Our Approach To Career Testing:

First, we find out what you want to get out of the career counseling process. If your questions are best answered by an hourly consultation, we are happy to provide that also! If you have questions about what career options are out that align with the roles, environments, and tasks you are most suited for, aptitude testing will be helpful. 

We take a whole person approach to ability testing. Your abilities are just one part of you, it’s also important to understand what are your interests, personal style, values, goals, and stage in life. Individuals are too complex to be defined by one or two factors only. By understanding your work strengths in context of your larger life picture and goals, you will find more direction and professional satisfaction.  

The assessment process takes about four or five hours in total before we meet. You take it from the comfort of your home, at your own pace. Once you complete the assessment, you receive your customized report that offers suggestions for the roles, tasks, and environments that are good fits for you. It’s a lot of information. After you have reviewed your results,  we meet for a 90 minute results interpretation / debrief session. There we go through each of the driving and specialized abilities and see how they resonate for you. Following the results interpretation debrief, we meet for one to three follow up conversations. Why? We have found this is the most meaningful and impactful for our clients, the opportunity to have time to process the results and then circle back with questions - how they apply to life, how to strategize for future career steps, how to talk in interviews or networking about where you’ve been and where you want to be. In between our conversations, we invite you to reach out via email. And following the completion of your four sessions, we hope you will stay in touch and let us know how things go. Many clients even reach back years later with questions. We always love hearing from you! 

Career Testing FAQ’s

What is the difference between an ability test and an aptitude test? 

Natural ability tests measure what you do well without a lot of effort or practice. Aptitude tests relate abilities to work by combining them and connecting them to real life applications in different work roles, environments, and tasks. Also known as talent tests, they help you confirm or discover which work settings and functions will be the best fit for you. 

What is an example of an aptitude test? 

Aptitude tests are different than personality, interest, or values assessments. In those assessments, you are answering questions and you can often have a sense of what it’s trying to figure out. With aptitude or ability testing, you are looking at numbers and letters, listening to tones, looking at diagrams, deciphering other items, and responding to prompts. Often while taking the aptitude assessment, you’re not sure what it’s measuring or how it applies to how you solve problems, plan, or reason.  

You can see a customized sample report for adults here and one for students here.

Is the natural ability test hard?

Many people get nervous about taking tests or assessments. The point of taking the ability test is to better understand specifically which roles, tasks, and environments will be a good fit for you. Keep this in mind when taking the test, even if you find some work samples difficult, it will be helpful to discover or confirm the best fits for you, and our in-depth results debrief will help provide clarity which is what you are looking for. We advise clients not to stress about it but rather try to enjoy the process of deepening the self-knowledge.

What is a “good score” for an aptitude test? 

Your score is a good score. Wherever you fall on the different scales comes with strengths and challenges. Low scores have pros and high scores also have cons. There’s no right or wrong way to be, it’s understanding where your strengths lie and how to identify and apply that knowledge that gives you the advantage. By embracing what is a good fit and energizes you, will find direction, satisfaction, flow, and career transformation.