Career Development Solutions for College Administrators

Personality College Major Match

Download our free eBook for professionals, Personality-College Major Match and Student Success

I am sure that cost and accountability are high priorities for you.

Career assessment-guidance services are expensive – they often cost thousands of dollars.

Career Key offers a low-cost, high quality solution.

Our respected career personality test, career information, career advice, and career planning tools are based on the best practices and science of career development. Career development professionals have used our website with confidence since 1997.

I recommend,

  1. The Career Key test to promote students’ exploration and good decision-making. Students taking the Career Key test assess their six Holland personality types, identify career opportunities and college majors that match, and see full and accurate information about each one. It also includes a downloadable interpretive booklet. Research shows that a good personality-career match is a predictor of career satisfaction and success (if you use a valid career test).

    Cost? With our group discount, pay substantially less than any other comparable valid Holland measure.

    There is also the paper-pencil version of the Career Key at the Store.

    Transparency is important: the Career Key manual is online so you can review its construction, validity, reliability, and other features. There is also a comprehensive e-book version of the manual.

    Simplicity, practicality, and validity are Career Key’s strengths. It takes about 15 minutes; results are immediate; and there are no complicated tables or abstract concepts to explain. It also provides a gateway to services unique to Career Key -- see the following:

  2. Choosing a College Major or Training Program that fits students’ personality. A close personality-major match is vital. Research shows it is one of the predictors of academic success and satisfaction -- GPA and graduation. To learn more about this research and how to apply it in your institution, download our free eBook for professionals, Personality-College Major Match and Student Success .

    For students (and college-bound adults and youth), we recommend:
  3. Identifying and strengthening students’ job skills. As your adult students know, job skills are what count in the workplace. Period. The Foundation Skills: Job Skills All Workers Need article describes those that are essential.

    In The Free Agent Outlook on Work students learn why marketable skills are the key to success. And, Identify Your Skills and Make Them Work for You gives students invaluable advice and practical steps they can take.
  4. Making good decisions. Our article Decision Making Process teaches students how to make good decisions. The ACIP method is practical and based on numerous research studies. Good decision-making is emphasized throughout our site. It is an essential life and work skill.

    Our popular e-book, What Job is Best for Me?, walks the student through these steps. It embodies the essential concepts of our website.

    5. “As a counselling tool the CDP allows us to discuss very specifically where the student is in the process of career development and where they want to go next. Students appreciate the simplicity of the CDP and using it to formulate next steps…” Read more.
    Felicity Morgan
    Assistant Director, Career Development
    University of Toronto Mississauga.

  5. Assessing “career decision status”. Colleges use the Career Decision Profile to evaluate career development programs, assess career decision needs, and to provide a self-help guide, directing students to sources of help based on their needs, and in career counseling. Students find the article Undecided a helpful guide in understanding their indecision and the steps they might take.
  6. Learning about Holland’s Theory of Career Choice. This article is one of our most popular. Career development professionals and their clients praise its clarity and practical applications. And, literally hundreds of studies show that the theory has a solid scientific foundation. Our e-book, What Color are Your Feathers?, describes his theory and expands on how to apply it to career choice.
  7. Visiting our Store. We offer many high quality publications. All are offered in a "green", sustainable PDF file that you download to your computer. Your purchase is an important way to support our efforts.

  8. Linking to our website. There is no site license or cost to visiting or linking to our home page or high quality career advice articles without framing. We show no advertising and do not accept reciprocal or paid text linking. Your voluntary links help us keep our website ad-free. Thousands of non-profits, libraries and educational institutions link to us and we welcome yours.

Lawrence K. Jones, Ph.D., NCC President, Career Key.