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.
STEM degrees. Every STEM degree points at a set of careers, and every career has an entry path — some need a doctorate, some need a certificate and a portfolio. See the path for each of forty careers before you commit four years.
Careers the Custer County economy hires into
Custer County is government and tourism and recreation-typed in the USDA ERS 2025 typology, flagged for housing stress and a retirement destination, a metro county. Its labor market is the Rapid City, SD commuting zone (6 counties), MSA rank #280.
The wider labor market
Most STEM jobs a Custer County resident will hold are inside the Rapid City, SD 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.
STEM degrees — Rapid City, SD → · All careers in Custer County →
Questions people ask
How is a "stem degrees" 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.