Personality Tests That Help You Choose a Career

Choosing a career can be difficult, but personality tests can help narrow the field.

Personality testing can be a valuable tool in career selection. Discovering those aspects of yourself that help you define your strengths and weaknesses can be an important tool in determining the careers for which you are best suited. While personality tests do not necessarily indicate exactly which professions would give you the most happiness, they can give you a glimpse into careers in which you can be ultimately successful.

Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a carefully crafted personality type test, based on the Jungian psychology of personality. It scores you on four basic personality characteristics: extraversion or introversion, sensing or intuitive, thinking or feeling, and judging or perceiving. Through years of research, Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers extrapolated data that indicated that everyone fits into one of 16 possible types. While no type is better than any other, people who have common MBTI four-letter codes often have similar strengths and weaknesses as well as preferences for career types.

True Colors

True Colors is a personality test that categorizes your personality into one of four colors: orange, blue, gold or green. While you use the qualities of every color in your life, the test determines one color that describes you the best. Orange is associated with spontaneity and big picture thinkers. Blue represents a person who enjoys harmony and balance in their lives. Green personalities enjoy data, observation and studying the world around them. If you are gold, you appreciate order, structure and responsibility. Knowing which of these four best represents you can potentially help you understand yourself better and assist you in discovering a career path.

Multiple Intelligences

While Howard Gardener's theory of multiple intelligences is not strictly a personality test, his work in personality and intelligence has long-lasting implications on career choices. Knowing how your brain works and how you process information can be of immense help when choosing a career. Gardener's theory explains the eight areas of intelligence that everyone uses to learn: mathematical-logical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, verbal-linguistic, musical-rhythmical and visual-spatial. The multiple intelligences test can identify in which of the eight areas you are most highly developed and help narrow down your best job choices.

References

• Myers Briggs Personality Type: MBTI Basics
• True Colors Test: True Color Meaning
• Multiple Intelligences and Career Development