If you’re in a position to make a career change, for whatever reason, you’re probably wondering what type of career would suit your personality. Psychometric tests are a quick, convenient way of “personality typing”-getting an idea of which specific personality group you fall into in terms of skill sets, ambitions and aspirations. Once you know which group you fall into, it’s easier to assess what type of career might be suited to you.
Personality psychometric tests are not to be confused with the psychometric tests employers use to test candidates’ ability. These are usually taken in exam-like conditions and involve numerical and verbal reasoning in order to assess a candidate’s capability for the job at hand. Although personality psychometric tests such as OPQ32 are used by managers and businesses to get an idea of an individual’s behavioural style, there are many free online personality psychometric tests that can be taken for your own reference, at your leisure. There’s a multitude of free online tests that you can take at your convenience. In fact, there are so many of these tests, that it is overwhelming to try and select just a few. So to make it a bit more manageable, we’ve rounded up five of the most popular tests doing the rounds at the moment:
According to the thinking behind this test, personality typing involves classifying the individual according to four criteria: extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. Different combinations of the criteria determine a type. For instance, if you are an Extrovert Intuition Feeling Judging, you are type EIFJ (obviously!). According to which type you are, the test not only feeds back a list of suitable career options, but also some educational institutions where you can receive the relevant skills learning.
Career Psychometrics: ‘How to Land your Ideal Job’
You have 2 minutes 50 seconds to answer a short series of questions about what personality traits you believe you have. After you’ve completed it, you get a free Personality Report that explicitly tells you not only what type of job is for you, but also what type of job isn’t for you.
Finding Potential: Individuals’ Personality Questionnaire
This test takes around 15 minutes to complete and gives you a 15 page report that shows you the personality traits you scored higher and lower on; gives you a detailed breakdown of these traits; and then matches work preferences and possible jobs to you according to whether you scored high or low on each particular trait.
SimilarMinds.com: ‘What Career Suits Me’?
This is slightly different in that it first asks you what your ‘current or desired’ career is before you take the test. It then gives you a list of statements and you have to indicate to what degree each statement is true of you. In the results it categorises you as a certain type of person such as an ‘Idealist’ and then gives you a list of possible professions.
PersonalityType.com/Monster: ‘Discover Your Perfect Career’ Quiz
This uses the same criteria as the Jung Typology Test, except you yourself have to decide whether you are an extrovert or introvert, sensor or intuitive, etc. by reading bullet point descriptions of each pair of qualities and then picking which of the two qualities is most like you. After you’ve chosen from the four categories, the test identifies your personality type as the conventional Jung test does (i.e. you may be INTP) and then gives you a list of suitable careers.
Although these type of tests can certainly be useful tools for giving you a number of possible career change options, it is important that you eventually narrow down and target the one career you want to pursue. If you would like help with this, we at Position Ignition can offer you a range of methods for deciding upon which career to choose. Not only do we use personality tests similar to the one above, we also give each of our clients access to one of our Career Guides and encourage them to use other tools such as Visionboards. If this interests you, get in contact with us for a free consultation today!
