Living your best life implies making the right decisions- especially when it comes to work life. Taking up a third of the average life- around 90,000 hours which for some is an entire lifetime, finding work satisfaction and balancing work with life is critical to finding joy and meaning during our time on earth.
Starting from school-going age, parents are looking at their children’s futures and finding ways to ensure that they have a happy life- which includes a successful career. Making decisions they believe to be in the best interests of their children, they look to experts for guidance but generic data doesn’t always help to tailor a viable life package.
And it doesn’t stop there- finding a suitable career path in high school doesn’t always work out as planned and the first years of college can reveal flaws in the plan that may have detrimental effects later in the child’s life. Experiencing difficulties at work can also mean that it’s the wrong job or the wrong career. Obtaining expert help during life-changing moments can make the difference between a life of job-hopping and reaching the soul-satisfying point where passions and interests align with the person’s occupation, making life better and sweeter.
Strong Interest Inventory High School Career Assessment
Schooling is a crucial part of life, setting a child up for the real world where life happens. As book-smart people look into colleges and professions, sports-orientated individuals dream of hitting the big time in their sport, creatives seek a platform for their endeavors, and every child starts thinking about their future. “How do I have a good life?” is a simple question and once the groundwork of values has been laid at home, finding the right career or job springs from the very human need to survive and thrive.
In recognizing the visible and less obvious interests, the Strong Interest Inventory® is a career assessment based on the RIASEC model: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. The scores determine how interests align with these six areas and the SII identifies specific occupations that fit within these categories. Interpretation by a certified professional gives guidance to the test taker in making good decisions.
Taking a career assessment lays the foundation for combining tests and adds additional information, insight, and validation to the Strong Interest Inventory®, advancing the decision-making process. There are combination Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory Reports available that include:
Strong Interest Inventory® After Leaving School
College planning can be intimidating with a wide choice of facilities and subjects. Honing in on school-based testing, colleges offer career assessments but these can also be sourced online. Taking a Strong Interest Inventory® assessment at college provides not just guidance and insight, but reassures the student that they are going in the right direction.
Looking at a person’s likes and dislikes, their favorite activities, and their personality, Strong Interest Inventories® compare these qualities with those of people already working in specific careers. By showing where the student has a lot in common with people already in specific careers, knowing this information leads to better-informed career choices.
Occurring frequently, changes to study paths are less common where students have determined their chosen field with the help of career guidance, and when they do happen, a Strong Interest Inventory® is advisable before making a final choice.
Choosing a New Career Path With a Strong Interest Inventory® Assessment
Changing jobs can be as simple as promotion to a more senior position, or accepting a similar job at a different company. Leaping into a new kind of job or moving to a different field or industry is defined as a career change.
How Often Do People Change Careers? Research shows most people will change careers at least once in their lives, with the average person going through 3-7 careers before retirement and sometimes changing paths after they have retired. Moving into the younger generations, this number is likely to be at least 5-7 changes.
Changing jobs happens for different reasons, and some of the more common ones are:
• Finding better opportunity, whether it is more money or more job satisfaction
• Escaping a toxic work environment
• Getting distance from a specific boss or manager
• Seeking space for growth or progression
• Redundancy or dismissal
Seen as more stable and somewhat staid, baby boomers often hang in despite difficulties, while Millennials and Gen Z’ers have a reputation for job-hopping more frequently than prior generations. Experts suggest a couple of potential reasons for this trend, including:
Employee loyalty is becoming an outdated concept in the modern workplace
The new generation of workers actively explore a wider range of career possibilities and have less interest in employment longevity.
Seeking flexibility, and non-attachment enables a more fluid lifestyle, enabling multiple roles and allowing time and space for side hustles.
Their reasons may differ but discovering the possibilities and exploring new career paths is streamlined, narrowing down choices to find gratifying outcomes through thorough research and assessment as offered by the Strong Interest Inventory®.
Taking steps to change a career path at any age needs substantial self-reflection and there are some difficult questions to ask about finding the right career. Being a life-changing decision, some professional guidance can be a boon, particularly when the individual is feeling confused and unsure. Directing focus toward specific types of careers, the Strong Interest Inventory® delves into General Occupational Scales, comparing your likes and dislikes with those of people who are satisfied working in 130 different occupations and highlighting the 10 types of occupations most closely aligned with the test taker’s interests.
Seamlessly migrating to newer and better opportunities is facilitated by introspection, observation, and professional guidance from a certified Career Assessment professional.
What Do The Results of a Strong Interest Inventory® Reveal?
Viewing the SII as a useful medium, Academics see that the Strong Interest Inventory® has some distinct advantages:
• Helping people make educational and career plans, pointing them in the direction of areas of study or work that they are likely to find satisfying.
• Co-opting the input of a qualified professional who helps find anything that may have been missed, or any discrepancies that the test taker has identified
• Clarifying the bigger picture and putting all the many pieces of the puzzle together
• Revealing how interests relate to the majors to be selected and the careers that follow, showing pertinent information that is correct by virtue of the fact that the test taker has identified their own preferences.
• Inspiring students to do better in their studies by enrolling in classes that align with their interests and that they enjoy.
Reasons Why You Should Take a Career Assessment
Deciding when to take the Strong Interest Inventory® flows naturally when considering the many reasons to take the assessment:
• It helps you to understand your own unique interests better.
• Strengths and weaknesses can be identified for future self-improvement.
• By creating an awareness of the many different careers that could be suitable, the test taker also gains insight into careers not considered before.
• Specifically aligning careers that match goals and talents provides the best chance of subsequent success.
• Reassurance of being on the right career path gives peace of mind.
• The SII assessment guides you to an intrinsically satisfying career path.
When To Use The Strong Interest Inventory®
Questioning and wondering can lead to many philosophical debates but finding a career that satisfies- and pays the bills, needs some practical steps in the right direction. Cropping up at different life phases, and taking the test is not limited to school, college, or career changes and can be useful to anyone seeking a rich and fulfilling career.
Informing academic, vocational, and career decisions, the Strong Interest Inventory® adds value to conversations between students and their parents and teachers or provides useful insight when evaluating mid-career options. Coming to grips with current job satisfaction or dissatisfaction can be bolstered by the perceptions delivered by the assessment, giving awareness to problems that may be encountered.
Whether is at school, college, pre-first-time employment, or later career choices, the SII is a valuable tool in ascertaining possibilities and furthers personal development.
Free Career Assessment Tests
Being geared towards career planning and counseling, career assessment professionals contribute valuable insight and advice specific to the test taker. Getting what you pay for is especially true when making critical life decisions, but there are free tests available on the internet- some though popular and inexpensive
Administering a short version, and a non-scientific career assessment which has been seriously researched over decades, is frankly just not a good choice. Even if accurate, these tests can only give you a miniscule amount of information, something to think about, a little food for thought, but seldom give the answers sought.
Digging deeper, being scientifically proven and researched with large sample sizes and case studies, paid career assessments give user-specific insight and guidance when facing life-changing decisions.
Deciding when to take the Strong Interest Inventory® warrants careful choices in selecting suitable people to counsel individuals professionally through one of the most important decisions they will ever make.