In the early 20th century, the US military adapted Intelligence Quotient (IQ) tests to provide a way of quickly flagging individuals for specific duties. Today many companies use several types of IQ tests to assess individual potential in a variety of career tracks.

Some psychologists criticized the early IQ tests because their cultural bias favored middle class North Americans. Others claimed they only measured a very narrow set of skills and had little predictive power.

These days many experts claim there's a wide range of differing "intelligences" like emotional, right and left brain, social and creative intelligence. I believe it's always important to take each test result with a grain of salt. As a career assessment tool, career IQ tests can be useful if you don't "over interpret" the results.

For example, if you're interested in a career in accounting, it's useful to know that accounting professionals' IQs are often in the highest fifteen per cent. Therefore, if your score falls within the top ten percent, then you'll likely be able to face the intellectual challenges of an accounting career.

On the other hand, you may take a creative intelligence test and discover you are "right-brain dominant," hence more prone to creativity than rational analysis. In this case, you may want to explore a career in designing accounting policy - or a similar track that merges your solid IQ and interest in accounting with your creative bent.

Using these tests can involve a fair amount of mixing and matching. There are some sites on the internet that serve as a "one-stop" IQ test shop. Tickle.com is one of them. Are you in the right job? Take Tickle's Free IQ Test and Report to find out!

There are several things aboutTickle that I really like. First, you can do all of their tests for free. You can buy their detailed information reports (usually 10-15 pages for about $10-20), - but they don't require a purchase to do the free tests.

Second, they have a collection of intelligence tests described above - all of them designed by PhD's who are specialists in their fields.

Third, they have over 10 million registered users and they won a Webby Award for the fastest growing web site in 2002.

If I have a minor hesitation about recommending Tickle it's because their site also carries match-making, astrology and many other non-career related tests (but, hey, maybe that's my problem, not theirs). Furthermore, their site presents an annoying "pop-up" window as soon as you land at their site. If you close it on arrival, however, it disappears for the duration of your visit.

Hesitations aside, my advice is to click on Tickle's "career" link and go straight to their career IQ tests. Take a test or two for free before you determine if you want to buy a detailed report about your results. Within an hour you could have the IQ test information you need to begin your career planning. Free IQ Test and Report