
Show HN: Career Finder – A quiz that gives you career recommendations - harvestmoon
http://shobia.com/career-finder
======
ansimionescu
Your results show you are a problem solving thinker

This means you like work where your main focus is on dealing with problems
that you need to think about and find solutions for. You might enjoy being a
computer programmer or a mathematician.

~~~
kaitai
I am a mathematician, but it suggests that as a practical realist I might want
to be a construction engineer. Or a medical scientist, _except_
epidemiologist. Or a physicist. I kind of do string theory, but I don't think
that makes me a practical realist.

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AndrewKemendo
I feel like an idiot whenever I take things like these. I never have a
straightforward answer for anything. I always think: "I want to like doing [x]
but I am bad at it so I guess I should choose like...but what if they mean
would I choose doing that over something I am good at? In that case it should
be a dislike, or maybe. Shit! I don't know!"

or when given this one:

>A sick person has some difficulty walking and needs to go up a flight of
stairs. You help them do so.

"I think that would make me feel good to help someone, so I'll choose like.
Although is that what I would want to do for a job? If so then I would
definitely dislike that job. I guess I would maybe like to help someone up the
stairs."

Gahh!

~~~
diN0bot
it sounds frustrating to answer these questions with "should's" in your mind.
it's more straight forward and ultimately satisfying to go with what your
gut/heart/self really wants. i'm not saying that is simple to figure out, just
more worthwhile and pleasant.

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infectoid
"Your results show you are a practical people person."

Fairly correct.

"This means you like hands-on work that is focused on dealing with other
people and helping them out. On the job, you probably want to combine being
social with being productive."

I could agree with this. I really enjoy helping new people out with
programming problems in the office.

"You might like being a occupational therapist or an athletic trainer."

This doesn't feel right :(

Not really into the medical profession at all. Been a webdev since the late
90's. Learned and re-learned several times over. Never really shined, just got
shit done. Lost the love many years ago but still love the tech and problem
solving. Been looking for some kind of horizontal career move but am currently
stumped.

I am not the kind of person that wants a start up but I think it would be
great to help someone achieve something important and amazing (i.e. working
for Elon Musk is way more attractive to me than being Elon Musk). I'd take a
pay cut for that feeling again. To have the sense that my work has meaning.

------
bennyg
Scored as an "Artistic Thinker", but there are no artistic endeavors listed!
Here's a quote from the synopsis of my test: "You might enjoy coming up with
original music lyrics - or with new mathematical theories." However there
aren't any musical or mathematical kind of jobs listed - half of them have to
do with psychology/psychiatry and another quarter have to deal with
tutoring/therapy. About the closest thing to what I actually do for a living,
software engineering, is Industrial Engineer - listed at the very bottom. I
think you need a little more diversity in the career choices you pull
especially for something qualitative like "artistic thinker."

~~~
mattgreenrocks
Got categorized as that as well. The suggested careers are pretty good in my
case, many of them are ones I'd been interested in reading about, particularly
mathematicians, physicists, and medical research.

It took me a long time to realize that art and engineering are not as
divergent as mainstream culture would have you believe, particularly when you
get into the research side. Every interesting field gets a bit weird as you
get into it.

~~~
bennyg
Yeah I know art and engineering are fairly intertwined - it was really all of
the medical choices that showed up. I'm interested in psychology but not so
much that half of the career choices shown should be that haha.

------
tzs
It would help to understand the results if it also gave a list of careers you
should avoid, and a list of careers that are in the middle.

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devonkim
I've been finding these tests are like a lot of "personality" tests where
they're highly dependent upon mood and such, except for this it's moreso a
function of "what do you like to do these days?" or rather "what would you
rather be doing?" For some people this is pretty stable and for others it
changes constantly. The ones that try to match your personality to your career
may do a tad better but it's still only so accurate I'd presume. I do like how
this isn't really a personality test at all though and just asks what you like
to do. Most career recommenders are glorified Myers-Brigg topology tests I've
found.

Got business thinker when I've been mostly a software engineer. What's
interesting is that on the suggestions list they have technical and/or likely
software centered careers like physicist, VC, quants, and actuary but nobody
actually writing software or systems as their primary job. Not a single
software developer type career listed but industrial engineer and geneticist
are higher recommendations with economist at the top? I dunno if the results
are telling me that I probably wouldn't enjoy writing code primarily or if
this type of thinker shouldn't be writing code.

But really, none of this means you'd be any good at it. Maybe there needs to
be more of an assessment of different skills instead of the usual self
reporting to contrast with these types of tests.

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prescindor
Hah! I'm a big loser!

    
    
        Our in-depth psychological assessment shows that you
        might like a career as a cheese taster, scuba diver
        or professional TV show watcher.
    

To be fair, it does list some alternatives. E.g., I could be a political
scientist. But, then, I'd get fired and be downvoted into oblivion.

I could be a user experience designer or an online reputation manager [watch
it!], but that sounds far more like a supplier than a job description.

I suppose I could be an epidemiologist. But I'm lazy, so that would only work
for really interesting diseases. Gotta stay motivated, don't you know!

I could be an animal scientist or trainer. Maybe that would work if I could be
as sensitive as another recently posted author (octopuses). But I seriously
doubt it, I being a slacker!

I could be a cartoonist, except I can't draw worth shit. I could be a lyricist
or a poet or writer. But that takes talent. Which I don't have.

I could be stonemason or a plasterer or a stucco mason. But, did I mention,
I'm a slacker!

Baker. Getting warm. Bread being baked does smell nice. Yeah, that's
promising. Except I'm too rich.

------
chrismorgan
> Our in-depth psychological assessment shows that you might like a career as
> a cheese taster, scuba diver or professional TV show watcher.

Nicely done! :-)

------
carrotleads
Your results show you are a business interactor

This means you like interacting with other people, especially when it is in a
professional work setting like in a company.

 __ __

Been a coder, and now run a startup and look to have a BizDev guy join me so
that I can focus more on the startup.

and yes I do like Biz interactions and talking to folks and poring over data
bore me while I like to solve problems.

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notduncansmith
Well, the two that stuck out to me were "economist" (something I'm interested
in but haven't devoted much time to studying), and software developer, which I
happily do for a living. Pretty accurate.

~~~
prescindor
Do carry on in software development.

But save enough of your income to interest your economist side.

One morning, you will wake up and realize you made over 50% of your income
before you tumbled out of bed!

Carried to an (eminently achievable) extreme, this is called "fuck-you money".
Some achieve it suddenly, but many gradually.

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soganess
"artistic thinker", what is that suppose to even mean?

That said, I'll bit, I'd love to know about more of the inner workings of the
match. How many possible outcomes are there? How does the scoring working, are
they questions weighted evenly? Are the jobs preset for a specific match, or
are they dynamically selected based on the questions? How were the jobs
profiled to meet the aforementioned criteria? What is psychological basis for
the questions and their formations... give me the dets yo.

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s3nnyy
I majored in CS but was always intersted in psychology. "Your results show you
are a focused people person

This means you enjoy dealing with other people while also being able to work
hard and get things done. A good career fit likely means a good amount of
social interaction that has a goal and purpose, like being a nurse or a
genetic counselor.

Psychiatrists Healthcare Social Workers Registered Nurses Recreational
Therapists Audiologists"

------
siganakis
This is somewhat similar to something I have been working on at, but which is
focussed more on finding the right "next move" within the technology industry.

Essentially you rank your skills based around enjoyment and experience and it
tells you what types of roles might be of interest to you.

[https://www.msgooroo.com/career/skills-
editor](https://www.msgooroo.com/career/skills-editor)

~~~
quaffapint
Would like to be able to play with it before I have to join anything.

------
subir
'Practical thinker' it is.

Fairly accurate. I've been a coder and entrepreneur. I love solving problems
and building stuff.

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quotient
Practical Thinker --- Engineer or Technologist. That's pretty appropriate.
I've been told I would be an engineer since age two or so. For a while, I
thought I was going to go into the humanities/arts. I'm now an entrepreneur
and (applied) mathematician.

------
hkmurakami
Practical thinker - engineer/technologist

;)

~~~
sliverstorm
Hands-on engineer though, note. Civil Engineering, Materials
Science/Engineering, that sort of thing.

Distinct from many (most?) readers on HN.

~~~
mctx
I got practical thinker too, and I'm a Mechatronic Engineer (I like building
things)

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fogleman
"Oh geez, no." was my thinking for most of those questions.

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quaffapint
Thinking helper - But I have to say there's not a job there I would enjoy. I
think I prefer a more mixing of being a programmer creating stuff that helps
people.

~~~
patrickdavey
Me too - I must say though, I've found myself being more and more interested
in Psychology etc. as time has gone by. Diplomat also sounds interesting.

Still, I definitely identify with being a programmer who creates stuff that
helps people!.

------
Ingon
I came out as thinking helper. With the promise that I could enjoy becoming
doctor. What a coincidence - I dream of becoming doctor :)

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phektus
I got recommended into the medical fields. Interesting, as I've always dreamed
of being a doctor when I was young.

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priyesh07
Your results show you are a problem solving thinker

You might enjoy being a computer programmer or a mathematician. :D :)

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st8ic
When I finished the last question it just sent me back to the homepage.

~~~
cristianocd
Happened a couple of times here too, just hit back and go on.

------
alixaxel
How many possible career outcomes does this quiz generate?

