Career quizzes: Suggestions? Reviews?

[Katleya]

I have taken my fair share of career and strengths quizzes over the last 6 years or so, whether in school or in the context of job interviews, and I'm sure many others here have done that too.
I was thinking perhaps we could try to compile a selection for those of us who need a little inspiration either in their job search or a little help in identifying their strengths/weaknesses.

I took the StrengthsQuest quiz when I went back to school, as part of the foundation week. I suppose there are organizations (or schools) that offer it for free; otherwise it's priced at US $9.95. While that price is not so bad for the info you get out of the quiz, I think there's a solid amount of free tests available, so if anyone can help uncover them, that would be great.

Today, I found a website called Pymetrics, for which I've prepared a review that I'll post below. In the next few days, I'd like to try the (free) knock-off version of the Myers-Briggs Type indicator, but I've never taken the official MBTI, so I won't be able to say how it compares to the real thing.

 

[Katleya]

Pymetrics
Link: pymetrics | play games to find your ideal job and optimal career path

In a nutshell:
Uses data algorithms and neuroscience to offer insight on a candidate’s strength and on adequate jobs. Traits are sorted in categories such as: learning, processing, distraction, effort, attention, planning, risk, trust, memory…
Pymetrics was founded by 2 ladies who are postdoctoral fellows in Brain & Cognitive sciences at MIT, so it doesn’t seem bogus. Expect occasional informal language with buzzworthy words.

Pros:
- Games offer accessibility through adaptation for ADHD, daltonism (and another thing that I forgot)
- Creative approach, based on action rather than questionnaires
- Suggested fields I didn’t know much about, and offered (brief) information on them
- Provides some interesting analyses in the “traits to work on” section
- Seems to offer online courses in certain fields (haven’t tried that)
- Links to job offers
- Additional games can be unlocked after the initial 12 games are completed

Cons:
- Need to register before you can start the games
- Neuroscience data used seems to be fairly neurotypical-centric
- I found it a bit tricky to understand some of the results because of how they were presented
- Doesn’t offer tips on how to improve on the “traits to work on”
- May be because of my settings, but only had US-based job offers
- Need to use social media to unlock additional games (i.e. share a link to the games on LinkedIn, facebook or twitter –you’re not asked to share your results, though)


The cognitive profile I got from it was overall fairly accurate based on other assessments I took in the past, with a couple of spot-on conclusions (e.g. “You are a beast when it comes to directing your focus on a task. However, people with laser focus might overlook things when new information is introduced.”, or another one that said I didn’t rely solely on facial expressions to understand other people – which makes sense with prosopagnosia), but also a severe miss in the distraction category (I’m apparently supposed to be a great multi-tasker, and I can guarantee that I’m not… but I can fake it pretty well ).

 

[Bolletje]

Interesting!