It Begins with a Question Like...
- I want a major career change, but what options could/should I be considering?
- How can I find more satisfaction in the job I already have?
- What leadership gaps do I have? How can I close them so I can effectively manage a team?
- How can I build more credibility at work?
- I'm getting negative performance feedback at work. Is it me? How can I be more effective?
- I got feedback that I get too emotional at work. I can't not be myself. What do I do with this?
- What do I need to improve to be taken seriously for an executive promotion?
Whichever query you are noodling over, know that even the right assessment doesn't just hand you an
It gives you language, and evidence, for something you may have only sensed about yourself until now.
I don't automatically suggest assessments. Once I understand what you're actually wanting to learn from the process, I can give you a realistic picture of the type of insight you'd gain from various tools, as well as their limitations. Then you can make an informed choice.
The Strong Interest Inventory
The Strong is one of the world's most widely respected and frequently used career exploration tools, used in both business and academic settings by anyone considering a career change or searching for a rich, fulfilling job.
Developed by psychologist E.K. Strong in 1927 and continually refined and validated since, the Strong Interest Inventory® 244 Profile compares your interests with the interests of people who are satisfied in their work, revealing your likely fit across, you guessed it, 244 job roles spanning every field imaginable. It's a gender-neutral assessment, validated across a diverse sample of 100,000 working professionals in the US.
Whether you want to validate a direction you've already chosen, or you're starting from “I have no idea what I want to do,” the Strong is an excellent investment in figuring out what's next.
The Strong doesn't have right or wrong answers, and it doesn't measure ability or predict aptitude. It predicts likely career satisfaction by matching your interests to people who report being happy in their chosen careers.
CliftonStrengths
CliftonStrengths identifies your natural, recurring patterns of thought, feeling, and behavior, the things you do well almost without trying, out of 34 defined talent themes. Most people walk away focused on their top five.
For career direction, your strengths are a legitimate lens for weighing a new path, not just what you're good at, but what will actually energize you rather than drain you over time. For leadership and performance, strengths work differently: it names your real leverage points, the things you should be doing more of, delegating around, or building a role to take advantage of, instead of spending your energy trying to shore up weaknesses that were never going to be your edge.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
You may already know your MBTI “type” from school or a past employer. Or maybe you found something similar online, there are plenty of copy-cat versions referring to the 16 “types.” Those free versions aren't backed by the same research as the authentic MBTI.
When MBTI results are read alongside Strong results, you get a sharper lens on both your preferences and your interests.
I have over 25 years of experience interpreting this instrument and I hold the rare MBTI Master Practitioner designation, requiring extensive training and application beyond basic “certification.” I don't use free online copy-cats in my practice. The authentic MBTI is an inexpensive tool, there's no good reason to settle for a knockoff.
MBTI STEP II
MBTI Step II goes a level deeper into the nuances of your MBTI preferences, beyond the simple four-letter type (like “ENFP” or “ISTJ”). Each letter pair breaks into five facets, helpful if you have previously taken the MBTI and feel “on the fence” between two types. Step II helps you understand where and how your preferences diverge, then leverage the awareness with intention.
Hogan Assessments
Hogan is built around a simple but important distinction: identity is how you see yourself. Reputation is how everyone else actually experiences you. Most people assume the two match. They rarely do, and the gap between them is often exactly what's limiting someone's growth, influence, or readiness for more, without them realizing it.
It's a little uncanny: a self-report assessment that gives you a strikingly accurate read on how others already experience you, without a single one of them being surveyed. That's not a marketing claim, it's how Hogan built and validated the tool in the first place, checking people's self-reported answers against how their coworkers, direct reports, and managers independently described them. It's one of the most useful and studied assessments available for deciding, intentionally, how you want to show up as a professional, a leader, or someone being considered for more.
EQ-i 2.0
Emotional intelligence isn't a soft add-on to how you lead or perform, it's the operating system underneath it. EQ-i 2.0 measures how you perceive yourself, express yourself, engage with others, make decisions under pressure, and manage stress, five composites that shape how people experience working with you far more than your technical skill does.
It's a particularly useful lens for anyone trying to be more intentional about presence, influence, or readiness for a bigger role, since it names the specific behaviors behind an impression, rather than leaving “executive presence” or “leadership potential” as vague, unhelpful feedback.