I didn’t think this was possible.
Rasmussen are a career-focussed college. Their customers have often reached a stage in their career where they feel a little stuck, and they decide they want to do more.
So they go back to college to improve their options.
They don’t necessarily know what they want to do, but they know they want to do something else. And Rasmussen want to provide a service – and content – to help.
With this in mind, one of my colleagues asked if we could make a career aptitude test.
I was doubtful.
Other than copy someone’s intellectual property, or create a dubious Buzzfeed-esque quiz, what could we feasibly do?
But, rather than just saying ‘no’, I asked our data journalist to do a little exploring.
And he came back with a bit of a gem.
He found a pdf buried in the archives of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It contained lots of tables like this:
The tables considered 7 different personal skills – artistic, communication, interpersonal, managerial, mathematics, mechanical, and science.
They used the following key to indicate the level of each skill required for different jobs:
So what do we have here?
You can look up any job you like, and it tells you the level of skill required.
But what if we did the reverse?
You tell us your level of skill, and we’ll give you the jobs that match.
So that’s what we did.
You start by assessing your skills on a scale from none to high:
You’re then presented with the jobs that match your skills:
You can also filter jobs by average salary, predicted job growth, and education required:
The results are then updated accordingly:
And you can click on each job to find out more:
As a final action, Rasmussen want prospective students to download their career guides. So based on the jobs you’re matched with, the tool suggests the most relevant guide to download:
As with all aptitude tests, the tool isn’t perfect. It can’t possibly take into consideration all the different factors that makes a career right for you. But it does give you options. And when you’re feeling a bit stuck, and you don’t know what you want, that can be just what you need. To get you moving. To get you thinking. To get you exploring.
Also, when people are presented with a list of possible jobs, they know fairly instinctively which ones appeal. Knowing these jobs could be a good match, it might give you all the encouragement you need to explore your options further.
Pleasingly, a lot of people said they found the results surprisingly accurate:
- Featured in CBS News, TIME, Business Insider, the BBC, Refinery29, and Lifehacker
- Linked to by 118 sites
- 897,000 visits
- Continues to receive 30,000 – 45,000 visits every month
- Personally responsible for concept development and creative direction