There is no assessment that will tell you with absolute certainty what career you should pursue, but they can help you narrow down some possibilities. There are many good assessments. Listed below are the ones I recommend.
1. O*NET Interest Profiler https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip
You will how much you like or dislike certain activities. You will then see whether you prefer work that has one of these categories: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, or conventional. You will then use a tool that helps you sort through various occupations based on these categories. Those categories are known as Holland Codes. What Holland code are you? Mine is SIA.
2. 16Personalities https://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test
What personality code are you? Like the Holland Codes, Myers-Briggs has a code, but for 16 personality types. This isn't the Myers-Briggs assessment, but is similar to it. Once you answer some questions, you will get information that will include sections on "Career Paths" and "Workplace Habits." My code is INFP. What is yours?
3. Work Values Matcher https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Careers/work-values-matcher-assessment.aspx
Whenever you hear something like "X job wasn't a good match," what that usually means is that there was a mismatch between what was important to the employee and the reality of that particular workplace or type of job. What's important to you in a career? What type of work environments are a good fit for you? I like this assessment because you have to rank what is important to you, and because you can't say everything is important, it forces you to choose between things. This assessment measures the relative importance of six work related values: achievement, independence, recognition, relationships, support, and working conditions.
4. Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) https://www.officialasvab.com/
You can't take this online, but it has to be administered by the military. The ASVAB is typically offered to high school students as well as young adults in college or community settings who are considering military options. If you took this test in high school, keep your results. If you don't have your results, you still may be able to get them, but they don't hold onto them for long. Otherwise, you an take the test again. Just because you aren't going to go into the military, the test is very helpful in identifying good career matches. I like this test because it offers an objective assessment of academic and vocational aptitudes. They have good tools that help you match your test results with viable careers.
5. Clifton Strengthsfinder 2.0 https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/252137/home.aspx
This is not a free assessment, but one that you will have to pay for. At the time of this writing, an assessment is about $20. The other option is to purchase the book, which comes with an access code to take the assessment online.
Clifton Strengths identifies your personality strengths, so you can understand them and apply them. Respondents are presented with 180 pairs of descriptors, and they must identify which descriptor from each pair best describes them. These items are designed to assess 34 potential talents, and the results report identifies a person's top five talents. What are your top five talents? Mine are input, connectedness, intellection, context, and ideation.
6. Other assessments:
This LibGuide page includes links to various career guides developed by professional and workforce agencies.
Real profiles from people from a variety of careers. Many short video interviews, documentaries on various industries. This is a rich resource. It includes information about various careers, but a lot of focus is on life and career journeys. See the LibGuide page for more information.
Real profiles from people from a variety of careers. They tell you how they got there and what it's like. They do not pull any punches. There are also a variety of other resources on this site. See the LibGuide page for more information.
Here are some resources that are helpful in discovering pay for various careers.
