What do you want to be when you grow up?
Knowing how to answer this question might have been easier as children, but there are still ways to find answers as adults.
Luckily, whether you’re just starting your career or looking to switch industries all together, career aptitude tests offer some guidance into what your new career should be.
What’s a career aptitude test?
A career aptitude test is an assessment — usually given as a series of questions or activities — designed to help you find the best job or career path for you. These tests consider various attributes about you to find your potential best match, including:
Aptitude tests generally ask you questions about your preferences, like which task you’d rather perform or how much you’d enjoy having a certain responsibility. They aim to reveal a pattern in your choices. A test might reveal, for example, that you value autonomy at work over collaboration, meaning you’re better suited for a predominantly independent role instead of a cross-functional team.
These job assessment tests also help you understand the type of work environment that helps you feel productive and satisfied, whether that be a team-oriented workspace or an office that allows you to work alone. From there, many tests recommend certain career paths or industries based on these insights.
A passion for teaching others could mean you become a teacher — but it could also point to you finding a leadership role, becoming a coach, or hosting workshops for your current team. Any of these test results can help you identify the right career for you and start career planning.
Are career aptitude tests important?
According to the Talent Board’s 2022 North American Candidate Experience Benchmark Research Report, 53% of today’s employers have reported using job assessments in the pre-employment phase to evaluate a candidate’s skills, personality, competency, judgment, and cultural fit (or add).
Company culture is a massive contributor to employee satisfaction. Employees report that they’re 3.7 times as likely to be engaged at work and 68% less likely to feel burned out when they feel connected to their organization’s culture. And companies using these tests report 39% lower turnover and a 24% increase in employees exceeding performance goals. That suggests that these aptitude tests for jobs help both employers and employees find a better match.
Types of career aptitude tests
A career quiz isn’t necessarily designed to help you uncover your purpose in life, but it is geared toward helping you understand the “What”: What is the best career development path for you? What kind of work will bring you the highest possible level of career satisfaction?
Because discovering your potential career choices doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all process, there’s no one best career test. You may try different types of career aptitude tests to approach this question from various angles. These might assess different factors like your:
- Personality: These tests help you understand your work personality, assessing things like how you prefer to make decisions and whether or not you thrive in fast-paced, high-pressure settings.
- Skills: Aptitude tests help you figure out what you’re best at (for example, written communication, problem-solving, or analysis) and help steer you toward careers that allow you to put your skills to use.
- Values: Your values are the central tenets guiding your everyday actions, including your work. These types of tests can help you find a career that aligns with those values so you can stay consistently motivated and productive at work.
- Interests: Gallup’s 2023 State of the Workplace survey found that 77% of employees report some level of disengagement at work, which contributes to stress and lowers productivity. An interest assessment can help you find a career that inspires you, helps you avoid professional boredom, and keeps you engaged in your workplace.
8 career aptitude tests for adults
Career placement tests are as varied as the people who take them. Each has its own distinct angle and reveals different information about who you are, how you work best, and which career path to take. While some charge a fee, many organizations and websites offer a free career test to get you started.
1. O*NET Interest Profiler
O*NET is a vocational interest inventory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The career exploration tools aim to help people discover work activities they may like or find exciting.
The O*NET Interest Profiler accomplishes this by measuring six types of occupational interest: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional. The assessment consists of 60 items that describe work activities associated with a wide variety of occupations and training levels. The test has introductory, interest, and job zone questions, which take about 20 minutes to complete.
After completing the career personality test, your score report and level of preparation direct you toward a database of 800+ occupations that match your career interests.
2. Keirsey Temperament Sorter
While some career assessment tests focus on internal thoughts and beliefs, the Keirsey Temperament Sorter focuses on external behavior — particularly your communication style and the actions you take to achieve goals. The test is based on four work environment temperaments:
- Artisan: creative risk-takers who seek out adventure
- Guardian: dependable, traditional types who respect law and order
- Idealist: people who help others, strive for personal growth, and believe in collective work
- Rational: problem-solvers who value logic and are motivated by improving things
The four temperaments are based on your communication and interaction styles, which fall into two opposing groups:
- Communication: concrete (focuses on external things) versus abstract (talks about internal ideas)
- Action: Cooperative (focuses on doing the right thing) versus utilitarian (focuses on effectively meeting objectives)
Each temperament then divides into four character types, which all correlate with the Myers-Briggs personality types. The test aims to bring clarity to who you are, what you do, and the difference you can make in the workplace.
3. TestColor
TestColor has a simple premise of relating specific colors to your emotions and personality. The assessment has a two-part selection process, which first asks you to click on a series of color squares, starting with the ones you like most and ending with the ones you like least. The second part of the selection process moves in reverse, having you start with colors you like least and then move to those you like most.
Once you submit the second activity, the TestColor algorithm then returns a list of 11 personality traits, such as “decision-maker,” “innovative,” and “creative,” all based on the order of the color squares you chose. The results page also tells you the top four dominant traits of your overall personality and how those traits can benefit you professionally. From there, you can take your knowledge of those skills to research which careers best suit you.
4. MAPP Test
The Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential (MAPP) Career Test is appropriate for a wide range of people, from high school students with no experience to someone looking to change careers at 50. The assessment provides job suggestions based on your career personality. However, each question goes beyond surface traits to uncover what drives you professionally.
The test takes 22 minutes from start to finish. You can access this free career aptitude test and get five O*NET-based vocational categories in which you’re likely to excel. Once you know your categories, you’re ready to find a specific career that speaks to you.
5. Holland Code Career Test
Also known as the RIASEC Test, the Holland Code Career Test was developed by academic psychologist Dr. John L. Holland and is one of the most widely used career aptitude frameworks in the world. The basic idea behind the assessment is that you’re happy and successful when you work in a field and work environment that aligns with your unique personality.
The test consists of 48 tasks. You rate how much you enjoy doing each of them on a scale of one to five, with one representing “dislike” and five representing “enjoy.” The test takes about 10 minutes to complete and gives you a score in six major interest areas:
- Realistic (or Building)
- Investigative (or Thinking)
- Artistic (or Creating)
- Social (or Helping)
- Enterprising (or Persuading)
- Conventional (or Organizing)
Once you have a score panel, you’ll receive a list of suitable careers that align with the interest area where you scored the highest. This test can also give you a glimpse into what kind of work environment you’d thrive in, which will be helpful to know during your next job search.
6. Princeton Review Career Quiz
The Princeton Review Career Quiz includes 24 alternative choice questions in which you are given a pair of career-oriented statements and instructed to choose the one that best fits you. At the end of the test, you’re assigned one of four colors:
- Red: expediting
- Green: communicating
- Blue: planning
- Yellow: administrating
Each color relates to a work style or personal strength as well as a category of careers that matches your style and interests. When you receive your color results, you’ll also get information on specific fields you should consider within each career category.
It is The Princeton Review’s philosophy that activities reliant on your strengths and a work environment that appreciates those talents lead to true fulfillment and job satisfaction.
7. Big Five
This career assessment measures the Big Five personality traits using a protocol known as the International Personality Item Pool Big-Five Factor Markers. It has earned the prestige of being one of the most commonly used personality assessment models in academic psychology.
Having completed a statistical study of personality test responses, researchers found that there are unlimited personality variables, but only five traits stand out as viable explanations for a person’s answers to each question:
- Extraversion
- Neuroticism
- Agreeableness
- Conscientiousness
- Openness to experience
The test consists of 50 items and requires you to rate each on a scale of one to five based on whether you agree or disagree that the statement describes you. You’ll get an overall score from 1 to 120 for each major trait and then scores on a scale from 1 to 20 for sub-traits related to each Big Five trait. Equipped with this knowledge about your personality, you can find a career path that matches your natural attributes.
8. MyPlan Career Assessment
Instead of a test to tell you which career is right for you, MyPlan is a career values assessment that helps you understand your core motivations at work and what is important to you in a career. For this test, MyPlan provides a set of 20 cards. The text on each card offers a way to complete the phrase “In my ideal job, it is important that…” Each represents one of six underlying work values:
- Support
- Recognition
- Achievement
- Relationships
- Independence
- Working Conditions
After you rank each statement from least to most important, the MyPlan assessment returns a score for each of the six work values. The higher the score on any one value, the more important it is to you. You’ll also receive a list of 739 jobs ranked according to how well they match up with your core work values. The idea is that finding a job that aligns with your values leads to greater performance and satisfaction in your career.
A tool to help you increase career satisfaction
The best career aptitude test for you depends on your individual needs and level of self-awareness. You can opt to take one test or as many as you like to get a complete picture of how your personality, skills, and interests fit into the job market.
The main objective of a career aptitude test is to give you the information you need to find the right path or gain the confidence to make the career change you’ve been considering. Armed with in-depth information about your career matches, you can make the right choice for you and start on the path to achieving true career satisfaction.
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