The #1 thing teens can do to get a solid start on the Fall back-to-school madness is to find some quiet time for self-assessment.

Whether you’re in high school or college, self-knowledge is a huge advantage to teens for school. Self-knowledge gives you confidence on your path and future, and makes school more relevant, important, and interesting!

While self-knowledge comes in several flavors, including aptitude and career assessment, this article talks about the kind of self-knowledge that you gain from investing time in career assessment.

The reason self-knowledge is so important is that the decisions you make in school make a huge difference in your future options and work-happiness. The earlier you start to know yourself from a career point-of-view, the better. I recommend that you start career assessment at 14 years old.

Career Assessment

Career assessment quizzes are interesting to teenagers because being a teenager is much about your identity.

Teenagers commonly ask these very good questions: Who am I? What kinds of careers are out there? What kinds of careers would be a good fit for me? The results of career quizzes provide beaucoup information about not only career ideas, but career ideas based upon your interests, your personality and your values!

You will be excited discovering the wide variety of careers you could love. Having realistic options reduces stress, and helps you move towards your future with confidence.

Quiz Options

The MYCOOLCAREER.com Web site has a variety of free online career assessment quizzes. Some are from colleges and universities who very much want their incoming freshmen to “get a grip” before starting school. TAKE THEM ALL! I also like the Self-Directed Search quiz; it costs only $8.95, and perhaps your parents will spring for it. It’s worth it.

Another fun way to look at careers is with: What Do I Get With A Major In...? major-to-career translation programs. Work with the ones that we have on the College page. Be sure to try them all, because they will each give you different answers, and you’ll end up with more options.

Some of the formal career assessment testing include the Myers-Briggs, the Strong Interest, and ASVAB assessments. Some schools have their own. Ask your school to administer any and all of these tests to you. Then sit down with your school counselors and make a plan for your curriculum. (If your school doesn’t offer these tests, see if there’s a local career counselor who can administer them for you.)

The Second Step, Exploration, is Equally Important

Self-knowledge is only valuable for your education and career if you explore your career ideas. Exploration will help you end up studying the right majors at college and heading towards careers you’ll actually enjoy. Exploration is a reality-check in which you’ll discover the (often big) disparity between what a career is really like and what you imagined it to be. This process saves you a lot of time, and helps you from being disappointed in your life choices.

Future “career-love” is possible for everyone, and so much more than your strengths and weaknesses. Now is the time to gain the self-knowledge and career-knowledge you need to get to a working life you’ll love.