Career Assessment and Planning

Most college career or counseling centers offer skills and interest inventories that can help students clarify and focus their career plans. Your child probably took the EXPLORE, PLAN or another similar test in the 8^th through 10^th grade that helped him assess his skills, interests, and future college or career goals. Tests offered at colleges are similar to these and may include the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Strong Interest Inventory, or the Pearson Career Assessment Inventory.

While these inventories will not tell your child specifically, “You should be an accountant” or “pursue a degree in aerospace engineering.” they do help students focus their career search on areas in which they show both interests and skills. It is rare to see a student who is completely surprised by the results of an inventory because they tend to clarify what students already know intrinsically. The problem with these inventories is not usually in the administration or in reviewing the results with the student, but in the parents’ disappointment that their child simply doesn’t have the interest or skills to be a surgeon or whatever other prestige profession they had their hearts set on.