Deciding on a career path can feel overwhelming. But taking a free online career test and personality assessment is a quick, yet insightful way to figure out where your interests lie and how they can translate into a fulfilling career. A career test or personality assessment is usually a short quiz that helps you determine what your interests, strengths, and goals are. From there, you get career recommendations tailored to your unique personality and interests. The internet is full of these tests and assessments, so to save you time and energy, we researched dozens to find the most accurate and efficient options.
How We Chose the Best Free Career Tests and Personality Assessments
To find the best career tests, we researched dozens of options available, chatted with a long-time college counselor, and took each of these tests ourselves.
We interviewed a long-time college counselor.
Dana Marvin, a college counselor who has helped hundreds of students through the college application process, uses career aptitude tests with her students every year. In her expert opinion, the best types of career tests are those that provide results as career clusters, or groups of jobs that have similar skills and tasks involved.
She adds, “While a student might not love every job in a certain cluster, they might find a few that stand out to them. For example, let’s say they love music and have a passion for performing arts, but they aren’t quite sure if being a theater major is right for them. Searching through a list of careers in a career cluster like “Arts, Audio/Video and Communications’ allows them to explore dozens of careers in the entertainment and performing arts industry from disc jockeys to sound engineer technicians to camera operators.”
We made sure that all of the tests on our list provided information in larger career categories for maximum learning potential.
We learned a lot about ourselves.
You should only expect career tests and personality assessments to offer guidance and direction not the final answer regarding your career path. Ms. Marvin agrees, “A career aptitude test is a great tool, but it should only be used as a guide.”
As we completed the career aptitude tests and personality assessments to arrive at the best, we analyzed each platform on its ease of use, validity of results, and how it relayed your results. We also evaluated the length of time it took to complete each and whether the platform offered other career resources like access to career coaches.
Free is definitely better.
Since the point of taking career aptitude tests is to learn more about yourself, we recommend against spending too much time or any money on career tests. In fact, all of our top picks are free. Though, some offer additional analysis for a cost.
Best Free Career Tests
123test – Career Aptitude Test
123test’s free Career Aptitude Test is based on the Holland Codes, a vocation choice theory that was developed by psychologist John L. Holland in the 1950s — this remains one of the most popular career counseling models to this day. Overall, there are six personality types in the Holland model:
- Realistic: Practical, concrete, hands-on.
- Investigative: Analytical, intellectual, scientific.
- Artistic: Creative, original, independent.
- Social: Cooperative, supportive, nurturing.
- Enterprising: Competitive, leadership, persuasive.
- Conventional: Detail-oriented, organized, clerical.
Rather than assigning you to one of these personality types, this test ranks how these traits apply to you from most to least dominant. This highly specific approach means that there are 720 possible results, and your particular combination can say a lot about what kind of career options would be a good fit. For example, if you have an ISRAEC personality with especially strong Investigative and Social traits, fields such as medicine and education would make sense for you. Indeed, discovering your Holland Code can help point you in the direction of a career that best suits your personality type.
This test contains 15 sets of four images that depict different occupations and work activities. For each set, you’ll need to select which option you like the most and which option you dislike the most.
You’ll also be asked about which education level you want 123test to use for their job recommendations — this allows you to filter out occupations that aren’t an option for you at the moment.
Once you’ve answered all the questions, 123test provides you with your Holland Code and a list of suggested occupations.
- Time to complete: 5 to 10 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This test is particularly well suited to visual thinkers because it relies primarily on images rather than text.
My Next Move – O*NET Interest Profiler
My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler is sponsored by the U. S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration. The profiler consists of 60 questions about work-related activities, and your task is to read each question carefully and decide how you would feel about doing that kind of work on a scale of “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
The results show you which Holland Code categories match up to your interests the most.
Once you’ve completed the O*NET Interest Profiler, you’ll be prompted to choose one of five Job Zones, which each require a different level of education and training. After selecting your desired Job Zone, the site determines your “best fit” career as well as several “great fit” careers.
If you’d like to learn more about any of these career options, you can click on the link to check out more details, such as the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are required.
These individual career pages also contain additional details such as the personality types, technology, and educational profiles that are associated with a given industry.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: It combines your interests with your current or future level of job preparation to populate an individualized list of careers to explore.
Truity – Career Personality Profiler
Truity’s site offers several free career tests based on the Holland Code and Big Five systems. In addition to the Career Personality Profiler, Truity offers a TypeFinder® for Career Planning test, a Holland Code Career Test, and a Photo Career Quiz. The Career Personality Profiler is the most comprehensive of Truity’s four tests. As with My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler, you read statements about job activities and select the degree to which you would like or dislike performing that work. You’ll also read statements about personality traits and indicate the degree to which they apply to you.
Once you finish the test, Truity will generate a variety of results that you can use to help plan your career. Unlike most of the assessments covered in this guide, Truity’s Career Personality Profiler isn’t entirely free — Your Work Style and some of the other results are provided at no cost, but you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version to access additional information such as How You Get Motivated and How You Interact with Others.
Another free feature with this test is that you can review the top career options that match your personality profile, and these listings include the average earnings and projected growth for each career option as well. It should be noted that all free results will be deleted after 14 days, though.
- Time to complete: 10 to 15 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The platform is user-friendly, the site offers multiple career tests, and the tests utilize a combination of methodologies and models.
Career Explorer by Sokanu – Career Test
Career Explorer by Sokanu stands out for its emphasis on advanced machine learning, psychometrics, and career satisfaction data. The test constantly evolves and improves itself based on new data, and the company continually tweaks its algorithm to remain at the forefront of accuracy.
The test consists of three main sections: personality archetype, career matches, and degree matches. Your results include a list of top careers, top degrees, and even a chance to connect with similar people in Sokanu’s free Discord community.
One drawback to this test is that it has significantly more questions and takes much longer to complete than all the other options covered in this guide.
- Time to complete: 30 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: It’s a smart test that uses advanced machine learning to continue evolving and improving.
Career Fitter – Career Test
Career Fitter’s free Career Test is one of the oldest and most widely used personality assessments: It’s been around since 1998, and someone in the world takes the test every three seconds. The test assesses four dimensions related to your personality at work: energy, perception, planning style, and decision style. Within these dimensions lie the characteristics of your work personality, and those characteristics help determine which careers you are best suited for. Also, one unique aspect of this test is that you can see your personality profile take shape while you are still making your way through all the questions.
Your free personality report includes information such as how much money you can earn in careers that match your personality, your leadership and management style, and potential weaknesses in your work personality. As with Truity’s Career Personality Profiler, Career Fitter’s Career Test also offers a premium version of your results with more information — in this case, the paid report includes 10 pages of feedback on your work personality, communication method, and even famous people similar to you.
While it’s not quite as long as the Career Explorer by Sokanu test, this is still one of the longer options included in this guide — you should expect it to take at least 10 minutes to complete.
- Time to complete: 10 to 20 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This test has been around for 20 years and has collected data from millions of users. It’s widely used by respected companies, universities, and HR departments around the world.
The Princeton Review – Career Quiz
The Princeton Review’s Career Quiz consists of 24 sentence pairs, such as “I would rather be a clerical worker” and “I would rather be a carpenter”. Your task is to choose which sentence of the pair you prefer. The quiz is short and takes only a few minutes to complete.
You’ll need to register for a free account before you can view your results — most of your other career assessment options don’t require you to take this step. Your results include color-coded “interests” and “styles”, with each color representing one of four meanings: expediting, planning, communicating, or administering. “Interests” describe the types of activities you’re drawn to, while “styles” describe the strengths you bring to a work environment.
In addition to information about your interests and styles, The Princeton Review provides you with a list of recommended careers for a person with your colors. You can click on any of these careers to learn more about them.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? Yes
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This quiz is quick and offers detailed insights. It features an easy-to-understand color system and extensive list of career recommendations.
Career One Stop – Interest Assessment
Career One Stop’s Interest Assessment is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. The motto is simple: “Tell us what you like to do. And what you don’t like to do. We’ll show you careers that fit your interests.” The assessment consists of 30 quick questions similar to those in My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler.
Once you’ve answered the questions, you select the level of job preparation you have or intend to have, and the system then populates a list of careers that combine your interests and degree of job preparation. The list of careers includes data on career outlook, average hourly wages, and level of education required.
If you’re particularly interested in one of the listed careers, you can click on it to check out more details such as projected employment figures and the activities you might do in the average day on the job.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: The assessment is short and quick, and the list of suitable careers includes important data on job outlook, average hourly wage, and required education.
Your Free Career Test – Free Career Test
Your Free Career Test’s assessment is suitable both for adults and students as young as 13. The flagship free career test can be completed in five minutes, and other free tests on the site take even less time to complete.
Once you’ve finished the test, you’ll be provided with a unique results code — this allows you to check on your results later without submitting your email or creating an account.
Your results page includes interest scores associated with each of the 15 broad categories such as Art, Business, and Communications. After taking the flagship test, you can choose to complete a more specialized assessment such as a Health Career Test, Art Career Test, or Technology Career Test. Your Free Career Test recommends exploring careers that combine two of your main interests — for instance, if your scores indicate you have a high interest in both art and technology, then seek out careers that combine the two, such as graphic design, video game design, or marketing.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This is a student-friendly resource that doesn’t require an email address or account creation, and it offers specialized follow-up career tests.
Rasmussen University – Career Aptitude Test
Unlike personality-based assessments, such as 123test’s Career Aptitude Test or My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler, this test is solely based on your current skill set. It only takes a couple minutes to complete, as you just need to adjust the sliders according to how skilled you are in areas such as art, math, and communication.
If you’d like, you can also refine your search by average salary, predicted job growth, and level of education required.
Once you’ve finished adjusting the sliders and filters, you can generate the results to see which careers would be the best match for you.
The Rasmussen University Career Aptitude Test provides more detailed occupation data than most of the other assessments featured in this guide — by hovering over one of the listed career options, you can review salary information, employment information, and how your current skills match up to the required job skills.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: This test provides highly detailed occupation data for careers that match your current skill set.
Minnesota State University – Career Cluster Interest Survey
Minnesota State University’s Career Cluster Interest Survey asks you about the activities you like to do, your personal qualities, and your favorite school subjects in order to determine which career paths make the most sense for you.
Once you’ve finished the test, you’ll be able to review which industries best match your interests.
Minnesota State University has a page for each individual career cluster that you can check out for more information. These pages are especially helpful for students, as they describe activities that you could engage in now to see if a type of work that makes sense on paper is something you actually enjoy doing in person — for example, the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources career cluster page recommends activities such as joining a 4-H club and volunteering at an animal shelter.
- Time to complete: 5 to 10 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This resource provides plenty of helpful information for the industries that match your interests.
The Best Personality Tests for Jobs
Keirsey – Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test identifies four basic temperaments among humans: Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational. These temperaments exist in a matrix of action and communication, with each temperament falling in a different quadrant of the matrix. Keirsey’s four temperaments can be further divided into 16 subtypes, often called “Character Types” or “Personality Types”, based on the Myers-Briggs model. Keirsey’s assessment is available in numerous languages and consists of paired statements that ask you to choose the one more appropriate to you.
At the end of the assessment, you’ll need to enter your email to receive your temperament. From there, you can purchase more detailed reports or do your own research about that temperament.
- Time to complete: 10 to 15 minutes
- Career coaches available? Yes
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The site has extensive information about each of the four temperaments, and you have the option to purchase detailed, targeted information about your temperament.
16 Personalities – NERIS Type Explorer®
16 Personalities’ NERIS Type Explorer® utilizes the Myers-Briggs four-letter typology to sort you into one of 16 personality types: architect, logician, commander, debater, advocate, mediator, protagonist, campaigner, logistician, defender, executive, consul, virtuoso, adventurer, entrepreneur, or entertainer. The test consists of statements that you evaluate using a scale of “agree” at one end and “disagree” at the other.
Your results are comprehensive and include sections on strengths and weaknesses, romantic relationships, friendships, parenthood, career paths, and workplace habits. You can also upgrade to a premium version to read even further about your personality type and take additional, more specialized assessments. The site contains a range of free, in-depth resources to explore.
- Time to complete: 10 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The site is user-friendly and the assessment provides a results report that is both in-depth and wide-ranging.
Advice from an Expert
Dana Marvin
College Counselor, LinkedIn
1. What advice would you give a student who is unsure of their career path?
While it may seem like everyone else your age knows exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, chances are they’re still questioning it too. You probably have a few ideas that are already interesting, and you should start there.
Also, know that it is equally as useful to know what you don’t want to do as a career. Sometimes the easiest place to start is by crossing off the things you don’t like before narrowing down something you might enjoy doing. Not a fan of blood? Maybe medical careers aren’t the best fit for you. Is your parent an accountant, and the explanation of the job sounds boring to you? Again, maybe not a good fit. Eventually, you start narrowing down your options.
Lastly, don’t stress too much about it. Most students feel like they need to have their entire lives planned by 18, but the reality is many students change their mind throughout their college careers and beyond. Not having it all figured out is not only ok, but it’s completely normal. Spend time exploring different majors and classes, attending events, and asking questions about things that spark your interest.
2. What career aptitude test do you recommend?
My go-to site for accurate data and easy-to-use career aptitude tests is Career One Stop. This website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, so the data concerning each career listed on the site correlates with data collected by the department every year. Their self assessments are straightforward and can be taken in a matter of minutes, versus other resources that can be tedious to complete. In my opinion, the best part is that the site connects students with the relevant data many students need when evaluating careers — how many jobs will be available to me? What type of education do I need in order to be prepared for this job? And, most importantly, how much money will I be making? It’s also completely free.
3. Any other advice to students?
The best thing a student can do for themselves is to open themselves up to the career exploration process and try out lots of new things — eventually something is going to click. I think it’s also important to remember that it’s not a permanent decision, and you’re allowed to change your mind later.
What is a Career Aptitude Test?
A career aptitude test is a series of questions that’s designed to help you determine which occupations are the best fit for your particular personality and skill set. They often use models such as the Holland Codes and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to assess your strengths, weaknesses, psychological preferences, etc.
These tests can be an especially helpful tool for students who haven’t yet decided which career path they will choose. Many careers require a degree — when you take all the expenses of postsecondary education into account, including tuition, fees, books, and potentially room and board if you plan to live on campus, the total cost of your degree could be well over six figures. You’ll need to dedicate countless hours to attending class and studying in order to obtain your degree as well. Taking a career aptitude test may help ensure that you choose an occupation you’re compatible with before you commit all of this time and money to a particular degree.
What Can a Personality Test Tell You?
Personality tests can tell you about how you perceive the world, make decisions, and relate to others. For example, the popular Myers–Briggs personality test determines how you fit into four different personality categories: introversion/extraversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving (this is based on the Carl Jung book Psychological Types).
The value of these tests is that they can help you better understand yourself, which will then help you make more informed decisions about your future. It can take a lot of money, time, and effort to advance your career, especially if your chosen occupation requires a college education. While you could always change careers at some point down the road, ideally you’ll make the right choice on the first try. The insight that’s provided by personality tests may help you avoid the need for a career change and all of the sunk costs that are associated with such a transition.
Should You Pay for a Career Assessment Test?
As mentioned above, we generally recommend against paying for a career assessment test. With all of the high-quality assessments that are available online, there’s no need to pay for one of these tests — in terms of advancing your career, you can get plenty of value from any of the free assessments that are featured in this guide. But if you’d like to learn more about your personality just to satisfy your own curiosity, then paid options such as the premium versions of Truity’s Career Personality Profiler or the Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test might be worth the cost.
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