Deciding on a career path can feel overwhelming. But taking a free online career test and personality assessment is a quick, yet insightful way to figure out where your interests lie and how they can translate into a fulfilling career. A career test or personality assessment is usually a short quiz that helps you determine what your interests, strengths, and goals are. From there, you get career recommendations tailored to your unique personality and interests.
The internet is full of these tests and assessments, so to save you time and energy, we researched dozens to find the most accurate and efficient options. We also spoke to independent college counselor Dana Marvin for her recommendations on the best free career aptitude tests and personality assessments.
How We Chose the Best Free Career Tests and Personality Assessments
Dana Marvin, a college counselor who has helped hundreds of students through the college application process, uses career aptitude tests with her students every year.
According to Marvin, the best types of career tests are those that provide results as career clusters, or groups of jobs that have similar skills and tasks involved. This way, students are exposed to career options they might not have been aware of otherwise.
“While a student might not love every job in a certain cluster, they might find a few that stand out to them,” Marvin says. “For example, let’s say they love music and have a passion for performing arts, but they aren’t quite sure if being a theater major is right for them. Searching through a list of careers in a career cluster like “Arts, Audio/Video and Communications’ allows them to explore dozens of careers in the entertainment and performing arts industry from disc jockeys to sound engineer technicians to camera operators.”
Marvin also reminds students and other users that while career aptitude tests and personality assessments can’t provide all the answers regarding an individual’s career path, saying, “These types of tests and assessments are great tools for learning more about yourself and potential careers, but they should only be used as guides.”
To help students find the best free career tests and personality assessments, we evaluated the options based on the following criteria:
Detailed and valid results
When reviewing career aptitude tests and personality assessments, we paid attention to what feedback the tests provided for free and what was kept behind a paywall. We only included tests and assessments that offered detailed, accurate, and easy-to-understand results for free to ensure that users could get valuable information without having to pay a fee.
Additional career resources
We also evaluated tests and assessments based on the additional resources and support they provide users. This includes more details about individual jobs or career clusters, recommendations for educational opportunities, and career coaching. Some of our picks include these additional resources for free, while others only offer them with a paid upgrade.
User experience
Sites were also evaluated on user experience factors, like how long it took to complete the assessment and whether the interface was user-friendly. Because we know that your time is valuable, we focused on tests that could be completed in 15 minutes or less, eliminating options like Career Explorer by Sokanu that took longer to finish.
Best Free Career Tests
123test – Career Aptitude Test
123test’s free Career Aptitude Test is based on the Holland Codes, a vocation choice theory that was developed by psychologist John L. Holland in the 1950s — this remains one of the most popular career counseling models to this day. Overall, there are six personality types in the Holland model:
- Realistic: Practical, concrete, hands-on.
- Investigative: Analytical, intellectual, scientific.
- Artistic: Creative, original, independent.
- Social: Cooperative, supportive, nurturing.
- Enterprising: Competitive, leadership, persuasive.
- Conventional: Detail-oriented, organized, clerical.
Rather than assigning you to one of these personality types, this test ranks how these traits apply to you from most to least dominant. This highly specific approach means that there are 720 possible results, and your particular combination can say a lot about what kind of career options would be a good fit. For example, if you have an ISRAEC personality with especially strong Investigative and Social traits, fields such as medicine and education would make sense for you.
This test contains 15 sets of four images that depict different occupations and work activities. For each set, you’ll need to select which option you like the most and which option you dislike the most. The test also asks which education level you want 123test to use for their job recommendations, allowing you to filter out occupations for which you don’t have the proper educational background.
- Time to complete: 5 to 10 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This test is particularly well-suited to visual thinkers because it relies primarily on images rather than text.
My Next Move – O*NET Interest Profiler
My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration and recommends occupations using Holland Code categories.
The profiler consists of 60 questions about work-related activities, and your task is to read each question carefully and decide how you would feel about doing that kind of work on a scale of “strongly dislike” to “strongly like.”
Once you’ve completed the O*NET Interest Profiler, you’ll be prompted to choose one of five Job Zones, which each require a different level of education and training. After selecting your desired Job Zone, the site determines your “best fit” career as well as several “great fit” careers.
If you’d like to learn more about any of these career options, you can click on the link to check out more details, such as the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are required. These individual career pages also contain additional details such as the personality types, technology, and educational profiles that are associated with a given industry.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: It combines your interests with your current or future level of job preparation to populate an individualized list of careers to explore.
Truity – Career Personality Profiler
Truity’s site offers several free career tests based on the Holland Code and Big Five systems. In addition to the Career Personality Profiler, Truity offers a TypeFinder® for Career Planning test, a Holland Code Career Test, and a Photo Career Quiz.
The Career Personality Profiler is the most comprehensive of Truity’s four tests. As with My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler, you read statements about job activities and select the degree to which you would like or dislike performing that work. You’ll also read statements about personality traits and indicate the degree to which they apply to you.
Once you finish the test, Truity will generate a variety of results that you can use to help plan your career. Unlike most of the assessments covered in this guide, Truity’s Career Personality Profiler isn’t entirely free — Your Work Style and some of the other results are provided at no cost, but you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version to access additional information such as How You Get Motivated and How You Interact with Others.
Another free feature of this test is the ability to review the top career options that match your personality profile. These listings include the average earnings and projected growth for each career option. It should be noted that all free results will be deleted after 14 days.
- Time to complete: 10 to 15 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The platform is user-friendly, the site offers multiple career tests, and the tests utilize a combination of methodologies and models.
Career Fitter – Career Test
Career Fitter’s free Career Test is one of the oldest and most widely used personality assessments: It’s been around since 1998, and someone in the world takes the test every three seconds. The test assesses four dimensions related to your personality at work: energy, perception, planning style, and decision style. Within these dimensions lie the characteristics of your work personality, and those characteristics help determine which careers you are best suited for. Also, one unique aspect of this test is that you can see your personality profile take shape while you are still making your way through all the questions.
Your free personality report includes information such as how much money you can earn in careers that match your personality, your leadership and management style, and potential weaknesses in your work personality. As with Truity’s Career Personality Profiler, Career Fitter’s Career Test also offers a premium version of your results with more information — in this case, the paid report includes 10 pages of feedback on your work personality, communication method, and even famous people similar to you.
Users should note that this is one of the longer test options in this guide, with a minimum completion time of about 10 minutes.
- Time to complete: 10 to 20 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This test has been around for 20 years and has collected data from millions of users. It’s widely used by respected companies, universities, and HR departments around the world.
The Princeton Review – Career Quiz
The Princeton Review’s Career Quiz consists of 24 sentence pairs, such as “I would rather be a clerical worker” and “I would rather be a carpenter”. Your task is to choose which sentence of the pair you prefer. The quiz is short and takes only a few minutes to complete.
You’ll need to register for a free account before you can view your results — most of your other career assessment options don’t require you to take this step. Your results include color-coded “interests” and “styles”, with each color representing one of four meanings: expediting, planning, communicating, or administering. “Interests” describe the types of activities you’re drawn to, while “styles” describe the strengths you bring to a work environment.
In addition to information about your interests and styles, The Princeton Review provides you with a list of recommended careers for a person with your colors. You can click on any of these careers to learn more about them.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? Yes
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This quiz is quick and offers detailed insights. It features an easy-to-understand color system and an extensive list of career recommendations.
Career One Stop – Interest Assessment
Career One Stop’s Interest Assessment is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, and is similar to My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler, making it somewhat redundant for individuals who have completed that assessment.
The motto for Career One Stop’s Interest Assessment is simple: “Tell us what you like to do. And what you don’t like to do. We’ll show you careers that fit your interests.” Users answer 30 quick questions about their interests, then select the level of job preparation they have or intend to have. The system will then populate a list of careers that combine your interests and degree of job preparation. The list of careers includes data on career outlook, average hourly wages, and level of education required.
If you’re particularly interested in one of the listed careers, you can click on it to find out more details, such as projected employment figures and the activities you might do on an average day on the job.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: The assessment is short and quick, and the list of suitable careers includes important data on job outlook, average hourly wage, and required education.
Your Free Career Test – Free Career Test
Your Free Career Test’s assessment is suitable for both adults and students as young as 13. The flagship free career test can be completed in five minutes, and other free tests on the site take even less time.
Once you’ve finished the test, you’ll be provided with a unique results code — this allows you to check on your results later without submitting your email or creating an account.
Your results page includes interest scores associated with each of the 15 broad categories such as Art, Business, and Communications. After taking the flagship test, you can choose to complete a more specialized assessment such as a Health Career Test, Art Career Test, or Technology Career Test. Your Free Career Test recommends exploring careers that combine two of your main interests — for instance, if your scores indicate you have a high interest in both art and technology, then seek out careers that combine the two, such as graphic design, video game design, or marketing.
The site’s interface may turn users off, as it includes small radio buttons that can be hard to click and the need to re-scroll after every question to read all of the page’s text.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? Yes
Why it’s great: This is a student-friendly resource that doesn’t require an email address or account creation, and it offers specialized follow-up career tests.
Rasmussen University – Career Aptitude Test
Unlike personality-based assessments, such as 123test’s Career Aptitude Test or My Next Move’s O*NET Interest Profiler, this test is solely based on your current skill set. It only takes a couple of minutes to complete, as you just need to adjust the sliders according to how skilled you are in areas such as art, math, and communication.
You can also refine your search by average salary, predicted job growth, and required level of education.
Once you’ve finished adjusting the sliders and filters, you can generate the results to see which careers would be the best match for you.
The Rasmussen University Career Aptitude Test provides more detailed occupation data than most of the other assessments featured in this guide — by hovering over one of the listed career options, you can review salary information, employment information, and how your current skills match up to the required job skills.
- Time to complete: 5 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: This test provides highly detailed occupation data for careers that match your current skill set.
The Best Personality Tests for Jobs
Keirsey – Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test
The Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test identifies four basic temperaments among humans: Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational. These temperaments exist in a matrix of action and communication, with each temperament falling in a different quadrant of the matrix. Keirsey’s four temperaments can be further divided into 16 subtypes, often called “Character Types” or “Personality Types”, based on the Myers-Briggs model. Keirsey’s assessment is available in numerous languages and consists of paired statements that ask you to choose the one more appropriate to you.
At the end of the assessment, you’ll need to enter your email to receive your temperament. From there, you can purchase more detailed reports or do your own research about that temperament.
- Time to complete: 10 to 15 minutes
- Career coaches available? Yes
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The site has extensive information about each of the four temperaments, and you have the option to purchase detailed, targeted information about your temperament.
16 Personalities – NERIS Type Explorer®
16 Personalities’ NERIS Type Explorer® utilizes the Myers-Briggs four-letter typology to sort you into one of 16 personality types: architect, logician, commander, debater, advocate, mediator, protagonist, campaigner, logistician, defender, executive, consul, virtuoso, adventurer, entrepreneur, or entertainer. The test consists of statements that you evaluate using a scale of “agree” at one end and “disagree” at the other.
Your results are comprehensive and include sections on strengths and weaknesses, romantic relationships, friendships, parenthood, career paths, and workplace habits. You can also upgrade to a premium version to read even further about your personality type and take additional, more specialized assessments. The site contains a range of free, in-depth resources to explore.
- Time to complete: 10 minutes
- Career coaches available? No
- Additional career resources? No
Why it’s great: The site is user-friendly, and the assessment provides an in-depth and wide-ranging results report.
Advice from an Expert
Dana Marvin
College Counselor, LinkedIn
1. What advice would you give a student who is unsure of their career path?
While it may seem like everyone else your age knows exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, chances are they’re still questioning it too. You probably have a few ideas that are already interesting, and you should start there.
Also, know that it is equally as useful to know what you don’t want to do as a career. Sometimes the easiest place to start is by crossing off the things you don’t like before narrowing down something you might enjoy doing. Not a fan of blood? Maybe medical careers aren’t the best fit for you. Is your parent an accountant, and the explanation of the job sounds boring to you? Again, maybe not a good fit. Eventually, you start narrowing down your options.
Lastly, don’t stress too much about it. Most students feel like they need to have their entire lives planned by 18, but the reality is many students change their minds throughout their college careers and beyond. Not having it all figured out is not only ok, but it’s completely normal. Spend time exploring different majors and classes, attending events, and asking questions about things that spark your interest.
2. What career aptitude test do you recommend?
My go-to site for accurate data and easy-to-use career aptitude tests is Career One Stop. This website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, so the data concerning each career listed on the site correlates with data collected by the department every year. Their self assessments are straightforward and can be taken in a matter of minutes, versus other resources that can be tedious to complete. In my opinion, the best part is that the site connects students with the relevant data many students need when evaluating careers — how many jobs will be available to me? What type of education do I need in order to be prepared for this job? And, most importantly, how much money will I be making? It’s also completely free.
3. Any other advice to students?
The best thing a student can do for themselves is to open themselves up to the career exploration process and try out lots of new things — eventually, something is going to click. I think it’s also important to remember that it’s not a permanent decision, and you’re allowed to change your mind later.
Differences Between Career Aptitude Tests and Personality Assessments
Career aptitude tests and personality assessments both function as tools to help individuals reflect on their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and characteristics. They typically use multiple choice questions or rating scales to categorize individuals into certain personality or career buckets or make recommendations about jobs individuals should pursue.
As the name implies, career aptitude tests focus on questions that are designed to help the test-taker determine which occupation or career field is the best fit for their particular skill set and personality. The most common type of career aptitude test is based on the Holland code, a theory developed by psychologist Dr. John Holland that sorts individuals and recommends career paths based on six different personality types.
Career aptitude tests can be an especially helpful tool for students who haven’t yet decided which career path they will choose. Many careers require a degree, which requires an investment of time, money, and energy. Taking a career aptitude test may help ensure that you choose an occupation you’re compatible with before you pursue a particular degree.
Personality tests, meanwhile, tell individuals more about how they perceive the world, make decisions, and relate to others. For example, the popular Myers–Briggs personality test, based on Carl Jung’s book Psychological Types, determines how individuals fit into four different personality categories: introversion/extraversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving.
Personality tests are valuable because they can help you better understand yourself, which will then help you make more informed decisions about your future, including your career path. Understanding the connection between personality and occupation can help you find a career that is personally satisfying. For example, someone who identifies as introverted may be better suited to jobs that don’t involve a lot of public speaking or interaction with clients. Taking a personality test can also be beneficial for those who want to improve personal and professional relationships.
Should You Pay for a Career Aptitude Test or Personality Assessment?
As you research internet-based career aptitude tests and personality assessments, you will come across many options at a range of price points. Most assessments allow users to take the test and receive basic feedback for free, with an option to pay for access to additional information. In our experience, most assessments give users plenty of valuable feedback for free, eliminating the need to pay for a test.
However, if you feel you’re not getting the information you’re seeking from a free career aptitude test or personality assessment, the premium versions of Truity’s Career Personality Profiler or the Keirsey Temperament Sorter Test may be worth the cost for the additional feedback they provide.