Title: Four Important Rules In Taking Career Tests Word Count: 565 Summary: 1. You may not like most of the career tests. To begin with, some people hate all tests. End of story. Forcing a career tests on your best friend could lead to your premature demise. Other people like tests, but hate particular kinds of questions. For example, some people dislike "forced-choice questions," where they must pick between two choices that are equally bad, in their view. Other people dislike "ranking yourself against others" questions, because, with their... Keywords: career, development, education Article Body: 1. You may not like most of the career tests. To begin with, some people hate all tests. End of story. Forcing a career tests on your best friend could lead to your premature demise. Other people like tests, but hate particular kinds of questions. For example, some people dislike "forced-choice questions," where they must pick between two choices that are equally bad, in their view. Other people dislike "ranking yourself against others" questions, because, with their low self-esteem, they rank themselves poorly in comparison with "others" in almost everything. Other people do not like "pick occupations you like" questions, because they've learned by experience that all occupations, as commonly practiced, are a mixture of good and bad, and they keep thinking of the bad stuff, when each occupation is mentioned. Other people do not like questions about how they would behave in certain situations, because they tend to pick how they wish they would behave, rather than how in fact they actually do. The career test has to feel right to the individual who is taking it. 2. There is no career test that gives better results than others. You may take a test that gives wonderful suggestions for future careers, but when your best friend takes the same test, their results may be way off the mark. How did that happen? Tests have personality. With respect to a given test, one person will love its look, feel, taste, and touch, while another person will hate it on sight. Unfortunately, how one feels about a test will definitely twist your results. 3. No career test should be considered to be accurate. We turn to tests with the hope that someone can definitely tell you who you are and what you should do. A definite no no. Test results are sometimes way off the mark. On many online tests, if you answer even two questions inaccurately, you will get completely wrong results and recommendations. There are countless sad stories about people whose lives were sent down a completely wrong path by test 'results' that they believed when they should not have. You should take all test results with not just a grain of salt, but with a barrel. Tests have one great mission and purpose: To give you ideas you have not thought of and suggestions worth following up. But if you ask them to do more than that, you are dreaming. Also do not forget to take several career tests, rather than just one. You will get a much better picture of your preferences, profile, and good career suggestions from three or more tests, rather than just one. 4. Always trust your intuition to be your guide. You know more about yourself than any career test does. Treat no test outcome as 'gospel'. Reject the summary the test gives you, if it just seems dead wrong to you. Trust your intuition. On the other hand, if you really like the suggestions the career test gave you, do not agonize about whether those suggestions are worth tracking down. Just do it and listen to your heart. Career tests are fun, but reading the results is not enough. You are not done until you have thought hard about what distinguishes you from every other member of the human race. Nothing wrong with taking all the career tests you can handle until you finally realize that you are a unique individual.