Can your personality give you career clarity?
Searching for the “right” career fit can feel daunting.
How do you know what career you’d like? And even if you like it now, will you like it forever? What careers are you best suited for based on your personality and skillsets? These questions can easily lead anyone to want shut the door on career exploration, put their head down, and just stick with what they know. It’s overwhelming.
In the 10 years I’ve helped folks find career direction, I’ve encountered some pretty fabulous tools out there. For a lot of people, where to start is the first and most burdensome question. I’ve found a great place to begin is someone’s personality and looking within. Better understanding your personality will help you explore your underlying values and how you might want to contribute to the world. My tried-and-true tool for unearthing personality is a well-known assessment called the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator).
What is the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)?
The MBTI is the most popular and well-research personality assessment available. It’s a self-report questionnaire that evaluates personality preferences, how you perceive the world, and make decisions.
I have seen, firsthand, the empowering effects of this inventory. I’ve seen folks gain confidence, and finally understand that their way of thinking and behaving is not broken. I’ve seen them come to embrace the fact that they simply have preferences for ways of moving through the world. And that is a great place to start ANY career journey.
As an INFJ, the MBTI gave me clarity and allowed me to embrace the skillsets I had previously taken for granted. It was empowering and helped me lean even further into the profession I’d chosen.
A little bit more about the MBTI from its creators:
“The MBTI assessment was developed by Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs as an application of Carl Jung’s theory of personality types. This theory suggests that we have opposite ways of directing and receiving energy (Extraversion or Introversion), taking in information (Sensing or Intuition), deciding or coming to conclusions about that information (Thinking or Feeling), and approaching the outside world (Judging or Perceiving).
Everyone can and does use each of these eight parts of personality at least some of the time but prefers one in each pair over the other, just as most people have a natural preference for using one hand rather than the other. No preference in a pair is better or more desirable than its opposite.
The MBTI assessment does not measure your skills or abilities in any area. Rather, it is a tool to help you become aware of your particular style and to better understand and appreciate the helpful ways that people differ from one another.”
What’s in an MBTI Report?
Although the same research defines each MBTI report (the report is how all your wonderful personality data is outlined), there are almost 200 unique reports available. For my clients, I’ve gone through these reports and identified the most updated and thorough report available-The Global Step II MBTI Report. It identifies your 4-letter personality type, and describes how people with your personality navigate communication, decision making, change management, and conflict management.
As you can imagine, this report not only helps you explore your professional identity, but serves as an informative read for understanding how you navigate relationships and everyday life. It is one of the most empowering personality assessments out there and many folks have used this 18-page MBTI report as a starting point for exploring their underlying values and their “why” for work. Its verbiage is also helpful for those looking to develop cover letters and personal statements.
I’ve included some images of the Global Stem II MBTI report below:
Looking for a Career Counselor in Houston?
Interested in taking the MBTI? You can schedule a free 20-minute phone consultation with me by clicking the button below. I’m all about transparency and helping you figure out if I’m the right fit for you. If you don’t find a time that works for you, feel free to email me at hello@tamaraclarkson.com.