Career Assessments and Counseling
Career assessments are tools that are designed to help individuals understand how a variety of personal attributes (i.e., data values, preferences, motivations, aptitudes and skills), impact their potential success and satisfaction with different career options and work environments.
Career assessments have played a critical role in career development and the economy in the last century (Whiston and Rahardja 2005).
Assessments of some or all of these attributes are often used by individuals or organizations, such as
to help individuals make more informed career decisions.
Career Assessment Interview
a career assessment interview with a trained career counselor or a psychologist who is trained in career counseling can be crucial in helping to integrate tests results into the broader context of the individual's passions, personality, culture and goals.
NCDA
For those interested in this sort of more comprehensive help with their career search a good starting point can be to contact the National Career Development Association (NCDA). Within the United States, this national body awards the designation, "Master Career Counselor" (MCC) to specially qualified career counselors.
People who are unhappy in their work-life may be uncertain as to where to turn for help. They may have seen career counselors or career coaches or read self-help books and found that their difficulties did not yield to these interventions.
Individuals may be stymied in their careers not only because they lacked career development and job hunting skills but also because they were driven by unconscious factors outside of their awareness.
Psychoanalytically-Informed Career Assessment (also referred to as psychodynamic career assessment) developed in 2000 by Dr. Lynn Friedman, aims to understand the unconscious factors that create conflicts and identify ways to resolve these conflicts.