Personal Innate Skills: Identifying & Building Careers

[jamalkoiyess]

Hello PF.
So many people online and in books are trying to eliminate the idea of following your passion when choosing a career path instead they are saying that you should build on your own skills to make a successful career and they are saying that every one of us have a special set of skills.
So I wanted to ask if anyone here knows about any tests to identify individual skills and know how to build careers on them.

 

[Nidum]

Google ' aptitude tests ' and ' psychometric tests ' .

 

[DrSteve]

Do What You Are and Myers-Briggs are two popular career/personality assessments

 

[symbolipoint]

Hello PF.
So many people online and in books are trying to eliminate the idea of following your passion when choosing a career path instead they are saying that you should build on your own skills to make a successful career and they are saying that every one of us have a special set of skills.
So I wanted to ask if anyone here knows about any tests to identify individual skills and know how to build careers on them.

Unfortunately, this requires more experience with oneself. People and tests from the outside cannot always indicate what your natural skills are.

 

[Choppy]

I agree with Symbolpoint.

I think the big factor that such tests help with is that they enable a person to start thinking about his or her skill and ability set. They don't serve as definitive roadmaps for career success.

The skills that you have are the result of your own personal experiences as much as they are innate aptitudes - probably more so. If you look at the people who do really well in their fields, its often because they have had opportunities to gain a lot more experience than the average person in that area.

 

[symbolipoint]

Let me say more that reflects into what Choppy wrote.
A student may find Algebra difficult to learn but through the learning process, the result is that he may later use the concepts and skills well in tests (both in class and in official assessments), and in a job. Some people will say that he knows "Math" very well. Other people will say, "he is a mathematics genius". The truth might well just be, he studied three times as hard and three times as long as the average person, and so he LEARNED his knowledge through hard work. In reality, he might be a genius sculptor, or a genius social leader, or a talented literary artist, or a clever chef,..., or maybe none of those.

 

[jamalkoiyess]

Do What You Are and Myers-Briggs are two popular career/personality assessments

I did the Myers-Briggs but need something deeper

 

[Ben Espen]

I did the Myers-Briggs but need something deeper

I cannot recommend the MBTI for this purpose, it really doesn't have good theoretical underpinnings OR predictive validity. Despite it's popularity it is really a rather shoddy piece of work. The first online test that comes to mind that has both of those attributes is the IPIP-NEO. However, I suspect that even this well-regarded instrument will not tell you what you want to know.

In part, this is because this personality survey isn't designed to, and also does not claim to, give you the perfect career for you. There are lots of people who claim to do precisely this, but you should be suspicious, because they are in the business of selling books and seminars. I've read lots of these books, and sometimes there are useful insights in them, but in general they are not capable of answering your question.

Reading this post, and another one in the Academic Guidance section, it seems to me that you are uncertain about your future, and you want to be pick a course of study with a reasonable chance of success. This is something worth thinking about, and worth gathering information to try to make the best decision. My caution for you is this kind of prediction is an imperfect art. Art, not science. There is lots of judgment required, which mostly comes from experience. The results of a personality survey can be a useful input to this kind of decision-making process, but cannot give you a definitive answer of the form: The best job for you is _______.

The best results would likely come from talking with a very experienced person in a field you find interesting, who also knows you well. In lieu of that, you can find many, many interesting people on this forum, who have written at length about what their jobs are like, and what makes their jobs interesting to them, and what skills have served them well. You might be able to find something that piques your interest in this way, and then you might also be able to formulate a more specific question.

 

[jamalkoiyess]

I cannot recommend the MBTI for this purpose, it really doesn't have good theoretical underpinnings OR predictive validity. Despite it's popularity it is really a rather shoddy piece of work. The first online test that comes to mind that has both of those attributes is the IPIP-NEO. However, I suspect that even this well-regarded instrument will not tell you what you want to know.

In part, this is because this personality survey isn't designed to, and also does not claim to, give you the perfect career for you. There are lots of people who claim to do precisely this, but you should be suspicious, because they are in the business of selling books and seminars. I've read lots of these books, and sometimes there are useful insights in them, but in general they are not capable of answering your question.

Reading this post, and another one in the Academic Guidance section, it seems to me that you are uncertain about your future, and you want to be pick a course of study with a reasonable chance of success. This is something worth thinking about, and worth gathering information to try to make the best decision. My caution for you is this kind of prediction is an imperfect art. Art, not science. There is lots of judgment required, which mostly comes from experience. The results of a personality survey can be a useful input to this kind of decision-making process, but cannot give you a definitive answer of the form: The best job for you is _______.

The best results would likely come from talking with a very experienced person in a field you find interesting, who also knows you well. In lieu of that, you can find many, many interesting people on this forum, who have written at length about what their jobs are like, and what makes their jobs interesting to them, and what skills have served them well. You might be able to find something that piques your interest in this way, and then you might also be able to formulate a more specific question.

Aha i understand your viewpoint. I think you are right. Well i chose physics for university because some people here advised me to go for it and try it for a year at least.
I know a physics professor at a top university here in Lebanon and i will talk to him some time later this summer. Thanks sir. :)