Myers-Briggs Typology and Your Career. By Nikita Dolan: BA (Accounting), SETU

Nikita Dolan, explores the most popular personality test in the world – the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). So what is MBTI and how can it help you?

The most popular personality test in the world – the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); the legacy of mother-daughter team Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers – is taken by more than two million people every year, used across twenty-six countries, and has become a pre-requisite for Fortune 500 companies and universities in recent times.

Briggs had been studying personality differences from the time when Isabel was four, meaning that these two women persisted for almost eighty years before the MBTI became the commercial success it is today. Personality testing has since swelled to become a two-billion-dollar industry today, though the pair never intended on making money. Instead, they truly believed that they had discovered a way to make work more efficient and human beings less unhappy. So, the question is, how can it help you?

MBTI takes the bulk of its concept from Jungian analysis. Carl Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who coined the term ‘individuation,’ the process of developing a distinct personality, by bringing the unconscious thought into the conscious. This process starts in adolescence but continues throughout our lives.

Psychological analysis assists in providing a starting guide by categorising your personality type and then giving you insight into the functions of that personality, and how those functions interact with the environment around them. A widely used tool for this is MBTI, a quantitative assessment first established in 1975 with the aim of improving working relationships between healthcare workers after WW2.

In MBTI, there are sixteen types that you can be categorised into. These are decided by your functions, which are deduced by the way you answer a series of questions.

The functions are as follows –

Introversion vs Extroversion – Energised by people or energised by time alone?
Intuition vs Sensing – Focused on patterns, the details in between the facts, creative solutions and the future, or facts, details, methodology and the present?
Thinker vs Feeler – Makes decisions based on logical analysis and objective, or makes decisions based on personal values and empathy above all else.
Judging vs Perceiving – Organised, prepared and comfortable with most rules, or spontaneous, preferring options kept open and needs flexibility.

This may look too simple when the function is looked at in isolation but it is how the functions react with each other that makes up your typology. If you have 15 minutes to spare and would like to know your type click here. This test by 16Personalities will tell which of the 16 types you are, and will give you insights and advice based on that.

Psychology is a personal interest of mine, and I first tested my Myer`s Briggs type on both 16Personalities and Truity, then later in college as part of an Organisational Behaviour module. Each test gave me the same result, ENTJ; extroverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging.

According to 16Personalities.com this type is strategic and strong willed, with downsides of being stubborn and impatient. They excel at keeping a project on track and getting things done, but have strict standards for themselves and others. They are most bothered by inefficiency and crave responsibility, growth, and opportunity. ENTJ`s genuinely enjoy teamwork, and guiding or managing others, using their ability to identify the strengths of each member of their team and incorporate these abilities into a plan.

Potential career paths for the ENTJ type include project manager, accountant, auditor, actuary, financial analyst, executive positions, university professors and entrepreneurialism.

Knowing my type has been most helpful at help me identify my weakness, one sometimes being a lack of patience, which has helped me become self-aware, more forgiving and patient with others and myself. I also have a tendency to hyperfocus because I want something to be perfect, and I now know that avoiding getting bogged down in smaller details can make the big picture clearer, so I remind myself now to zoom out of the finer details, which makes me more productive, and also helps with timing in exams.

I`ve been able to work my weaknesses as well as coming to understand that completing and managing projects gives me the most satisfaction, this has led me to take on more responsibility in college projects, and being comfortable with being the first to offer to manage a project. I also have more insight as to where I want to be in 5, and 10 years.

What can you get from knowing your type?

The power of psychoanalysis is self-awareness and self-acceptance. We often overlook personality types when choosing a career for ourselves, and sometimes the person that`s best on paper will be hired for a role and be a complete mismatch for the role, in regard to personality.

The majority of the time, people with specific personality traits are often chosen for specific roles, or companies have a preference for those traits in their employees. This isn`t to say that if you have the opposite of what is the usual best fit that you can`t make it work, it`s just a guide that can significantly increase the probability that you will be happy in your job in the long term.

In simple terms of what makes up our psyche, we have the self and the ego, Jung refers to our true identity, hidden in our unconscious mind as the self. This is not easy to bring into the conscious mind, as our ego seeks to hide parts of ourselves away that we deem undesirable or unacceptable. The self is something that we can`t change and need to embrace, but it takes mastering of the ego to truly perceive the self. This is how we come to understand and be ourselves.

We can struggle with our true selves and become avoidant in accepting the qualities that make us who we are. This can blunt our journey to self-actualisation and individuation. Knowing and understanding yourself can help you make the right decisions in your personal and professional life, by being aware of your needs, your boundaries, what gives you mental energy and what drains it. Mastering our ego and achieving individuation can allow us to use our natural gifts and express them in way in which we can find meaning, or satisfaction.

16Personalities.com gave each type a name. They also categorise the 16 personalities further into four pools: The Explorers; The Analysts; The Sentinels, and The Diplomats.

Analyst Role – Architects (INTJ), Logicians (INTP), Commanders (ENTJ), and Debaters (ENTP)

Analysts are rational, independent thinkers and driven by curiosity, while explorers enjoy flexibility, prefer to work on a team, and avoid obligations and monotony.

Diplomat Role – Advocates (INFJ), Mediators (INFP), Protagonists (ENFJ), and Campaigners (ENFP)

Diplomats are driven by their connections, and empathy for others.

Sentinel Role – Logisticians (ISTJ), Defenders (ISFJ), Executives (ESTJ), and Consuls (ESFJ)

Sentinels enjoy order, like to maintain a structured way living and are grounded.

Explorer Role – Virtuosos (ISTP), Adventurers (ISFP), Entrepreneurs (ESTP), and Entertainers (ESFP)

Explorers tend to be curious, creative, spontaneous, energetic, daring, risk-taking, mentally flexible, enthusiastic and independent. They like novelty and adventure; they think outside the box and they inspire.

According to a survey on job satisfaction and yearly income conducted by Truity Psychometrics, and cited on Tech.co –

ESTJ`s & ENTJ`s reported the highest annual yearly income, whereas ISFP`s & INTP`s reported the lowest.
ESFJ`s & ESFP`s reported the highest job satisfaction, whereas ISFP`s and ESTP`s reported the lowest.

This doesn`t mean that types on the lower end are less capable, it means that they are more likely to be in the wrong careers for their personality type and should be more introspective when making career decisions.

Employers using psychometric tests.

Most people don`t like the thought of being labelled by their personality test and typecast into a role, or being outright rejected, although it`s hard to escape being judged by our personalities even if tests aren`t given. With online job applications becoming the preferred application method for larger companies, personality tests have become a very popular tool for employers. Some companies also pay to get their employees tested and have the team’s potential effectiveness analysed, to better manage the people they have, and fill gaps where needed.

In Rhode Island ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) vs CVS pharmacy, a voluntary settlement was made by CVS to ACLU, for a claim that their pre-employment personality questionnaire could negatively impact people with mental health issues and would fall into grounds for discrimination. (The applicants were required to respond to statements such as “You change from happy to sad without any reason” – a question that doesn`t belong on a psychometric test.)

Final thoughts: Testing should be sourced from a trusted psychometric company, and should only be used to improve workplace culture, and not be used as a vehicle for discrimination. Furthermore, MBTI isn`t a measure of ability or character, but it`s a way to improve our understanding of ourselves and of others.

To all aspiring interns reading this, I encourage you to take the leap and apply for an internship at Fitzgerald Power. Embrace the chance to gain extraordinary first-hand experience, broaden your horizons, and ignite your passion for accountancy. Your future self will thank you for the transformative experience that awaits you at Fitzgerald Power. Get in touch today to apply careers@fitzgeraldpower.ie.

Myers-Briggs Typology and Your Career. By Nikita Dolan: BA (Accounting), SETU

Related Topics

The Influencer Equation: Balancing Rewards & Risks for Brands. By Nikita Dolan: BA (Accounting), SETU