Career test for working professionals thinking of a change

Short facts

• Career Discovery: about fifty five minutes, ₹999, or ₹1,499 with Plus, paid after you finish and only if you open the report.
• When you start, you say where you are: still studying, working, or returning after a break.
• For someone already working, the courses in the report are postgraduate and professional ones, not first degrees that start from Class 12.
• Career Discovery is built on published research models: Holland's six interest types (RIASEC), the Big Five personality traits, the CHC model of thinking abilities and the O*NET work values framework.
• The Work Values Sorter is free, for ages 16 and over, and takes about twelve minutes.

A new job, or a new kind of work?

Before changing careers, find out which part is not working.

Many people who want to leave a job are tired of the manager, the hours, the pay or the commute rather than the work itself. Those can often be changed by moving team or company. A career test speaks to the other question: whether the kind of work suits what you enjoy, how you work and what you value. See whether careers in your current field appear near the top of your list, and read the reasons. If they do, a better employer may be the answer. If they do not, a bigger change is worth exploring.

Questions to ask yourself first

Write the answers down. They are the context a test result needs.

1. Which parts of a normal week do you look forward to, and which do you put off? Keep a note for two weeks.
2. What do you want from work that you are not getting: independence, recognition, security, good people around you, or a sense that it matters? These are work values, and they can shift as your life changes.
3. What could you build on: a degree, skills, contacts or knowledge of an industry you already have?
4. What can you afford: a pay cut, a year of study, a move to another city? Money and family are part of the answer.

What the report shows someone who is working

Career Discovery is scored the same way for everyone. The situations it asks about are worded for your stage, and the course list follows the stage you give when you start.

• Your interests, strengths, personality and values in plain words.
• The career families that fit, with the why.
• Your five closest courses, ranked for your stage, with longer ranked lists to browse. If you are working, the courses are postgraduate and professional ones you could still take.
• A six month action calendar, and what to do next.
• A PDF to keep.

Plus, at ₹1,499, adds more, including your fifteen closest courses, a plan for the next twenty four months, the full eighteen month calendar, two careers compared side by side, and one free retake between six and twenty four months. The sample report lets you pick an example close to you, and one of them is a working professional.

Testing a change before you make it

Small, cheap experiments tell you more than a long list of pros and cons.

• Talk to three people who do the work you are considering, about an ordinary week rather than the highlights.
• Try a short course or a weekend project in the new field before you pay for a degree.
• Look for a role in your own company that takes you part of the way, such as from engineering to product, or from audit to finance.
• Check what a postgraduate course or a professional qualification asks for entry, on the course provider's or the professional body's own website.

What any test cannot tell you

No test can tell you whether a change will work out, what you will earn, or whether a company will hire you. A result describes what you enjoy, how you work and what you value now, from your own answers, and it does not compare you with other people. Weigh it with your finances, your family and conversations with people already doing the work.

Where to start

Or start with a free test

• Work Values SorterAbout twelve minutes, free. Ages 16 and overWhat you want from work, in words you may never have used.
• Day Shape SorterAbout three minutes, freeTwelve ways a working day can be shaped. Say which ones you want, and see the kinds of work where each is an ordinary day.

No card needed. Log in to start. Under 18s: a parent agrees before the result is shown.

Questions