In the past post of this series on the Benefits of Career Counseling, we spoke about Goal Setting with your Career Counselor and how she or he can help you sort through all those pieces of yourself so that you can determine who you are and what you want. In this post we are going to talk about the testing your career counselor may do with you and how it will assist you in making decisions.
During subsequent counseling sessions, testing is usually conducted as an additional facilitation tool to help you and your counselor gain knowledge about different aspects of yourself that will help in the decision making process. There are several types of interest, workplace, and personality inventories that can be administered to help you obtain a profile of strong points about yourself. Additional assessment instruments such as aptitude tests and college major inventories may be administered, if and when they are necessary. Most assessments are usually self-reporting instruments, and there are no right or wrong answers. Everyone scores 100%….and you’ll come out knowing a little more about yourself and your possible hidden talents than you ever thought possible!
Most career counselors usually administer three or more assessment instruments — or a battery — because different kinds of information can be gained from different kinds of instruments and some people will take to one type of instrument better than to another. Taking a battery of assessments should be a pleasant experience; they are not like the usual school-type tests you remember. As mentioned, there are no right or wrong answers, rather either/or answers. For instance: Would you like to live in the city or the country? At a party, do you do the introductions or do you wait to be introduced?
Some of the more common career-related testing instruments administered to clients as part of a career counseling program include the
- Strong Interest Inventory
- Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
- The Firo-B Workplace Indicator
- The John Holland Self Directed Search.
Results of your assessment battery are interpreted for you by your counselor. The trained professional counselor is well versed in recognizing your feelings and may comment about how you react to each individual instrument. At the very least, your counselor will explore your feelings about the assessment results with you.
Remember, the testing process is just one tool your counselor will use, and not even the most important one. You are the only expert in what you want in a career and in a lifestyle. No test in the world was ever designed to take the place of your own wants and desires. At best, the testing will act as a catalyst toward your making your own choices about your own future.
In the next segment of this series we will talk about making career choices.
BBCS – Baskin Career Counseling offers Career Counseling Services, New Jersey (NJ) and Nationwide for individual and Corporate Clients/Outplacement and Career Coaching . If you are looking for resume writers in the NJ area or anywhere in the USA, we are also pleased to assist you with these professional services as well. Please visit our main site at www.baskincareer.com.