Have you wondered why many individuals do not find their careers or jobs personally rewarding and fulfilling? The root cause of getting in the wrong job is not knowing what your aptitudes are.
For most people, the problem is not them or the job; it is simply that the job is not a good match for them. Identifying the aptitudes you possess helps you determine your abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
Furthermore, your aptitudes help you to excel in performing specific tasks. For some, it is the ability to comprehend complex mathematical problems and solve them. For another, it could be the ability to learn foreign languages easily.
Through this, you can determine the career that will give you satisfaction and fulfillment and avoid those that are not fit for you.
Let’s examine what aptitudes are in detail and how you can determine the appropriate career to delve into by knowing your aptitude in this article. Follow me.
What Do Aptitudes Mean?
Aptitudes are innate special abilities that make an individual easily acquire knowledge and skill or perform certain activities or tasks. They are inborn characteristics that make you special and excel in an activity more than others.
That is why someone can be gifted in music but can barely draw while another struggle to sing but is prolific in drawing and painting. What plays out is the difference in aptitudes possessed by each individual.
Also, if you possess the dexterity to handle small tools, you may likely excel in careers that involve surgery, repair, art, etc.
In addition, the ability to interpret numbers easily means you will likely excel in careers related to financial accounting, mathematics, economics, etc.
So, an individual’s aptitudes determine whether he will be successful in a particular field or not. These differences also make a person satisfied and fulfilled as a mechanic while another is fulfilled as an actor. In addition, you can possess two or more aptitudes in different measures.
Finally, although aptitudes are inborn, they can be improved with training. For instance, if you possess singing talent, attending a music school or voice training class can help transform your singing talent into a marketable skill.
Examples of Aptitudes
Here is a list of different types of aptitudes and how they fit into your personal and professional life:
1. Numerical aptitudes
If you are good with numbers, then you possess numerical aptitudes. Those with this ability can easily understand complex mathematical problems and solve them. Also, they can interpret numeric data and determine the relationship between these numbers.
As students, they are good with subjects like mathematics, physics, statistics, and financial accounting. Also, some of the careers suitable for those with this ability include auditor, computer programmer, financial analyst, statistician, medical scientist, economist, actuary, etc.
2. Language Aptitude
Individuals who possess these aptitudes find learning a new or foreign language easy. They learn new languages faster than the average person, and they can speak more than two languages if they commit themselves to learn.
Furthermore, becoming a diplomat, customer relationship manager, translator, and tour guide are some of the career paths in which these sets of individuals excel. You can also consider teaching others linguistics as a career.
3. Inductive Reasoning
These individuals are great investigators. They can determine the cause of an event by carefully examining scenarios and information tied to the event. They love to experiment and carry out research.
Excellent career options for persons with this ability are becoming detectives, scientists, psychologists, or research analysts.
4. Ideaphoria
Here, we see individuals who are full of ideas. They can easily develop creative ideas in a team, for projects, or even in their own space.
Furthermore, if you possess such aptitude, you should consider becoming a video or audio content creator, or you can choose to become a writer. If you have a knack for business, you can become a serial entrepreneur.
You may also enjoy working as part of the creative team in an organization.
5. Analytical Reasoning
Those who possess this ability are good at gathering and interpreting data from research findings. They can also proffer solutions to problems through their analysis.
It is highly sought-after by organizations, and employers need them to make critical decisions in the organization. With training in the use of analytical tools, you can work as a data analyst in just about any type of organization.
6. Auditory Aptitudes
Individuals here have the talent for singing and can learn to play instruments fast, and they can easily grasp musical rhythms, tones, and sequences.
The career fit for this kind of personality is quite obvious. Since they love music, they love to work closely with it. You should choose to become a producer, a singer, an instrumentalist, or a vocal coach if you possess auditory aptitude.
7. Dexterities
This involves the competent use of the fingers and small tools to perform tasks.
It may be using tools for artwork, repair of objects, surgical operations, or any craftwork. As such, excellent career options for these sets of individuals include sculptor, engineer, surgeon, hairdresser, artiste, etc.
8. Graphoria
Those who possess this ability can handle clerical or administrative duties and paperwork effectively.
They love for things to be organized. And this is noticeable in how they do their things. Therefore, if you are someone like this, you may enjoy being an event planner, secretary, administrator, project manager, or even an accountant if you are good with numbers.
9. Color Discrimination
Some individuals are quite good with colors, and they know the best combination of clothes to wear or the best color to combine for your house interior.
With this ability, you tend to excel as a fashion designer, interior decorator, and painter.
10. Visual Designs
This is the ability to create and reproduce artistic visual concepts. Individuals here are basically artistic in nature, and that is, they can make things that are aesthetically pleasing to the eyes.
They are good with drawing, painting, graphic design, interior decor, and craftwork. Therefore, you may choose to become an artist, interior designer, graphic designer, or involved in any art-inclined job.
11. Oratory aptitude
Individuals who have the ability to command attention while they speak are called orators. They have a good command of words and can communicate effectively.
They can persuade, convince, motivate, and encourage others to achieve a goal through their ability. Also, they easily become thought leaders and team leaders because of their speaking prowess.
If you are in this category, you can excel as a salesperson, teacher, lecturer, motivational speaker, politician, lawyer, etc. It is a great ability for anyone who wishes to become a leader.
12. Foresight
This may seem more like a general ability that everyone should possess. But some individuals have the special ability to discern the future by making subjective predictions.
This ability is closely related to analytical aptitudes. But the difference is that foresight is the ability to predict the future and make adequate preparations. On the other hand, analysis is a careful evaluation of gathered data.
Individuals here are brilliant, and their predictions are mostly correct; they are useful tools to employers. Because of this, they may get rewarded with managerial or supervisory positions in an organization.
13. Spatial aptitude
This is an individual’s cognitive ability to understand, analyze and retain the spatial relationship between objects and space. It also includes accurately manipulating 2D and 3D objects in the head.
This means that individuals with this ability can perceive and understand spatial features and properties of objects, such as their measurement, shape, position, and motion.
For instance, this ability helps mechanics to understand the visual relationships between objects in a car and how each part functions. Architects also use it to create and understand visual representations of structures in 2D and 3D.
Types of Aptitude Tests
Aptitude tests help you to identify the skills that you possess. You can take them online or in career centers.
Employers also use them in the hiring process to filter those applicants who are not a good fit for the job from those who are.
There are several aptitude tests that you can take. Some of the common ones include:
1. Watson Glaser critical thinking test
This test highlights five categories of questions: assumptions, interpretations, deductions, inferences, and argument evaluation.
The basis for this test is to identify a person’s ability to reason critically and make subjective conclusions.
2. Verbal reasoning test
A verbal reasoning test assesses an individual’s ability to understand written texts.
Additionally, in the hiring process, applicants are given a series of questions to provide answers to base on a passage they have read. It helps to determine a person’s ability to interpret written information and give accurate conclusions on what has been written.
3. Numerical reasoning test
This test ascertains an individual’s aptitude for numbers, and it helps to assess a person’s ability to solve and interpret mathematics data such as graphs, percentages, fractions, etc. It is a common test for accounting, economics, and computer programming jobs.
4. Inductive reasoning test
This test involves individuals studying patterns to determine the next logical step. It assesses a person’s logical capacity and ability to make conclusions by studying a series of events or existing information.
5. Situational judgment test
This is one of the most common tests during the recruitment process. It is a test that analyzes an individual’s ability to take the right approach toward work-related problems or situations with colleagues, superiors, or employers.
In other words, the test assesses an individual’s approach and judgment skills from his answer to the situational-based questions in the test.
6. Diagrammatic test
The diagrammatic test helps ascertain a person’s ability to think and reason logically. Employers conduct this test by presenting a sequence of activities from which applicants make logical injunctions. It also helps determine an individual’s ability to learn new things quickly.
7. Cognitive test
This helps to determine an individual’s general intelligence quotient and problem-solving abilities.
Importance of Identifying Your Aptitude
Let’s highlight the benefits that come with knowing your aptitude:
- It helps you to know the career path that is suitable for you
- Through the knowledge of your skill, you can discover your strengths and weaknesses
- You can identify hidden talents that you have
- It helps you to know what abilities to focus on developing
- Knowledge of your aptitudes helps to unravel your personal uniqueness
- You can prove to be qualified for a job by demonstrating your aptitudes
Is Aptitude the Same As Interest?
No. Aptitude is an ability that helps you perform a task or learn a skill easily, and interest, on the other hand, is built based on your experiences.
For instance, you may build interest in becoming a surgeon because you adore your father, who is one. But that doesn’t necessarily give you the dexterity to handle small tools used for surgical operations.
Furthermore, aptitude doesn’t change over time because it is innate. In contrast, your interest may change from time to time based on your experiences.
You may love to be a banker as a young boy because you see bankers dress smartly. However, as you grow older, you may pick an interest in painting for another reason.
FAQs
Why do you need to know your aptitude?
It helps you to determine a suitable career path or job to do.
Are aptitudes inborn or acquired?
Aptitudes are inborn or inherent in individuals. However, you can build on it by constantly using them to perform tasks.
How can your aptitudes help you to get a job?
You should highlight your aptitude in your resume, cover letter, and during interviews and state what you’ve been able to achieve with it in your previous jobs or in relevant activities you engaged in.
Conclusion
Understanding your aptitudes is crucial to choosing what career you’d find satisfaction and fulfillment in. Thankfully, this article has provided all you need to know about it.
Furthermore, it gives you knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses. As a result, you can identify careers or jobs you’d be most successful in based on the job functions.
In addition, you will be able to hone those aptitudes and gain speedy expertise. This will help you stand out in performing your job and earn you the respect of employers.
Finally, you can check the article on employability skills to learn more about the top skills employers are demanding for.
I hope this article helped. Thanks for reading.
