How to make a wise career choice using the MBTI test
Psychology is a beautiful thing. Knowledge of psychology makes the world more complicated but applying it makes your life easier.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is one of the aspects of psychology I wish I knew back in the days when I was applying for college. I learned about it in my mid-twenties and I keep coming back to it since then.
In a nutshell, MBTI is a questionnaire that identifies people’s preferences and behavioral patterns that reflect their perception of the world and decision making.
The test itself takes about 10 minutes and you can find it at www.16personalities.com, www.truity.com or other online sources. After completion of the test, you will be assigned to one of the 16 unique personality types. You might be skeptical about the generalizing of 7 billion people to only 16 personality types but the results are surprisingly accurate.
One curious thing about us, humans, is that we come to this life already having a personality. Any mother of two can tell you that her children were different right from the first day of their life. As we grow up our character continues to mature and evolve but its fundamental core gets fixed by the age of 10 and is not subject to a significant change over the course of life. Our individualities, qualities, strengths, and weaknesses become rigid and pronounced.
MBTI theory is a valuable tool that can be used to make wiser career choices that would suit our traits and temperament. Our line of work must be chosen in a way that would let us focus on our strengths perfecting what we do best, but at the same time let us deepen the understanding of our weaknesses so that we could develop a strategy to tackle them.
For illustration purposes, let’s take a look at my MBTI results. My MBTI personality type is INFJ which stands for Introversion (I), Intuition (N), Feeling (F), and Judgment (J). INFJs inspire others to achieve and to do good in the world. They are oftentimes politicians, coaches, and teachers.
MBTI worked for me, it serves as an insightful tool for many people, it might as well work for you. If there is a slight chance to learn something new about yourself then isn’t it worth a shot? You won’t get all of the answers but it will give you a fresh perspective on how to approach the search of your ikigai.
MBTI helps you to build better relationships.
MBTI can also be used to assess the compatibility of you and your partner by revealing the differences in worldviews that can potentially cause contention. Ask your partner (or a potential partner) to pass the test. Search online the compatibility between your types. You’ll learn a lot.
In addition to those discussed in the section About Soulmates, the results of the compatibility test support the verity of another secret of happy couples:
A prerequisite of a strong soulful bond between two partners is an excellent psychological match.
Deep awareness of your personality type and understanding of the dynamics with other types will help you to design a better life. Poor choices of career and a partner ruined many lives. Minimize the risks. Knowledge is power.
Thank you for reading my book “Meditations of the Millennial”.
If you want to support me on my mission, please, share this book with someone you love. Maybe they will find what they seek on its pages.
