This month, I’m talking about using critical information about yourself in your career choice. Last week, I talked about Motivated Skills; this week I want to talk about your personality.
I am a Master Practitioner of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the world’s most widely used personality assessment. It is a psychological tool designed to reveal your personality preferences…the ones you were born with.
Here’s the analogy I always use with my clients: I have them write their name. Whether they use their right hand as most people do or their left hand (like me), we identify that the hand they wrote their name with is their preferred hand. No one forced them use that hand; one day, they picked up a crayon and started drawing with that hand.
That hand is their innate preference.
Next, I have them write their name with their non-preferred hand. We talk about the fact that it was a much more conscious task with that hand…and that the results weren’t nearly as good.
The next step is to have them imagine their preferred arm is broken and it’s in a cast for six months. During that time, they are forced to write exclusively with their non-preferred hand.
They will no doubt get better at using that hand during those six months, right?
I then have them imagine that a co-worker exclaims, “Oh my gosh…your arm is broken! Is that the arm you write with?”
Of course, their answer is “Yes!” Even though they are using their non-preferred hand exclusively, it doesn’t change the fact that that isn’t their preferred hand.
And, as soon as that cast comes off, they are back to their preferred hand.
What’s this have to do with personality type? The MBTI measures personality preferences on four scales and identifies one of 16 personality types based on your responses.
The MBTI is identifying your innate preferences…the way you prefer to handle a situation or task if given the option.
But here’s the thing: All of us must access our non-preferred side of our personality. On a daily basis.
The Introvert who has to go to a two-day team building event with coworkers and finds it incredibly draining.
The Perceiver whose boss expects her to stick to a tight schedule.
The Thinker whose coworker comes to him very emotional, with a personal problem.
The Intuitive whose project assignment requires her to complete her tasks in a very sequential manner.

Let’s translate this into your career choice. As I said last week, career choice, and the role of your personality in that choice, is a macro- and micro-level decision.
On a macro level, you are choosing a career field that meshes with your personality.
On a micro level, you are evaluating job opportunities based on those same criteria. Because sometimes what holds true for the career as a whole doesn’t hold true for a specific position.
Here’s an example: I once worked with a YMCA Assistant Director who was underperforming at work. Turned out (much to everyone’s surprise) that he was an Extravert. You would think a job at the YMCA – specifically organizing the recreational sporting events for children – would be a great fit for an Extravert. And you would be right.
HOWEVER, at this YMCA the Assistant Director’s office was at the end of a dark hallway – isolated from the patrons coming in and out, and from the other employees. He hated that aspect of his job.
So what are the preference pairs measured by the MBTI?
 
EXTRAVERSION – INTROVERSION
This pair has to do with where you get your energy. Extraverts get their energy from the people and activities going on around them; Introverts get their energy from being by themselves.
Extraverts are generally comfortable meeting, and speaking with, strangers; Introverts would rather not approach strangers and find it difficult to start a conversation with someone they don’t know.
Extraverts tend to be “open books,” meaning they freely share what they are thinking with those around them. Introverts are much more closed about what they share until they know someone we