People ring us at Whitney Career Guidance very often and ask the question “do we do Aptitude Tests”? In most cases I’m pretty sure they don’t know what they are actually asking for. There seems to be an old body of opinion in society that completing an aptitude test is the only way to help identify our true career passion.
Sadly, nothing could be further from the truth. Traditional Aptitude Tests measure a candidate’s ability on a range of intelligence factors such as numeric or verbal ability.
During my early years of assessing young people I used Aptitude Tests quite a lot. However I soon learned that these same students had very little interest in the test results. They much preferred me to explain what’s involved in particular career areas, and whether they might end up behind a desk or have to stick needles into patient’s bodies.
As for adults the mere sight of a psychometric test booklet was often enough to induce a mild panic attack! They seemed to have an innate fear that they might be subject to an IQ test which was designed to show them as below average intelligence or worse.
So I was left with a dilemma as to what to do. Too much testing and I was in danger of boring my clients with information they already knew. Too little, and I wasn’t as sure as I would like to be when it came to making decisions regarding a future career path.
Over a period of ten years I developed my own methods for assessing client’s needs: a series of questionnaires and scenarios, which I designed to tease out each client’s preferences for selected career areas. When I had assimilated six specialist areas, I combined these into one comprehensive online assessment tool which I call “Soon to Be Me”
I tested these methods over a further two to three years until I was happy that they give me a true and accurate reflection of each person’s career preferences. I will not attempt to assess any client now without a Soon to Be Me assessment. I insist on all clients completing this assessment prior to each consultation with me or indeed any of the Whitney Career Guidance Team.