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Wilson R. Harvey
Career assessments are perhaps one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of any
career counselor. Whether working with school-age students or adult clients, these assessments
can serve to drive the counseling forward in a multitude of ways. Assessment can be used to help
clients gain a measure of validation regarding their career path or even to simply open a
conversation with a client or clients. This does not mean, however, that assessment should be
used haphazardly or without regard for validity and reliability; indeed, it is possible that many
clients will put some significant stock into their assessment results, and so counselors should
both carefully vet assessments and thoroughly debrief their clients on those results. In taking
some career, interest, and personality inventories myself, both recently and over the summer, I
found them to be fairly confirmatory of my chosen career path and even helpful tools for
Assessment can have many uses in counseling, and career counseling is no different.
Indeed, career-based interest inventories have been a resource for career psychology and
counseling since at least the early 1900s (Harrington & Long, 2013). Though there are distinct
differences amongst humans that can make the challenge of assessment a difficult one, strong
assessments are those that can both capture the commonalities of humanity while delineating key
differences to offer a closely accurate portrayal of some facet of an individual. Crucial to our
understanding and use of assessment, however, is knowledge that various assessment measures
are limited in scope and should not be taken as concretely absolute due to the influence of
potentially confounding variables. When a client takes a career assessment, then, it is critical that
we as career counselors possess a deep enough understanding of the tool so as to not provide our
clients with an overly generalized interpretation of the results – for example, interpreting the
CAREER ASSESSMENTS AND CAREER COUNSELING 3
results of an interest inventory as the definitive indicator in itself that a client should pursue a
certain career is both dangerous and unethical without obtaining further information. Even after
considering their limitations, however, there is a likely benefit to be had from the use of
assessments such as those I took – a simplified version of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the
MAPP Appraisal, and the Kiersey Profile – even in their simple ability to spark a conversation
with our clients. Through such discussion, we can help to facilitate a greater self-understanding
in our clients that in turn can help them in their career selection. Results from the Myers-Briggs,
for example, have been shown to help clients not only in the career selection process but also in
gaining valuable insights that can be used to help them understand how they best function in
interpersonal relationships and with various skills such as they might encounter and employ in
assessments, however. For starters, some of the more easily cost-accessible assessment tools
available through the internet are have been less heavily vetted and thus are not necessarily
empirically valid and thus could lead to or reinforce potentially false individualized concepts.
Because individuals’ self-perceptions and beliefs can influence their ability to make vocational
decisions (Bubic, 2017), the use of poor assessments – especially when they are not effectively
processed by the counselor – could actually lead to negative outcomes as a result of the
counseling process. Furthermore, each of the three assessments I took along with many other
career assessments may not be developmentally appropriate for young clients or those clients
whose reading levels are not strong. These factors, along with the general lengthiness of many of
these assessments, could lead to test fatigue amongst our clients and influence the results so as to
paint an inaccurate picture of our clients. Even I found myself drifting slightly during one of the
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assessments. For these reasons, the selection of developmental and skill-appropriate assessments
I had a mixed reaction to my personal results on these assessments. Though they were
lengthy and the results weren’t necessarily concise, I thought that the MAPP and the Kiersey
assessments were both fairly accurate in their reports on my personality and style (though with
both, and especially with the Kiersey, it seems that the results were limited by my not paying for
the full report). The MAPP captured my personal interests fairly well, from what I could tell,
especially highlighting my interest in working with others; though the depth of the full results
might be overwhelming to some of those we work with, it is noteworthy that many of its other
interpretations were also fairly accurate, including its highlighting of areas such as my analytical
nature. As for the Kiersey, I found that the general result of Idealist, though broad, was fairly
would have been helpful to see a more thorough breakdown of my results in other areas. It was
also useful to see the way that the results interplayed with the Myers-Briggs, though the more
extensive connection was only available in a purchased reports. Both the MAPP and Kiersey
showed a high level of accuracy in regard to my career choice as well, simply based upon the
The third assessment I took, offered on the Lonerwolf website, was the one I found most
questionable – though to be fair, the authors fully disclosed that the tool was not empirically-
based but rather designed for fun. It was a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, but I found that its
results were far off the results I have typically received in taking the Myers-Briggs in a more
empirically-based format. This test found that I was an ISFP, which clashes somewhat
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significantly with the ENFP results I received just this summer in taking the test. Some of the
discrepancy could have been that I was exhausted at the end of a long day with lots of social
interaction; on an assessment as short as this one, the results could easily be swayed by
counfounding variables such as momentary social exhaustion. For that reason, I will want to be
aware as a practicing counselor using assessment of these variables and try to account for them
Conclusion
others, can play a valuable role in career or career-focused counseling. These measures can help
make clients aware of careers that might be of interest to them, and can also be a way for the
counselor to begin a conversation with their client about their personal beliefs regarding self and
work. As with any counseling technique, theory or strategy, counselors should be careful when
using these tools so as to not overrepresent the scope of their meaning, and processing of results
educational, and sociocultural factors that could act as confounding variables in an individual’s
assessment results. When these criterion are met, however, assessment has the chance to be a
References
Kennedy, R., & Kennedy, D. (2004). Using the myers-briggs type indicator® in career
1920.2004.tb00876.x
Bubic, A. (2017). The relevance of self-evaluations for students' career optimism. Journal of
Harrington, T., & Long, J. (2013). The history of interest inventories and career assessments in
0045.2013.00039.x