There's a lot of pressure placed on young people to decide what they are going to do when they grow up.

In addition to facing the expectations of their families, today's young people also know how expensive it is to live in Bermuda.

While, for its size, Bermuda has a relatively broad job market, it is international business that provides the lure of financial security.

But international business is not necessarily a fit for everybody and a career needs to be about more than just money.

So how does anybody know what to do? One critical and often overlooked part of the career path is finding what we are naturally good at – our aptitudes.

The Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation, a non-profit scientific research and educational organisation in Boston, defines aptitudes as natural talents, special abilities for doing, or learning to do, certain kinds of things.

Manual dexterity, musical ability, spatial visualisation, and memory for numbers are examples of such aptitudes.

In Bermuda, Profiles of Bermuda offers a Career Coach assessment which not only identifies aptitudes but also interests and personality types.

"What we're looking at is the whole picture," explains Cordell Riley the managing director of Profiles of Bermuda.

"You can have the aptitude but not the interest or your personality fits but not your aptitudes. Unless those three things are in balance then you won't have a good fit with the job."

The advantage of the assessment is that it lets people know where their skills sets are so they can either head in the direction suggested or start working on the areas where they need to improve.

"The assessment is based on a study that looked at 10,000 people deemed to be successful in their fields" explains Mr. Riley.

"So when someone says I'm interested in being a lawyer we can match them against the characteristics of people who are successful lawyers. If the scores are 70 percent or above then it is considered a good match."

But what happens when the scores don't add up? Should that person give up and head in another direction?

"Not at all," Mr. Riley says. "When people are determined to follow a career path they can. The assessment will identify areas they need to focus on to improve their skills or where they might need to put in more work during their studies.

"You can change your learning index scores."

Your interests can also change. Often the career interests of the child are shaped by others and the assessment can provide a more objective look at the individual.

"The impact on young people when other people decide their careers is huge," states Mr. Riley.

"Most of the time the pressure is from parents, particularly educated parents, who want to steer their child toward a 'respectable' career like lawyer, accountant, doctor.

"So you get young people going to school who have the ability but hate their studies. When there is a match, the child tends to be more successful, for obvious reasons."

He recalls an instance where a mother brought her daughter in for the assessment, it came back suggesting a career in security or investigative services.

The mother was not happy at all. The daughter however was very interested and together they spoke to the various security firms about careers and opportunities and one of those firms ended up sponsoring the daughter at her school of choice.

"Once the mother had a comfort level with the industry she came around and, of course, the daughter was very happy," says Mr. Riley.

In another case, BAS-Serco Ltd. was looking to Bermudianise the weather service so Mr. Riley worked with them in establishing benchmarks for the type of work required.

Serco then had applicants do the career assessment to determine suitability.

"One of the things that was found to be critical was getting a decent score in maths," explains Mr. Riley.

"Because Serco were sending these people away for training, they needed to be sure of certain abilities before providing the training."

Most of the individuals who do the assessment with Profiles of Bermuda are adults looking for a career change.

However the assessments could have even greater impact if taken during the school years.

"Studies have shown that the earlier young people establish what they want to do, and set their goals, then the earlier they achieve them," says Mr. Riley.

"Adults have the benefit of wisdom. They have been out there and know what it's like if a job is not working for them.

"Youngsters really need more guidance."