What’s the next step in your career? If you’re seeking answers, you may have come across My Next Move, a free career test sponsored by the US Department of Labor. I decided to put it to the test and documented my experience, from taking the assessment to navigating the results. I’ll share my honest, first-hand impressions and evaluate the career insights I received, helping you determine if it’s a resource worth exploring in your career journey.
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My Next Move Career Test Overview
My Next Move’s career test is based on the Holland Codes and identifies the top careers that match the user’s interests and abilities. The report isn’t personalized, but My Next Move sorts the career recommendations into “Job Zones” that break up professions by their required experience, education, and training.
Pros
- Free and takes less than 10 minutes
- No signup or registration
- Can sort jobs by preparation requirements
- Government sponsored
Cons
- Can’t save or print the report as one file
- No personalized information or advice
Bottom Line: My Next Move offers a decent career test for free, but I wouldn’t recommend it if you want a personalized report or plan on revisiting it. It’s a good starting point, but I recommend using JobTest.org for comprehensive information and customized career advice.
Why Did I Try My Next Move?
After wrapping up college and moving on to the real world, I found a satisfying career as a writer and editor. Nonetheless, it’s helpful to discover all my possibilities and gain new knowledge to continue moving forward in my career. I looked into the best career tests and came across My Next Move, which seemed promising due to its government sponsorship and testing model. Within a few clicks, I found my way to the start of the career test and began.
My Experience Taking My Next Move’s Career Test
I didn’t have trouble locating the career test, but My Next Move calls it the O*NET Interest Profiler. It’s located in the “Discover your interests” purple box on the homepage, and after reading through the instructions, I started answering questions.
Registration and Preparation
I didn’t have to register with My Next Move or enter personal information. I have the option to email myself the results, but otherwise, My Next Move doesn’t ask for or require standard registration details.
Besides a couple of pages of instructions that explain how to answer the questions, interpret the results, and browse the career matches, the career test doesn’t provide preparation materials. Regardless, I encountered no issues taking the test and understood how to progress through it.
Test Procedure and User Interface
The career test has 60 questions across five pages and no time limit. I finished the test in under ten minutes and found the questions easy to understand. I could revisit any portion of the test and change my answers, even after I finished and received my results.
The user interface looks a bit outdated but has easy-to-read questions, directions, and labels. I noticed no innovative or useful features besides the progress and menu bars throughout the test. Nonetheless, the entire test procedure was clear from the beginning, and I encountered no issues with the test interface.
Question Types and Clarity
All of the questions were Linkert scales that asked me to rank work activities from strongly dislike (1) to strongly like (5)—each question related to one of the six Holland Codes personality types, represented by a color. I didn’t find any of them confusing or hard to understand and quickly progressed through the test.
Privacy and Data Handling
My Next Move only collects personal information if the user provides it, such as an email address, to get a copy of the results. Its privacy policy says personal data is only used internally and doesn’t mention third-party sharing.
Customer Support
Besides a general contact form, My Next Move doesn’t have a dedicated customer support team. It’s unclear how long it takes to get a response, but the form does include a contact email address (onet@onetcenter.org).
What Did My Results Reveal?
It took me less than ten minutes to finish the test and receive my results. While it’s a short report with generic information, it still offers some useful resources worth mentioning.
Report Delivery
I received my results immediately after I finished the test. I can only access them through My Next Move and can’t save them for future use. However, I received a score in each of the six Holland Codes personality categories, which I can enter at the beginning of the exam to retrieve the same results.
I can email myself the results, but the feature requires a Microsoft Outlook plugin that may not work for all users. I can also share a link to my results or through Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.
Presentation and Depth
The results have two primary components: my interest profiler results and top careers across five job zones. The interest profiler results highlight my scores in the six interest areas and provide short descriptions of the traits, but they don’t go into detail or give personalized insights.
In the second section, My Next Move splits careers into job zones based on experience, education, and training, allowing me to view my options from two perspectives:
- Current job zone: careers matching my existing qualifications
- Future job zone: careers that match the qualifications I plan to acquire in the future
I only received up to six career recommendations in each job zone, but I found it helpful to sort through the job zones and identify short- and long-term options.
Relevance and Usability
I learned a little bit about my personality traits (Enterprising, Artistic, Investigative) but wished it provided personalized insights. The results were helpful and gave me a few career ideas, but they only served as a starting point for further exploration.
I can understand what it means to embody the six interest areas; however, I can’t see how my scores translate to the recommended careers. Likewise, I didn’t receive tailored advice or feedback to maximize my success in the future, so I’m not sure how I could use this beyond what I initially got.
Post-Test Support and Resources
My Next Move offers career information databases, veteran career change assistance, and an apprenticeship job finder. Additionally, each recommended career has an expanded overview that includes descriptions, required skills and abilities, education, job outlook, salary information, and similar resources.
Do I Recommend the My Next Move Career Test?
I don’t regret taking the My Next Move career test, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone searching for usable and comprehensive results. It provides general information on personality interests and related careers, but I’d rather use JobTest.org for in-depth results and personalized career matching.
My experience with JobTest.org exceeded my expectations, from its innovative user interface to personalized career insights. My report was made for me (instead of my personality trait) and provided relevant information to apply to my career search. While JobTest.org is a paid career test, I didn’t need to look elsewhere after reviewing my results.
If you’re looking for a rough idea of where to explore, My Next Move might suffice. But if you want a detailed report with actionable feedback, I recommend the JobTest.org career test.
| JobTest.org | My Next Move | |
|---|---|---|
| Work Personality Assessment | ||
| Career Recommendations | ||
| Personalized Feedback | ||
| Industry Expertise | ||
| Work Environment Matching | ||
| User Experience | ||
| Multiple Languages | ||
| Post-Test Resources | ||
| Career Change Assistance | ||
| Dedicated Customer Support | ||
| Learn More | Learn More |
After working in last-mile logistics, Miles transitioned to a career as a content developer and editor, contributing to various digital publications. He frequently writes about topics concerning nutrition, health, education, and career development, among others. When away from his keyboard, Miles enjoys delving into works related to artificial intelligence and metaphysics, stemming from his studies as a philosophy major at the University of Tampa. You can also find Miles spending time with his dog, Biggie, or experimenting with a new recipe at home with friends and family.
