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Leo Soloman

Career psychometric tests can lead you to the right career for you

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A good independent careers advisor will tell you that there are a number of important factors to consider when you come to choose the right career and a fully qualified career change advisor will understand the value of using psychometric tests to unearth your real talents.

The first factor to consider is to find a career that you are really interested in or passionate about. If you can do that you are much more likely to enjoy your career and succeed at it.

Next is to find a career that suits your personality – something that presses the right buttons in your heart and provides the perfect environment for you to be working in.

Then, you want a career that is in line with your values and beliefs. Some people want to work in a career that supports the cause they believe in – others need to avoid certain careers that would be against their principles.

But perhaps the most important factor of all is that you need to play to your strengths. You need to know what your strengths and weaknesses are so that you can harness them to realise the real potential in your ideal career. This is where career aptitude tests come in.

Career aptitude tests are cleverly designed to unearth your abilities. You can imagine that certain career paths prize certain abilities. If numbers are not a strength, don’t aspire to be an accountant. If your verbal reasoning is not good, don’t try to become a lawyer. If your spatial visualisation isn’t good, don’t aim for architecture.

If you are looking for career change advice in London, you should try Career Analysts. They are a firm of career change advisors, who conduct career aptitude tests as well as all the other psychometric tests listed above.

The psychometric tests are completed by you at home first. They will take you about 5 hours to complete as there are hundreds of questions. Additionally, they will ask you for lots of information about your background, education, what work you have done so far, if any, and some other personal information.

Once you have completed all the psychometrics and the career aptitude tests, you will meet one of their Occupational Psychologists face-to-face, one-on-one, and she will show you the results of the psychometric tests and explain what they mean to you. She will also have done her research into suitable careers for you so that you can discuss those options directly with her, aiming to help you decide what career path is right for you for the next (or first) stage of your career.

The results of the psychometric tests are shown in the form of graphs.

For example, the personality graph is a bipolar graph. One characteristic measuring your self-discipline shows ‘tolerates disorder, unexacting, flexible’ at one end of the spectrum. The other extreme shows as ‘perfectionist, organised, self-disciplined’. Different personality traits – each with opposites – are measured in this way.

The values graph measures your preferences for Aesthetic, Social, Material, Influence, Rational, and Beliefs as forces that motivate you.

The career aptitude tests measure numerical, verbal and perceptual reasoning, logic, mechanical understanding and spatial visualisation. It is not your overall level of success in these tests that is important but which of them you are better at than the others.

The interest questionnaire measures your preferences for six major categories of career and each one of these is further subdivided into five more specific groups.

In the consultation, you will discuss career paths that the Occupational Psychologist believes may be suitable and practical for you, based on the results of the psychometric tests. As you talk them through, you will be able to eliminate those that don’t appeal to you or are not suitable for whatever reason, until you are left with a very small number of career options that you can investigate further and make a final career decision.

The aim of their programme is to narrow down your career options and arm you with sufficient knowledge to confidently make the right career decision. Many people keep their personal career report for a lifetime so that it becomes a point of reference for years to come.

Mature Students first need to decide what career is right for them

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The Ucas website has a dedicated section for mature students. There are many reasons for mature students studying, but most define their objectives as either to improve their career prospects or because they are passionately interested in a subject. If it is to improve career prospects, then you must ensure that you know which career is right for you. To do that, get professional careers advice using psychometric tests.

Most universities and higher education institutions are interested in widening participation and that means encouraging more mature students.

Statistically, mature students are more likely to knuckle down and enjoy their subjects because they are, by definition, mature and more responsible, and studying by choice rather than because it is expected of them. Many have worked previously and understand the frustrations stemming from dead end jobs due to lack of formal educational qualifications. A complete change of career is now the best option for them.

Ucas offers guidance about choosing careers and courses. Once you have selected the right career, choosing the right course becomes obvious. A good place to start is your local library. The Open University prospectus offers advice about every subject. Ucas also covers the entry routes offered to students and a lack of qualifications does not necessarily disbar you.

Degrees have changed over the years, and it is possible to combine very diverse subjects to attain an open degree, rather than being confined to a core subject. However, before embarking on this type of degree, it is important that you have careers advice to ensure that you are not limiting your future career choices.

Additional information is often available from universities and colleges directly. Widening participation is a key goal and institutions try to support a wide range of students through their own advice centres and student unions.

Top universities were often perceived to be those high in league tables. But if you study these tables, it becomes obvious that different league tables rate universities using different criteria. In other words, they give a different weighting to different aspects of university life. Some universities have an impressive teaching reputation whilst others value research. Some are rated particularly highly for certain disciplines. Some may afford a higher standard of university accommodation, whilst others may have excellent sports facilities. Location is a factor to consider too. Only by thoroughly researching the tables can you identify which is best for you.

One of the benefits of being a more mature student is that you may be clearer about what is important in your life, enabling you to identify your top choice university, and a path of study leading to a fulfilling career or personal development goal.

Careers Advice for those in their 20’s

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Your twenties are an ideal time to get great careers advice. You are not as naïve as your teenage years, but you’ve still got the majority of your life ahead of you.

Seeing a good careers advisor in your twenties will give you the careers advice you need to find the right career for you.

If you’re unsure about the career you’re already in, there are some questions that need to be answered. Have you picked the right career path? How does it match your goals, your skills and your qualifications? Is there any further training or education you can do that will help you to progress on to your perfect career, or will a lack of them restrain you as others advance up the career ladder?

Our programme of careers advice for those in their 20’s will take stock of what has happened to you so far, review your progress to date and create a clear career plan for your future. For the next decades of your working life, you need to know you’re on the best career path for you.

The aim of the career advice for 20’s programme is to deliver life-changing careers advice to help you choose the right career for you. We will assess your career options, appraise your development so far, evaluate your situation as it stands and then formulate a realistic strategy for the next stage of your career.

The programme starts with a suite of psychometric tests and is then followed by a face-to-face discussion with an experienced and qualified Occupational Psychologist. At this time, any difficulties or misgivings need to be seriously analysed and rectified so that you can pave the way for solid foundations for your future career.

The end product of our careers advice for 20’s programme is that you will find renewed self-confidence and the resolve that comes with understanding where and who you are. You can then look forward to a new career with your own unique career plan.

Top Tips for Writing a Great CV

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If you’re looking for your dream job, a career change or a return to work after a break, you need to get your CV in shape. Recruiting companies and managers don’t go through every CV in detail, so what can you do to make your CV stand out, and make their job a lot easier?

Here are some top tips to help you write a good CV

Keep It Simple

First things first, make your CV clear and easy to read, and keep to the facts. Don’t add in extra information that isn’t relevant. Adding information about your marital status, race, or a photo might seem useful but it could be seen as discriminatory so it’s best to leave them out.

Keep It Clear

Now is not the time to show any possible employers how many fonts you can put into your CV. Use one, keep it in black, and keep extra titles and any other emphasis or format tricks to a minimum.

Keep It Relevant

Recruiters don’t have time to wade through your job history if it bears no relation to the job you are applying for. Obviously, you don’t want to have gaps in your CV, but keep it short and to the point if the experience isn’t relevant to the position you want.

Keep It Focused

Make sure that the information you provide points to how well you would suit the position. The skills you have acquired, your experience, the courses you have attended and your qualifications – if they aren’t providing valuable evidence towards the role you want, don’t include it.

Keep It In Context

You may know the ins and outs of your last job, but the recruiter doesn’t. Make sure that you explain briefly what your previous or current employers did or does, what your role involved and how you improved either your own skills or the results of your team.

Keep It Quantifiable

Adding in numbers, figures and percentages can make it very easy for managers skimming through CVs to find out how great you are. To stand out, put down some clear achievements. 30% increase in this. 26% improvement in that.

Do you need careers advice for a change in career? Or help in marketing yourself to potential employers? Contact Career Analysts (https://careeranalyst.wpengine.com).

How psychometrics can help you choose the right career

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According to the City and Guilds Happiness index almost five million Brits suffer from ergophobia – a fear of work; that fact alone will not surprise many. However, the fact that some of the Britain’s leading bankers and lawyers are among them may come as a surprise.

There are some very important factors that make people happy in their career. They are:

  • Interests

If you can find a career in which you have an interest or passion, then you are far more likely to succeed and enjoy it.

  • Aptitudes

Your aptitudes are your strong points. To utilise them effectively and harness them to further your career you need to be aware of your relative strengths and weaknesses.

  • Personality

What is the right environment for you to work in? What is the right kind of role for you? What factors will press the buttons to motivate you in the morning and make you bounce out of bed and love your work.

  • Values

Not everyone has the same sets of values; some people believe in a commitment to society, whilst others are simply motivated to earn money. Others will have a set of beliefs which would prevent them working in certain industries.

Career Analysts measure these factors using psychometric questionnaires. They are all online and can be completed at home in your own time. They are however in some depth requiring around 5 hours to complete. This may seem a long time, but we need to go into this much depth to dig quite deeply into you, so that we can then match you up with the best career for you.

Once completed, the psychometrics are followed by a one-on-one consultation with one of our Occupational Psychologists. By that time, he or she will have seen the results of the questionnaires in the form of graphs.

The personality graph is a bipolar graph. One aspect, for instance tension, would be demonstrated at one end of the spectrum as relaxed, placid and patient whereas tense, high energy, impatient and driven would be at the opposite extreme. We measure 16 different personality traits each with opposites – where would you fall in each one?

The values graph measures ones’ preferences for Rational, Material, Aesthetic, Social, Influence and Beliefs as motivating forces.

The aptitude tests measure verbal reasoning, numerical, perceptual, spatial and mechanical, logic and attention to detail. It is not the level of success in this test which is important but which of them you are relatively strong at.

The interest inventory measures your preferences for six major categories of career and each of these are further subdivided into five more specific groups.

In the afternoon consultation we will make a series of suggestions for careers that we believe are suitable and practical for you and talk them through with you one by one. As we go through, we will eliminate those that do not appeal until we are left with a very small number of suitable and practical career options that you can investigate further and make a decision.

The aim of the programme is to arm you with sufficient knowledge to confidently make that decision now and your personal report will remain a point of reference for you to refer back to in years to come.

Do you need a career change due to circumstances beyond your control?

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Maybe you’re facing a career change because of redundancy, illness or new family commitments. Perhaps you’ve reached the end of a career in the armed forces or sport? Whatever the reason, changing career or finding a new career can be daunting.

Do you know what career is right for you for the next stage of your career? Which career will fit in with your lifestyle? What are you good at? There are many different things to consider, so let’s look at the steps you need to think about before you start.

Understand yourself better

Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know what sort of person you are and how this relates to success and happiness in your new career? If you are unsure, try using psychometrics to get the answers. If you understand where your skills lie, and what sort of person you are before approaching the job market, you can be more confident in achieving the career change that suits you. Professional careers advice is always a good option. Take a look here: www.careeranalysts.co.uk

Know your market

Research your chosen industry or the type of new career you would like. Find out where people are hiring. Networking can yield good results in your career search. Targeting businesses directly is often a good option. Sometimes, offering to work for free for a while works – you can find out more about the job and industry and build up useful contacts!

Update your CV

It may have been a while, but don’t be disheartened by the gaps in your CV. Think about the skills you have gained while out of work, any volunteering or work experience you have done and insert that into your CV, so any potential employers know what you have been up to.

Network Offline and Online

Word of mouth has always been a great way to find out about job opportunities, so get out there and talk to people. Don’t forget social networking too – a profile on LinkedIn and some interaction with groups and online communities will help you get back into ‘work mode’ and learn from others in your industry.

Research and Prepare

When it comes to the covering letter and interview, it will help your confidence to know as much as you can about the company that you are applying to, the job and the sector. Has anything changed since you were last in work? You will look professional, feel confident and be able to answer questions easily if you know as much as you can.

Explosion in self-employment masking the decline of traditional jobs

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Traditional jobs in which an employee is paid by a company are declining all over the country. However, the real effect of this is being masked by the rise in self-employment.

Research shows that the total number of employed jobs fell in 10 of 12 British regions between 2015 and 2021. The number of employee jobs in the eastern and south-eastern regions remained virtually static, while only in London were jobs created by employers.

However over 400,000 people around the UK classified themselves as self-employed. These newly created self-employed jobs were sufficient to offset the loss of employed jobs. This has contributed to an increase in the number of individuals in work over the 2015 baseline.

Other research has shown that the weekly wages of the self-employed has decreased as opposed to those in paid jobs. Weekly wages for employees have increased 6% since 2016, whereas self-employed pay has decreased by 8% in the same period. Typically, self-employed people are now being paid 30% less than the average employee.

Although the move into self-employment can be for personal reasons, some say that a lack of alternatives is the reason. Also, there is worrying analysis that this move is increasing financial pressure on homes across the UK. 

The economist and former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, David Blanchflower says “Self-employment is often a last resort of the desperate. Such workers operate under considerable strain, worried about where their income is coming from, and are sometimes forced to finance themselves by borrowing against their home, exposing their families to the same financial uncertainty that attaches to their job.”

Ways to Turn Your Internship into a Full-Time Job

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One question we often hear is: how do you ensure that you convert your internship into a full-time career.

Many companies wanting to hire a graduate begin by offering candidates a short 3- or 6-month internship before deciding whether or not to recruit them full time.

So, how do you make sure you get your ideal career:

Be Impressive

Often, the best course of action is the obvious one. First and foremost, the way to ensure your new boss takes you on and keep you is to be the best applicant.

It sounds obvious, but you have to be punctual. For the initial trial period, always try to start work at least ten minutes early, and stay a bit later than you need to each day. Be keen to learn and work hard. If you’re asked to do tasks that seem menial, do them with as much enthusiasm as you can find. Sometimes it is a test of your attitude.

Establish goals and meet them!

Get specific goals for your internship – and achieve them. Have a quiet chat with your boss now and again. Is there anything else you can do? Ask for more responsibilities. This shows that you are efficient in doing what has already been asked of you, and that you are keen to work hard and take on more.

You also need to remember that your internship is an opportunity to learn as much as possible. Even if it doesn’t end up becoming a full-time job, it’s a great opportunity to learn about the job as well as how organisations work. Learn from your supervisor, how are you performing? This will draw their attention to you.

In addition, establish personal goals at the start of your internship. What do YOU want to learn from the experience? This can include mastering technical skills, refining personal soft skills or establishing a list of contacts. Most importantly, impress your new employers with your work-rate.

Add Value to the company

The company will expect you to learn, but graduate jobs are also about adding value to the business. This doesn’t just mean showing enthusiasm and focus. Sometimes you should take the initiative too. Without being too pushy, when appropriate, pitch ideas to your supervisor. Ask if there’s anything more you can take on as soon as you’ve completed your task. Be prepared with an answer when you’re asked your opinion on business decisions. The last point is crucial, as it’ll illustrate that you’ve really thought about, and understand, the business. This shows your dedication to the organisation.

Become Indispensable

By taking the initiative and taking on additional duties, you can gradually become indispensable to your potential employer. Recruiters are looking for three things in candidates.

1. That you want the job.

2. That you can do the job.

3. That you’ll fit in with their organisation.

If you’ve already shown that you tick these boxes, why would they incur time and costs recruiting someone else? It doesn’t make sense financially to take someone else on when they’ve already invested in training you.

Make use of any specialist skills you have. If you’re fluent in a second language, think about areas of foreign client management or foreign marketing where you could help. If you have some knowledge of social media, computer design skills, or experience running a blog, make sure your supervisor knows. When your internship is up, they may realise that you’ve become a very useful addition to the company.

Essentially, it’s simple: what can I do to make sure I’ll be missed?

Be a Social Butterfly

While you’re there, join in with the social side of the organisation. Attend company networking events. Use lunchtimes to chat to other employees and get them on your side.

As you approach the end of your internship, if some influential voices within the company are saying how much of an impact you’ve made, it will help your cause. Go the extra mile outside of work as well as inside it.

Tell Them How You Feel

When it’s coming towards the end of your internship, let people know how much you’ve enjoyed your time there. It shows you care about wanting to stay. Make sure they know you really want the job! It’s no 1 on the list of things they are looking for. It’s evidence of loyalty.

Stay in Touch

Sometimes, factors beyond your control things mean things don’t work out. Maybe the budget isn’t there for a full-time position. Or they don’t think there is enough workload for you at this time. If this is the case, stay in touch with them. Use the contacts you’ve built up. Call every now and again to remind them you are still really interested. When a position comes up, you’ll be the first person they’ll call.

Professional careers advice with psychometrics helps to plan a career change

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At this time of year, many people are thinking of changing career. However, it’s very easy to make the wrong career choice and at this stage of your life mistakes can be time-consuming and costly. Good, professional careers advice is strongly advised in order to avoid falling into the trap of drifting into an unsuitable career path.

Potentially the career pitfalls are destructive. A lot of boxes need to be ticked in order to make the best career change for you. Let’s look first at practicalities. If you are making a career change, then it is assumed that you have already had a career in the past, so you need to look carefully at why you want to make that career change.

Is it that you have become disinterested in the career that you were doing? Is there a ceiling you can’t break through? Have you fallen out of love with the organisation? Careers advice based on psychology and psychometric testing will help you untangle these issues.

Or is it more to do with your personal circumstances? Do you want to spend more time with family? Do you have another career in mind or a hobby or project you want to indulge? Maybe you want to travel and see more of the world or maybe you feel you want to give something back to the world and offer yourself more selflessly. Getting serious career advice from an occupational psychologist will do much more than help you pick through these considerations.

There are a lot of other factors to consider and that is where psychometric tests come in. If you are going to make a career change at this stage, you might as well do the job properly. Time is running out to re-address this issue in another couple of years, so you should aim to get it right this time.

Getting good career advice can help you identify important aspects other than practicalities. Have you considered how much your own personality impacts your career choice? Or your values and beliefs – maybe they’ve changed over the years? Or your interests. How motivated are you to succeed? How driven are you. Did you know that these personal factors can actually be measured and quantified using psychometric tests?

You must be careful here because only fully qualified occupational psychologists are able to interpret the results of these psychometric tests and give proper careers advice based on the results. So, doing an online career test with a computer-generated report will not suffice. The real psychometric tests take up to five hours to complete so don’t take the short cut.

Once you have completed the questionnaires, the occupational psychologist will study the results and draw some preliminary conclusions about what careers advice would be most appropriate for you. After that, you can sit down together, discuss those career options and formulate a career plan for the next stage of your life.

Good luck.

Find the right career for you with career guidance counsellors in London

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Career Analysts is a firm of professional careers advisors helping you to decide what is the best career for YOU.

You may be

  • A teenager making A level or degree choices with a view to choosing the right career in the longer term
  • In your twenties – you’ve completed your education but are still unsure what to do OR you’ve started along one career path, but realised it wasn’t really what you expected
  • Mature – you’ve been in a career for some time – perhaps being successful in it – but your values or circumstances have altered and now you want a career change.

Whatever your circumstances, Career Analysts can help you make the right career choice.

As a firm of Occupational Psychologists, Career Analysts has a tried and tested method to help people make these important career decisions. Each of our career consultants has a minimum of 2 degrees. In one, they learn about what careers there are and what the requirements are for those careers. In the other, they learn how to interpret the results of the psychometric tests we conduct.

So, on the one hand they know about all the careers there are. If they can find out about YOU…

  • what are you interested in?
  • what are you good at?
  • What would suit your personality?
  • What is in line with your values and beliefs?
  • What is practical for you?

…then they can match you up with the best career for YOU – either for your initial career choice or a career change later in life.

The career tests themselves are in real depth – they take about 5 hours to complete in total, although they don’t all need to be done in one session. Once completed, the results are studied by the career guidance counsellor, who will use them to research possible career options for you.

Then for the important part – the meeting between you and the Occupational Psychologist! In this you will discuss a range of possible career choices, looking at the pro’s and con’s of each, before narrowing down the options and deciding on the ideal career for you.

The meeting is followed up by a written report – not computer-generated but written by the careers advisor. This spells out the results, what they mean for you and what our recommendations are for you going forward. Many keep this report for a lifetime.

This scientific approach takes all the guesswork out of your career choice. It’s a real eye opener. An opportunity not just to change your career but to change your life!

If you are looking for career guidance counsellors London, contact Career Analysts now on 0800 999 7778 or send an email to Leo Soloman- ls@careeranalysts.co.uk.