Career Articles

Vocational Assessments…What can they do for you?

By Julie Fulford, Hons. BA (Psych), CRC, CIP

 

The core objective of vocational assessments within the career counselling process is to assist you in making informed and satisfying career, training  or educational decisions through better self-understanding and exploration of career options.

As you consider your career options, vocational assessments can increase your self-awareness (understanding what you can do and what you like to do) and assist you in setting realistic career goals. This in turn, will:

• Assist you in making appropriate career decisions.
• Help you to examine the suitability of a possible choice, plan or decision…for example “I think I might want to change jobs and work in ____, but I’m not sure yet.”
• Stimulate interest in an occupational area you have not previously considered.
• Assist you in making appropriate educational/training plans.
• Increase the likelihood that you will be successful in your chosen occupation.

What you need to know about Vocational Assessments

• Vocational Assessments are intended to increase your self-awareness and to assist you in making career decisions, they are not designed to “trick” you.
• Vocational Assessments are most helpful when you understand the reason for taking a particular assessment…so ask questions.
• Several factors need to be taken into account when making career decisions, such as your interests, values, personality, aptitudes, acquired skills, as well as social and economic factors.
• Avoid making career decisions based on the results of one or two assessment tools. All of the information must be considered in making a wise career choice.
• Vocational Assessments are a valuable component of the career counselling process and should lead to an action plan, which will help to outline “next steps” for you to take.

 

Assessment Tools

There are many types of Career Assessment tools available in the marketplace. For the purpose of this discussion, we will outline several categories of assessment as well as some examples of tools/ inventories available.

 

SKILLS/TRANSFERABLE SKILLS ASSESSMENT

Ability is the capacity to act with competence in an activity or occupation. It has been referred to a mental power, acquired naturally or by learning, that allows you to do something well. Skill refers to competencies developed from learning and practice; it is the power to use your talents and knowledge effectively when you perform an activity.

Here are some examples of Skills Assessments:

• The personal counselling interview is one of the most effective places to start the assessment process. A series of good questions can lead to exploration of transferable skills. (What have you liked most in the work you’ve done? What have you not liked? What are the challenges for you in your most current work?)
• Client Reflection Sheet- “Things I do well”
• Skills Card Sorts (skills decision deck-client draws a card from the deck, reads the skill on the front of the card, sorts this into 3 headings: “like to do, don’t like to do, want to learn”)
• Remembering past achievements: the client completes a life review of paid/unpaid/volunteer work achievements, school/classroom and extracurricular activities, home/church/recreation/hobbies achievements, human relationships: family and social achievements) with examples to demonstrate these.
•  Skills inventory: Data/ People/ Things
•  Skills inventory: Self Management Skills
•  What are your Career Assets? (Adapted from Barbara Moses)

 

VALUES ASSESSMENTS

Every person has a value system that is uniquely their own. As you seek self-Knowledge in order to make a career decision, you need to determine which work related values operate most within your own personality. A value is anything to which a person gives worth. It is a quality that makes something desirable.

There are many inventories/ tools available to assist with the identification of work values.

• Values Card Sorts (Values decision deck-client draws a card from the deck, reads the value on the front of the card, sorts this into 3 headings: “Always Value, Sometimes Value, Never Value”)
• Incomplete Value Sentences…(“If I had a million dollars, I would….”)
• Review of Work Values Inventory
• Prioritizing my Values and Virtues (Prioritizing Grid based on Richard Bolles: “What colour is your Parachute”)
• Work Values Auction * Adapted from Human Potential Seminars: Participant Handbook by J.D. McHolland

 

INTERESTS ASSESSMENTS

It is important to distinguish between interests and abilities. Interests are indications of activities you like to do; abilities are things you can do with skill. One expresses a preference, whereas the other indicates competence. There can be a world of difference between liking something and doing it. Again, there are many tools available to help identify client interests. Some inventories are self-administered, self-scored and self- interpreted. Other inventories are given by a career professional, scored by machine and interpreted by the professional. The client scores may be compared with the scores of other people to give an indication of how strong their preferences are in the occupational groups measured by the inventory.

The most widely used set of ideas for constructing vocational inventories is based on John Holland’s classification of personality types and work environments. Holland’s theory is useful in career planning if you accept the assumption that occupational choice is essentially an expression of personality, which can be measured by means of an inventory. Personality traits of most people can be organized into six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.

Some other interest inventories include:

• The Self-Directed Search/Vocational Preference Inventory (Both provide you with a 3 letter code for Holland personality types: the first letter represents your highest score, and the second and third letters follow in descending order.)
• Strong Interest Inventory
• Career Assessment Inventory
• Cops (Career Occupational Preference System)
• On-line Inventories such as Career Cruising also assist with identification of vocational interests.

 

PERSONALITY ASSESSMENTS

There are many career inventory options that make good use of your personality strengths.

These inventories are available to take a closer look at your personality preferences and how these relate to career satisfaction:

• MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator)
• Insights Discovery Profile may be used, but requires a skilled career professional to relate personality preferences to career satisfaction
• Personality Dimensions

 

WORK ENVIRONMENT PREFERENCES

Your work environment can be divided into 5 areas:

• The location where you want to work
• Physical conditions that are suitable for your work
• Work hours that meet your needs/balance your lifestyle
• The people you work with and for
• Your preferred level of responsibility within the organization

The work environment inventory asks a series of questions to further determine the parameters, which make up your preferred work environment. This enables you to better articulate the conditions in which you work most effectively.

 

Doing your best in Vocational Assessments

• Remember that you can’t study for vocational assessments.
• Answer the questions honestly and to the best of your ability.
• If you have any physical difficulties, tell your career counsellor/consultant.
• If you use assistive devices (eyeglasses, hearing aids) be sure to wear them during the assessments.
• It is normal to be a little nervous/anxious before an assessment. Remember, this is not a test.
• Ask the counsellor/consultant questions when you don’t understand something; they are there to help you.
• Always follow the instructions.

Presented by Julie Fulford of Coaching Solutions at the 2006 Strategies for Success Conference. Note: this article is not an exhaustive list of all inventories available for career assessment. Those included are for workshop discussion only.