5 Free Tools to Determine What Type of Career is Right for You

“If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.” While that old saying may be wishful thinking, it is certainly possible to find a job that brings you joy. The first step to obtaining gainful employment is understanding where your passions lie. Whether you are just starting out in your career or looking to switch fields after two decades in the workforce, self-assessment tools can guide you to which career clusters may be a good fit. We’ve rounded up five of our favorite free assessment tools to help you decide which career path is right for you, based on which tools our Career Specialists use.

For these purposes, one user completed all five assessments recommended in this article. Throughout the results shown from each assessment, there are minor differences and suggestions that can be found, which is why it can be beneficial to combine multiple tests when deciding which career path you want to pursue.

#1: The Princeton Review Career Quiz

This 24-question quiz asks users to answer all questions as if each career choice held the same pay and prestige to get truthful answers. Questions ask users to choose between two positions, such as “I would rather be a tax lawyer” or “I would rather be a newspaper editor.” Other questions include choosing between “I like to bargain to get a good price” and “I don’t like to have to bargain to get a good price.”

The quiz results will show you careers that match the “style” and “interest” colors you created. The four colors, red, green, blue, and yellow, represent Expediting, Communication, Planning, and Administrating. Once it tells you which style and interest your results produced, the website goes on to provide a list of recommended careers based on your interest and preferred work style.

Take the Princeton Review Career Quiz

#2: O*Net Interest Profiler

The assessment known as the O*Net Interest Profiler is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor and guides users through understanding their interests and explaining how they relate to the world of work. It asks users to rate their answer to questions such as “I would enjoy painting sets for a play” with “Strongly Dislike” to “Strongly Like.” The website also prefaces the assessment with the instructions “try not to think about if you have enough education or training to do the work or how much money you would make. Just think about if you would like or dislike doing the work.”

This assessment contains 60 questions and moves fairly quickly. It provides a score for each of the six categories assessed in the Holland model; Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. It shows which three categories you scored highest in and allows users to click through to learn about what career categories people with that personality trait do well in.

Take the O*Net Interest Profiler assessment

Explore Careers Based on Holland Codes

#3: Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Along with performing a SWOT analysis on yourself, understanding your own personality traits and what those mean for your ideal workplace is important. Things like being an extroverted introvert may mean that you would thrive in an office with cubicles as opposed to working remotely or in an open-air office. This can be done with the popular Myers-Briggs personality test. There are multiple versions available online, but we’ve linked one of the unofficial, free ones below that is 54 questions long.

This assessment asks a question and prompts you to answer it on a scale of “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.” 

You can also use your four letter code to research which careers best fit that mix of personality traits!

Take the 16 Personalities Assessment

List of Career Ideas for Myers Brigg Personality Results

#4 CareerOneStop Skills Matcher

This assessment is slightly different than the other personality assessments featured. The CareerOneStop Skills Matcher asks users to rate their levels on 40 key workplace skills and provides career options that match the determined skills.

Questions in this assessment state skills such as “Clerical” and ask users to choose their skill level between “Beginner: File Forms” and “Skilled: Type 30 words per minute” and “Expert: design an online office-wide storage system.”

The results of your skills assessment will provide information on what careers you match with, the annual wage for each career, the education level needed, and the long-term outlook for the career.

We recommend using this assessment in conjunction with one of the personality assessments to best determine which career you are both interested in and for which you are well qualified in order to increase your likelihood of landing a job and succeeding long-term.

Take the CareerOneStop Skills Matcher 

#5 Career Aptitude Test (based on Holland code personality types)

The Career Aptitude Test gives users insight into their job personality. This assessment not only tells you which careers may suit you well, but the type of office environment that will help you succeed.

This assessment’s format is choosing your favorite and least favorite job prompts between a set of four pictures. There are 15 of these prompts. A set of four options may include, “Going to the office, research job, construction and engineering, or creative photography.”

When you’ve finished the assessment, you will get a read out of your personality type based on Holland Codes. The six personality types in the Holland model are Realistic, Investigative, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional.

Take the Career Aptitude Test

Explore Careers Based on Holland Codes

BONUS: A SWOT Analysis

While doing a SWOT analysis on yourself may be an unofficial career assessment, it will help you understand what type of organization you would thrive in. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In terms of career assessments, this may look like the following:

Strengths: What am I good at? What do I enjoy doing? What type of environment do I like best?

Weaknesses: What tasks do I shy away from? What am I not as good at accomplishing?

Opportunities: In what type of environment am I most successful? What motivates me the most?

Threats: Are there any reasons a company may not want to hire me?

Performing a SWOT analysis on yourself will help you first create a better understanding of yourself. When you understand which career path you want to follow, it will also help you gauge what environment is best. This may be a small, medium, or large company or even those that allow remote vs. in-person working. 

If retail or operations are on your list of career interests, visit our job openings to see what positions are available!