Finding the Right Career Choice Test for You

Finding the Right Career Choice Test for You Finding the Right Career Choice Test for You Because career aptitude tests are designed to pinpoint your interests, a career test may feel similar to a personality test when you take it. The questions in each test measure not only your preferences, but also how likely you are to be capable within certain positions. Career tests also examine your work values and your various skill sets. Your natural abilities, once identified, can point you in the direction of very specific careers.Although each career aptitude test basically narrows down to the same information, there are a wide variety of test types. Some measure aptitude primarily, while other career tests focus more on career interest or how your personality fits with each job description. If your answers are honest, you should get the same types of results no matter which sort of career test you take. You may prefer, however, one method of questioning over another which can help to i nfluence which career choice test most appeals to you.CareerPathfound here offers a free career path test in which you select the statement which best applies to you out of twenty-four pairs of options. Some questions will ask you to select between two professions, and some statements involve personality traits. In bestellung to receive your results, they ask you to provide your name and address.At ColorQuiz you are able to take a very different kind of career aptitude test. You are asked to select from a group of colored tiles according to your preferences. At the end, you are given a list of criteria to help you in your career search. You are not asked to give any personal information to receive your results.The Jung Typology Test gives you results according to Carl Jungs research and the Myers Briggs personality inventory. This career test is a lengthy test, so give yourself plenty of time to answer all of the questions thoroughly.Be sure to check carefully before taking a career test online. While there are many free career choice tests available, some may require a fee.

For a genius brain, focus on how to think, instead of what to think

For a genius brain, focus on how to think, instead of what to thinkFor a genius brain, focus on how to think, instead of what to thinkHuman beings are creative by nature. Our capacity to generate creative ideas is central to technological and cultural progress.As humans, ur primal instinct is to seek, find, improve or create.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreOur capacity to learn, adapt and transform our environment is incredible.In Body of Work Finding the Thread that Ties Your Career TogetherPamela Slim writes, We are made to create. We feel useful when we create. We release our stuckness when we create. We reinvent our lives, tell new stories, and rebuild communities when we create. We reclaim our esteem, our muse, and our hope when we create.Creativity is complex and comes in all colors, shapes, and sizes.Its about producing something novel or original, figuring things out, so lving harte nusss, whether on paper, on stage, in a laboratory or even in the shower.What is common to the thinking style that produced Mona Lisa, and the one that came up with the theory of relativity?Whether you get fascinated by Edvard Munchs The Scream, Vincent van Goghs The Starry Night, or Pablo Picassos Young Ladies of Avignon, youll probably agree that they are all incredible pieces of species by some of the greatest minds of our time.Thinking patterns shape our minds. The right ones can change how you live and work.Recognizing the common thinking pattern of creative geniuses and applying their principles, rituals, and processes to your own work will improve how you think and work.Geniuses know how to think, instead of what tothinkInrecent researchabout creative brains, Roger Beaty, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Psychology and the first author of the study said, People who are more creative can simultaneously engage brain networks that dont typically work together.The researcher s wanted to know whether the brains of people who are consistently more creative would show different activation patterns than other brains.People who think more flexibly and come up with more creative ideas are better able to engage these networks that dont typically work together and bring these systems online, Beaty said in a statement.While the data showed that regions across the brain were involved in creative thought, Beaty said the evidence pointed to three subnetworksThe default modenetwork involved in memory and mental simulationThe salience networkwhich detects important informationTheexecutive control networkwhich plays key roles in creative thoughtIts the synchrony between these systems that seems to be important for creativity, Beaty said.The good news for people who feel they are bedrngnis naturally creative is that its not clear that learning to synch up our networks cant be done.Its not something where you have it or you dont, Beaty wrote.Creativity is complex, and w ere only scratching the surface here.Nancy Andreasen, neuroscientist and neuropsychiatrist studies the science of genius trying to understand the elements that make up the most creative minds.In one of her studies, which she wrote about for the Atlantic, Andreasen scanned the brains of 13 of the most famous scientists, mathematicians, artists, and writers alive today.In her findings, she distilled some key patterns in the minds of creative geniuses.Creativity, of course, cannot be distilled into a single mental process, and it cannot be captured in a snapshot nor can people produce a creative insight or thought on demand, she writes.They embrace the messymiddleCreative work takes time. Sometimes it can take years to perfect a piece of art, or build something unique.That requires patience.Creative geniuses often work on projects for a long time before they have insight into how to finally solve that problem.They enjoy the process. Its part of the discovery.Ideas can take time to ma ture.If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others read a lot and write a lot. Theres no way around these two things that Im aware of, no shortcut, says Stephen King.Most well known psychological theories including the Geneplore and the Darwinian theory involve two stagesDivergent generation of possibilities and exploration and finally the selective retention of the most promising ideas.Newton developed the concept of gravity ( when an apple fell on his head) around 1666.The truth is that by 1666, Newton had already spent many years teaching himself mathematics.In other words, Newtons formulation of the concept of gravity took more than 20 years and included multiple components preparation, incubation, inspiration a version of the Eureka experience and production,writesNancy Andreasen.Geniuses are autodidactsThink of all the geniuses of our time who were high school drop-outs Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, or Mark Zuckerberg.They were all self-learnersThey preferred figuring things out, rather than waiting to be taught.Autodidacts choose their subjects, materials, rhythm and time.They may or may not have formal education.That doesnt stop them from pursuing exactly what they want.Their personal study may be either a compliment or an alternative to formal education.Because their thinking is different, my subjects often express the idea that standard ways of learning and teaching are not always helpful and may even be distracting, and that they prefer to learn on their own, says Andreasen.Creative geniuses are intrinsically motivated toward self-learning to solve problems that fascinate them.They know how to be self-reliant if the system fails them or provide them with what they need to creatively solve a problem.They are good at making juxtapositions between dissimilar subjectsMany creative geniuses frequently follow a T-shaped model of learning they experts in one or two disciplines and have also mastered other complimentary skills that make it easier for them to adapt in any environment.They frequently make connections between things that are unrelated to their main research. They can force relationships where there is none.They make connections where ordinary minds see opposites.Leonardo da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water.This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves.Nikola Tesla forced a connection between the setting sun and a maschine that made the AC motor possible by having the motors magnetic field rotate inside the motor just as the sun (from our perspective) rotates.Unless you can make connections between what we know, information alone wont be useful.Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didnt really do it, they just saw something, says Steve Jobs.To truly create something amazing, or contribute to the world, you have to be able to connect countless d ots and cross-pollinate existing ideas from a wealth of unrelated disciplines.InThe Art of Scientific Investigation, Cambridge University professor W. I. B. Beveridge wrote that successful scientists have often been people with wide interests, which led to their originalityOriginality often consists in linking up ideas whose connection welches not previously suspected, he says.Geniuses are good at creating thought bridges, subconscious connections and unexpected integrations between (seemingly) unrelated ideas.Geniuses think productively, not reproductivelyAllow me to explain.We repeatedly reproduce what we are thought or what we learn when confronted with a problem or a task.In contrast, when confronted with a problem, a creative person will ask How many different ways can I look at it?, How can I rethink the way I see it?, and How many different ways can I solve it? instead of What have I been taught by someone else on how to solve this?They tend to come up with many different res ponses, some of which are unconventional and possibly unique.Leonardo da Vinci believed that to gain deep knowledge about a problem, you have to learn how to restructure it in many different ways.He felt the first way he looked at a problem was too biased toward his usual way of seeing things.When a Toyota executive asked employees to brainstorm ways to increase their productivity, he didnt get many answers.When he rephrased his request as ways to make their jobs easier, he could barely keep up with the number of suggestions.In order to creatively solve a problem, the thinker must abandon the initial obvious approach that stems from past experience and re-conceptualize the problem.By not settling with one perspective, geniuses do not merely solve existing problems, they figure out new problems we tend to ignore and find mind-blowing solutions.Geniuses are open-minded.Every problem no matter how apparently simple it may be comes with a long list of assumptions.Most of which could mak e your problem statement inadequate or even misguided.To create better, expose your assumptions- especially those that may seem the most obvious and untouchable.And start with a blank slate. You will be surprised at the solutions to will come up with if you stay open-minded.Geniuses are so good, we cant ignorethemCal Newport says Until you become good, you dont have leverage.Truly creative geniuses are always honing their crafts, looking to learn more, improve previous work, or give better performances.Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents, still the record.Bach wrote a cantata every week, even when he was sick or exhausted.Picasso made 50,000 works of art in his life. Mozart composed over 600 pieces in his lifetime.Charles Schulzmade 17,897 Charlie Brown strips before he died.Einstein is best known for his paper on relativity, but he published 248 other papers.In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Kean Simonton of the University of California, Davis found that the mos t respected produced not only great works but also more bad ones.Out of their massive quantity of work came quality.On average, creative geniuses arent qualitatively better in their fields than their peers, they simplyproduce a greater volume of workwhich gives them more variation and a higher chance of originality, says Prof. Dean Simonton, a psychologist whos spent many years studying creative productivity.Geniuses are so good, we cant ignore them.Closing thoughtsCreativity is necessary in our day-to-day lives and careers.Getting better at what you do comes down to identifying and attacking a problem so that you can move past it.Everyone is capable of thinking above first level common sense.You can train your brain to solve problems better, think different and make better connections every day.You may not be a Picasso, Rembrandt, or Leonardo, but you can always work to increase your own creative capacity.Genius thinking patterns are within your power- you just have to remember to approach things differently and embrace life-long learning.Then youll be unstoppableThis article first appeared on Medium.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

The Top 10 Employee Referral Software Solutions

The Top 10 Employee Referral Software Solutions The Top 10 Employee Referral Software Solutions Welcome to Top 10, Recruiter.coms weekly rundown of the bestof the best in recruiting Every Friday, we release a list of some of our favorite people, things, and ideas dominating the industry. From awesome tech tools and cool companies to great books and powerful trends, no stone in the recruiting space will be left unturned.This WeekTop 10 Employee Referral Software SolutionsReferrals are the best way to hire, hands down. Referred candidates take less time to hire (29 days as opposed to 39 for candidates hired through job posts and 55 days for candidates hired through career sites). They tend get up to speed more quickly than outside hires do, and theyre 13 percent more likely to stick around for the long term. Overall, referred candidates are also more productive and happier at work than their non-referred counterparts.But referrals dont just happen. You need to put an employee referra l program (ERP) in place and encourage your employees to participate which is a pretty major task in itself.Thats why so many employee referral software solutions have emerged over the years to help employers get their ERPs up and running smoothly.Today, were highlighting ten such employee referral platforms that we believe to be the cream of the crop1. JobviteWhen it comes to recruiting software in general, Jobvite is usually a good choice. If you need a platform to help you source, hire, onboard, etc., then Jobvite probably has the functionality youre looking for. One of the things Jobvite does especially well is employee referrals. In particular, we like the custom Facebook application that allows employees to send their connections private invitations to apply for open jobs.Sia Mohajer of Online Resume Builders was one of the many people who nominated Jobvite for our list. Heres what Mohajer had to say Jobvite allows employees to use their own social networks to make referrals. The biggest advantage of this is, as an employer, you dont need to spend time on job boards or searching through hundreds of generic resumes. Learn more.2. RolePointThe coolest thing about RolePoint is the platforms automatic role-matching feature, which aligns employees contacts with the roles theyre most suited for, thereby increasing the chances that any given referral will be a good match.RolePoint also has some seriously powerful predictive analytics capabilities that allow users to review and adjust their recruitment processes continuously which is absolutely necessary if you want to keep your ERP running effectively at all times.Learn more.3. ZaoZao expands your referral network and makes rewards administration a breeze at the same time. Rather than limiting participation to existing employees, Zao lets vendors, company alumni, and pretty much anyone else who comes across a job post distributed by your employees to get in on the fun. This builds a chain of referrers, so to speak, and everyone along the chain gets rewarded. So, if a friend of a friend of an employee is hired, the employee and the employees friend get rewardedThat sounds complicated, I know, but dont worry You dont have to keep track of the chains. Zao does it for you.Learn more.4. ReferagigAside from having one of the best personennames ever (go ahead, say it outloud its fun), Referagig also has the benefit of being totally browser-based. That means that no matter where you or your employees are, everyone can access Referagig as long as they have an Internet connection.Referagig also does an excellent job of keeping employees updated as their referrals move through the process, which helps keep engagement levels high. Employees wont feel like theyre throwing names into a black hole instead, theyll actually feel like theyre playing important roles in the companys success.Learn more.5. SimpplerSimppler also landed a spot on our list of the top staffing and recruiting startups, and it def initely deserves a repeat mention here. Data is the name of the game in HR and recruiting today, and Simppler has brought it to the employee referral game.Thanks to some nifty machine-learning algorithms, Simppler can zero in on the best connections for employees to refer for any given job. It takes almost all the effort out of your ERP Employees just make a few clicks, and Simppler takes care of the rest.Learn more.6. BoonIf you and your employees like gamification, then check out Boon. By collecting information about a number of variables, the platform gives employees Boon scores based on how many referrals they send in and how well those referrals do in the hiring process. If competition gets your team motivated, then Boon is the best way to get the referrals flowing.Learn more.7. ZalpZalp calls itself The Employee Referral Booster, which seems like an accurate title based on the customer testimonials and the companys claim that it can triple your number of referral hires.If your e the type to take a companys claims about itself with a grain of salt a reasonable thing to do then maybe this will carry some weight Zalp allows employers to implement micro reward strategies in which employees can be rewarded for every action they take to promote your jobs and bring in referrals. That sounds to us like a pretty good way to boost employee participation enough to triple your referral hires.Learn more.8. ReffindSo many app developers describe their products as Tinder for X these days that its become a bit of a joke. To its credit, Reffind doesnt actually call itself Tinder for employee referrals, but if it did, it would be justified in doing so.Basically, it works like this Employees open the app, and they see a series of open jobs at the organization. They swipe left on the ones they cant help you fill and right on the ones they can help you fill. When they swipe right, theyre taken to a screen where they can share the job with the relevant contacts.Reffind is si mple, intuitive, quick, and pretty damn nice to look at, too.Learn more.9. PerksWhen you think Perks, you may not think employee referral program. If anything, you probably think about, well, employee perks. But dont forget that one of the best ways to ensure your ERP gets buy-in from employees is to offer the right rewards. Thats why, despite what you might believe, Perks is a great company to mann an ihrer seite with if you want to build an awesome ERP that works. Not only does a Perks ERP give you access to the tools your employees need to make great referrals, but it also gives you access to the best collection of rewards. And Perks handles the rewards fulfillment, which means you can focus on the candidates coming your way.Learn more.10. EmployeeReferrals.comFirst of all, you have to give them credit for snagging that URL. That being said, EmployeeReferrals.com is more than just a great Web address its also a great employee referral software, thanks in part to how easy it is to use. Employees can make referrals in just three clicks, with the average referral taking about two minutes. Heck, employees dont even have to register or log in to use the app When referrals are such a breeze, more employees will participate in the program which means more referrals for you.Learn more.