Self-assessment is the process of learning about yourself through defining your interests, values, skills and abilities. The process includes analyzing past and current experiences and accomplishments to help give you a sense of direction. Self-assessment is the first step towards making a major or career decision. While no assessment can perfectly describe who you are or what your career is to be, they are valuable in helping consider options you may not have previously considered.
Guided Self-Assessments
The Piper Center offers guided assessments to help all students in self-discovery and vocational and career evaluation. A career coach can help you determine which assessments best meet your needs and, during an assessment interpretation session, understand the information provided in the report and how to use it effectively.
To access these assessments, log in to Handshake to set up an initial appointment with a Career Coach.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) – a personality type inventory that promotes awareness of self and others. It’s a widely used, nonjudgmental tool to help students gain an understanding of four natural preferences in how people gain energy, gather information, make decisions, and approach life. Although the best judge of your true personality will always be you, the MBTI – with proper interpretation by a Piper Center coach – can be a significant foundation for your discernment process.
For a Piper Center overview of the benefits, possibilities, flaws and criticisms of the inventory, please click HERE.
Strong Interest Inventory® — By giving you insight into your interests, preferences, and personal styles, the Strong enables you to identify specific courses, jobs, internships, and activities you’re likely to enjoy.
CliftonStrengths® (formerly StrengthsFinder) – CliftonStrengths encourages awareness of personal strengths potential and helps participants approach all aspects of their achievement from a strengths-based perspective. Through this approach, participants are empowered to create actionable, strategic plans which use their greatest talents to build strengths.
Entrepreneurial Mindset Profile® (EMP) – an assessment tool that examines the skills and capabilities that are needed for an entrepreneurial way of operating. The EMP helps corporate leaders, students and entrepreneurs assess the degree to which they are utilizing an “entrepreneurial mindset” and provides resources to leverage that competitive edge.
Self-Directed Assessment
The following links to self-directed assessments are another way to help you clarify your interests, values and skills. Take these assessments on your own and use the information to help guide your conversations with a Piper Center Career Coach.
LinkedIn Learning – discover what you’re truly best at doing and how to leverage those strengths and abilities in your professional life.
Interests
These are things that you are naturally drawn to. You lose track of time doing these activities because you enjoy doing them.
O*Net Interest Profiler Short Form — This instrument is a web-based, self-assessment career exploration tool that can help people discover the type of work activities and occupations that are related to their interests. The instrument is composed of 60 items and measures six types of occupational interests.
Minnesota Careers Interest Assessment — Discover how your interests relate to occupations. The MnCareers interest assessment is a simple 42-statement quiz.
Values
These are personal beliefs that are important and meaningful to you. They are the rewards that you want to get out of life and remain consistent throughout time. Take a moment to lay out your values by taking a values sort challenge!
O*Net Work Importance Profiler — A career exploration tool that allows users to focus on what is important to them in a job. It helps users identify occupations that they may find satisfying, based on the similarity between their work values (such as achievement, autonomy, and conditions of work) and the characteristics of the occupations.
Skills
These are your gifts and talents. They are your strengths that you do naturally and well.
Career Info Net Skills Profiler — Use the Skills Profiler to create a list of your skills and match them to job types that use those skills.
Iseek Skills Assessment — Everyone has things that they love to do and skills they like to use. This assessment lets you rate yourself on 35 different skills and then see which occupations are a match for the skills that are important to you.
Career Key – Motivated Skills, Dependable Strengths — Identifying your motivated skills can be a powerful approach for guiding your career direction.