Would you take career advice from a 21-year-old? Spencer Thompson has built a website that uses survey questions and data to find a career that suits you best. This Fast Company article introduced you to his Thompson's company, Sokanu (pronounced so can you), contains a database of some 500 careers, with metrics on what sort of person thrives in that career. By posing a series of survey questions, Sokanu can begin matching you with your ideal career.
- “We make decisions usually based on the bias of other people,” says Thompson. He adds that he doesn’t want to replace career counselors, but offer them a tool. “We’re moving away from the traditional psychometric-based assessment. We said, can we built this using math and statistics?”
- “There’s no bias in the system at all. You have exactly the same chance at any point of having janitor or plumber come up as doctor or lawyer,” says Thompson. (That said, future premium versions of the site may allow you to set clear parameters, such as the ability to show careers that have a 95% match that make six-figure salaries.)
- “We’re working towards something we call ‘career bands,’” says Thompson of his site, “a set of careers that exist within the same cluster or similar genetic makeup that you might move between over a period of 20 to 30 years.”
- “We’re working towards something we call ‘career bands,’” says Thompson of his site, “a set of careers that exist within the same cluster or similar genetic makeup that you might move between over a period of 20 to 30 years.
