H o m e |
CAREER TESTING AND COUNSELING AVAILABLE by Sharon Biegen Bill Rolfes' article, "Mapping the future" (March 16), was helpful in drawing student's attention to the importance of career choice. Unfortunately, the column overlooked a wide array of very low cost career testing and counseling that is available to our students through UM-St. Louis Counseling Services. The tests that we offer (Strong Interest Inventory, SIGIPLUS, Campbell Interest and Skill Survey and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) will help students to clarify their career-related interests, values, personality characteristics and skills, and then match these with careers. All of these tests are backed by many years of careful, scholarly research. I am also concerned that students not interpret the article to mean that taking a career test is the most effective way to make a career choice. No one career test, no matter how good it is, will "tell" you which career is the best for you. Career counselors have found that the best results come from a comprehensive and developmental approach to career choice that may include testing, but also includes career counseling and information about careers. Career counseling is essential for customizing your career search plan. It helps you to choose the career tests and exploration exercises that best fit your unique needs, and shows where you are in your career development. The counselor can also help you to sort out the profusion of information that career testing sometimes yields. Once you have narrowed down your career possibilities, the counselor will teach you how to research specific careers, through such sources as Counseling Services' Career Resource Center. This process does not necessarily involve many counseling meetings, but does require you to get actively involved and make a commitment of some time and energy to find the career that's best for you. The pay-off will be many thousands of hours of your life spent doing something that is more likely to bring you satisfaction and success! |