Take the STEM Compass assessmentSee the STEM Farm tracks
What the assessment measures
280 items in five modules — what you love to do, how you work, fifteen STEM working traits, thirty real situations, and where you want your work to land — matched against forty careers in eight families. Then a sixth module drafts your mission, vision and values in your own words. Progress saves as you go; it is free and complete today.
Is a STEM program right for me. Right for you means the traits the work runs on are traits you already have or want to grow. The assessment shows the gap or the margin on every one. A STEM program is a path to a career. Find the career that fits first, then the STEM Farm track that starts at zero and ends in that job with verified proof at every gate.
Careers the Hickory County economy hires into
Hickory County is tourism and recreation-typed in the USDA ERS 2025 typology, flagged for low employment, housing stress and a retirement destination, a nonmetro county. Its labor market is the Springfield, MO commuting zone (11 counties), MSA rank #111.
The wider labor market
Most STEM jobs a Hickory County resident will hold are inside the Springfield, MO zone, not inside the county line.
What moves it
- WIOA-funded training pays for the credential, ages 14 to 24 and adults: find your local office.
- Registered apprenticeship — a wage from day one: apprenticeship.gov.
- FAFSA — free to file, the gate to nearly all aid: studentaid.gov.
- STEM Farm — the track from zero to the career the assessment says fits: the twelve tracks.
Is a STEM program right for me — Springfield, MO → · All careers in Hickory County →
Questions people ask
How is a "is a stem program right for me" different from a personality type test?
A type test gives you a label. STEM Compass gives you a profile on fifteen working traits and eight kinds of impact, then a directional match against each career — a number you can explain, not a letter code.
Does it cost anything?
No. The full assessment is open at tienesesto.org/stem-assessment, and every result links to a STEM Farm track that starts from zero.