Career Assessment to Assist with Major and Career Exploration
People learn about academic and career options in a variety of ways. One way is to complete career assessment inventories. Although these inventories are not the sole basis for career decision-making, they are useful tools to facilitate the processes involved in making some of the important decisions you are faced with.
Although career assessments won't tell you what to do or when to do it, they are intended to enhance and broaden your understanding of yourself. The results can lead to identification, verification, and a stronger ability to clearly express your personal characteristics and how they relate to the world of work. The assessment results will allow you to examine your values, interests, skills, personality preferences, decision-making style, career maturity, and confidence.
Career Assessments offered by Career Development
The
Strong Interest Inventory measures an individual's interests. A report is generated that indicates the client's interests in relation to occupations and will reveal any patterns within those interests.
The Strong Interest Inventory is a comparative inventory; meaning the individual's responses to the inventory are compared with those of people in a variety of occupations. The report will show how similar or dissimilar the client's interests are with the interests of individuals in a select group of occupations. Very often, people with like interests gravitate toward like occupations and/or activities. The client uses the results from the Strong Interest Inventory "to focus on an area of occupations to explore, not to find one job title to pursue".
UNR Student Cost: $15.00 for Strong Intrest Inventory Only
The
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) measures an individual's personality preferences. Knowing and understanding one's preferences can help the client understand their strengths and weaknesses, preferred ways of learning, decision-making, goal-setting, organizational style, and how they relate to people. Specific to career exploration, clients can identify occupations that will more likely allow them to use their natural preferences in the work they do versus working in a situation where they have to adopt a "style" that is unnatural and, hence, uncomfortable and less enjoyable.
UNR Student Cost: $15.00 for MBTI Only
The
Work-Related Values inventory allows clients to consider what they place importance on, what gives their life direction, and what is significant to them. Examples of work-related values include things like: variety, independence, creativity, helping others, managing, risk-taking, competency, and prestige, to name a few.
UNR Student Cost: $8.00
A variety of
career decision making inventories help students understand the factors affecting their decision making. How confident are you to pursue your interests, do you need more information about yourself, academic or career options, are there certain internal (self-esteem) or external (family expectations) barriers preventing you from pursuing your goals? These inventories will examine the many variables involved in the decision making process.
Arranging to take career assessment inventories
Contact the office of Career Development to schedule a time with a counselor or career development facilitator. The
cost for career assessments and interpretations will vary depending on the inventory or inventories you and your counselor decide are best suited for you. The most widely used "package" of assessment inventories University of Nevada, Reno students complete include the
Strong Interest Inventory, the MBTI®, and the work-related values inventory. The cost of this package for currently enrolled students is
$30.00! (Consumer alert, consumer alert- this is a real bargain!)
Note: Career Development does not provide career counseling or assessment to the general public. Enrolled UNR students, UNR Alumni and prospective UNR students are eligible and all others are not.
The cost for UNR Alumni is:
$75 Alumni Career Assessment Package
(Strong Interest Inventory, Myers Briggs) Interpretation & 2 sessions
$1-30 Supplemental
Don't Need a Counselor?
You know yourself pretty well and can begin to do some more "self-directed" competencies and skill exercises.
Skills and competencies are the language of the Job Search. Employers are not only interested in learning about what you have studied but just how you plan to use your classroom learning and your various activities and work experiences.
There are three types of skills (Content, Transferable and Self-Management) that you will identify in your resume and during the interview. It is helpful to conduct an assessment of these skills in preparation for career/internship fairs and for job applications. Employers are also interested in the accomplishments you have made during your studies.
The following will provide you with examples of the three skill areas and a method to assess and support your skill levels.
Self-Directed Skills Assessment
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