Career Assessments
Why Career Assessments are Essential for Vocational Choice
Many clients seeking a career or vocational path will be given the opportunity to take three career assessments after an initial intake session. During the intake session, any critical or urgent issues relevant to your career will be discussed. Once immediate concerns are addressed, we will then begin the career exploration process. I will provide you with a login and password to take two on-line psychological assessments to include:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator TM (MBTI)
The Strong Interest Inventory TM
You will also receive a write-in assessment to include: Values Driven Work TM
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator TM (MBTI)
This assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions. These preferences were extrapolated from the typological theories originated by Dr. Carl Jung, as published in his 1921 book Psychological Types. The original developers of the personality inventory were Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers. They began creating the indicator during World War II, believing that a knowledge of personality preferences would help women who were entering the industrial workforce for the first time identify the sort of war-time jobs where they would be “most comfortable and effective”. The initial questionnaire grew into the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which was first published in 1962. The MBTI focuses on normal populations and emphasizes the value of naturally occurring differences.
The Myers-Briggs typology model regards personality type as similar to left or right handedness: individuals are either born with, or develop, certain preferred ways of thinking and acting. The MBTI sorts some of these psychological differences into four opposite pairs, or “dichotomies,” with a resulting 16 possible psychological types. None of these types is “better” or “worse”; however, Briggs and Myers theorized that individuals naturally prefer one overall combination of type differences. In the same way that writing with the left hand is hard work for a right-hander, so people tend to find using their opposite psychological preferences more difficult, even if they can become more proficient with practice and development.
Having been used in Career Counseling for decades The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is both valid and reliable. Valid meaning that it measures what is says it measures, that is personality type and reliable meaning that the results of the assessment will be the same if given time and time again. LaunchPad uses this instrument in combination with the Strong Interest Inventory TM and Values Driven Work Inventory TM to help individuals determine their educational and/or vocational choices.
The Strong Interest Inventory TM
The Strong Interest Inventory is a powerful tool that can help you make important decisions about your career and education. Whether you are just starting out in your career, thinking about a change or considering education options for career preparation, you can benefit from the wealth of information reflected in your Strong Interest Inventory results. Understanding your Strong Profile can help you identify a career focus and begin your career exploration process.
The Strong Interest Inventory will measure several aspects of your interests to create a comprehensive report which includes the following:
Your General Occupational Themes
General Occupational Themes measure six broad interest patterns used to describe your work personality. Most peoples interest are reflected by two or three Themes, combined to form a cluster of interests. Work activities, potential skills and values can also be classified into these six themes. This provides a direct link between your interests and the career and educational possibilities likely to be most meaningful to you.
Your Basic Interest Scales:
The Basic Interest Scales represent specific interest areas that often point to work activities, projects, or course work that are personally motivating and rewarding to you.
Your Occupational Scales
The Occupational Scales delineates your scores for 122 occupations. Your interest for each occupation will be scored as low, middle range or similar interests. The 10 occupations most closely aligned with your Strong Interests are then listed in a summary chart.
Personality Scales
The Personal Style Scales describe different ways of approaching people, learning, leading, making decisions and participating in teams. Personal Style Scales help you think about your preferences for factors that can be important in your career, enabling you to more effectively narrow your choices and examine your opportunities.
Using Your Basic Scales
This section of your Strong Interest Inventory provides you with a list of college majors and course work that fits your interests. Additionally, it links these majors and college courses to specific educational degrees and occupations.
Values Driven Work TM
Values can be hard to identify. It is important to know that values, unlike personality type or interests do indeed change as the individual negotiates through different stages of their life.
The Values Driven Work TM assessment is a three-page pamphlet that individuals can fill out at home and returned to LaunchPad for interpretation. This assessment asks individuals to assess the following:
Intrinsic Values Definition: What motivates me to truly love what I do?
Work Environment Values Definition: What working conditions provide an optimum environment in which I can do my best work?
Work Content Values Definition: What makes my work or school activities most satisfying and engaging?
Work relationship Values Definition: What characteristics of interaction with others in my potential workplace are most important to me?
Values are then evaluated on a scale of 1 – 4 with 4 as “always important in my work or what I do.” Participants select their top 10 values and describe each value in their own words.