You are really fortunate to have someone so close in your network who can candidly talk to you about career paths. In case you have discussed the idea of a psychometric test with him, he must have asked you to be careful about your expectations from a psychometric test claiming to find out the ideal career for you. The name, I agree, is a bit misleading. This test is more of a structure & direction provider rather than a magic wand that will grant whatever you wish for.

The fact that many people, like your friend’s elder brother, in the past two decades never underwent any psychometric test as a student is a re-confirmation of the historic trend when career decisions were highly influenced by Parent’s or other close relative’s occupations. Families used to decide the future of their children while the kids were still in senior secondary grades! The limited career opportunities and lack of well designed psychometric tests further added to this low awareness about how to accelerate one’s career progression by utilizing the tools available in psychometrics. The secret to your friend’s elder brother’s success must have been a combination of determination, hard work, and collaboration. Does that mean psychometric tests are useless? Of course not. Just because these tools were not so popular at that time does not mean we should discard it without understanding its purpose.

This brings us to exactly what I keep reminding to all my students i.e. a career is not a fixed journey with pre-determined steps that can be figured out just by taking a 60-minute test. These tests are available to help you in this decision-making process. When thinking about your career-related decisions, the traditional 'plan then implement' model does not work very well.

Instead of thinking too much before taking any action, you should always be looking out for opportunities to “act first then reflect later”. This sounds very counter-intuitive but is surprisingly true in this context. Psychometric tests are tools to be used in the “reflect later” stage; and not the “act first” stage. The results are also more reliable and useful for students who take these tests after spending considerable time on hands-on activities, real-world projects, internships etc. to figure out what kind of work provides a spark to them.

For further queries and related information, you can approach the Professional Experts at CareerGuide. Hope this will help you!