If you haven’t already taken the free career test at 16Personalities.com, you need to do it now. It’s a popular self-assessment tool and for a free career test, it’s detailed. It presents several career options for each of the 16 personality types.

The 16Personalities test results also touch on all of the big areas of your life. The bottom line is: The better you know who you are the more likely you will find your perfect job.

Why You Should Take This Free Career Test

Choosing a career can be muddled by others’ expectations, or worse, self-doubt. Free career tests are kind of like having an online career coach. They can lead you to the right job. These tests are really helpful if you are looking for a career change, but you aren’t sure what line of work you want to pursue. Here are 5 things you should know about this free career test.

1. 16Personalities Has Been Taken 200 Million Times.

The company has helped more than 200 million answer-seekers explore careers. The company explains its reliability and validity of the test in mind-numbing detail. Its approach to personalities is based on Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system.

Basically, everyone can be categorized into one of 16 personalities. The online assessment can help you get a clear picture of your career aspirations and other non-work related facets of your life such as parenting and romance.

2. The Personality Types are Easy to Understand.

The 16 personality types are grouped into four categories. See the tables below for a link to a summary of each type. Click on the career path to find out more about that career.

These are not all of the career choices that you should consider. They are the ones most likely to appeal to you. If you are not sure what career you want, take several free career tests to identify your interests.

I took the career assessment to give you a look at what you get for about 10 minutes of your time. I had never taken the test before, although I attended a Myers-Briggs workshop about 10 years ago.

My Experience with 16Personalities

3. You Can Take The Free Career Test in 10 Minutes.

This online career test is a variation of the Myer Briggs test and consists of about 60 (they are not numbered) questions. Remember this is a journey of self-discovery and the better you know yourself, the easier it is to choose a profession.

Whether you’re looking to change careers or want to find your dream job, taking the test might help you figure out what you want to do next.

• Format: You choose how intensely you agree or disagree with the statements.
• Time it takes to finish: 5-8 minutes.
• The best strategy: is to think about each scenario for a few seconds and be honest. Even if you cringe at your answer. Forget about your college majors or the labor market. Just think about what you want to do. This is your chance to play career counselor and be open to the possibilities.

4. The 16Personalities Results are Accurate.

You get a personality type (mine was INFP-T The Mediator, which is fairly accurate). You also see a summary graphic of how you scored on each spectrum of these categories:

• Mind — Are you introverted or extraverted?
• Energy — Do you observe or are you intuitive to gather information?
• Nature — Do you make your decisions based on feelings or thoughts?
• Tactics — How do you work are you judging or prospecting?
• Identity — This is the category that affects all of the others. You’re classified as Assertive or Turbulent.

This career test was easy to take and accurate. It summarized my personal attributes well.

5. You Can Read Your Results — No Strings Attached.

After you get your basic results, a box appears asking if you want to read a detailed report. When you click, you are asked to put in an email. This step was optional.

The report contains the following sections:

• Introduction — an overview of your personality type.
• Strengths and Weaknesses — A list of strengths and weaknesses.
• Romantic Relationships — This section describes the personality type’s view on love and how she or he might act in a relationship.
• Friendship — How you make friends and what you value from the relationship.
• Parenting — What they excel in raising children and what might cause strife.
• Career Path — General ideas of where your talents could lead you.
• Workplace Habits — How you work in general as a worker bee and as the queen bee.
• Conclusion — This is where they sell. They want to help you with a roadmap to get to where you need to be.

16Personalities is selling access to its Academy, offers different levels of training. It’s a very low-pressure ask. The Guidebook for your personality type is available for $29.

For $50, you can get the Guidebook and access to the online Academy for a year. For $140 you get everything plus the other personality type guidebooks. 16Personalities offer a no-questions-asked, 30-day money-back guarantee.

Final Thoughts on the Free Career Test at 16Personalities.com

I’ve been around the sun a few times, so I know who I am. For anyone who hasn’t taken a personality test, this is a good option to help figure out your next move.

The questions were easy. Some tests, can ask the same type of question several ways or put it in a this or that format, which makes it difficult to choose an answer. The results were clear both in the graphics and the report.

Job hunting is a difficult task for people who are not self-aware. To decide on a career, you need to think about the tasks you enjoy. Then you should match your interests to work that pays the bills. What personality traits will help you reach your career goals? This test shows where your interests and abilities overlap.

The results were accurate and I appreciate having some of my frustrations validated. Maybe I need to make some changes because some areas do not and never will mesh with my mediator ways.