This is the third of four weekly advice posts, written by Donegal ETB’s experienced Adult Guidance and Information Service staff, for those members of our community who have either lost their jobs because of COVID-19 or are now at home because of containment measures and are looking for something useful to do. This one looks at online courses.
Many of us end up in a career accidentally. As a result of this ‘accidental’ career choice you may never have given any thought to the question of whether you are in the right job that suits you. So now may be the right time to think about a career change.
How can you go about finding what that change might be or finding out “what do I want to really do”? A career inventory test is a tool to help you to identify your strengths, interests, values, personality traits and motivations more fully. The tests ask a series of questions about what you like and don’t like to do and matches your likes and dislikes to careers.
Used wisely, career inventory tests can help you to get a better sense of jobs and work activities that might be a good fit for you. A career inventory test will not tell you a specific career to pursue as no tool is that powerful – its main purpose is to suggest ideas about careers that may suit you based on how you answer the questions.
There are a number of free online tests that can help you learn more about yourself, some of which are listed below for you to explore.
If you do decide to explore and complete the tests, here are a few tips to keep in mind to get the most accurate results:
- Answer each question as honestly as possible. Your response should reflect who you actually are, not the way you hope or wish to be.
- Go with what your gut is telling you and not your head.
- There are no right or wrong answers.
- Don’t sit on the fence and pick the middle answer for each question.
- Garbage in = Garbage out. The test results will only be as good as the information you give.
- Decide on a time in the day when you feel most relaxed and will be able to sit down and complete the test in one sitting.
If you feel you need more information or would like one of Donegal ETB’s Adult Guidance and Information staff to help you navigate your way through the test options or to help you to interpret and use the results, email them at adultguidance@donegaletb.ie or complete and submit this short online form and they’ll call you back: https://www.donegaletb.ie/further-education-training/adult-guidance/.
Free Online Career Inventories (Getting To Know Yourself)
www.123test.com
www.prospects.ac.uk/planner
www.careersportal.ie
Career exploration:
www.gradireland.com
www.prospects.ac.uk
www.careersportal.ie
www.personalitypage.com – click on ‘Portraits’
