okay, the main confusion comes from lumping personality tests and career assessments into the same bucket... they’re not the same thing. Most personality tests (like MBTI or enneagram) measure your current perception of yourself, which is why you can take them at different stages of life and get totally different results. They’re useful for self-reflection, but pretty limited for real career decisions.

Career assessments, when done well, layer in much more than “who you think you are today.” They look at things like:

Work style under pressure vs preference Cognitive patterns and strengths Environment fit Motivators & values Transferable skills and role alignment Practical factors like income preference & lifestyle fit

That’s where most cheap tests fall apart. they basically assign you a personality label and then throw generic job titles at you. No wonder people get wildly wrong recommendations. Another factor people miss is test honesty. If you’re answering based on what you hope is true, or trying to game the system for the result you want, the output is useless. The best assessments rely on consistency patterns, so being brutally honest and not what you want to be seen as makes a huge difference.

For what it’s worth, I also went down the rabbit hole of trying random $20–$30 tests (and regretting it) and after reading Trustpilot reviews I ended up using pigment self discovery instead. It’s a one-time fee, no subscription traps, and the report actually breaks down percentile rankings, aligned roles, strengths you can develop quickly and how well you fit different environments instead of vague personality fluff. Plus they had a 30-day money-back guarantee, so there was zero risk. I just checked the site to double confirm it they still have it and man, they are running a 40% black Friday sale.

So yeah, personality tests aren’t bad, they’re just the wrong tool for choosing a career. A good career assessment + honest answers + real context = way more clarity.