In this article you are going to learn about:
- An overview of what is assessment?
- What is the purpose of career assessment in career planning?
- How can you use a self-assessment tool to choose your career?
- Conclusion
Every student and mid-career professional at some point in their life asks a common question “What are they good at” and “What should I major in”? If you are among them then by the end of this article you will be able to determine a way to get the right answer for all your career-related queries.
Whether you are a recently graduated fresher or a mid-career professional looking for a career change or job shift you need to have the answer to “What career is right for you?”. Selecting the right career from the sea of options should not be based on hypothetical thoughts. Career assessment or self-assessment helps you to find the right career option that meets your priorities.
Before you begin finding an answer for what you wish to be in the career, first you need to identify who they are and what they are good at. Because the career option you will choose for your future could be one of the significant decisions you will ever make.
Making your decision based on your interest, values, skills, and more will help you to find true career satisfaction. Once you get stuck in a career that doesn’t match your values or priorities then you will probably start feeling captured or little out of shorts which will pause your career growth.
Career assessment allows you to identify the strength, weaknesses, attributes, and other soft skills so that you can make a career choice and first the right occupation that meets your priorities. It acts as an invaluable aid to finding the right career option for your future. There are many low cost or even free self-assessment tests or quizzes which you can take up to understand your interest and hidden skills.
Before we walk you through why you need self-assessment and how it can help you to set the right career planning. Let’s identify what is the purpose of career assessment and what role it plays in an individual’s life?
What is an assessment?
Assessment is a process or informal technique that is used to collect data and information from an individual and help them to get a better understanding of their interests and skills. These types of tools are generally used by career counselors, educators, and placement officers to evaluate and measure the skills, academic readiness, personal traits, and more.
The main reason behind assessment results is to prepare a report that showcases an individual’s skills and interest so that he/she is able to make wiser decisions in identifying the right educational or career choice for career development.
Undoubtedly career planning is quite different when it comes to creating a researched-based plan, however, career assessment can tell an individual what they can do.
Introducing Vati is a cutting-edge career assessment platform that emphasizes the critical role of self-assessment in personal and professional development. By enabling individuals to evaluate their skills, interests, and values, Vati guides users towards more fulfilling career paths tailored to their unique profiles and aspirations.
What is the purpose of self assessment in career planning?
Many recently graduated fresher and mid-career professionals have a hard time in which they are not aware of their next step in their career. Most of them feel clueless and are not sure what to look for and how they are going to separate themselves from millions of candidates looking for the same opportunity.
Have you ever thought about what type of job will make you happy or what makes you happy in your day to day job life? Most of you might not have a satisfactory answer. The vast majority of job seekers and switchers are not aware of what skill they can offer or bring to the employer.
And if they know the stock of your skills then most probably they underestimate their interest and priorities. Both scenarios are not good if you wish to land in a good and desired industry. Underestimating your skills and interest can undercut your values which may impact your future growth.
That is the reason why every fresher and mid-career professional should start with self-assessment to get in-depth ideas about what they are best at? Where can they improve? What type of industry or job excites them? And most importantly what is the best career option for their future.
Career assessment is the tool that is created to help students and working professions to identify and understand their values, skills, interest, preferences, and more. It helps you to determine how a variety of personal attributes can offer you a stiff career option and work environment.
Self-assessment of career assessment can be very helpful for answering questions that you come across when you start thinking about career planning, questions like: ‘
- How do I find a career field that meets my skills?
- What can be the right career path for my future growth?
- How can I find a rewarding career field with huge growth opportunities?
Taking the self-assessment for your career can help you to get detailed information about three key areas: skills, personality, work values, and culture.
1. Personality Trait
When we say personality trait then it implies the five dimensions of your personality which mean being open, emotional stability, extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness. Self-assessment allows you to identify what type of personality trait you have developed in your career.
If you can perform well during difficult situations and handle adversity and remain productive then you are probably good at emotional stability. If you are good at emotional stability then you can think of positioning yourself as a leader, manager, and more.
On the other hand, if you enjoy interacting with other people, share your knowledge, and assist them during difficult situations then you are probably good at extraversion. Like that, there are other dimensions of personality that can be identified using self-assessment.
There are many people out there working in different positions and fields, their main goal is to focus more on expressing their personality at their work. If you know how you can translate your personality trait into your work then you are probably going to enjoy the work you do.
To land in the dream job you need to know the soft skills hidden within you. Highlighting your strength and minimizing your weakness will open lots of opportunities that will result in career growth.
2. Work values
Knowing your work values will help you to find the right career option that may offer a satisfying work environment. Work values such as achievement, working conditions, recognition, support, independence, and support are among the common values that can help you to find the right occupation.
The above-mentioned values are those triggers that you should consider while searching for a career option or your job. In short your work value helps you to identify what is good for you. It is not necessary that every value will match your priorities, that’s why an individual should self-assess to find the right values for their future.
Below we are going to highlight some of the work values so that you are able to understand and select the values that are important to you:
Achievement: Allows employees to utilize their abilities to produce results that can offer a feeling of accomplishment (result driven).
Working condition: Offers jobs security and good working conditions
Recognition: career options that satisfy these work values offer the potential for leadership, advancement, and prestigious positions.
Relationship: Allows employees to build relationships with customers by offering excellent service and work in a friendly and non-competitive environment.
Independence: make more independent decisions and work on your own.
Support: Excellent supervision and support form the management team.
Above we have listed all the work values that you can consider to find a satisfying work environment. Once you are able to find the right work value then it will help you to imagine the right occupation and job for your future. You can go through each value to check whether it matches with your personal desire or not.
Work values act as a key trigger that most of the fresher and working professionals look for when finding the dream job of their career. That’s why it is essential to arrange those values depending on priority so that you are able to make more wise career decisions.
3. Grow your current position
Self-assessment not only helps you to identify your soft skills and work values but also offers various options to grow and develop in the current position. If you are already working at some position in an industry and looking to grow in the same field then self-assessment can play a vital role in fulfilling your desire.
Most of the individuals land in a job with high expectations, but after spending some time in the industry they think of switching their career just because they aren’t aware of their next step. Self-assessment helps you to measure your current situation and offers details about the area you can to develop.
If you feel upset or tense during your working time, think about how you can grow in the competitive marketplace and what you can do to build a more relaxing work schedule? Then self-assessment can be the solution.
By now you might be aware of what the purpose of a career solution is.
In short, it allows you to pick career options that meet your priorities and help you to set a career path that assists you in growth and development. Next, we are going to highlight how you can select the self-assessment to select your career.
How can you use a self-assessment tool to choose your career?
Individuals, who want themselves to land in the right occupation or in the right career often wonder how they can select the right occupation? What career option can be right for them?
Well, there isn’t a single process that can help you to identify the best career option. However using a self-assessment tool, you can get a brief idea about your interest and other hidden skills which can result in determining the best career option for your future.
While going through a self-assessment process for your career planning, you collect all the useful data about yourself to create a detailed profile that describes your values, interest, personality, and aptitude. Once you have a profile then you can easily set priorities to make your job easier.
When we say values then it displays things that are important for you like status, sense of achievement, independence, and more. Interest talks about what you enjoy the most like talking to people, solving their problems, hanging out with friends, and more.
Personality showcases your traits, needs, attitude toward your work, life, and more. Where aptitude showcases what you are good at managing people, communication, writing, programming, teaching, and more.
When you take self-assessment you will be able to identify your value, interest, personality, skills, and attitude. Many individuals prefer to hire a counselor, who can help them with the self-assessment process. But before hiring a counselor if you wish to know how the self-assessment process is carried out? Or what are the main components of self-assessment then take a look at the below-mentioned points?
1. Values
When it comes to selecting the right organization or career then your values will play a vital role during your selection process. It will help you to determine what is best for your career option and for growth. If you think why should an individual consider their values during their career or job selection? Then here is the answer
Knowing about values gives you various options so that you are able to select the right occupation and career. If you don’t take them into account then you are probably going to dislike the career or the job you land in, which will affect your personal as well as professional growth.
For example, if you wish to work in an organization or company where you want to work with self-direction or autonomy, but you will feel unhappy and pressured when you are in a job where you can’t work independently. That’s why it is important to consider values during career planning as well as job selection.
So let’s dive in deeper to understand different types of values. Intrinsic and extrinsic are the two types of value that you will come across while going through your self-assessment process.
Intrinsic values are the one that are related to the actual tasks involved in a particular occupation or the work you do like taking up challenging work, helping others, contributing to society and more. On the other hand Extrinsic values are totally focused on what an individual gets while working in an organization or occupation. Some examples of extrinsic values are status, high paycheck, job security and more.
So while going through value assessment you will come across common question like:
- Do you wish to work in an occupation that involves more communication (interacting with people)?
- Does a high paycheck matter to you?
- Do you want to work in an occupation that focuses on making a contribution toward society?
- Is it important for you to work in a prestigious job?
There are more questions which you will come across during your self assessment. Once you are aware of your values then it will become easy for you to find the right career or occupation for your future.
2. Interest
When it comes to selecting the right career option or occupation that meets your expectations then it’s important to be aware of your interest. Most of the time people fail to land in the right career just because they focus more on their values and less on interest.
Taking an interest assessment helps you to identify a career and occupation that meet your existing interest. In today’s competitive market people just worry about the paycheck which encourages them to land in a field which they don’t like. After getting into the job they start identifying things they like to do and other tasks don’t like.
During the self-assessment process, you will be asked to answer a series of questions that will allow you to identify your interest. Not only that but you will also be able to determine things that you like and dislike so that when you land in an occupation you think about growth not about switching your career.
Once you are aware of your interest then you will be able to find a career that is interesting, enjoyable, and most importantly satisfying. After taking the interest assessment you can compare the result with the selected career to identify whether you fit in or not.
3. Personality
One can land a satisfying career only when he or she knows about their personality. If you don’t put your efforts into determining what makes you happy or sad then you are probably going to put a hold on your career growth. Learning about your personality helps you to identify your behavior, emotions, day to day thinking, judging, and more.
For example, do you love to interact with other people or stay an introvert? Do you want to work alone or with a team? Do you like to help others or stay competitive? These are the common questions that you will come across while taking your personality assessment. Going through a self assessment process allows you to identify the career option that can be compatible with your personality.
One of the most common and popular ways to understand personality preference is based on the personality theory by Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Many career counselors use MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) to help individuals choose their career choices. Using MBTI theory they identify more about the personalities of an individual.
Many believe that MBTI theory has helped many people across the globe to find out more about their personality so that they are able to select more suited occupations. For example an extrovert who likes to interact with people would not feel happy to work in a place with less to no communication or interaction with their colleagues or clients.
4. Skills
If you are looking to start or shift to a new career then it’s important to know what you’re good at doing? Most people directly jump onto exploring different career options and various occupations. But to indorfy the right option your need to follow some steps and skill assessment is one among them. It helps you to identify what you’re good at.
In short using skills assessment you will be able to identify your hard or technical skills that can help you to select the right industry or occupation that matches your skills. Most of the people know about their technical skills but when it comes down to soft skills most of them are not concerned about it.
Technical skills can be gained in a month, but when it comes to soft skills it takes years to develop. During the self assessment phase you will come to know what skills you have and what you are best at. Depending on the skills you can determine whether you are qualified for the career option or not.
If you want yourself to land into a new industry then you can start by looking at the job description and identify skills employers are demanding in the job description. If you belong to the same industry then you will be able to find the known skills like computer literacy, fluency in a particular foreign language, and more which you have learned during your training, schooling, or in college life.
Most of the time the certification or the degree you hold are often tied with the skills in the job description. However, if you wish to switch to a new career then you might need to learn new technical skills by dividing each skill into a long term and short term goal.
Conclusion:
Most of the students and working professionals get started with their careers without even knowing whether it’s right for them or not. Self-assessment helps an individual to identify their strengths, weaknesses, attributes, and other soft skills so they can make the right career choice for their future. Above we have listed every small detail about the importance of self-assessment and why individuals should take self-assessment before landing into their desired career option. If you wish to go through the self-assessment process then there is nothing better than our career assessment platform that can help you to get an in-depth idea about your skills, interests, and priorities.
