The Career Key

The Career Key (CK) is a career test and assessment, authored by Dr. Lawrence K. Jones, that measures John L. Holland's six personality types (Holland Codes). [See National Career Development Association Website, Resources, Self-Assessment] According to Holland's theory, persons who choose an occupation that matches their personality are more likely to be satisfied and successful. Many scientific studies support this proposition. [Zunker, Vernon G. Career Counseling: Applied Concepts of Life Planning, Wadsworth Group (Brooks/Cole): 2002.] With the CK's results, users identify occupations that match their personality, using Holland's types.

Over the past 20 years, many studies investigating the scientific basis (validity) of the CK have been published in scientific journals like the "Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development".

After completing the CK test (about 15 minutes), individuals identify the occupations that match their personality for further exploration and are provided links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook for comprehensive information about these occupations. They are also provided advice on decision-making and a 4-page booklet explaining their test scores and how they can be used.

The CK test has two formats: paper-pencil and internet-based. It is part of a career guidance booklet offered by the American School Counselors Association. It is translated into Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Arabic and Romanian; it has been adapted for use in the Caribbean.

The CK is known through its website, www.careerkey.org, which was started in 1997 as a public service [See N.C. State University College of Education, faculty profile for Lawrence K. Jones, Ph. D. at http://ced.ncsu.edu/ci/counselored/faculty/jones.php ] . The CK test is offered for a fee and there are more than twenty professionally developed self-help articles on career topics of interest to youth and adults that are offered free of charge.

There is a companion website, the Self-Employment Key (www.self-employmentkey.org) that includes a special form of the CK test and content focused on self-employment and entrepreneurship.

The Career Key and The Self-Employment Key are copyrights owned by the author, Dr. Lawrence K. Jones.

References

* [http://ced.ncsu.edu/ci/counselored/faculty/jones.php] N.C. State University College of Education Faculty page for Dr. Lawrence K. Jones.
* [http://www.careerdevelopment.brown.edu/grads/nonacad_step1.php Brown University, Career Development Center] . Self Assessment and Online Resources web page.
* [http://www.ncda.org/cjs/links.html National Career Development Association (NCDA) Career Planning Resources] .
* [http://www.lssaa.wisc.edu/careers/exploration/external_career_resources.html University of Wisconsin, Career Services] . University of Wisconsin Career Services, Career information websites.
* Search (with quotation marks) "Career Key" and "Lawrence K. Jones" at the [http://www.eric.ed.gov/ Education Resources Information Center] and [http://scholar.google.com Google Scholar] . Lists of scientific studies involving "The Career Key".

Publications

Jones, L. K. (1993). Two career guidance instruments: Their helpfulness to students and effect on students' career exploration. The School Counselor, 40, 191-200.

Jones, L. K. (1990). The Career Key: An investigation of the reliability and validity of its scales and its helpfulness to students. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 23, 67-76.

Jones, L. K., Gorman, S., & Schroeder, C. G. (1989). A comparison between the SDS and the Career Key among career undecided college students. Career Development Quarterly, 37, 334-343.

ee also

*Career development
*Career Assessments
*Personality Psychology
*Holland Codes

External links

* [http://www.careerkey.org The Career Key] . Commercial site.
* [http://www.self-employmentkey.org The Self-Employment Key] . Commercial site.
* [http://www.ncda.org National Career Development Association]
* [http://www.schoolcounselor.org American School Counselor Association]