It’s overwhelming and confusing! Why? There are A TON of variables that go into making a thoughtful career decision. Major variables to consider are the basics (salary, education, skills/work history, location, visa status, etc.) and psychological needs (interests, personality, strengths/weaknesses, motivation, WFH vs. office environmental preferences). You will also need to consider disabilities (e.g., processing speed, physical limitations, etc.) and mental health symptoms (e.g., anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, etc.) that may come into play in choosing the right career. 

There are also cultural variables like family expectations (i.e., dependents, parents’ approval, etc.) and social class expectations (e.g., upper-middle class vs. middle class). And let’s not forget about health insurance and benefits that may be important to you too (e.g., egg freezing, maternity/paternity leave, etc.). That being said–being happy and fulfilled in your career (and life!) is complex to say the least! Getting all of your data on paper and sifting through it with a Career Coach can be incredibly helpful in organizing your thoughts. 

Yes! We offer Data-Assisted Career Coaching add-on for clients who have completed Career Testing and want additional support processing their results. For clients who want ongoing support to achieve career-related goals (e.g., job search strategy) we offer an array of additional Career Coaching options. 

You will have access to your Career Test results immediately upon completion of the tests. You will then schedule a session to discuss your results with your Career Coach. After the results session, clients generally take 2 weeks to complete their reflection assignments before scheduling a follow-up call to process further and make final career and action planning decisions. Therefore, the process takes about 3 weeks in total.

Career Testing provides a list of specific roles and industries that are strong fits, usually between 5-8 options. In terms of specificity, the results are narrow, but not granular. For example, we would never suggest that a client explore “marketing” generally as there are many different types of marketing and careers within this area. Market research (e.g., data collection, analysis, etc.) differs greatly from creative marketing (e.g., strategy, campaign concepts, etc.). We would be able to specify which area of marketing would suit a client most (e.g., experiential marketing) and we would be able to point to industries that will fit best (e.g., technology, healthcare, etc.)

We have multiple resources—we use databases from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Holland Code Occupational Database. We also get information from our network of consultants working in various fields for some of the newer fields/positions that have yet to make it into some of the more corporate-focused databases (e.g., brand identity development, culture manager, and social media engagement strategist, etc.). We work as a team and we hold case conferences about clients in order to brainstorm career alternatives that would be a strong fit for each client. 

Absolutely! Check out our case studies with some of our favorite client stories. We also have testimonials on our website, Yelp, and Google where clients have shared their stories. You can also schedule a call to talk with us by filling out the contact form and we can share de-identified information about our work with previous clients.

We take confidentiality very seriously and treat your information as health information. We do not share your data with anyone and will not sell your data. Your data will always be available to you through our password-protected online system.

You will get access to your data and written interpretations via our online platform. Depending on your plan, we will also send you a report with the data, deeper interpretations, and your top career choices for you to review. You will gain insight,  validation, and an assisted exploration that will lead you to making a sound, data-driven career decision.

Our goal is to work with you within your boundaries—if you want to stay at your company, but to have a different function or role, we will help you to figure out what that is and give you a strategy for how to move into that position. If you want to earn a certain salary, we will support that goal and work within those parameters. If you’re done with education, we will respect that boundary and not offer you career options that require further education.

All (100%) of our Career Assessment clients are given career direction based on their results. In terms of what clients tend to do after the assessment, it depends on the client: ~85% that move forward with a career change in some form. Some will choose to pursue additional education first to gain skills in a new direction. Others will focus on re-marketing/branding themselves in the new, desired direction if their current level of experience allows. About 15% decide not to move forward with a change either because they changed their mind (e.g., felt a change would be too much effort, gained newfound appreciation for their career/job post-assessment, found that it was not their career that was an issue, but just needed to change their work environment, etc.)

We’re very strict about confidentiality, so we don’t have any career testing example reports. To give you some context, the output is a narrative of your career journey thus far, along with a comprehensive personality assessment and definition of what drives you to work (derived from the results). Finally, we present you with a case conceptualization (i.e., theory about why you got stuck) and suggestions on how to move forward, including alternative career options that would be a stronger fit.

Due to the privacy and confidentiality of our clients, we cannot release any of their information. However, we have testimonials on our website, Yelp, and Google.

Career Testing is the first step in actualizing a meaningful life and working in a career that is aligned with who you are as a person. It provides career options that would be a strong fit and helps to develop an action plan. Some people fantasize that Career Testing will reveal a new career path they have never heard of that is the perfect fit for them. While this sometimes happens, more often, career aptitude testing usually either validates a career choice the client has already considered and doubted, or produces career suggestions you may have previously considered.

The first thing to understand about testing in general is that you NEVER want to make decisions based on the results of one single test. Humans are multidimensional–there are many angles to examine a person from. Therefore, the best way to do assessment of any kind is with multiple tests examining a person from multiple lenses. 

For example, the Johnson O’Conner test measures your existing skill set. We don’t use this test for two reasons: (a) most people already know what their existing skillsets are and can just self-report that information; and (b) skills can be learned/gained, so it doesn’t matter so much what skills you’re innately born with or not, because you can learn to do just about anything. 

Free tests you can take online are great, but there are a few issues with them: (1) research has not been conducted on them to validate their use (i.e., we can’t be sure what they are actually measuring and if it’s valid or not); (2) even the really great free tests like 16P, which seems to mimic the MBTI quite well, are just single tests, leading us back to the point above. When looking at career path decision making, personality and your existing skills matter, but they’re not all that matter. There are other important variables not to be missed (e.g., interests, values, what motivates you, mental health status, disabilities, salary needs, geographic location; visa status etc.). All of that is to say, you shouldn’t make a career decision from just one lens! 

Hypothetically, you could take a bunch of free career tests online, examine yourself from different angles that matter for career path decision-making, and replicate our process yourself. A professor at the University of Kentucky has a how-to tutorial on this here. However, you won’t have access to the best career tests available (some are only available for people with a MA or Ph.D. in psychology) and it is a long and arduous process to integrate the information yourself. But, if you’re on a budget and need some help, it might be worth a try!

While our career test battery is based on some of the same foundational theories as these tests, our career test is steroid. Schools and universities can’t afford to give each individual multiple in-depth psychological assessments related to career path choice, and they certainly can’t dedicate time to asking each student about their psychosocial histories related to career and their own development like we do (e.g., what do your parents do for work? What are their highest levels of education? How does gender impact your career path decision-making? What do you believe is expected of you career-wise?)