Information on AssessmentsExamples of formal assessments offered in Counseling and Career Services include:
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a questionnaire whose purpose is to make the theory of personality types understandable and useful in people's lives. People differ in what they perceive and in how they reach conclusions, so it is only reasonable for them to differ correspondingly in their interests, reactions, values, motivations, skills, and in what they prefer to do. The MBTI will help you identify your preferences from your self-reported responses and will indicate how your basic preferences can be put into practical use to determine career compatibility. For more information on the MBTI, go to our resource page.
The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) is used to help individuals make informed decisions regarding their interests in specific types of jobs and careers. The SII has 317 items that measure an individual’s interests in a large number of occupations, work activities, leisure activities, and school subjects. The results provide a solid, dependable guide for individuals seeking a career change or help with career development.
The Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) measures self-reported vocational interests and skills and how those responses reflect an individual's attraction for specific occupational areas. It also provides an estimate of an individual’s confidence in his or her ability to perform various occupational activities. It focuses on careers that require post-secondary education, and is most appropriate for use with individuals who are college bound or college educated.
The Skills Scan Card Sort is an interactive skills assessment tool designed to help you identify your natural strengths and categorize your transferable skills. It can be used to evaluate the compatibility of your current career or to begin the career development process. The card sort will identify your skill preferences (skills that capitalize on personal strengths) and label your skill competencies (skills critical to job performance). It will provide you with a vocabulary to help define your skills on resumes, cover letters, and in interviews, and help you develop a "personal skills profile."
The Values Card Sort is a simple, fun, and colorful card sort to help you identify and prioritize your work-related and life values in just a few minutes. The Card Sort includes 41 variables of work satisfaction such as time, freedom, precision, work, and power. The results of this sort will help you to define factors affecting your career satisfaction, identify the intensity of your feelings about these factors, determine areas of value conflict and congruence, then help you apply what is learned from this sort to your career decision.
An online program called eDiscover offers guidance and information that can help you make important career and educational decisions. You will take career inventories and explore the career areas that eDiscover will then suggest for you. The results of the interest, abilities, and values inventories are presented in an integrated way that makes it easy to understand the results by relating them to the world of work. You will be able to link up with the training required for specific careers and find where that training is available. The program also offers information on job search techniques, including resumé writing and interviewing skills.
If you are interested in taking an assessment to assist in your career planning process, please call 410-772-4840 to make an appointment with a career counselor.
