Assessment in Career Counseling

Purposes of Assessment

• Identify clients' needs
• Help clients and counselors understand the self
• Measure progress or change

Career Assessment Inventories

• Career Beliefs Inventory (CBI) by Krumboltz (1991)
  • For persons over 13 years old
  • Designed to identify career beliefs that may be preventing them from reaching career goals
  • 25 scales organized under five categories: My Current Career Situation, What Seems Necessary for My Happiness, Factors That Influence My Decisions, Changes I am Willing to Make, and Effort I am Willing to Initiate
• Career Attitudes and Strategies Inventory (CASI) by Holland and Gottfredson (1994)
  • Self-scored instrument
  • Designed to identify attitudes, feelings, and obstacles that affect the careers of adults
  • Scales include Job Stability, Family Commitment, Risk-Taking Style, Geographical Barriers, Job Satisfaction, Work Involvement, Skill Development, Dominant Style, Career Worries, and Interpersonal Abuse
• Career Factors Inventory (CFI) by Chartrand et al. (1997)
  • For persons over 13 years old
  • Designed to identify difficulties in career-planning and decision-making processes
  • Scales include Need for Information, Need for Self-Knowledge, Career Choice Anxiety, and Generalized Indecisiveness
• Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) by Crites and Savickas (1995)
  • Designed to measure how ready a student is to make a career decision
  • For students in grades 6-12
• Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI) by Sampson et al. (1996)
  • Designed to identify irrational thoughts that may affect the career decision-making process
  • For use with students and clients from high school level through adulthood
• Career Decision Scale (CDS) by Osipow et al. (1997)
  • Designed to measure the reasons for career indecision and inability to make a vocational choice
  • For use with high school and college students
• Career Decision Profile (CDP) by Jones (1986)
  • Designed to measure level of decidedness about career choice, self-knowledge, and knowledge about occupations and training
• My Vocational Situation (MVS) by Holland et al. (1980)
  • Designed to measure the degree to which lack of vocational identity, lack of information or training, and barriers may affect a person's ability to make a career choice
  • For use with students in grade 9 through adult years

Interest Inventories

• Career Assessment Inventory (CAI) Enhanced Version by Johannson (2003)
  • Designed to measure interest in Holland's six personality types, 23 basic interest scales, and 111 occupations
  • Can be used with high school students, college students, and adults
• Career Occupational Preference Survey (COPS) by Knapp and Knapp (1995)
  • Provides job activity interest scores related to 14 different career clusters
  • Can be used with students in grades 7-12, college students, and adults
• Career Decision Making System—Revised (CDM-R) by O'Shea and Feller (2000)
  • Designed to measure interest in Holland's six personality types
  • Different versions allow use from grade 7 to adulthood
• Interest Determination, Exploration, and Assessment System (IDEAS) by Johansson (1993)
  • Two self-scored inventories—one for middle and high school students and one for adults
  • Measures interests in 16 areas
• Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS) by Jackson (2000)
  • Designed to measure interests on 34 basic interest scales
  • For use with high school students, college students, and adults
• Kuder Career Interests Assessment (KCIA) by Kuder, Inc. (2019)
  • Designed to measure interest in the six Holland work environments or the 16 National Career Clusters and pathways
  • For use with high school students, college students, and adults
• O*Net Interest Profiler by U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (1999)
  • Self-scored or web-based instrument
  • Designed to measure interests according to Holland's six personality types
  • For use with persons in middle school through adulthood
• Standard Self-Directed Search (SDS) by Holland and Messer (2017)
  • Designed to measure personality type and interest in six Holland occupational groups
  • Multiple forms for different age ranges, languages, and reading levels
  • Can be used with high school students, college students, military personnel, and adults
• The Strong Interest Inventory by Strong (2004)
  • Measures interests in eight different areas
  • Provides a Holland code, scores on 30 basic interest scales, five personal style themes, and similarity of examinee's profile to the profile of workers in 260 occupations
• Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT) by ACT (2007)
  • Measures interest in the six Holland types
  • Uses the Holland code to suggest career areas (occupations and college majors) on the World-of-Work Map for exploration

Skill Assessment

• SkillScan Advance Pack (2017)
  • Provides the opportunity for users to sort manually a large number of cards (which describe transferable skills) according to areas of competence, preference, and need for development
  • Identifies skills with a combination of high competence and preference
• WorkKeys by ACT (2015)
  • Measures skills in eight areas: applied Mathematics, Graphic Literacy, Workplace Documents, applied Technology, Business Writing, Workplace Observation, Fit (with interests and values), and Talent (work-related attitudes and behaviors)
• Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment (KSCA) by Kuder (2018)
  • Measures self-assessed skills that may be related to the six Holland occupational groups or the 16 National Career Clusters
  • Reports strength of skills on a seven-point continuum and suggests occupations and programs of study related to the user's score report
• Campbell Interest and Skill Survey (CISS) by Campbell (1992)
  • Measures interests and self-reported skills in seven areas that are roughly parallel to the Holland six types
  • Contains 25 basic scales and 60 occupational scales
• The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) by U.S. Department of Defense (2005)
  • Measures abilities in 10 content areas
  • Includes measurement of interests by Holland typology and personal preferences (values)
  • Designed for high school seniors, postsecondary students, and adults
• The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) by Myers and Briggs (2012)
  • Measures the psychological types described by Jung
  • Yields a four-letter code that can be related to typical profiles of groups of people who work in specific occupations
  • Results are expressed as an individual's preference along a continuum on scales titled Extraversion-Introversion, Sensing-Intuition, Thinking-Feeling, and Judging-Perceiving
• O*Net Work Importance Profiler by U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (2001)
  • Measures the importance of six work values—achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support, and working conditions