If you’re trying to figure out what career is right for you, it can be hard to know where to start — especially if you don’t know much about different careers. You not only need to consider your skills, interests, passions, preferred work environments, and life goals (to name a few), but also understand what kinds of opportunities are available to you. That’s where a career test can come in handy.
Career tests are designed to assess all of the crucial elements of what makes someone happy and successful in a career and give you some career suggestions to start exploring. Yet many career tests use perplexing corporate jargon, expecting you to know what different careers are like before you start taking the test.
That’s why we’ve designed a stress-free, fun career test to help you get ideas on what careers are right for you.
Why Should I Take This Free Career Test?
I’ll be honest: I didn’t trust that taking a career test was worth my time, at first. When my high school teachers made us take an hour-long, confusing assessment, I felt worse than when I started — unsure what my results meant and with no idea what to do next.
So why take a career test at all? Why did I write this career test?
It’s not that career tests are the problem — it’s a matter of taking the right career test. The best career test should be a helpful first step for determining what career is right for you. It shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all decision about what you should do with your life, but rather a good start for helping you discover what you might enjoy and succeed at in the workplace. It also shouldn’t cost you as much as a career coach would!
We’ve created a career test that’s perfect for people who are just starting their careers and don’t know where to begin.
This career test:
- Takes no more than 10 minutes, allowing you to get answers quickly so you can feel empowered to start your search.
- Is absolutely free, meaning there’s no hidden cost, ever! You’ll just need to sign up (for free) to get your results.
- Helps you learn more about yourself, giving you insight into your interests, passions, and strengths as you reflect, answer the questions, and read your results.
- Shows you what’s out there, matching you with careers we think are right for you — including roles you might not have even known were out there.
- Empowers you to take the next step, giving you the matches you need to start your career search confidently.
After researching other career tests, I felt like most of them gave me flashbacks to high school; I was feeling overwhelmed, confused (how is someone who doesn’t know about technical careers supposed to know if they like programming?), and frustrated. This career test is supposed to be light, easy to understand, and even a little fun — so you can feel excited and motivated to take the next step of your job search.
Our career quizzes have helped tens of thousands of people start their career search with confidence — ready to be the next one?
Free Career Test
Convinced you should take a career test? You’ll have to sign up to get your results, but it’s absolutely free. Let’s get started!
What Should I Do With My Career Test Results?
Congratulations! You’ve taken a career test — that’s a big first step. Now what? Here’s how to methodically apply your career test results to your career exploration.
Do Some Independent Research
Do you know the definition of each industry or role in your results? If not, that’s OK! It’s time to research to understand better what your results mean and what paths you might be interested in. You can get insights from career experts (including articles from the Forage blog!), look on LinkedIn to understand job descriptions, and check out companies in the field.
Your goal should be to get a preliminary understanding of potential career paths — not to become an expert just yet. As you search, reflect on what interests you and what you might want to further dive into next.
Do Some External Research
After you’ve researched to understand more about career paths, it’s time to talk to professionals. Think of this less as networking and more like “coffee chats” where you learn more about what that person does.
“Start having conversations with people who have job titles you’re interested in (also called informational interviewing) so you can better understand the day-to-day of those jobs,” says Laurie Nilo, career coach and employer relations manager of Seattle University’s Albers School of Business and Economics career center. “A student can either book an appointment with their career center to get more personalized guidance on connecting with alumni or reaching out to alumni with those job titles through LinkedIn.”
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Avg. Time: 2-3 hours
Skills you’ll build: Personal brand toolkit, online presence management, self-assessment
Try It Out
Now, it’s time to try out the career(s) you’re interested in! Don’t worry; you don’t need to rush into applying for full-time jobs in your chosen field.
Instead, there are other ways to do a test run of a career (in order of commitment level):
- Job simulations: online, self-paced programs that show you what it’s like to work in a specific role or within a team at a real-world company
- Externships: work-based learning experiences where you job shadow an employee at a company, usually for a short period, like a day or few weeks
- Extracurricular activities: programs at your school, like athletics, clubs, or student government, that can teach you transferable skills
- Internships: work-based learning experiences where you complete entry-level work at a company, usually over a few months
Try It Again
What happens if you don’t like the careers you’ve tried out? That’s OK! It’s just as important to know what you don’t like as what you do like.
>>MORE: Disliked Your Internship? 5 Things to Do ASAP
It’s time to start again, but you’re not at square one. When you start to reconsider what you might be interested in, you’ll have the knowledge and experience of what it’s like to research different careers. You may find it’s much easier to understand what careers you might enjoy and eliminate careers you know you don’t want to pursue faster.
And while you can take this career test again and again, you can also try out other career assessments to get more information, ideas, and understanding of what career is right for you:
- Career Quiz for Students (Free)
- How to Choose a Career: 6 Steps, Plus a Free Quiz
- Keep Saying ‘I Don’t Know What to Do With My Life’? Take This Quiz
- Personality Career Quiz
- The Ultimate Career Aptitude Test for Students (Free)
- 8 Steps to Answering “What Should I Do With My Life?” (Plus, a Free Quiz)
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