Career Aptitude Test

Career aptitude tests can provide a unique insight into your talents, as they measure your characteristics, ability to acquire additional skills and pinpoint where your strengths lie. Certain careers and jobs will be better suited for particular individuals than others. Taking up an unsuitable job can be unrewarding, unchallenging and frustrating.

Today there are many an online career tests that help you understand your own abilities and aid in making better career choices. We take a look at how these tests can help you make an informed choice of career. They can also be useful for those contemplating switching careers mid stream.

Need for Career Aptitude Tests

Most professionals spend their lives in a career that was not chosen with care but was more a matter of chance. The result is lack of fulfillment. The key objective of a career aptitude test is to help an individual understand his own natural or acquired abilities and identify the career choices that best match his aptitudes. A Career aptitude test can give a blueprint for success based on natural talents or aptitudes. Once the key aptitudes are revealed by a career aptitude test, the professional will be able to make better career decisions.

Investing a small amount of money on a career aptitude test can go a long way in making a career choice that will be fulfilling and rewarding. Career aptitude tests also play a crucial role while making a transition from one line of work to another.

Tests are being increasingly used to make a better match of candidates' abilities to job requirements. However, a career aptitude test should not be used as the only selection factor.

Other skills of the candidate must also be taken cognizance of. Some tests discover your personality type and help you focus on careers that are best suited for your personality traits. Aptitude and skill tests are used to judge your ability in certain skills. Recruiters often use career aptitude tests to enhance the selection process of interviewing. They measure the ability to acquire the knowledge or skills, which the employer feels are necessary to do the job well. Online Aptitude tests examine the extent of the candidate's thinking abilities and understand his power of logical reasoning. Most career aptitude tests evaluate candidates on the following skills:

• Verbal critical reasoning
  
  
• Numerical
  
  
• Diagrammatic: a series of mechanical problems, usually in pictorial form
  
  
• Spatial
  
  
• Abstract reasoning
  
  
• Data interpretation
  
  
• Dexterity: measures hand speed and fine precision skills or co-ordination.

Online Career Aptitude Test

The advantages that online career aptitude tests offer:

• They can be taken up from the comfort of homes or offices
  
  
• Many portals offer free online tests
  
  
• The results can be obtained as soon as tests are completed
  
  
• The person taking the test feels less pressurized

The individual who takes-up the test needs to provide some basic personal information like name and e-mail address. Some portals may require creating a login ID. Online payments are made in case the test is to be paid for. The right type of test to be taken should be selected, as most of the web sites provide more than one career aptitude test. A typical online aptitude test has questions that are fired randomly from the portal's database according to the selected type of test and career background.

The queries normally deal with the way a person deals with a given situation so as to check his behavioral patterns and his strengths. Based on the answers, a test summary is generated. These online career tests can help you narrow down your best career choices. It is important to remember though that these tests can sometimes be way off the mark. Some people take up several tests so that they get a better profile and career suggestions.

At the end of it all, tests cannot take the decisions for you - You need to understand your own weaknesses and strengths and take the right career decision. The types and level of tests you sit will depend upon the level and content of the job applied for. Usually the tests are in the form of multiple choice questions. You will be judged on your accuracy as well as your overall score. Tests are strictly timed and often designed so that few people have time to complete all questions. Online career tests:

• Clarify your interests
  
  
• Match your skills and competencies to specific fields of work
  
  
• Identify your strong points and individual work style
  
  
• Determine whether you like people jobs, analytical jobs, hands-on jobs, etc.
  
  
• Guide you in taking a suitable education course
  

Each one of us is unique and has unique personal traits, talents, abilities and values. Taking a career aptitude test will give you the edge in landing up a job that suits your personality and skills.