Because of these reasons, there is a high number of mismatches of skills and career paths, which lead to real-life unpleasant situations and consequences. Should you be making the decision based on the latest trends or based on what’s best suited for you? There is no doubt that the stakes are high, and guesswork regarding this decision is not the way forward.
So, what is the way forward? I will guide you through the roadmap for choosing the right career path. A great deal goes into building a thriving career. It begins with choosing the right courses at a crucial stage of your life, namely after grade 10. And how do you reach a conclusion on what course to choose?
You may be interested in pursuing science as a subject, but it’s not necessary that you have the aptitude for science; you’re more suited for a business profile. So in that case, choosing science as a career path would lead to disastrous results.
It may be a decision that you would come to regret later in life, missing the most valuable years of your life. How does one avoid that? The answer lies in taking a psychometric test, followed by career counselling by trained counsellors who can assess the results and help you align your choices with your innate strengths.
What is a psychometric test?
What are psychometric evaluations used for?
Psychometric evaluations can be used for various purposes.
Career guidance: Students use psychometric test evaluations to understand their strengths, interests, and aptitude to make informed decisions about their career choices, starting from choosing the right subjects at the school level itself.
Training and Development: Results from psychometric tests can be used to identify weak points of students and employees, which in turn helps to formulate effective training and development programs for additional support.
Recruitment and selection: Employers sometimes use the evaluation to compare the skills and abilities of various candidates against the requirements of a specific job role.
Leadership Development: The results from psychometric evaluation can help in identifying leadership potential in individuals and can be used in the effective development of an organisation.
There is a series of tests used to analyse various areas of concern. Let me give you a brief overview of some of the tests used for analysing undergraduate and postgraduate students. There is a wide range of psychometric tests available; however, from my experience, these are the most reliable ones.
Not to mention, psychometric tests are only the first step in career counselling and guidance. This is to choose the path that’s best suited for you and to then groom you for it thereafter.
Davis Battery of Differential Ability: It is a standardised test that measures 8 different abilities, such as verbal, numerical, spatial, closure, clerical, reasoning, mechanical, and psychomotor abilities. This test is divided into further subtests, and each test measures a specific skill. The test has to be taken within a specific time limit to get accurate results.
Ravens Inventory for Intelligence Quotient: This test is used to assess mental ability, logical, and problem-solving skills. It requires the identification of patterns and complete visual sequences. This test is not dependent on language.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator for Personality: The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is designed to indicate different psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
Strong Interest Inventory Test: This test helps in identifying their areas of interest and preferences, which helps in correlating them with educational opportunities and potential career paths. This test is mainly used for career counselling.
The Big 5 Personality Test: This is a psychological test that categorises personality traits into 5 big classifications. The Big 5 Personality Test helps in understanding individual differences in personality and behaviour.
Emotional Intelligence Scale: This test assesses an individual’s ability to perceive, understand, and manage emotions both for themselves and others. This test helps to identify an individual’s emotional strengths and weaknesses.
Strong Interest Inventory Test: It is similar to the Strong Interest Inventory explained above.
To conclude, psychometric tests measure an individual’s aptitude, interests, emotional quotient, personality traits, both behavioural and cognitive, and give an overall analysis of an individual.
This analysis helps an individual to make informed choices about various aspects. For example, if you are in grade 10 and are at the threshold of choosing a stream, the results from this test will help you choose the stream best suited to your capabilities. This choice will eventually lead to successful career decisions in the future.
What are the benefits of taking a Psychometric Test?
Gaining the right knowledge at the right time leads to rthe ight decisions. Imagine being in the wrong field during your prime years, struggling to prove yourself, putting in all your effort but still not being able to achieve success, only because your aptitude was meant for something completely different, and you realise that only years later. Therefore, early testing helps to prevent regrets and burnout later in life. Psychometric tests boost your self-awareness in a standardized way.
So now the question is, what is the right time to take the test?
What next?
For example, your creative writing skills are exceptional, but when it comes to presenting the same, you lack confidence; therefore, your goal should be to work on your public speaking and presenting skills while simultaneously making a conscious effort to keep adding to your creative writing expertise.
Now that you have the right knowledge, it is also important to keep adding to it and taking guidance from certified professionals and career counsellors. Their expertise will help you narrow down your choices and help you achieve your goals.
Psychometric Tests Should be the Norm, not the Exception
Author Bio : Mr. Almasto Kapoor
I believe that wisdom and information amplify when shared with others. With more than 14 years of vast experience in tertiary education and having assisted a plethora of students in accomplishing their higher education dreams, I’d like to believe that my knowledge is substantial. To make this knowledge count, I love sharing it with students to apprise them of the intricacies of overseas education and to go with that, my keen interest in writing makes it an even more fulfilling thing to do!
almastokapoor3@gmail.com
