Personality Career Test – 4 Reasons Why You Need One

Why do you need a personality career test?  The reasons are many, but most may think a personality test pertaining to your career is super unnecessary.  Am I right?

A pointless exercise in self reflection or some other mumbo jumbo?  Or perhaps the idea of taking a personality career test, probably takes most of us back to an eerie feeling of high school and a General Psychology class or some variation thereof.

Among the basics covered, which most probably did our best to forget, was the standard personality test (we’ll modify it to personality career test. Though many different types exist, the personality test is a critical diagnosis of our socially functioning lives.  And…contrary to what many may call “unnecessary”, I assure you, a personality test or career aptitude test is still alive and thriving and a HUGE part of the hiring process of thousands of top companies.

Yet, while our past 16-year old self probably chalked it off, no one can deny our personalities play an active role in our daily routines and interactions with others. There is merit to it, and in fact, professional consultants, speakers, and even the elite corporate firms of the world rely on this information to equip their clients with organization-changing advice.

A little bit of background first…The MBTI, as it is now referred, or Myers Briggs Type Indicator is one of the most popular test available, and dates back to its introduction in the 1920’s. Though evolved over the years, the principals are the same. Of the test results, 16 personality types emerge through the building blocks of :

• General Attitude – Extraverted vs. Introverted (E vs. I)
• Functions of Perception – Sensing vs. Intuition (S vs. N)
• Functions of Judging – Thinking vs. Feeling (T vs. F)
• Life Implementations – Judging vs. Perceiving (J vs. P)

These 16 possible combinations reinforce the unique composure of our social persona. But it’s so much more than that, and unfortunately most of us meandering through our careers have not latched on to the value that the personality test can offer.

We try forcing our work to adhere to ourselves, or change ourselves to fit our work.  Insert, lame “square peg, round hole” saying.  The point is, this is a fruitless endeavor.  We should strive to find work that fits us, rather than changing one or the other once we’re stuck in a career…anyways…back to the career test.

There are 4 reasons why it is critical you take a personality test.  Let’s explore a little bit further to uncover the benefits you may be leaving on the table.

1. Self-Awareness

Like Master Yoda teaching young Skywalker the ways of the Force, a personality test helps reinforce our subconscious thoughts and concepts we have about ourselves, bringing to light urges and feelings we have had, but failed to act upon.

You may claim to be self-aware, but are you really?

Do you fully understand your strengths and weaknesses?

What impact your job is having in your life?

The impact this invested time could have over the course of a lifetime?

Do you know how your abilities could potentially fit perfectly to a particular career?

These are the massively important things that are all attributable back to a personality type.  And…a personality test is what triggers this entire positive process.

2. Provides Career Options

The MBTI career personality test not only provides you with your personality type, but also with career options worth pursuing, by matching up complimentary careers and industry choices. There is proven history behind these results, examples of countless well-renown individuals who fit certain profiles and the careers they had as a result.

This is encouraging as it validates the importance of how those career options would be best tailored for you.  Our personalities are incredible indicative of our job performance and what kind of role we are fit for.

How we work with others and how we don’t work well with others.  All of these factors make for a powerful result of your personality test, and most crucial of all, this gives you direction on what to pursue.

3. Builds on Your Strengths

How can you excel in a career which you’re not skilled in?  Further, would you enjoy a job where your skills are not adept?

How about vice-versa?  Would you feel fulfilled if you weren’t using your skills and abilities every day?  Just letting them sit on the side as untapped potential?

Absolutely not.  Bad in all cases.  Bad news for you because you would feel unused.  Bad for any job employer, because, why would they not want an employee who is using their top skills and abilities every day?

This is fairly common sense.  We are most fulfilled when we’re devoting our skills to work we’re interested in.

This personality test or career aptitude test will aid you in understanding your functional strengths and routine emotions and the results will explain them in a way that helps you make sensible decisions.

4. Gives a Starting Point

What good is all a personality test if there’s nothing tangible to take away?  If there’s no application?

This is the best part – it IS actionable.  The results of your personality test give you something to go on.

And…unlike typical career advice that leaves you “hanging” in a way, trying to figure out what to do next, or how to get from point A to point B, the personality test gives you results about yourself, based on YOUR input, no one else.  As discussed, it is also customized to you, which again, is unlike most career advice.

Lastly, by connecting your personality type to the actual fields, industries, and jobs that those personalities excel in, gives you, quite literally, some next steps to pursue.  Builds a framework of confidence and serves as a starting point to develop your career path and life’s work.

If you have not taken a career personality test, or not taken one in a long time, this is a must.

It literally takes 10-15 minutes and will prove a monumental worthwhile investment.

Our personalities drive our behavior, whether we like it or not, and becoming educated on what makes us tick is the key to finding the work and pursuits that play to our strengths and attributes.

So what are you waiting for?  Get in there and knock it out now.  What do you have to lose?