What Career is Right for Me?
Two in three unemployed Americans seriously considered changing careers or transitioning into a new industry, a 2021 Pew Research Center survey found. Whether you're one of these career-switchers or you're entering the workforce for the first time, training for a fulfilling career means investing time and money. You need to know that effort's worth it.
Knowing whether a career is right for you starts by knowing yourself — your interests, personality traits, likes, and dislikes. You can discover these characteristics by taking the Lantern Career Interests Quiz.
It's free, and the results are two-fold:
- It identifies your key personality traits and how those traits combine to make you unique.
- It compares your interests to the qualities associated with over 200 careers.
Whenever you search for a career in Lantern, you can also see a personalized CareerMatch score — a rating of how well that job lines up to your quiz results. From there, you can browse careers, filtering and ranking them by your individualized CareerMatch score, target salary, and education level.
Even if you're not sure what you want to do, you know you. Take the free career quiz at MyLantern.com to find your top job matches.
Want to learn more about the quiz? We answered your questions about how Lantern calculates your results and makes a CareerMatch below.
Lantern Career Quiz FAQs
How long does the career quiz take?
Most people finish the career quiz in five to 10 minutes. You'll answer a total of 60 questions, but most won't take too long.
How are the career aptitude test results calculated?
MyLantern.com calculates your results using the RIASEC formula. Career researcher and counseling psychologist John Holland developed RIASEC, which stands for the following personality types:
- Realistic
- Investigative
- Artistic
- Social
- Enterprising
- Conventional
The career aptitude test works in two steps:
- It asks questions to uncover your unique combination of RIASEC personality traits.
- It searches professions stored in the Occupational Information Network's (O*Net OnLine) database to match your interests to an occupation.
How do I know my career quiz results are accurate?
To develop your CareerMatch score, Lantern uses national data from surveys of real people in nearly 1,000 occupations.
Your career quiz results will be accurate if you answer honestly. While taking the test, don't worry about the training you need to do the job -- just think about what you enjoy.
Can I retake the career test?
You can retake the career test as many times as you want for free. When you create an account, Lantern will store your quiz results based on the most recent time you took the test.
Finding the Career That's Right for You
Everyone approaches their worklife with different skills and backgrounds. Once you've taken the Lantern Career Interests Quiz, you'll have an idea of what jobs are a good fit for you based on your personality. Then, check out the resources below. Each one offers custom advice based on your specific experiences and career juncture.
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In your search, you might have questions about how much money you can make in a career or if there will be any job openings. We use several tools to monitor employment trends and salary data — and they're accessible to everyone.
Here are a few:
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook tracks employment data.
O*Net OnLine stores descriptions of jobs, including their regular activities and work environment.
CareerOneStop can help you find jobs and training programs in your area.
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