Choosing your career path: Self assessment

[Monirul Islam]

When choosing a career path, there are many things to take into consideration such as your values, personality, skills, and interests. Self-exploration is a critical component of the career develop process, and assessments can help you identify these important pieces. Take the time to reflect on who you are, what you value, what interests you, and what skills and preferences you have. The better you understand yourself, the more likely you will be to make satisfying and fulfilling career decisions.

Remember, no assessment will give you a definitive answer of what you should do, be, or major in, but it will help you learn more about yourself which can help you explore career options.

Assessment Worksheets and Activities
Getting to Know You Worksheet
Career Planning Pie Worksheet
Self-Assessment Guide
Online Self Assessments to complete on your own
There are many online sites that provide assessments.  Be cautious when exploring since some sites do charge fees.  The sites below are examples of good, free, online resources for self-assessment.  These sites and assessments are not created by or affiliated with Brandman University and will take you to another website.  Remember, no assessment will give you a definitive answer of what you should do, be, or major in, but it will help learn more about yourself which can help you explore career options.

O*Net Interest Profiler
O*Net Skills Profiler
Career Zone assessments
Self-Assessment Soft Skill Quizzes:
How Good are Your Communication Skills?
How Good Is Your Problem Solving?
How Good is Your Time Management?
How Good is Your Decision Making?
How Good are Your Leadership Skills?

Certified Assessment Coaching (Current Brandman students only)
Upon the recommendation and approval of the Career Development office, current students are eligible to take self-assessments to assist in their major and career planning decisions. While no assessment can give you a definitive answer on what you should do, who you should be, or major you should select, they will help with making informed choices.

The Career Planning and Development office offers the following assessments:

Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong Interest Inventory® assessment helps you identify the themes that interest you the most (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional). The results give you a comprehensive understanding of the areas of life that are most exciting and interesting to you, which is very helpful in choosing among various options for a major or career. Through reviewing the results about your various interests, a career educator can help you determine options for how to combine your interests and maximize your sense of personal fulfillment along your career path!

Myers-Briggs
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assesses your preferences for where you focus your attention and get energy (introversion or extraversion), the way you take in information (sensing or intuition), the way you make decisions (thinking or feeling), and how you orient yourself to the external world (judging or perceiving). You will receive a result with a four-letter code, which indicates with one of the 16 personality type codes best describes you. With this information, you can begin to gain insight and clarity into yourself and your values.

Source: https://www.brandman.edu/news-and-events/news/2017/08/17/13/05/selfassessment