Believe it or not, I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. The sad part is, I’ve been working for 30 years so you’d think I’d know by now, but it is never too late. Like most people, I thought I knew what I wanted to do with my career, and after trying five or six different things I’m still not sure. A career is like a long winding highway with many forks in the road on the way. Some forks lead to a dead end, some to a cliff and some Emerald City. Wherever your road leads, it is never too late to look for a new job and never to late to decide what you really want to do. Today’s post is about job search basics and choices.
What do You Want to Be:
- Personality Tests – Career Tests, General Personality Tests and Aptitude Tests – Not sure what you want to do? This article, posted on About.com and written by Alison Doyle offers advice on a couple of things you can do. Such as, Aptitude Tests, Career Test, IQ Tests, Inventory, and Personality Tests. Each of these categories have embedded links to the to a list of the actual tests. In addition, there are related links at the top of the article as well as related links on the left hand side of the page and a few related videos on the right hand side of the screen.
- Free Career Test: What Job Is Right For You? – The word “free” always gets my attention. This page, from Careerpath.com, provides a few links. Click the “GO!” link to go straight to the career planner quiz. At first glance, the question don’t appear to make sense, but humor me and click the best choice for each question (even if it is not exactly what you want to do). Make sure you don’t sign-up for anything you don’t want, and in the end you will get the results along with links for additional tests.
- Career Assessment Tools & Tests – Another set of tools for you from Quintcareers.com, these provide assessment tools (split between entry level and established job seekers), sites offering various assessment tools, plus a long list of other assessment links which include Personality Tests, IQ tests and interesting links like WhatHalf.com (as in, what half of your brain).
How are You Going to Get There:
- How To Successfully Implement Your Career Plan – Okay, you have your career plan, but how do you make it work? This brief article, from Ezinearticles.com gives you the steps you need to implement. Advice such as review your progress and next steps gives you some of what you need to get going.
- How to Use a Roadmap to Achieve Your Career Plans - This article, posted on eHow.com, gives you 8 easy steps to building and implementing your plan. It also provides a list of what you need before you get started. Some of the basics like, desired outcomes, your skills, resources etc. are covered in the article. There are also related links to articles and videos on the right hand side of the screen. Top left hand side are links to additional related articles.
- Acing the Interview: How to Ask and Answer the Questions That Will Get You the Job! – Free Book Summary – This free book summary provides some background on what prospective employers will ask you, what you should answer and ask in return and how to avoid common job interview mistakes. Take a look.
Good luck with your search.
