Personality potential
- At November 04, 2011
- By Nathan
- In Career Planning
0
Trying to be someone you are not is a waste of time.
This basic observation has been bent in recent years in order to support all sorts of bizarre beliefs and behaviour. But engaging in behaviour like whacking people on the head with heavy objects, baseball bats, tire irons, rolling pins, etc. is still an odd way to go about discerning your authentic personal identify or core personality type.
A dishevelled researcher covered in ivy may wax eloquently about discovering the “head-hunting'”gene, but only until some enlightened journalist discovers another exciting use for their microphone or things take a turn for the worse back home in the kitchen. Distortions aside, it is important to try to be yourself.
Okay, so you might not be the life of the party, but you have a distinct personality nonetheless. Everyone does. Considering a new career direction, it is a good idea to maximize your particular personality potential in the work place by gaining a greater sense of self-awareness.
One way to go about doing that is to take a personality test designed by TypeFocus Careers. David Wood and his team in Victoria, B.C. offer a free online evaluation or a more detailed self-awareness report for $34.95. If you are connected to a college that has already contracted to use the Typefocus service you might be able to get the more extensive version for free.
This “test” is based on the famous Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) which contains 16 different personality types. Actually there are 8 categories that can be combined in 16 different ways. If, for example, you are energized by being alone instead of being with people you would be identified by an I. Then, if it turns out that you tend to acquire new information via intuition as opposed your senses you would be given an N. If you usually make decisions by thinking in contrast to feeling a T would be tacked on. A J would be your finally letter if you like to bring your structure to the outside world (i.e. judging) rather than taking things as the come (i.e. perceiving).
This type of exercise really pays off if you can then identify job families, and eventually a specific career, that is suited to someone with your personality type
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