Has anyone used CareerLeader?

I wouldn't pay for it. It's probably ok since so many schools use it, but you'll likely get it -- or something like it -- for free once you get to school. I don't like to pay for stuff I can get for free.

Bump. Has anyone else used it before attending an MBA program? Was it helpful and worth the money?

Some schools give it to you for free - Duke is one of them. I haven't done it yet, but plan to do so this week.

I used CareerLeader shortly after taking the GMAT. I thought it was very useful in finding careers, I never gave Investment Management much thought before Career Leader and now I am seriously thinking about it. It is useful if you don't have a good idea of what you want to do post b-school.

I used it a few weeks ago. I don't know if its entirely helpful for people who know what they want to do, but for those who feel unsure about certain paths , i think it can help validate or demonstrate alternate paths you may not have considered.

For instance, I knew, sort of conceptually, that marketing might be fit - when it showed up as a strong match in careerleader, it made me think that I should I give it a harder look. It also suggested sales, which I had never thought of (and probably wont). There were no major surprises for me, but it helped validate that what I thought would be a fit -- might well be a fit -- and what I thought would be a poor fit, was in fact, a poor fit.

If you KNOW you want to do X, and you plan on doing X no matter what, careerleader probably wont be helpful. If you are considering a few possibilities, aren't sure, or just need a little extra "validation" (albeit from a computer algorithm), it can be worthwhile.... depending on price.

Oh and - I got a lot of mileage out of the industry profiles.... you can see profiles for lots of jobs and industries - even ones you didnt score well in. They describe the industry, trends, etc... Its not like it just shows you your top 3 industries... it ranks you for ALL of them and you can go and see just how badly you fit with Ibanking or Consulting, or why it thought you were a poor fit for X or Y. That was helpful too.

Thanks guys! Seems like a worthwhile investment. I've got about 2-3 interests that are very diverse and I'd like some quantitative data to validate them.

Or who knows it might unearth a path I previously had not considered.

I don't think career leader is worth your money. If you can get it for free, by all means, invest half an hour and do the assessment. Most MBA Career Centers offer these types of assessments for free once you are enrolled. The problem I see with this is that a lot of times this information is more helpful pre-business school, because once you're in school you are so caught up with coursework and prepping for interviews that you find less time for things like this.

If you have time right now, and would like to take the best free career assessment test, definitely try pymetrics.

Its a game-based neuroscience assessment test that will reveal your cognitive and social traits and then give you a complete career report. This method is actually a lot better than questionnaires because it eliminates the inherent bias of answering these questions.

Check it out:

https://bit.ly/1JxEviS

I feel it's a highly biased test. It has 3 different sections - interests, motivations and skills. In the interests section, it asks a longlist of questions like "whether you want to be a real estate broker or a retail store manager". Now it's anybody's guess that if you pick more examples like the first one, you will get real estate management as a career interest and if you pick the latter, you wil get operations management. It's no good for me.

Motivation section may have some merit though as it was quite mind-boggling.

Even in skills, its not correct because the results are a reflection of what you think you are good or bad at - however, others may not think the same. So others should that yes xyz is a detail-oriented person, you may think you are a detail-oriented person but actually be far from that.

I agree that it is biased - one client at Wharton recommended it but I have found since using it, for my clients, all the answers, recommended jobs etc we had previously discerned from my coaching. This actually happens a lot but still, I've stopped using it in my practice because the value does not seem to be there for the client. I really wonder why nearly all business schools use it? Opportunity for disruption here for shizzle.