Career Tests

Testing the Waters: Career Tests that Work for You!

Yes, this is an accounting blog so at least you are pretty clear that you want your career to focus on accounting.  Good start! The English majors don’t even know this much yet! J

Whatever it is that you do, when your personality, abilities, and values align with the organization which hires you, your chances for workplace happiness are much higher. For instance, a non-smoking CPA might not be happy working for a tobacco company lobbyist because their values probably will not align. Similarly, an accountant who is a fan of the Boston Red Sox baseball team might feel very uncomfortable working for George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees.

The first step is helping you identify your personality, abilities, and values. For that, the world on online career testing comes into view. Why are these tests becoming so popular? The tests are very accessible, free, and can be done in privacy of your own computer instead of entering the office of some neck-tie ninny who will pontificate about your career path.  The tests listed here are free.

You can complete the tests quickly: the Princeton test has only 24 questions and no essay questions.  (I can hear your sigh of relief from here.) After you finish, the test not only makes observations about your personal qualities, but also your career strengths and skills versus the career options from which you should probably run away in abject horror.

Caveats:

1. Most of the free tests are abbreviated versions of the more extensive (and expensive) tests. The website’s goal is to get you to pay for the more extensive test. This is the land of capitalism after all. Read carefully before you sign up for any test.
2. The website may try to capture your data so they can happily inundate your mailbox later. While the test may ask for your name and address, be alert to any opportunity to opt out of receiving future marketing blurbs.
3. The test may not necessarily be accurate. If you didn’t read the question correctly, your answer may not display who you really are. If the results don’t feel right to you, they probably aren’t. On shorter tests, they may have categorized you where you shouldn’t be because they did not have enough data to make a decent observation. Forget the test and take another one or two or three. Listen to your heart. If the ideas ring true, great! Learn from the results and let them guide you on your career path.
4. There are no external standards for these tests. No one has to pass the career counseling version of the CPA Exam before they post a career test online so there are no quality controls.

For this reason, you may wish to take at least six tests in the hope of getting overlapping/confirming results.

Here is a short list of free online career tests. These represent a good sampling of the tests which are online.

Similar Minds Free Online Career Tests

Answer 71 questions in approximately 20 minutes. View your sample report. See which job tasks you prefer and the top 11-20 jobs that suit you. You may wish to follow a link to more research material where you are offered the chance to purchase a more detailed report.

The Princeton Review Career Quiz™

This is a shortened method of The Birkman Method®. After answering 24 questions, you receive a description of your interests, skills and preferred style using the Birkman color approach, plus a list of the careers this points to.

Web Tickle

You have to register as a member to take part. This site offers various “Ph.D. certified” tests which offer thought-provoking test questions. Web Tickle’s Career Personality Test pinpoints your workplace strengths and directs you to a profession that best compliments your unique personality. It is similar to the well known Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® Instrument.

Prospects Planner Free Online Career Tests

This test, a shortened version of the longer test for university graduates,  helps you clarify your ideas. If you would like to take this test, you’ll need to register. Answer questions about your skills and what you want from a job. The results show what you might do as your career. You don’t have to explore all the options at once since you can return and view the results again on your next visit.

MAPP™ Assessment – free online career assessment tests

This assessment (MAPP stands for Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential) is designed to reveal your motivations, interests and talents for work. You’ll need to register with the site first. The free mini-analysis is a sample of the larger analysis you can purchase and includes five job matches with occupational documentation, a selection of real job matches and a free resource guide for career changers. (Note: many websites offering career tests are offering the MAPP assessment.)

iVillage Free Online Career Tests

This website for women offers a career evaluation test. Answer 30 questions by selecting one of two options. At the end, you’ll receive a list of about 20 career options and a one page report on your personality and career type.

Careerlink free career online placement tests http://www.mpcfaculty.net/CL/climain.htm

I admit it: I liked this test because of the cute little frogs in the sidebar. This site, run by Monterey Peninsula College in California, asks you to respond to a series of questions by picking one of two options. After working through four pages, you will receive a list of job categories along with percentage matches to your results. The CAREERLINK Inventory is designed to match the way you see yourself with available career information from the United States Department of Labor.

Through tests such as these, you might find that you have a proclivity for numbers and thus are interested in pursing a career in accounting. Accounting is a growing field and there is considerable career growth potential beyond accounting: become a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)!

As an accountant, the career track which progresses upward at a faster rate is labeled “CPA.”

In many firms, you hit the ceiling and progress no further if you do not become a CPA. Progressing from being an accountant to becoming a CPA offers greater opportunities for promotion to management and higher salaries.

Here are three examples of career paths for an accountant and for a CPA with the same education and experience:

Scenario 1: Two people in the same situation

Location: Austin, Texas

Graduates of/Degree: University of Texas, BA

Employer: Public Accounting in Austin

Size of firm: 50

Years of work experience: 2

On average, the CPA makes $10,000 more per year than the accountant.

Scenario 2: Two people in the same situation

Location: Los Angeles, CA

Graduates of/Degree: UCLA, BA

Employer: Public Accounting in Westwood, a suburb of Los Angeles, CA

Size of firm: 50

Years of work experience: 5

On average, the CPA makes $18,000 more per year than the accountant.

Scenario 3: Two people in the same situation

Location: Boston, MA

Graduates of/Degree: Harvard, BA

Employer: Public Accounting in Boston

Managing a team of: 25

Years of work experience: 15

On average, the CPA makes $25,000 more per year than the accountant.

Difference between top salary for CPA and for accountant: $45,000+.

Source: Payscale.com

Interested in career as a Certified Public Accountant?

Each of the jurisdictions (including US states and territories) which offers the CPA Exam has its own qualifications for sitting for the exam. In California, the requirements are:

• A bachelor’s degree;
• 24 semester units in accounting-related subjects;
• 24 semester units in business-related subjects;
• 150 semester units (or 225 quarter units) of education;
• Passing the Uniform CPA Exam;
• One year of general accounting experience supervised by a CPA with an active license; and
• Passing an ethics course.– http://www.calcpa.org/Content/licensure/requirements.aspx

How do you become a CPA? While you could buy books and study on your own, but you’d be missing several key learning modules featured in CPAexcel, a CPA Exam review course.

Would you like a personalized study plan which takes into account how many hours you can study OR prepares you to sit for the exam on a specific date? With CPAexcel’s Exam Planner, you can create a personalized study plan. Based on the metrics of thousands of CPAexcel students who have passed the CPA Exam, Exam Planner lets you know when you will be ready to sit for the exam and when you need to apply—critical information if you want to be ready to sit for the exam.

Did you enjoy interacting with your professors questions when you were in college? With CPAexcel Professor Mentored Learning, top accounting professors from leading universities interact with you, promptly answered your questions to explain thorny issues. Prior to exam day, your professor will email you test taking techniques and strategies. You can’t get that from a book.

Did discussion sections monitored by your professor add to your learning? In this small group setting, you could explore concepts not covered in class. With CPAexcel you can participate in Student Discussion Groups, which are mentored, AND you can start your own Private Study Group, to which you can invite your college friends, workplace colleagues, or students you met in your CPAexcel course. You can’t do that with just a book.

Would you like to create your own classes so that you can skip over what you already know so you can concentrate on what you need to learn? At CPAexcel, you can create your own courses from our extensive list of assignments—and invite your friends to join you. This is education personalized for you!

CPAexcel students pass at nearly twice the national average. That power to pass can be yours today so that you can have a brighter future tomorrow.