About the SuccessFinder tool
The SuccessFinder Career System Inventory™ (“SuccessFinder”) is a psychometric tool designed to predict an individual’s likely success in a certain role. It does so by measuring 85 behavioral traits and 35 career themes and connecting them to approximately 500 specific roles and/or domains. The tool has been validated through empirical studies conducted with tens of thousands of individuals worldwide. The tool is developed in adherence to the standards for educational and psychological testing set by the American Psychological Association, as well as the principles for the validation and use of personnel selection procedures by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.
Specifically designed to assess target work behaviors and career interests, the instrument has high content validity in an organizational context. Its effectiveness may be gauged by the fact that 94% of respondents rate the test results as having an accuracy level of over 75%.
The assessment includes over 300 forced-choice items, and can be completed in approximately one hour. By benchmarking the user’s profile with that of high-performing individuals in the database, the instrument can predict the candidate’s probability of success in a specific role with an 85% confidence level.
The forced-choices methodology used to collect information in the questionnaire significantly reduces the impact of social desirability, a common bias in personality inventories. The instrument not only measures bias, but also adjusts for it by using a scale that assesses the extent to which the respondent tried to present themselves in the best possible light.
The SuccessFinder assessment uses a unique set of norms based on a diverse sample to ensure that it is representative of the general population. These norms are applied regardless of gender, ethnic origin, or age of the respondents. The raw scores collected are transformed into percentiles using this unique set of norms. As a result, the obtained scores range from 1 to 99, in increments of 5 points.
The SuccessFinder tool is a powerful diagnostic tool. In the hands of an experienced coach, it is also an instrument to drive fundamental change– the kind that can enable individuals to more effectively achieve their success potential.
Here are three insights that explain how you as individuals (or organizations seeking the best talent) benefit by making the SuccessFinder tool part of your career planning/candidate selection processes.
Preference ≠ Ability
A “preference” for a certain role does not automatically mean “performance”. Equally, there is no “right” or “wrong” profile; neither are there “good” or “bad” preferences.
You can truly do anything you want if you so choose- and invest the required time and effort. Left-handed people can write proficiently with their right hand after years of practice. However, if they have a choice, they would prefer to write with their left hands- essentially their “first nature”. SuccessFinder does not tell you what you can or cannot do. It estimates the kind of effort you need to make in order to succeed in a certain field, based on how well your natural style aligns with the demands of that role/domain. Think of SuccessFinder as a navigational aid that provides you with information about the tailwinds or headwinds you might encounter in your journey.
Alignment of your natural preferences with the needs of your current/future role predict success
Ever wondered why some people who are incredibly “smart” do not do as well as expected in certain roles, and vice versa? Why don’t top sportspersons become excellent coaches? Each role/ domain/ career theme has its own recipe for success that goes beyond technical skills or functional knowledge. How well you are likely to perform in a role depends on how well you as an individual, fit the needs of that role in terms of your natural preferences and predispositions.
If you have many natural preferences in common with what success in a given role needs, the fit will be strong. However, if only a few preferences are common to you and the role, the fit will be weak. You will need to go against your grain more often and make more sacrifices because the position requires many things that do not come naturally to you.
SuccessFinder has a database of the common characteristics of tens of thousands of individuals who are acknowledged to be highly successful in various roles/domains/career themes. This provides insights into the typical ingredients needed to succeed in that role.
When you as a candidate take the test, your past experience or performance is not taken into account, because like with financial investments, the past is not sufficient to predict future success. Your profile is compared to those of the high-performers in a specific field, allowing us to predict both your performance and the satisfaction you will likely experience in that role.
Forewarned is forearmed
With mystery/thriller books, movies, plays, or surprise gifts, we hate spoilers. But when it comes to decisions around our career choices, being armed with advance information does help!
To maximize your chances of success and enjoyment at work, it is important that your natural preferences align both with your professional interests as well as what the work requires.
Having talent in a certain field does not necessarily mean that you are passionate or interested in a career in that field. Similarly, having a passion or interest in an activity does not guarantee that you are naturally gifted at it.
SuccessFinder shows you how well your interests and natural preferences align with those associated with or exhibited by high-performers in the database who are in similar roles/ themes/ domains. This allows you to assess various choices and decide on the job and/or field of activity that best suits you in terms of both enjoyment and likelihood of success.
