Unlock Your Career Potential: How Assessments Can Guide Your Next Move
Are you at a crossroads in your career? Are you stuck and wondering what’s next?
As author Jonathan Raymond puts it, “You can't know what you don't know. You can't know about things you have yet to discover.”
This is true of your career, and it’s where career assessments shine—revealing personality traits, strengths, tendencies, and preferences that influence your decisions. Like a compass, they help guide your direction as you navigate your career path.
BONUS: For a look at our 10-step plan for successfully embarking on your career reinvention journey, check out our blog post “Career Reinvention with Purpose and Passion.”
From personality tests to strengths and values inventories, assessments offer valuable insights that can help you:
Identify and build on your strengths
Uncover new ideas and possibilities you may have overlooked
Prioritize the things that matter most to you
Connect the dots as you plan your next career move
Career assessments reveal who you are, what matters to you, where you can—and cannot—compromise, when is the right time to shift gears, and how to make the best decisions for your future. These might sound like philosophical questions, but in the context of your career, they lay the foundation for career clarity.
BONUS: Find Meaning & Purpose: A Guide to Loving Your Career
A Closer Look at Career Assessments
Here’s a breakdown of the key career assessments we use at Life Working®, and how each provides value in your career exploration process:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI)—Deepens self-awareness by understanding blind spots, work style preferences, and ideal work environments while identifying how you process information, make decisions, and interact with others. By helping people better understand themselves, Myers and Briggs believed that career seekers could select occupations best suited to their personality types and lead healthier and happier lives.
Strong Interest Inventory® (SII)—Connects your interests to career paths by showing how your likes and dislikes map to real-world occupations, educational options, and even leisure activities.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® + Strong Interest Indicator® (MBTI+SII) Combined Assessment Report
Purpose: By combining the SII and MBTI, you gain a more complete picture of yourself, leading to more informed career decisions and a greater chance of finding work that is both meaningful and fulfilling. The SII is considered to be the most widely used career assessment tool worldwide.
Measurement: The SII reveals what you enjoy and are interested in, while the MBTI sheds light on how you prefer to work and interact with the world. This combined knowledge helps you understand your ideal work environment, preferred tasks, and how your personality might influence your career choices.
The Highlands Ability Battery (HAB)® Assessment
Purpose: Primarily focuses on identifying an individual's natural abilities and aptitudes.
Measurement: Measures a range of cognitive abilities, such as reasoning, problem-solving, interpersonal communication styles, and spatial visualization.
Application: Often used for career counseling to help individuals understand their strengths, identify potential career paths, and make effective career decisions.
SkillScan®—Highlights the transferable skills you enjoy and perform well while helping you gain the personal clarity to make informed and intentional career decisions. SkillScan is especially useful during career transitions, pinpointing the types of jobs you enjoy and where your strengths can shine. During interviews, SkillScan provides the wording to help you describe your skills and the unique value you offer.
Values Assessments—Help you uncover your professional “must-haves,” those key drivers that motivate you to do your best work and stay fulfilled. Understanding your values can help guide choices around company culture, job responsibilities, and career paths. Having this deeper knowledge will enable you to make more intentional career choices, target the right opportunities, communicate your motivations effectively, and ultimately increase your chances of finding a "great job" that aligns with your core principles.
The Power of Career Assessments
Career assessments are not crystal balls. They won’t give you a one-word answer to “What should I do with my life?” But they are powerful tools to guide and sharpen your career focus and help you move forward with clarity and intention.
Once you’ve completed assessments and discussed your results with a certified coach, you’ll be better equipped to articulate your strengths, values, and goals in interviews and networking conversations—and you’ll know how to communicate your unique value in a way that resonates with hiring managers and decision-makers.
As Life Working® founder and certified career coach Wilma Nachsin says:
"Understanding your professional values – and how they will fit into an organization’s culture – makes you more marketable from the standpoint of hiring managers. The career assessment process informs how you present yourself during an interview. It will help you clearly define what makes you the best candidate for the position you are seeking."
Ready to Discover the Real You?
The Life Working® Career Assessment Center offers a dynamic, interactive experience to help you figure out who you are—and how to use that insight to chart your next move. Through a blend of proven tools and personalized guidance, you’ll gain:
A deeper understanding of your personality, talents, skills, values, and strengths
Clearer direction and confidence to explore appropriate roles and industries
The insight needed to build a purposeful, satisfying, and sustainable career
Whether you’re launching, pivoting, or recalibrating your career, career assessments can be a great starting point.
Let’s uncover what’s next, together.
1. Contact us now to let the experts at Life Working® help you stand out in a crowded marketplace!
2. Download our free Career Management Worksheet.
3. Schedule a complimentary career discovery session.
4. Explore our Career Assessment Center to identify your perfect role.
A Look Ahead to Our Next Newsletter…
The best executive resume in the world isn’t enough to land your dream job if it’s not coupled with job search best practices and backed by social proof. In our next newsletter, we discuss what can happen if you rely solely on a great resume to open doors—and provide you with a roadmap for success.
Change is good.
It can also be confusing if you’re not sure where to start.
Feel free to reach out with any questions.
We're here to support you every step of the way on your journey to a fulfilling career!
The Life Working® Writing Services and Career Coaching Team