Free Career Planning Test

A career planning test, of which there are many types, can be a valuable tool in helping you find your career direction. There are values inventories, interest inventories, achievement and aptitude tests, personality assessments, and career maturity tests. Many high schools provide a free career planning test for students. Some colleges and universities will also provide a free career planning test. Some companies even have a free career planning test for applicants or new personnel. However, very often these tests come with a minimum fee. Some can actually be quite expensive. There are plenty of Internet sites that offer career planning tests for a fee. As with anything else, it makes sense to shop around these sites before making a financial commitment. Some people take these tests for employment purposes. Other people take them just to satisfy their own curiosity about themselves. These are some of the sites you can investigate.

The Princeton Review Career Quiz. Here you will find 24 questions based on the Birkman Method – which is explained on the site. The test enhances your understanding of your personality, and gives a list of occupations that might be of interest to you. You must register to use the site, but this is a free career planning test.

Career Decision Making. This is part of the Job Search Tutorial at the Career and Employment Service of Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire. You can go online and take the Personal Traits Inventory, the Work Values Inventory, the Influence of Significant Others and Significant Factors, Interest Inventory; the Working With Others Workshop, and the Skills Workshop. These tests are not standardized, but they can provide good self-assessment. Moreover, this is a free career planning test.

Holland Codes Self-Directed Search. This was designed by a career development theorist named John Holland. It is based on his theory that people have interests that fall into one-to-three of the following types: realistic (R), investigative (I), artistic (A), social (S), enterprising (E), or conventional (C). This is now called the RIASEC model. When a person does the test and gets a three-letter Holland code, they have a tool that can help tem decide which occupations might be of interest to them. The Self Directed Search (SDS) can be taken right at the website and does not cost anything. However, this is not quite a free career planning test. You must pay a small fee – usually under $10 – to get the results of your test.

There are many other websites offering career testing. Those that charge a fee usually keep the cost to a minimum. Thoroughly investigate a site before paying a large fee.