Several career assessments are available online, including the Strong Interest Inventory, a career assessment tool designed to align interests with careers that will have the best possible outcomes. Developed over the last century, constant ongoing research and refinements ensure that the assessment remains as relevant as when it was first developed by psychologist, Prof. Edward Kellog Strong Jr. in 1927. The assessment was used as a reliable tool by career counselors for decades and subsequently found its way to internet websites.
Finding A Career That Aligns With Interests On The Internet
As the internet expanded into homes globally, the exchange of free information became common. Music sharing was prevalent on sites such as Napster which operated between 1999 and 2001, until intellectual rights infringements gained the attention of authorities. Although some may still argue that music should be free, most recognize that the work and effort put into their music by artists deserves payment. They too have bills to pay, despite being fortunate enough to have found careers that suit them perfectly, which most love with a passion.
Whether you are an aspiring musician, fireman, doctor, or something else, there can be little doubt that finding a rewarding career that aligns with your goals and dreams- and will pay the bills with extra left over for emergencies or luxuries will be a high priority. But when deciding on a career, choices can be overwhelming- or the list of possibilities could draw a blank. The decision itself is a scary thought because of the long-term nature that will affect almost every part of your life in the future. What if you make the wrong decision?
TAKE THE STRONG INTEREST INVENTORY!
Making the Right Career Decisions
Career decisions are something everyone confronts at some point, and some have to face it more than once. Lives change and people evolve, leaving past passions behind. Whether it’s in high school, college, or mid-career, reasons crop up that make us pause and redirect ourselves to a better life or the possible consequences of a bad career choice. Even those with a childhood dream of being a lawyer or politician may change their minds as they are exposed to the realities of the work.
Career testing is useful at all life stages. It’s about taking an inventory to see what you have, and then deciding what to do with it. The Strong Interest Inventory is just like any other inventory- it inventorizes your particular interests at a given point in your life. Not only is it useful as a thought-provoking exercise, but there is a strong set of mechanics behind the test structure geared towards pinpointing interests and matching them with suitable careers.
Aligning inherent interests with career choices is a little more tricky than being interested in, for example, writing, and becoming a writer. Writing offers many different outlets, including authoring a book, content writing, technical writing, social media writing, and numerous other niche jobs. A romance fiction writer is unlikely to succeed as a technical writer, not least because they will have no interest in the document they have to produce. Almost all careers have these subtle-seeming but critical divisions.
It may well be that because we are faced with so many career choices today it has become the norm to change careers a few times during our working lives. Most who have jumped ship often end up in a job they love and regret not doing it earlier. With influence from others and too little insight into what really makes them tick and the possible careers that match years were wasted.
Yet a Strong Interest Inventory has the capability of preventing those years from being wasted, setting out the best possible pathways to a satisfying career. It can be undertaken at any important juncture and is an investment that renders a return of more satisfying and productive years than would otherwise have been the case.
Investing In Your Career Decision
Significant amounts of money are paid towards skills and training, whether it’s school fees, college tuition, or other learning courses. Earnings for new entrants in most careers start in the lower range and increase as skills and proficiency increase, although this may mean moving to different companies that are willing to offer more money. Still, with a Strong Interest Inventory, the career path can be started by aligning interests to the vocation, wherever the vocation may lead.
Investing in the Strong Interest Inventory to establish a potentially ideal career path may seem overwhelming initially, yet as a step towards shaping your future path it should be seen as an investment rather than an expense. The upfront price is reasonable when compared to the benefits of uncovering a career that aligns with both your interests and abilities. For a fee starting at $39.95, you get entry to an invaluable tool that provides precise and significant results. The investment into a Strong Interest Inventory includes:
• Bypassing doubling or tripling crippling university debt by enrolling in different courses when one doesn’t work out.
• Better promotional prospects with higher earnings are achieved through the easy diligence that can be applied when you love your job.
But a question sometimes asked is whether it’s possible to use the Strong Interest Inventory without any associated costs. It’s at that point that we start googling to see if we can take the Strong Interest Inventory for free. Delivering a myriad of results, the free tests seem legitimate, yet few are and the few dollars saved ultimately cost substantially more in wasted time and money.
Investing in yourself has the additional benefit of strengthening commitment. When a product or service has been paid for, it’s human nature to want to receive value in return. Free things are taken less seriously whereas a paid assessment report is unlikely to be tossed out after the first reading.
As with any other investment, when you buy the items you need from the store for your business or project and get help from experts who offer detailed reports and guidance on interpreting results effectively, it enhances your experience and steers you in the right direction. It’s the difference between making a hit-and-miss decision and going into a job with the confidence that you have the best chance to establish a successful career path. The Strong Interest Inventory can be taken at any important life juncture to help make career decisions simpler and clearer.
Choosing A Career In High School
High Schoolers are likely tired of hearing that their high school years should be the best years of their lives from their grandparents and other well-meaning people. Yet they are fun and filled with learning opportunities and countless meaningful encounters. Some friendships forged at school last a lifetime but for some, high school is a dreary, awkward, and nasty experience they can’t wait to escape from.
It’s what happens after high school that worries many, whether they love school or hate it. The biggest attractions are your own money and independence. Both depend on whether you have a no-strings-attached trust fund or a good job. But even trust fund babies get bored eventually and start looking for a career that will make their lives more meaningful.
The most important things to consider when choosing a career in high school are:
1. Your interests and passions
2. Skills and strengths
3. Job opportunities
4. Earning potential
As the name suggests, the Strong Interest inventory reveals inherent interests, often interests that had never been translated into action. The sometimes surprising results are based on models that have six broad groups known as the Holland Codes. These codes help identify the settings that best suit individual personalities and interests.
Matched with interests are careers that people with the same interests find satisfying. In the process of eliminating careers that are just plain wrong for the person doing the assessment, possible career choices are identified and can be explored to determine other factors such as earning potential and whether an existing set of skills would be useful.
With a comprehensive Strong Interest Inventory report in hand- with insight not covered in the free versions, the next step is to start refining a learning path.
Choosing A Career In College
For many people who have their heart set on during their school years, somewhere along the way, a career that sounded wonderful at 6 gets less attractive as the years go by. Interests change and people grow. Perhaps an interest in animals doesn’t sound so good when it means facing sick and distressed animals every day in a veterinary practice. Or dreams of becoming a pro athlete are dashed by injury.
One of the most common issues for college students is selecting the right courses and subjects, especially when it comes to their majors. Many initially enroll for a course that offers a broad range while others may enjoy most of the subjects on their timetable enjoying, but just can’t beat one or two. What sounded like the right subjects can turn into the wrong subjects when faced with exposure to the content of the course. A conundrum arises when subjects don’t align with career goals.
The things to consider when choosing a career while you are in college are similar to those that are important in high school and include:
1. Interests
2. Priorities
3. Job opportunities
4. Financial considerations: Costs of study and potential earnings
As interests remain the key element in predicting good career outcomes, it’s the best place to start. An extensive Strong Interest Inventory assessment that delivers a report aligning interests with possible good career matches. These careers will require particular qualifications that have a set of modules or subjects that will enable admission after graduating.
When deciding midway on course changes, the financial implications must be examined. Often, it’s unnecessary to start a whole new degree and adjustments can be made that will allow students credit for the modules passed in a different degree course. These finer details would be meaningless unless the overarching goal- matching interests to career possibilities, is woven into the report.
The free Strong Interest Inventory tests simply don’t have enough individualized insight to deliver material guidance on choosing a career while in college.
Changing Career Paths
An accountant may love the logic of numbers, but feel restricted by the GAAPs and GAASs of the profession and choose to move to law where the rules can be challenged in court and justice can be delivered in meaningful ways. Lawyers may decide that the stress of dealing with devious clients and colleagues could lead to poor health and prefer to use their talents and skills to negotiate real estate deals. And the real estate agent may harbor a dream to become a doctor. It’s never too late.
In an ever-evolving world, new jobs are created that previously didn’t exist. AI has changed the game and 10 years ago there were no job opportunities for drone operators, podcast producers, or UX designers. Similarly, climate change is changing the work world. Coal miners may be considering a career as a wind technologist.
Or perhaps you are simply miserable in your current career because it’s not a good fit. Whatever the reasons for changing careers, there are things to consider when changing careers:
1. Interests
2. Investigate whether the new career under consideration will be a good fit
3. Transferable skills
4. Assessment of whether the problem lies with the choice of career or the employer
5. Costs of reskilling
6. Work-life balance
Having the benefit of hindsight, many former interests will have fallen by the wayside and it’s a good time to consider long-forgotten interests when changing careers. Reskilling may require additional learning and college options may be limited. Most US universities have no upper age limits but it may be difficult to adjust to a younger group of co-students or family responsibilities may dictate that daytime classes that interfere with work commitments aren’t feasible.
Choosing to change careers is a difficult decision that requires a significant commitment to succeed. With the benefit of a Strong Interest Inventory, it is far easier to identify a better career path that will lead to a satisfying career the next time around. The stakes are far higher when giving up an existing income and relying on a free Strong Interest Inventory is risky at the best of so and more so when the consequences of a bad career decision are more significant.
Why Pay When There Are Free Strong Interest Inventories Online
The average American works over 2,000 hours per year. Spending around one-third- about 90,000 hours, of your life in a career that is a bad fit is not just excruciating. The frustrations overflow into relationships and lead to a life in auto-pilot mode. It shortens your life and takes away the joy and happiness that all human beings deserve.
When it comes to making good career decisions, being informed is key. This includes understanding your interests and what drives you and getting insight into the careers that could resonate with these factors. Millions of people find their jobs rewarding which enhances their enjoyment of life. The developers of the Strong Interest Inventory- highly educated professionals, have surveyed many of these happy people to establish what their interests are to match interests with careers and continue to distill and update the assessment on an ongoing basis.
Just like musicians deserve to be paid for their music that can lift a mood or change a day entirely, the Strong Interest Inventory assessors add value and meaning for a lifetime by guiding their clients to the careers that best suit them where they have the most substantial advantages. A fulfilling career has immeasurable rewards.
Most free versions of the Strong Interest Inventory offer considerably less, often outdated, measuring tools. This gives limited insight and could direct you on the wrong trajectory. This can be avoided by paying a few dollars to get useful insight that will help put you on a better path. There’s truth in the old saying that goes, “You usually get what you pay for.” A Strong Interest Inventory that costs nothing usually delivers very little more than what you paid, if at all.
When looking at which option to choose, remember that an authentic Strong Inventory assessment is an investment in yourself.