Explore Yourself
Choosing a career starts with understanding your interests, skills, values, and strengths. Career assessments can help you identify patterns and discover careers or career pathways you may want to explore.
Career Exploration and Assessment
Career assessments are tools that help you learn more about yourself and explore how your interests, skills, and values connect to different careers.
Assessments can help you:
- Identify your strengths, skills, interests, and work values.
- Discover career pathways and occupations you may not have considered.
- Explore how different careers connect to your interests and abilities.
- Learn about education and training requirements.
- Identify classes, activities, and experiences that can help you prepare for the future.
Career assessments are a starting point, not a final answer. Your interests and skills will change as you learn and gain new experiences. Taking different assessments over time can help you discover new possibilities and refine your goals.
Middle School Career Assessments
Middle school is a great time to begin exploring how your interests and skills connect to future career possibilities. These assessments are designed to help you discover new opportunities and begin thinking about the classes and experiences that can support your goals.
6th & 7th Grade: Explore Your Interests
CareerCoach
CareerCoach helps students explore their interests and discover career pathways that may be a good fit. It's a starting point for learning about different occupations and considering how personal interests connect to future opportunities.
As you explore your results, consider:
- Which careers sound interesting?
- What do those careers have in common?
- What new careers did you discover?
- What classes or activities could help you explore those interests?
8th Grade: Discover Your Skills
CareerOneStop Skills Matcher
As you prepare for high school, take the next step by exploring your skills and how they connect to different careers.
The CareerOneStop Skills Matcher helps you identify skills you have or would like to develop and explore occupations that use those skills.
Use your results to consider:
- What skills are you already developing?
- Which skills would you like to strengthen?
- What careers use those skills?
- How might your high school classes and activities help you prepare?
Take the CareerOneStop Skills Matcher →
High School Career Assessments
High school is a time to explore career interests in greater depth and begin connecting your results to education and training options. Career assessments can help you identify potential career pathways, research occupations, and make more informed decisions about your high school courses and plans after graduation.
You can complete assessments independently, work with your school counselor, or schedule a career assessment appointment with an ICAN advisor.
My ACT
The MyACT career assessment features three short interest inventories that identify potential career pathways that fit your interests and values. The three inventories take about 15 minutes and provide instant results through the creation of a Career Map and Major Map. Take the MyACT Assessments →.
CareerOneStop
CareerOneStop offers a variety of free career assessments that help high school students explore interests, skills, and work values to identify potential career paths. These tools provide personalized career suggestions and connect students to relevant occupational and educational information. Explore CareerOneStop Assessments →.
Holland Occupational Themes (RIASEC) Test
Holland Occupational Themes is a theory of personality that focuses on career and vocational choice. It groups people on the basis of their suitability for six different categories of occupations; Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (RIASEC). Take the RIASEC Assessment →
Princeton Review Career Quiz
Princeton Review Career Quiz is a short, personality-based assessment that helps high school students identify careers and work environments that align with their interests and preferences. By analyzing how students respond to different scenarios, the quiz matches them with potential career paths and personality types. Take the Princeton Review Career Quiz →.
Next Steps: Put Your Results to Work
Completing a career assessment is just the beginning. The real value comes from using your results to explore possibilities and learn more about careers that interest you.
After completing an assessment:
Explore Your Results
Look for patterns in the careers suggested. What interests, skills, or work environments do they have in common?
Research Careers
Learn about job responsibilities, education and training requirements, salary expectations, and employment opportunities.
Connect Careers to Your Education
Consider which classes, activities, and experiences could help you develop relevant skills and explore your interests.
Gain Experience
Look for opportunities to learn more through career conversations, job shadows, volunteering, extracurricular activities, and other experiences.
Keep Exploring
Your interests, skills, and goals may change. Revisit assessments and explore new opportunities throughout middle school, high school, and beyond.
Remember: You don't need to choose your future career today. Career planning is a process of learning, exploring, and making informed decisions as you go.
