An important part of dreaming your job into existence is knowing who you are, what you like and what you want. Self-assessment takes a variety of forms. One thing that we know for sure is that self-appraisal can be very biased. It’s important to verify your views about yourself with outside sources.
The two forms of outside verification are mentoring and independent assessment. We’ll discuss mentoring in an upcoming column — It’s important to have a mentor.
In this article, we’re going to start taking a look at the various kinds of independent appraisals that are available online. The more information you can gather about yourself, your aptitudes, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, goals and ambitions
The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely used personality test. Over 2 million people take the test each year. You may have heard of it. Taking the MBTI is a good way to get started in the process of understanding yourself.
In the Myers-Briggs world view, all people can be classified using four dimensions:
The first dimension, Extraversion – Introversion is the source and direction of energy expression for a person. Extraverts get their energy from outside of themselves. Introverts find their energy internally. Extraverts need the outside world as an energy source. Introverts seem to manufacture their own.
The second dimension, Sensing – Intuition is the method of a person uses to get information. Sensing means gathering and trusting information from your senses. Intuition means gathering information from internal sources and applying it to sensory information.
The third dimension, Thinking – Feeling defines how the person processes information. Thinking means that a person makes a decision mainly through logic. Feeling means that, as a rule, he or she makes a decision based on emotion or a ‘gut feel’.
The fourth dimension, Judging – Perceiving defines how a person uses the information he or she has processed. Judging means having a clear decisive perspective and plan about next steps and the meaning of things. Perceiving involves the ability to adapt and improvise.
The different combinations of the dimensions determine a type. There are sixteen types. Every type has a name that comes from the dimensions. For example: ISTJ Introvert Sensing Thinking Judging or ENFP Extravert Intuitive Feeling Perceiving.
You can take an online version of the instrument here. In addition to describing your personality type, this version offers some career insight from the Jung Career Indicator (JCI). The JCI identifies compatible professions and gives examples of famous people with the same personality type. (There are other online versions available here and here). If you want to learn more about the MBTI and its history, the wikipedia article is a good starting point.
