Discover What You're Best At: A Complete Career System That Lets You Test Yourself to Discover Your Own True Career Abilities » (REV)

Linda Gale the former Executive Director of Career Aptitude Testing, Ltd. The coauthor of four career books, she lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Take the test — and find the right career for you.

Join the ranks of the more than half-million people who have discovered their true talents and made successful career choices with Discover What You're Best At. Now this bestselling career guide has been revised for the twenty-first century, including valuable new information on the skills in demand in electronic communications, medical technology, and other high-tech fields.

The book's unique National Career Aptitude System enables you to identify not only your interests but also your innate talents and potential skills, and then to match your career strengths to dozens of the more than 1,100 jobs described in detail.

Discover What You're Best At enables you to set realistic and rewarding career goals based on your abilities. It gives you the edge you need to take on the job market and succeed in your chosen career.

Discover What You're Best At will help you:

• SAVE MONEY — possibly thousands of dollars — by heading you in the proper career direction before you choose a school or a course of study
• SAVE TIME — by allowing you to tailor your curriculum to your career objectives, without resorting to trial-and-error course samplings
• SET REALISTIC GOALS — why be an office administrator when your interpersonal skills make you a natural for sales?
• LEARN ABOUT NEW AREAS — with more than 1,100 career possibilities listed and described in detail, you could easily discover that you have an interest in and aptitude for an exciting position you never knew existed.

Discover What You're Best At could put you well on your way to success. It's theonly career resource you'll ever need.

Contents

PREFACE

PART I:

THE NATIONAL CAREER APTITUDE SYSTEM

Why the NCAS Is for You

Your career — by choice, not by chance.

Your Value System Determines Your Job Satisfaction

Commonly held job-related values.

Do New Technologies Create New Jobs?

Changes are more subtle. Academic skills. Personal management skills. Teamwork skills.

The Shifting Workplace

Changing perceptions about possible careers.

Aptitudes vs. Interests

Know what you can do as well as what you like to do.

How Will You Benefit?

Save time. Save money. Understand your strengths. And your weaknesses. Gain encouragement. Be able to set appropriate goals. Be guided in selecting a career. Be opened to new areas.

How Does It Work?

Testing your career potentials.

A Few Words of Caution

What else you'll need to succeed.

Tips for Becoming a Skillful Test Taker

How to avoid distractions and delays.

About the Test Itself

Time limits. Take the whole test. Guessing. Keep it simple. Relax.

PART II:

THE TESTS

Business Test:

Discover if you have the aptitudes for business — to coordinate, delegate, manage, negotiate, organize, persuade, sell, and supervise.

Clerical Test:

Discover if you can work rapidly and precisely with details, find comparisons, decode materials, memorize quickly, file and research efficiently.

Logic Test:

Discover if you are skilled in the art of reasoning. Can you find similarities and differences among objects, systematize and simplify involved problems, draw conclusions rapidly, infer information?

MechanicalTest:

Discover if tomorrow's technology includes you. Can you follow patterns, understand basic machines, solve problems involving spatial relationships, develop intricate designs, work with precision?

Numerical Test:

Discover how you compare with others who use numbers in their careers. Can you figure discounts, find the next number in a series, estimate possible solutions, read numerical charts and graphs?

Social Test:

Discover if you have the aptitude for helping others solve personal problems. Can you motivate others, advise, guide, or counsel them?

PART III:

SCORING

Answer Keys

What Your Scores Tell You

PART IV:

CHOOSING YOUR CAREER: THE CAREER CLUSTERS

How to Find Your Career Cluster

Profit from Your Results

The 41 Career Clusters

PART V:

LEARNING ABOUT YOUR CAREER: 1,100 CAREERS IDENTIFIED AND EXPLAINED

The Career Directory

PART VI:

YOUR CAREER QUEST IN CYBERIA

Ahead of the Times: Then and Now

Discover the Net and W3

Info Highway Hints

Career Sites on the Web

What's Next?

The Face of the Deep

Test Forms

Acknowledgments