I have always been partial to anything that promised to deliver personal insights or answers to life’s questions. As a teenager it was Astrology (Gemini, if you’re interested) and later Tarot cards and I Ching, the ancient Chinese art of divination.
Once I became a careers professional, my focus shifted to helping others understand themselves. The following free questionnaires provide an opportunity to explore your values, preferences and motivations as well as possible career ideas.
Health warning
No questionnaire has ‘the answer.’ A questionnaire won’t tell you what to do and shouldn’t be seen as attempting to label or limit you. However, you might find that you come up with some ideas that are worth further exploration. Discovering different facets of yourself may reveal what’s important to you and open up new ideas. We rarely invest much time reflecting on what we want from life. When we do, the time spent can be really valuable.
1. Personality preferences
A short, fun entry-level questionnaire to get you started is icould’s Buzz quiz. You can explore which ‘career animal’ you are and which celebrities you share personality preferences with.
A longer version of this questionnaire is the 16 Personalities which provides a more-in depth report into your personality preferences.
Knowing your preferences can help you to understand why some people are easier to work with than others. It can also help you describe your approach to work in interviews.
2. Communication
The IMA Strategies questionnaire describes how you approach communication with others. You will be provided with a report which will allocate you one of 4 communication ‘colours.’
Exploring how you communicate with others can provide you with helpful ways to describe your approach to working with others at job interviews.
3. Values
The Personal values assessment identifies those things you need in order to feel true to yourself.
Exploring what’s most important to you in work can be helpful when making decisions about which organisations you’d like to work for and whether their values fit with yours.
4. Motivation
The Work Values Test identifies specific values likely to motivate you in work. For example, I need a high degree of autonomy. If people try to organise me or my time I feel I’m suffocating and I wouldn’t thrive in that kind of environment.
Understanding what motivates you in work will help you to explore job roles and test out whether they would enable you to flourish.
5. Character Strengths
Positive Psychologist Martin Seligman has a range of free questionnaires on his website including Wellbeing, Resilience, Optimism and Happiness.
One of the more in-depth ones is the VIA Character Strengths questionnaire which identifies a range of personal qualities that you have to offer.
These can be helpful when you are ‘selling yourself’ in an application or at interview. If you’re asked ‘what would you bring to this role/team?’ you can prepare by qualifying your attributes with supporting evidence as this will make them feel more ‘real.’
6. Generating career ideas
There are two questionnaires on the Prospects website. These are Career Planner and Job Match.
Career Planner matches your skills, motivations and desires to different careers. Job Match will ask what you find interesting, rewarding and purposeful.
The Prospects website has an extensive list of different jobs and in-depth descriptions of what each involves.
7. Do you have what it takes to be your own boss?
These websites explore whether you have the necessary attributes to become a successful entrepreneur.
Action
Why not book a session with a qualified careers professional to discuss your findings and explore your next steps?
It’s never too late to be what you might have been. George Elliot
