As career professionals, we know that it is very difficult to help our clients/students find employment when they don’t know what they want to do; or maybe what they do want does not have any openings in today’s labour market… I always wanted to be a telegraph operator! This is why Career Exploration is so important. While we can gather this information in an information-gathering interview, this takes a lot of time… time that can be better spent on other parts of the process to finding employment.
Using assessments for Career Exploration is a relatively quick and effective way to help your clients/students discover what they want to do. While there are many different assessments available, in different formats and at a wide range of price, The Career Exploration Inventory (CEI) and the related Career Exploration Inventory-EZ are amongst my favourites. I am a big believer in the self-discovery process that prompts you to uncover what you already know about yourself in an organized way. Clients/students tend to be empowered by the results, and have greater buy-in. In these two assessments individuals identify activities that they enjoy, or can see themselves enjoying. There are no tricks, or hang-ups, so it is important that they answer honestly to get the best results.
In the Career Exploration Inventory (CEI), individuals reflect on 128 activities and consider their past, present, and future interest in them. Scores connect to 16 career interest areas with related jobs, education and training options, and leisure activities listed for each interest area. This additional information helps give your clients/students a more well-rounded perspective as they focus on their top interest areas and consider their future plans.
The CEI-EZ is the perfect interest inventory if you work with individuals who need an easy-to-read format. Like the best-selling Career Exploration Inventory (CEI), the CEI-EZ guides your clients/students in exploring and planning three major areas of life—work, leisure activities, and learning. But the CEI-EZ has fewer items and five steps, making the benefits of the CEI more accessible.
Both career interest inventories have an action plan that helps your clients/students focus on their top interest areas and consider short- and long-range goals. The CEI and CEI-EZ are easy to read, self-scoring, self-interpreting, and backed are by strong validity. Administrator’s guides for career professionals are also available at no cost.
Click here to order the CEI, or click here to order the CEI-EZ. Want to try it before you buy it? We have a limited amount of review copies available. Give us a call at 905-760-0111 or 1-877-680-0200 to request yours.
Brad Whitehorn, BA is the Sales & Marketing Coordinator at Career/LifeSkills Resources Inc. He was thrown in to the career development field headfirst after completing a Communications degree in 2005, and hasn’t looked back! Since then, Brad has worked on the development, implementation and certification for various career and personality assessments (including Personality Dimensions®), making sure that Career Development Practitioners get the right tools to best serve their clients.