Job Satisfaction Starts with Assessing Your Skills

We all want to be happy in our job; A full-time job will usually take up at least half of our waking hours, so making that time personally fulfilling while also financially rewarding is important.

If you’re ready to begin your career journey—maybe you’re almost finished with a high school or college program, or you’ve been working and are looking to advance or change fields—it’s helpful to know what your best fit really is.

Fortunately, there are a number of free tools available to help you compare the skills you have, or are interested in developing, with specific career fields and occupations.

Free Tools Online

• You’re already here on GoodProspects, so now is a good a time as any to check out the skills assessment section of the site. What are you good at, what do you enjoy, and how do those match up with potential careers? Get started here.
• You can also request the assistance of a virtual career mentor to not only help you determine your best fit, but make a solid career plan and get personal assistance every step of the way.
• Other good (and free) online resources include the U.S. Department of Labor’s Assess Yourself, Assessment.com, CareerOneStop, Understanding Your Assessments and Your Free Career Test. You may find it helpful to try more than one tool to compare results.

In-person Assessments

• Your local Goodwill agency will include assessment in its services in addition to other job placement and career support.
• If you’re currently enrolled, even in high school or a GED program, the institution should have a career counseling office that can help you match your strengths with career options, including further training and education that will lead to additional credentials.

Self-assessment

While many career assessment tools are self-driven at their root, you can also deliberately drive the process yourself and make your own determinations about the findings. Here are two articles on GoodProspects about self-assessment. It will be beneficial, though, to discuss the results and what they could lead to with a virtual career mentor or Goodwill career guidance professional.