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Are career assessment tests accurate?
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There are many career assessment tests out there – Myers-Briggs is probably the most well-known and might be available at your campus career center. But, how accurate are they?
I took the ACT twice in high school. The beginning portion of the test assessed what career path might be best for me. Both times, my recommended career came back “park ranger.” Anyone who knows me would laugh hysterically at the thought of me being a park ranger. (Sure, I enjoy camping, and I remember filling in the “I like kittens and puppies” bubble, but these characteristics hardly qualify me to be a park ranger.) So again, I ask, how accurate are these tests?
The following are recent interviews with John Liptak, Ed.D., author of “Career Quizzes,” and Gary Sutton, author of “Launch!...Get That First Paycheck In 90 Days” and founder of the Who Are You Anyway (WAYA) online career assessment test.
Heather Huhman: How can "career quizzes" help undecided students choose their dream profession?
John Liptak: Career quizzes are designed to be interesting, as well as informational and educational. The career exploration, planning and implementation process should be fun, not like taking a math test. Career quizzes provide a fun, non-threatening way for people to learn about themselves and use this information to develop their career. Career quizzes allow people to reflect, grow and invent and reinvent themselves based on the idea of constant self-assessment. Career quizzes encourage students to tell their story, rather than relying on a standardized test to tell their story for them.
Gary Sutton: No career test can pick a dream profession. There are too many variables within each profession.
My high school career test said I should become a pharmacist. As a wide-eyed youth, I embraced that advice. Then, I thought about it. If I got mediocre grades, I’d come home and run the drug store in Eagle Grove, Iowa. That means patching the roof on a Monday, hosting the Rotary Pancake Breakfast Tuesday, explaining to the priest why we sold condoms on Wednesday, making malts on Thursday and perhaps, filling a prescription or two on Friday. But, if I scored great grades, I’d make Katz Drug in Des Moines, stand behind glass in a starched white jacket eight hours a day and fill prescriptions non-stop. Soft soled shoes might be smart. Same job? Hardly.
HH: What makes a career quiz accurate?
JL: When you think about the word test, you think about right and wrong answers and relying on an expert to grade the test. Career quizzes, unlike anxiety-producing tests, are quicker and much easier to take. They allow the person to score, interpret and make their own meaning from the results, rather than having it provided by a career “expert.” In the process that I call Guided Self-Reflection, the career coach and the client are equal partners on a journey of discovery. There are no right or wrong answers to career quizzes, only self-knowledge and occupational-knowledge to be gained. In essence, career quizzes account for wider interpretation and do not simply identify one or two “best” occupations.
GS: Repeated adjusting based on responses. Myers-Briggs, the most widely used vocational test, is proven to be non-repeatable. That’s because they push every trait into an extreme. If you scored in the 49th percentile for sociability, they’ll make you a park ranger and put you up in the tower watching for fires. If you scored in the 51st percentile for sociability, they’ll make you a public relations professional. A good night’s sleep or a cup of coffee changes your entire career plan. The WAYA test only measures the extremes, and ignores the mainstream responses.
HH: Specifically, why are your career quizzes accurate?
JL: Tests are primarily diagnostic in nature. Career quizzes are not designed to “pigeon-hole” people, but rather they are designed to enhance the quiz-takers’ career discovery. Career quizzes are designed with the same precision as people who develop career tests, but they tend not to be prescriptive in nature. Career quizzes are developed with an attention to accuracy while allowing for the objectivity of traditional standardized tests. In actuality, I also believe that career quizzes tend to be more inclusive and accurate for traditionally underrepresented populations (who are not accounted for in most reliability and validity samples for traditional standardized tests).
GS: WAYA won’t give you a specific job title. It’ll tell you a range of careers to investigate, whether you should be in a small or large group (no other test does that, and this may be more important than the job itself) by comparing a college senior taking the test to norms established by other college seniors. They learn where they’re exceptional, where they’re not and what this suggests for career directions.
HH: Is there anything else you would like to add?
JL: The days of “test them and tell them,” or the practice of career counselors administering tests to their clients and then telling them which occupation is best to pursue are over. Career counselors now know that career counseling is a process of exploration and making sense of relevant information leading to effective career choice and implementation. Career quizzes provide an alternative to the traditional career tests designed to diagnose and “fix” career problems.
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