Career Aptitude TestsCareer Aptitude Tests
Description: Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? The career aptitude test (CAT) is designed to help you discover your inner talents and expertise so you can choose the career that is best for you.
A CAT is a questionnaire used to match a person with a list of possible job paths. The questions may cover personality traits, expertise in a given area and general knowledge. Questions on a CAT tend to be split between quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative refers to the math, logic and objective choices. Qualitative is more focused on the attitude, perception and subjective choices. The job aptitude test is often comprised of a list of questions. They are generally not marked as quantitative or qualitative in order to leave some ambiguity to the reasoning behind the answers. None of the responses on the test will be graded as right or wrong as all are right with some answers falling into a certain field of work.
One of the more common CATs is the Career Key created by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones. Dr. Jones created the assessment to compile information about a person's personality and competence. Once the test is complete, the results are sent along with the United States Occupational Outlook Handbook. This handbook uses the results of the Career Key as a map key, of sorts. With the test results, the person can look through the book to find careers that are perfect for them.
The results of the evaluation can be used to choose a path for future education or to help a person decide whether their current job could be the wrong choice. Within a business, the CAT is very useful as tool for promotional purposes. If there are 20 employees applying for the same position, it could weed out those who are not naturally talented in the area of job focus.
There is no specific age when the questionnaire is supposed to be taken. High school students, college graduates and retired workers can all use the results to give them a better idea about their perfect vocation. Many businesses choose to use a career aptitude test to evaluate employees before promoting them to certain areas of the business.
It is important to be totally honest when taking a career aptitude test. The examination results will only reveal potential job paths if the questions are answered honestly. Lying on a CAT may result in a list of potential occupations that are not targeted to the exam taker. Accuracy is the goal of the assessment and without true answers, the results cannot be accurate. It is important to remember the career aptitude test may not reveal just one perfect career choice. Instead, the analysis can be more effectively used to narrow down the possibilities. CAT Resources
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