What is it that makes you tick? What are you passionate about? Spending quality time to get a better grasp of your values, interests, personal style, and skills will allow you to better assess your career wants and needs and to, ultimately, make a better informed decision on a major and career.
There are a number of self-assessment tools, exercises, and resources to help you gain a better insight into your career path. Check out the sampling below that you can complete on your own. You can meet with a career consultant to share your results and receive guidance on what to do with assessment information
Interests
Interests are activities you pursue for pure enjoyment. They can include elective courses, hobbies, and ways you use your free time.
Take a closer look at your interests with the following free and easy exercises:
- SJSU Major Finder - A brief activity based on the theory that people who choose careers that match their own interest categories are more likely to be both satisfied and successful; match up your interests code with related majors here at SJSU.
- Personality Mosaic - An interest assessment of 90 questions to help identify an interests code; can be used in conjunction with the SJSU Major Finder.
- Narrowing Down Majors - Spend about fifteen minutes reviewing the list of SJSU majors. Becoming more knowledgeable of the variety of available majors is a good starting point. Put a plus (+) besides the ones that interest you, cross out the majors in which you have no interest, and put a question mark (?) by the ones you have no idea what they are about.
Other Interest Assessment Tools:
Exercises:* Available by referral during a counseling appointment, Building F.
- Strong Interest Inventory*
- Campbell Interest and Skills Survey*
Books:
Read Finding Your Perfect Work,
by Paul and Sarah Edwards or
What Color is Your Parachute?
by Dick Bolles,
Both located in the Career Resource Library, Building F.Links:
Values Tests
Values are priorities that develop through life experience. They are expressed through what you do and whom you spend your time with. Examples include high income, job security, and open communication.
Get a better grasp on your values with the assessments below:- Sentence Completion Exercise - Complete the unfinished sentences to discover what is important to you.
- Ordering of Work Values - Identify your top values as they relate to your preferences in your work life.
- Values Questionnaire - Answer 6 brief, yet probing values-related questions.
Exercises: Complete a values card sort or paper/pencil inventory by meeting with a career consultant, Building F.
Books:
Read In Search of Values: 31 Strategies for Finding Out What Really Matters Most to You, by Sidney Simon, in the Career Resource Lab, Building F.
Links:
Personality Tests
Knowing your personal style will help you determine the best work environment for you.
Check out your personality with the following tools:
- 5 Lives
For those who love to write, share five lives where you can do anything you want with whomever you want. - Keirsey Temperament Sorter II
Take a popular online personal temperament questionnaire to reveal your personality type and to help gain further understanding of your traits, motivations, and behaviors. Free to use with an e-mail address! Just follow the instructions and be sure to check out the main web page at www.keirsey.com.
Other Personality-Assessing Tools:
Exercises: Sign up for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with a career consultant.
Books:
Read Do What You Are by Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger in the Career Resource Lab, Building F.
Links:
Skills
Skills are your unique talents that develop through practice and experience. Examples include writing, singing, and computer programming.
Gain a better appreciation of your skills:
- Achievements Exercise - List your top four achievements and accomplishments and uncover the variety of skills you used to reach the achievements.
Other Skills-Assessing Tools:
Exercises: Complete a cards skill sort or Campbell Interest and Skills Survey by meeting with a career consultant. Access Eureka, computer software in the Career Resource Lab, Building F.
Books: Read Finding Your Perfect Work, by Paul and Sarah Edwards or What Color is Your Parachute? by Dick Bolles, both located in the Career Resource Lab, Building F.
Links: Surf on line resources such as
Online Tests
Too busy with work and school commitments to get into the Career Center? You can still get a jump start on your long-term career goals by using some on-line career tools.Surf general on-line resources such as:
- Princeton Review Career Quiz
- Career Key Measure
- Keirsey.com
Online personality tests and character and temperament sorters - TypingTest.com
On line accuracy and speed test of your typing skills
Paper-based Tests
Meet with a career consultant in Building F for more information on the following more comprehensive paper-based and hands-on self-exploration tools:
- The Strong Interest Inventory (SII), a career interest inventory that correlates your interest patterns with occupations.
- The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), an assessment tool that helps you understand your temperament preferences and what types of work environments would suit you best.
- SkillScan - an instrument that helps you identify specific skills and general skill themes which can be used to select appropriate majors and occupations.
- Elevations - an integrated assessment system, covering values, skills, career interests, and personality type.
For More Info
Knowing this information about yourself will help lay the foundation for making wise career choices. For more information about career tools and how they can be used to plan your work-life goals, see self-assessment or make an appointment with a career counselor.
Values Tests
Personality Tests
Interest Tests
Skills Tests
Paper Based Tests
