Most of my career articles focus is on the objective side of things: the educational path and the job itself. It’s also important to consider things from the other perspective: what career is most suited to you.
Here’s how
Here in Calgary, it is required to take this peculiar 3 credit course called CALM in order to graduate high school. Most of us kiddos just sped through it, many not considering it to be an important course.
But there are some skills and tools to take away from it. And among those is the personality test called the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTi).
What’s that you ask?
I’ll start off with its cool history.
Back when people were hunter gatherers, they didn’t really have much say on what kinda career they could get into, as everyone was pretty much expected to know a little bit of everything in order to survive. With the agricultural revolution came class system. Occupations became based on what your parents did, so there yet was no need for personality tests. Even well into the industrial revolution, the lower class and a fraction of the middle class had to work factory jobs that were all in all, unsuited for anyone. The need for personality tests arose during the World Wars. The test is invented by Isabel Briggs and Katharine Myers during the world wars to help women entering the workforce during the war.
Determining your personality type is often done through set of yes or no questions to general situations. Take the personality test here.
What to the letters stand for? Check here.
Is my result accurate? Check here.
Chances are, your result will be wrong. Even with questionnaires used in industry settings. Researching enough about personalities and knowing yourself would be the only surefire way of determining your personality.
Then again, it might be correct in the first try.
Tip: this isn’t backed by science, but imagine yourself answering those questions when you are incredibly stressed out. What decisions would you make at that state? This might shed more light to your real aptitudes.
Whats MBTi is not used for
MBTi is not a horoscope
Your personality type is not a zodiac sign, and your future cannot be determined by it. It might be fun to arrive to pseudoscientific conclusions with your friends, but they are just that: pseudoscience.
Your personality type does not change
After taking the test, you might notice that you can swing back and forth from one personality to another. Depending on your mood, you might think. It would be hard to explain this phenomenon concisely, but this is due to two reasons:
1) personality types represent the 16 extreme possibilities – as an example, I am an ENTP. Does that mean that I’ll always be extroverted? Nope. Does that mean that I would always rely on thinking to make decisions? Definitely not. Even with intuition being my strongest function percentage wise, I can still perform sensory applications in life, school or a workplace if needed.
2) without stress, you can be any personality – stress would make your default to the four letters that make up your personality. Conversely, an introvert can act extroverted provided the correct situation.
3) the effects of nurture – if everyone in your family, for example, have the feeling function, even a thinking type would have to develop their feeling at a young age. In an appropriate workplace, however, you will be free to use your thinking tendencies.
My personality would lead me to the right career whether I know my personality or not
Wrong. The weaker aspects (not stronger) of your personality might somerimes push you to make choices that are not within your comfort zone. In the end of the day, working on the stronger points of your personality would make you more valuable to your friends, family, workplace, and community.
My personality defines me
No, you define yourself 🙂
Personality functions can be developed, and in fact, that’s what you do in your everyday life. Provided you are exposed to different experiences every once in a while, that is. MBTi can help you understand which functions to develop first.
So what is MBTi used for?
Originally for careers, many have found applications for personality types at home and other situations. What’s important to remember is that personality types are innate preferences. Not tendencies affected by the environment. Not lines that limit you. Not star positions when you were born.
Use it as a tool to better understand yourself and others, and you’ll be using it correctly.
I’ll relate this to career stuff in a future article 🙂 ‘Til next time guys 🙂
