Imagine this scenario: You go online, answer a handful of questions, and then *poof* a website tells you your perfect job. These websites and career assessments do exist. There are even specific PhD career assessments!
Assessments geared toward PhDs include Imagine PhD (designed for humanities and social science PhDs), myIDP (especially for lab-based scientists), and even more specialized ones such as ChemIDP.
Tools like these can give you a place to start researching job options, especially if you’re really stuck. They can also provide you with some new insights about your skills and interests. And that’s helpful. Very helpful, even! 😄
But there’s also downside to PhD career assessments.
Years ago I remember doing one of these sorts of things and lo and behold, the test said I should work as a university professor or a high school teacher or school counsellor. 🤔
And, like, that wasn’t necessarily wrong, but it didn’t do me any good! There were no academic jobs (and I didn’t even think I wanted one), I don’t have a teaching credential, I wasn’t going to do another degree.
On a good day I could appreciate what the results did say about me and ignore the specific suggestions. On a day when I was stressed about my professional future? Ugh. Thanks for nothing, test!
Helpful takeaways might include that I liked learning and teaching, that I was interested in people, liked solving problems, was a good listener, and that, yes, I did have an advanced degree. I mean, not the most thrilling insights ever, but also not wrong.
Perhaps more usefully, these insights are expressly not about my specific area of research or scholarship. It is a good thing to get away from focusing so much on that when you’re exploring job options.
So, here’s my advice: Do an assessment. Do several! Have fun. But the second you feel frustrated (or even outright enraged), take a breath and move on. 😮💨
No test can tell you what job is right for you. They’re no substitute for good old fashioned self-reflection and career research.