Types Of Career Inventories
Career inventories provide educators with vital information needed to accurately assist students in their career planning process. Inventories are used to help students learn more about their interests, values, and skills. Inventory instruments are used to help students understand their career needs, and possibilities so that they can make well-informed decisions about their future. There are several types of inventories educators can utilize to assist students, below are a few you can explore.
Interest Inventory For Students
Do you want to encourage your students to find their interests and explore careers? A good way to start is by completing an interest inventory for students. This can help each individual student identify potential careers and hobbies.
There are many different types of student surveys when it comes to career ideas and suggestions. This student interest survey is based on the idea that most careers can be placed into six types of work environments. Based on a students personality traits, learning style, natural talents, life experiences, and preferred school subjects, these types of career interest surveys can be one of the easiest ways to get started.
The Importance Of An Interest Inventory For Students
Interest inventories can be extremely helpful for students who are trying to choose a major or career path. By taking an inventory, students can learn about their own strengths, interests, skills, and values.
This is a great way to find out specific things and student interests that can then be used to identify potential majors and careers that are a good fit.
Interest inventories can help students to understand themselves better and to set realistic expectations for their future. For example, a student who is interested in helping others may want to consider a career in social work. A student who is interested in machines and technology may want to consider a career in engineering. By taking an interest inventory, students can explore their options and make the best choices for their future.
Think outside the box! In addition to helping students choose a major or career path, interest inventories can also be used to help with student choice for extracurricular activities, and developing goals.
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Find A Career That Matches Your Interests

An interest assessment can help you identify careers that meet your interests. Interest assessments usually ask you a series of questions about what you like and don’t like to do. Then they match your likes and dislikes to careers.
When you choose a career that matches your overall interests, you’re more likely to enjoy your job. You’re also more likely to be successful.
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How A Career Test Can Help
When you’re looking for your first job or considering switching careers, its much easier when you have some ideas about what youd like to do.
There are a variety of free career tests and quizzes available that address interests, values, and skills, but it is not essential to find a test that captures all of the elements.
Interest Profiler On The Web
As a web-based tool, the Interest Profiler Short Form may be of particular interest to developers of websites or web-enabled applications. We offer three ways of integrating the Interest Profiler Short Form:
- “deep linking” to the Interest Profiler at My Next Move
- adding an IFrame Widget to your site
- providing scores and career suggestions through our web service API
To learn more about any of these options, visit O*NET Web Services.
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What Is A Career Assessment
A career assessment is a way to learn about career options that may be a match for your skills, interests, and values. There are different types of assessments that can help you determine which types of careers may interest youand which dont.
Most assessment tools ask questions about what you like, what you dont like, the type of work environment youre comfortable in, and how your personality meshes with different jobs, and then suggest careers that are a match.
Career aptitude tests wont give you a definitive answer on what the best job for you is, but they will give you options to explore and can help you narrow down your career interests.
Free Sample Career Assessment Survey
It doesnât matter in which company you work or what is your job title but every now and then, almost all of us ask ourselves the question if we are working at the right job or if we are using our skills and abilities in the right direction. For evaluation of your skills and abilities and preferences about a profession, a Career Assessment Survey is crucial to take. With this survey test, you can easily determine what kind of job you want and which profession will be best for you on long term basis.
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Activities That Students Do To Determine Their Interests
There are plenty of activities that students do already that can help determine their preferences to guide their career exploration. This activity list can be a career guidance tool for elementary students, middle school students, high school students and even college students!
One fun way to learn about careers and jobs is this Career Word Search and Activities Packet.
Top 10 Best Career Tests That Are Free
Weve put together a comprehensive list of the best free career tests that are useful for K-12, college students, and adults. Heres a Top 10 list of the best career tests weve researched. Well highlight the features that enabled the career test to rank in our top 10 lest so you can determine the best career test for your needs.
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What Career Test Is The Best
What career test is the best will depend on your own needs and what you consider necessary in a career test. This Top 10 list focused on career tests that are available to everyone. That meant we ensured they were free and that that the career test results were also free. Online career test resources we did not include in our Top 10 Best Career Test list are online career tests that provide a shorter, modified version of your test results and then require payment to access your full test results. The career tests on this list are also student-friendly, in that they do not require personal information to take their career tests or to receive your interest results. You also do not need to register on the site. The career tests listed also take users less than 10 minutes to complete.
National Career Services Skills Assessment

The National Career Services Skills Assessment is based out of the United Kingdom, but can be useful for people from other countries. Their target audience is for people researching careers in England and those in need of career advice. This skills assessment allows the user to rate various scenarios then provides users with an overview of their general characteristics and personality traits. It then lists the top 10 career fields that fit the users personality best. You can also expand a career field and answer more questions to narrow your results even further.
Skills Assessment features:
- Accessible: Unknown
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Free Career Aptitude And Career Assessment Tests
When you are not sure about what type of job you want or what you would like to do next with your career, a career aptitude test can help you narrow down your job choices and choose a career path that is compatible with your interests, skills, values, and personality.
Taking a career test is a little like playing “What do you want to be when you grow up?” but with a twist. The twist is that career tests don’t just give you a chance to dream about what you want to do they can give you concrete ideas about what you may be best suited to do. They can help you understand the type of environment and work that will help you thrive as a person.
Review information on how career assessments can help guide your career choices and what the assessments will evaluate, and try free career tests that you can use to learn about jobs that may be a perfect fit.
Career Quizzes And Tests From Canada
The government of Canada offers free career quizzes and tests. Like YourFreeCareerTest offers various tests from its free career tests page, Canada also offers more than one test depending on your needs. The Canadian Government has 3 career quizzes to help you identify what jobs may be a good fit for you. Instead of grouping results into broad categories, these tests list individual careers that rank in order based on your responses. Along with career tests, Canada also offers three tests that allow users to explore their personality.
Career Test features:
- Accessible: Unknown
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Career Interests And Assessments
Assessment is a natural first step in career development. Assessments help students to better understand their abilities and interests which guides students as they formulate a career path. Assessments also assist educators to prepare students for the careers in which students are interested.
The Transition Assessment Toolkit developed by the National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center, now known as the National Technical Assistance Center on Transition: the Collaborative , recommends the use of multiple evaluations that are used on an ongoing basis and answer the following questions:
- What do I want in life, now and in the future?
- What are some of lifes demands that I can meet now?
- What are the main barriers to getting what I want from school and my community?
- What are my options in the school and community for preparing me for what I want, now and in the future?
The Six Kinds Of Careers
When it comes to choosing a career, there are many different ways you can take to decide on a career pathways. According to Hollands Theory of Career Choice, there are six main types of careers that people tend to gravitate towards. These career clusters of interest are Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
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Enterprising Activities For Kids
1. Setting up a lemonade stand
2. Having a yard sale
3. Creating a new game or sport
4. Planning parties
5. Organizing outings with friends
6. Creating and selling arts and crafts
7. Leading games with friends
8. Starting a band
9. Writing a neighborhood newsletter
10. Babysitting for families in the community
Take An Interest Assessment
Get started with CareerOneStop’s . You’ll answer 30 quick questions online. Then you’ll get a list of careers that might be a good fit for your interests.
CareerOneStop’s Interest Assessment is based on O*NET’s Mini Interest Profiler. For a more in-depth assessment, visit the O*NET Interest Profiler on My Next Move. It has 60 questions and will use your answers to give you a list of careers that might be a good fit for you.
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Examples Interest Inventory For Students
Here are 30 questions for your students to try answering to help to determine their interests.
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
1. Do you like working with your hands?
2. Do you like working with tools?
3. Do you like building things?
4. Do you like being outdoors?
5. Do you like working with animals?
6. Do you like caring for people?
7. Do you like helping others?
8. Do you like working with numbers?
9. Do you like working with computers?
10. Do you like researching things?
11. Do you like writing?
12. Do you like painting or drawing?
13. Do you like music?
14. Do you like acting or performing?
15. Do you like being around people?
16. Do you like being by yourself?
17. Do you like working in a group?
18. Do you like leading others?
19. Do you like following directions?
20. Do you like organizing things?
OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS
21. What are some other things that interest you?
22. What are some things that youre good at?
23. What are some things that you enjoy doing?
24. What are some things that make you happy?
25. What are some things that make you feel fulfilled?
26. What are some things that make you feel successful?
27. What are some things that give you a sense of accomplishment?
28. What are some things that make you feel proud?
29. What are some things that make you feel good about yourself?
30. What are some things that make you feel confident?
Career Keys Career Interest Inventory

In the career interest inventory Career Key Discovery, youth and adults learn about themselves and identify hundreds of diverse, promising careers and education programs that match their personality and interests. It helps them understand the value of personality-environment fit based on Hollands Theory of Career Choice and contains downloads and resources to take concrete steps toward a decision.
It is a true measure of the six Holland personality types. Nationally recognized counseling psychologist and counselor educator, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, NCC is the inventory author. Career Key Discovery is scientifically valid, meaning it measures what it claims to measure based on research published in national journals. More technical details are available in Career Key’s professional manual.
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Differences From Other Career Interest Inventories
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Easy to understand: Users quickly know which careers and education programs will be thriving, promising and challenging for them instead of 3-letter Holland codes. It is self-guided and self-interpreting.
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Intuitive: Career Key Discovery also uses a unique work group matching system for easier exploration. Occupations and education programs are grouped within each personality type by similar worker traits, skills and abilities. This classification system is based on the Guide to Occupational Exploration and updated regularly to reflect changes in the labor market and education system.
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Open minded: Groups familiar and unfamiliar options using shared characteristics, opening up exploration so that users learn about new, promising occupations and programs they might not otherwise have considered.
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Comprehensive and diverse: Career Key Discovery includes over 450 occupations and over 2,000 postsecondary non-degree awards, majors, postgraduate certificates, credentials and training programs from the U.S. and Canada.
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Short: The inventory takes about 10 minutes to complete
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Teaches decision making: The inventory includes the ACIP 4 step decision making process in an interactive module with videos, checklists and downloads.
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No credential is required to administer. Dr. Jones, working extensively with school counselors, career services and workforce development staff, expressly designed the inventory to not require extensive training by overworked counselors and advisors.
Truity Career Personality Profiler
Truitys Career Personality Profiler evaluates your interests and your personality traits to help you find the best career options. Youll learn about college majors, careers, and industries that match your results. The test also reports on activities, projects, and tasks that you would enjoy working on.
The test has 94 questions and takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. A summary of your results and career suggestions is free, but there is a fee to receive a comprehensive report.
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Truity Photo Career Quiz
This quiz only takes a few minutes, and its fun and easy to take. Simply click on which picture you like best in a series of photographs to take the free . Youll receive a profile of your career interests, and then you can search for careers and review more information based on your interest profile.
Career Clusters Interest Survey
Career Clusters Interest Survey is a paper-based career interest test that allows individuals to narrow down career fields of intreats. YourFreeCareerTest does not have a paper-based career test as the calculation takes place online. For those who need a paper-based career interest test, this is an option. This can be useful for those who may be incarcerated or those with limited access to technology or the internet.
This career interest survey focuses on activities, personality qualities, and school subjects the user enjoys. To get results, users circle as many or as few circles in each of the provided boxes as they choose. When complete, the number of circles in each box are added up to determine the users top three highest numeric values. This assessment only provides career clusters and career titles are not listed. However, this provides a good starting point to explore various occupations that may fall into the clusters.
Career Clusters Interest Survey features:
- Cost: The Career Clusters Interest Survey is free.
- Time: The Career Clusters Interest Inventory can take an average 10-20 minutes to complete.
- Audience/Age: Most appropriate for high school, college students, and adults.
- User Friendly: N/A
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How To Explore Career Options
Once youve generated a list of potential career options, you can take a closer look at what each job entails to learn whether it would be right for you. Enter a job title in CareerOneStops Occupation Profile tool to get details on the occupation, including a job description, required experience, education or training, earnings potential, and job outlook.
The U.S. Department of Labors Occupational Outlook Handbook is a career guide with information on occupation groups and individual jobs. It provides details on what workers do on the job, the work environment, training, education, and certification needed to get started in the occupation, median pay, and expected job prospects.