Should You Make A Career Decision Based Upon A Career Quiz?
Q. I'm about to graduate High School and I don't know what I
want to be "when I grow up". Do you think that a career quiz
might help me decide?
A. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! But maybe not for the reasons
that you think. You see, as the great Quizmaster, I've found one
thing to be true: A career quiz, or any quiz for that matter, is
always biased towards the thoughts and belief's of the person
who wrote it.
Usually a career quiz is written for entertainment purposes
only. Now, if you are calling it a career quiz, but you really
mean some sort of standardized occupational guidance test like
professional career counsellors and the military use, then those
are typically valid assessments of your career capabilities.
However, since you are asking the question here, and I am
definitely not a career counsellor, then I'm going to assume
that you are talking about your run-of-the-mill career quiz like
the type that you find in typical magazines and on a variety of
general audience web sites.
So, the reason that I said "Yes, yes, a thousand times yes" is
because anything that gets someone thinking about career options
is a good thing. A well-written career quiz has the effect of
causing you to brainstorm over your career options. What you
want to be "when you grow up" may be a moving target for you.
Most people evolve as they mature and their goals change. What
sounds like a good idea now may be far away from what you will
eventually become. However, as I said, a career quiz gets you
thinking and that's a start!
When looking for a career quiz take a good look at the type of
questions that are being asked. Remember what I said about the
author's bias earlier? You want to find a career quiz that asks
"horizontal" questions rather than "vertical" ones. For example,
a horizontal question might be: "Do you enjoy working against
deadlines?", while I vertical question might be "do you prefer
the precision of hand tools versus the speed of power tools?".
Horizontal career quiz questions are designed to explore general
career likes and dislikes while "vertical" questions tends to
try and shoehorn you into a particular career path. Now don't
get me wrong, there is a place for a vertical career quiz. For
example, if you are thinking about a career in woodworking, and
you are trying to decide if you want to be a cabinet maker or a
house framer, a vertical career quiz is exactly what you need.
The important thing to remember is to never make a career
decision based solely upon the results of some career quiz that
you happen to come across. If the quiz gets you to thinking that
you might enjoy some particular career, then research that
option more fully. A career quiz is simply another tool to help
you navigate the pathways of life. Good luck!