Many mid-life professionals who seek a career change begin with assessments.

I believe our culture encourages testing. We like to look at numbers; after all, we measure cholesterol and lung capacity so why not measure career aptitude?

The truth is …

Experienced scientists and statisticians will be skeptical of any tests because:

(1) Some qualities can’t be measured directly. For instance, it is really hard to assess “happiness.” Therefore we use what scientists call surrogate measures.

A career test can’t measure things like “energy,” especially if you’re just using pencil and paper.

How do I know? Many years ago I took a test that included questions about sports, especially football and baseball. At the time I didn’t even follow sports. The test interpretation suggested I wasn’t a very active person, although I was taking aerobics three times a week and walking everywhere.

(2) All tests – even the most sophisticated medical tests – have false negatives and false positives. Unfortunately it’s difficult to tell if a career test is accurate, let alone the percentage of errors.

(3) As you spend time in a career, your beliefs, values and attitudes will come to resemble those of your colleagues. As a result, when you take a test, you will most likely find you are extremely well-suited to the career you have now!

(4) Personality and personal qualities are rarely correlated with specific careers, although they may be associated with a corporate culture. Additionally, many experts believe personality is more of a state than a trait. You may be an introvert in some situations and an extravert in others.

(5) Choosing a career field is just the beginning. Let’s say you like numbers and you want to become an accountant. But you hold back. You say, “I am really an outgoing person. Maybe I should be in sales instead.”

The truth is that accountants market themselves – not as aggressively as used car sales reps, but they do have client presentations and meetings. They often are expected to socialize with clients. Additionally, once you get your degree, you may become an accounting professor, consultant or seminar leader.

Alternatively you may decide to be a doctor because you are fascinated by the human body, your manual dexterity is high and you love science. In today’s world, you also need people skills. An anesthesiologist told me, “People are nervous when they go into surgery. Most of us learn to be comedians so we can help them relax and feel comfortable.”

So what can you do instead of assessments?

When I work with clients, nearly always we uncover some things they *really* want to do. Often we need a few sessions to bring these ideas out into the open.

If you’re generally stymied, you can begin a pattern of broad exploration. In my experience, you are most likely to find a new career through a combination of serendipity, luck and lots of attention to the environment.

If you’d like to consult with me about your career, please visit http://www.MidlifeCareerStrategy.com/services.html

Today’s Wall Street Journal carries a story about applicants who subvert personality tests. They search online and find the answer keys. They hire others to take tests for them.

Frankly, I applaud these efforts. But there’s little correlation between tests and career success. I wrote an article on this topic: How Career Change Really Happens.

Ultimately Facebook and Twitter will accomplish even more than unions: empower employees by sharing information.

Today’s WSJ includes a retirement living section. It seems that some of the over-60 set can’t handle all that leisure and they need help figuring out what to do.

One woman sought help from a career counselor who administered the Strong Interest Inventory and the notorious Myers-Briggs. The WSJ article included helpful tips on taking the test: you can pay $100-$300 to work with a counselor and discuss results.

The article failed to note that Myers-Briggs has been largely discredited (despite widespread use). You might as well check in with a good astrologer.

Frankly, I can’t believe so many organizations (including universities) continue to use Myers-Briggs. See

http://www.skepdic.com/myersb.html

Responding to some of this criticism, a person associated with a university says, ‘It is perception-based and is therefore subject to threats to validity…”

http://world.std.com/~lo/95.07/0081.html

The Strong Interest Inventory may be a better test…but I remain skeptical. Before paying anybody to take tests, I would invest in a copy of Annie Paul’s excellent book, The Cult of Personality.

A while back I wrote an article about how people really change careers. Read it here.