Career Assessments



PERSONALITY ~ INTERESTS ~ STRENGTHS ~ SKILLS ~ VALUES

What’s your career direction?
Does your college major connect you to your dream job?
Are you exploring your options?
Should you make education and career decisions based on the results of quick, easy, free career assessments?


Career Assessments can help you find answers to these questions and much more!

Career assessments are . . .

  • The recommended first step in self-evaluation, major selection and career decision-making activities.
  • An introspective activity that enables you to consider your interests, skills, personality and values and learn how they relate to various majors and careers.
  • Given and interpreted by qualified career counselors.
  • Available by enrolling in a career class or making an individual career counseling appointment.

Personality and Workplace Preferences

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

  • Helps you explore your preferences
  • Verifies your personality type.
  • Relates results to career options, relationships, education and many other aspects of your life.
  • Helps improve work and personal relationships, increase productivity, and identify leadership and interpersonal communication preferences.

Interests

Strong Interest Inventory (SII)

  • Helps you understand your work interests.
  • Shows you some kinds of work in which you might be comfortable.
  • Results are in personality themes of Holland Personality
  • Types, work categories, and specific job titles.
  • Profile includes your basic occupational areas, and comparison to specific occupational titles.

Self-Directed Search (SDS)

  • Identifies personality preferences and Holland Code.
  • Explores program of study and work environments.
  • Overview of salaries associated with occupations that interest you.

Strengths

Clifton StrengthsFinder (CSF)
34 Strengths Quick Reference Guide

Discovering Your Strengths helps you . . .

  • Learn the ways you stand out.
  • Appreciate, maximize, and take immediate action in ways that will dramatically increase your motivation, engagement and satisfaction in your education and work.
  • Boost your confidence, clarity and appreciation of how valuable you are.
  • Enlist a new vocabulary to describe what you do best, and articulate the value you bring to your work and life.
  • Navigate your encounters with others about your projects, goals, expectations, and advocate for your value.
  • Incorporate Strengths into your social network, resume or LinkedIn page for a more impactful profile
  • Gain a new appreciation for attributes that you have previously undervalued in yourself.
  • Improve people skills, including more patience and appreciation for the people in your life

Strengths Resources and Information

Abilities

Ability Profiler

Computerized program within Choices360.com that . . .

  • Give you an understanding of your abilities in arithmetic reasoning, computation, vocabulary, three-dimensional space, name comparison, and object matching.
  • Demonstrates the relevance between aptitude scores and the world of work.

Website: Choices360
Click:
Create an Account
Access Key:
CA01178
Ability Profiler Password:
begin

Skills

MicroSKILLS

Computerized program within EUREKA.org that helps you  . . .

  • Learn about your skills and talents.
  • Explore how to transfer your skills and talents to the world of work.
  • Summarize your list of skills with a list of occupations matching your skills profile.

Values

Knowdell Career Values Card Sort

Values Card Sort deck is used in career counseling sessions and career classes to help you . . .

  • Identify your internal and external self-motivators which influence your life choices.
  • Identify your needs in work settings in order to feel satisfaction in your career choices.

Assessment Cost

Cypress College is dedicated and committed to the success of our Students by removing barriers to quality resources. Currently, all career assessments are FREE of charge to registered Cypress College Students. Career Assessments are determined and interpreted by our certified Career Counselors.

Should you make education and career decisions based on the results of quick, easy, free career assessments?

You need to be the judge by considering the reliability and validity of these assessments. With the wide spread use of the Internet [and mobile apps], free online career assessments have grown beyond belief. However, if you are serious about your career search and your personal career development process, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

  • Are these assessments reliable?
  • Are the results accurate?
  • Are the results validated with research supporting their use in career development?

Should you trust any career-oriented assessment without a career counselor’s interpretation and guidance?

Many free and/or online assessments are simply not reliable and accurate. Studies have shown these “free” assessments:

  • Are limited and have varying result interpretations available.
  • Often do not list names, qualification of the developers, or career theory of the assessments.
  • Have unknown reliability and validity–whether at face value or compared with more standard career assessments.

The Cypress College Career Planning Center is here to help you make informed and considered career decisions based on research and science for your educational and career success.