustice to their clients if they are not raising the possibility of a calling with their clients as a valid way of choosing careers. Or at least providing an environment that fosters such an issue being raised.

If you are a client seeking career change advice, you should be able to freely raise issues like this with your career counselor.
What if a career counselor’s worldview doesn’t support this belief system?
This is no different from the many other factors to consider when selecting a career counselor to work with.

It is not too sacred ground to ask a potential career counselor what her worldview is on these issues and whether or not she discusses these issues on a regular basis with other clients.

Many career counselors are trained and use the client-centered model of counseling. The name of this model is self-explanatory in that the career counseling session should be centered on the client’s needs, the client’s wants and the client’s desires.

To incorporate a person’s spiritual needs into career counseling sessions is in line with valid career development theory.
However, if a career counselor is unable to, or is not experienced in supporting this worldview, a client should consider somebody else.

Other topics related to this career development article include:

• what is career development
• your career development plan
• career development coaching

A career personality test can be financially alluring to career counselors because it offers another revenue stream in addition to their normal career counselor’s fees.

You would normally pay a career counselor for her time and then an additional fee for the involvement of some type of career counseling test.

The use of a career test therefore normally increases the total income gained from each client.

I am not suggesting a career counseling fee should have restrictions around it.
On the contrary, I believe that the important role we perform is often under-rewarded financially.

However if our income extends to selling a career counseling test to a client that is not in their best interests, and where there are better alternatives available without the need for an additional cost, then this raises some questions.

A high level of integrity is expected by those who seek professional career development help.

We may be helping people make a very important first career decision or providing transitional career change advice for those already working.

Clients quite rightly may feel wary and cheated if they realized that the service that they were receiving was compromised by the financial incentives received from a career personality test.

Everyone needs to make a living.
And there is nothing wrong with the process of selling such an assessment.
But the litmus test must always be, is it good for the client and what is the primary motive here?

If my primary motive for recommending a career counseling test is to increase my revenue, then my professional judgment has been compromised.

Furthermore, a career counselor will always do better financially if, in a relative sense, she forgets about the income generation of any career personality test and focuses only on what is best for the client.

This is how any business creates goodwill.
We should be willing to do what is best for a client even if the result may not be financially rewarding in the short term.
In the long term, that client’s trust considerably increases in us when she realizes that we have her best interests at heart.

She is then more likely to come back and also tell family and friends about her experience.

Just yesterday I was listening to a gentleman who has built a very successful recruitment agency. One of his foundations for success when starting out in business, was not to take any action unless it was beneficial long-term for the business.

He was faced with many situations where he could make some extra money in the short-term but decided against it because it was detrimental to business growth in the long term.

If you are in the process of seeking help with professional career development, you have a right to ask questions about the financial incentives regarding any career counseling test being suggested.

___________________

Other career development articles relating to career personality tests include:

Career aptitude test – Poor career counseling results?
Career placement test – How they can limit career choices.
Career assessment – Uniqueness not highlighted!
Career testing – Why the experts are running.

People who come to me for career help either:

• grossly underestimate their abilities or
  
• they say “I don’t have any significant abilities compared to other people”

Which Is the Best Job for You?

Is there such a thing as the best job? Can a doctor say to a garbage collector; “I have a better job than you”. Can the arborist say to the IT professional “I have a better job than you”?

Having the best job has little to do with the type of job a person does but rather, are they naturally suited to that job. Do they have innate abilities in that area?

In fact, a rubbish collector could very well say to the doctor “I have a better job than you” and he could be right if the doctor was not naturally suited for that job.

God Don’t Make No Flops

The world’s best selling book states God has shaped each individual person and that he knit us together while we were in our mother’s womb.
Do you believe this? That you have been created as a unique individual?

You may be familiar with the Academy Award-winning movie Chariots of Fire where Olympic athlete Eric Liddell said;

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure……to give up running would be to hold God in contempt.

Eric Liddell

So the question ‘What job should I do?’ is closely linked to another question, “Do I know what I’m naturally good at?’ As Socrates dictum declares, it all starts with knowing ourselves well.

Do You Want Just a Job – or Something Really Significant

There is a desire in the heart of every human being to expend their life on some significant purpose.

A life where you can make a difference in the world.

A life that when it is finished, you can say:

“I’m glad I dedicated my life to doing that”

There is a clear connection between being in a role that uses your natural abilities and gaining a sense of significance.

Central to an effective career change is getting to know the truth about who you really are in regard to your god-given abilities.

Without that knowledge, any career decision you make is starting from a risky foundation.

Can You Really Be Anything You Want?

An important part of finding out who we are in the world of work is to also find out who we are not.
The truth is, we can’t be anything we want. Or more precisely, we can’t be anything we want and be happy.

Many people pursue careers motivated by many things other than wanting to use their unique abilities. And they don’t get much satisfaction from it.

10 Reasons Why We Choose the Wrong Careers

1. My parents felt this would be a good job for me
2. This career is where the money is
3. This career is where the future is technologically
4. It will make me feel important and give me status
5. Someone offered me a job in this field, so I took it
6. This job gives me cheap travel or other perks
7. My best friend was doing it and said I should too
8. It was a government job, so it was secure
9. It started off as an after school job or temporary position and I gravitated to full time without really thinking about it
10. I had to study something at university (pressure from parents/friends), and I didn’t know what else to do

https://youtu.be/GI93ztdQ4vs

Deep in our hearts, we all want to find and fulfill a purpose bigger than ourselves.
Only such a larger purpose can inspire us to heights we know we could never reach on our own.
For each of us the real purpose is personal and passionate: to know what we are here to do, and why.

Dr. Os Guinness

Only a purpose originating from the depths of your heart and rooted in your innate passions can motivate you to heights you could otherwise never reach. That’s why once your inborn job skills are identified you can begin to pursue a genuinely fulfilling career.

It can make you feel like a new person.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you have an abundance of energy while engaged in projects?

“And what is a man without energy? Nothing – nothing at all.”

Mark Twain

That’s because the heart of who you are is greatly awakened when it discovers a good match between the abilities you were born with and the task at hand.

Where Do I Start

These inborn job skills are the skills that you are naturally wired or motivated to use.
It’s what makes you tick.  When you are using these skills, you are doing something you must do and often lose all sense of time while doing it.

You can find out what your inborn job skills are by completing the Dream Career Finder

I want to encourage you to eagerly seek out your heart’s deepest passions. Or perhaps rediscover passions that you once had but have somehow got lost along the way.

This will give you the confidence to consider new possibilities for yourself.
What might you be good at if all the doors were flung open wide to allow you to discover your natural abilities?

What You Will Find On This Web Site

1. Career change advice on how to discover what your inborn job skills are and how to match them to types of careers that you are naturally good at.
2. Find out more about the very successful, yet grossly underutilized job search methods. Methods that will make your job search more likely to land that dream job.
3. Improve your job interview success, with my top ten job interview tips, including how to handle those sometimes difficult job interview questions.
4. Learn the six secrets about successful career change resume writing.
5. Show you why you probably shouldn’t bother taking most career tests.
6. Take a look at whether or not you might be suited to self-employment or a “work at home career”.

Most Workers Aren’t Happy In Their Job

According to research, up to 80% of the current workforce is dissatisfied in their career? Too many of us appear to be in the wrong job.

And a good number of us fell into our first job at an early age after our job selection was based on a lack of good information about ourselves.
We then went on to base our future career choices on the experience we gained from that first questionable career choice.

And so we began to accumulate a lifetime of work based on what was a wrong choice in the beginning.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a person does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

-Seneca

The result is that we have become frustrated, miserable and unsure about how to take the first step in search of a satisfying job.

If this sounds like you, you are not alone. It’s an extremely common scenario in today’s workforce.

The good news is that a fulfilling career is not only possible, but your God-given right, and indeed your responsibility to pursue.

Find out now what your unique inborn job skills are?