Maricopa Community Colleges

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Career Exploration

Interest Assessments

Why use interest assessments? Often we are not sure of the direction of our career. We may have many interests and can not decide between them, or we may have none that we are aware of and need help identifying them. In either case, using the interest assessment will help identify and narrow career choices. People who work in a career they find interesting or are passionate about, are more likely to be successful. This is a benefit to both employee and employer since it is costly to change jobs in both seniority and training time.

For more information about the various Interest Assessments contact MCCD individual college Career Centers and/or Counseling Services.

The following are good interest assessment sites. Follow the directions on each site.

• http://www.azcis.intocareers.org (User Name: gatewaycc) (password: 4azcis02) AZ Department of Education website with comprehensive assessment and information. There is no cost to users. This is a program that can be saved and accessed multiple times. Step:
  1. Access the website and input the user name and password provide.
  2. On the right hand of the page under Welcome, click on Create “My Education Career Action Plan”
  3. Click on New User
  4. Complete the information and select a new user name and password.
  5. The Welcome will be personalized
  6. Click on IDEAS on the left side under Assessments.
• http://www.careerkey.org/english/ (Career Investigation Resource, this is a great website but does have a cost for each segment)

Helpful Websites

Additional web-sites that may assist in the career investigation are:

• http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/intro/wciyp.shtml   (this site is based on the book, “What Color is Your Parachute” by Richard Bolles and is a great resource for all job seeking issues)
• http://www.bls.gov/oco (Occupational Outlook Handbook, details of jobs including training required, wages to expect and outlook for future employment in the field)
• http://humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm    (70 question Myers-Briggs personality assessment)

Identify and Assess Skill

Once a career has been identified, skills assessment should be conducted to ensure the minimum qualification have been met. (This is also a way to begin the process of building a resume).

• Worksheet (pdf) - Print out this worksheet and fill in the blanks to help organize information.
• Identifying Your Skills - Most people have a difficult time pinpointing exactly what their skills, interests and abilities are. Using the tips on this link will help identify these qualities.
• Personal Qualities Checklist - The sections in this link can be printed and used as a guide to completing a resume and/or the Maricopa County Community College District application.
• Accomplishments (pdf) - This document is another way for you to identify skills, interests and achievements.