Like a high school career test, but with more ads.
Choosing a career is one of those horribly stressful choices in life that can take a lot of time, energy and thought. And whenever something takes so much effort, human beings have this habit of looking for an easier way. Thus career tests were born. You probably remember these tests from a high school career class. If you’re like me you thought they were a waste of time, and manipulated the answers to see what kind of crazy career you could make it come up with. The career test at Project Career is a lot like those tests, except with a ton of annoying ads imploring you to sign up for some online university. The test asks you 105 questions about your interests and then provides an assessment that ranks your interest in certain fields such as Social Services, Finance/Accounting and Health Care. Here are some pros and cons with the test:
Pros
* Fairly straightforward interface
* Lots of good information about the careers that match your interests, as well as the opportunity to search for jobs in those fields
* A PDF file to download that includes your assessment information
Cons
* Asks for far too much personal information (eg. address, phone number)
* Error messages when trying to read the assessment. It took me several tries to get through the whole thing, and a couple times I had to sign in and out to make it work. Not cool.
*wide variety of career options out there, this seems very limited.
* Ads are everywhere! During the test the questions are surrounded by text ads, and you have to make sure you don’t accidentally click the box that says "Please send my personal information to the University of So and So".
The site is basically designed to make as much money through advertisements and your precious personal information as possible. While this can be annoying, getting through the test and reading the assessment can actually be useful. Taking the time to reflect and actually think about my interests was a worthy experience. Overall, the site has some good content, and may help to give you some ideas about a career path to follow. But if you’re annoyed by a lot of ads, and don’t feel comfortable giving away your personal information (or lying about it) then stay away from the Project Career test.
Guest post by job hunter and writer Steve Krager.
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