How You Can Make Better Career Decisions Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

I don't like personality tests. I don't like to be put into a box after answering a bunch of questions. I strongly believe that people are individuals and thus I resist any kind of stereotyping. Err, wait a moment... Did I say I don't like personality tests? Let me revise that: I didn't like personality tests! There have been some encounters in my life that made me change my mind, at least with regard to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, short MBTI. I have learned that the MBTI can help you understand yourself better, and thus for instance be very helpful for career decisions.

Let me share my personal experience with you and see how this may apply to you.My first contact with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator must have been about twelve years ago. I did the assessment during my first leadership seminar when I was a young manager in a large German corporation.I cannot remember what the result was, but I remember well that it was quite disturbing. I felt that my natural preference of my so-called four letters "type" (that is the result of an MBTI assessment) was not ideal for the career that I was pursuing.

It needs to be emphasized at this point that MBTI neither measures skills nor the ability to perform in a certain job. What MBTI looks at is the natural preference on where a person directs their energy, how they take in information, how they make decisions, and how they orient their lives. Thus, knowing your type may help you decide what jobs just "come easier" for you. Again, it does not say whether you are suited for a specific job or whether you will perform in your career. But typically your life will be a lot easier if you can act at work in line with your natural preference.

I forgot about the MBTI for a decade.

Only during a mid-life re-orientation regarding my career, it came to my mind that personality assessments could be useful in my

decision-making process. I tried a few tests like DISC, the Gallup StrengthsFinder and others. However, for me the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator happened to be the most powerful.

My MBTI "best fit" turned out as "INFJ", a type you don't necessarily find very often among managers in global corporations, the position I was in. If you look up INFJ in the related Keirsey temperaments, you will see it's the idealist type of the "counselor". And indeed research indicates that this type is statistically overrepresented in counseling professions.

"Counselors have an exceptionally strong desire to contribute to the welfare of others, and find great personal fulfillment interacting with people, nurturing their personal development, guiding them to realize their human potential."

 By Dr. Gerrit Pelzer