My dream job? Such a big decision!
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life — Confucius
What would you like to do in the future? What career path are you planning to take? These two questions have followed me ever since I entered high school. However, it wasn’t until my fourth year in high school when my guidance counselor offered the entire class a chance to perform a career aptitude test. She told us the test will determine our strengths and weaknesses, and consider other factors to guide us towards a career that would suit our personality, a career that’ll we’ll enjoy in the future. The test asked countless questions, from what are my interests, how I viewed team work to questions about how I would react to certain work-related problems.
Being only 15 years old, I trusted the validity of this test, and its reliability not only because the results included “fancy” graphs and diagrams, but also because it was given by my school’s guidance counselor. My results depicted a career driven by organization, numbers, logic, intrapersonal intelligence, etc. The test suggested me careers such as accountant, a career in human resources, a lawyer, etc. Based on that test results, my mind was focused on those career suggestions. Long story short, I studied commerce in college, found it easy, and continued following the same career path I had in mind, which was part of the listed careers from the career aptitude test.
Fast forward a few years, I ended up enrolling in McGill’s management faculty. However, I quickly realized that the career I had in mind really wouldn’t make me happy, and therefore, I ended up transferring into psychology. Psychologist was never part of the “ideal careers for you” list, yet here I am knowing that I’ve made the right decision that’ll make me happy in the future.
Many students realize after a few semesters that they don’t like what they’re studying, and many adults don’t like their jobs and wish that they’ve chosen another career path. Some of them might have taken a similar career aptitude test, and let the results guide them towards a career. Nevertheless, they ended up unhappy. I do believe that career aptitude tests do give a somewhat accurate description of what kind of careers would be more suitable for someone; however, I do believe that there is a more personal factor that the test cannot measure. This brings up my questioning about the reliability of the test. Certainly, all test will have its measurement error, but how can one test based on multiple questions give you a relatively small range of career options, among thousands of other careers, that supposedly will make you happy.
The career aptitude test was meant to open my eyes to suitable career opportunities; however, it actually narrowed down my thoughts, and didn’t make me see other careers that I would have preferred much more.
