PERSONALITY AND CAREER TESTS
BY TRAVIS W.
There are many different kinds of personality and career tests out there, some very accurate and some misleading. The tests and surveys that give accurate and satisfying results are the ones that will actually help someone determine who they are and what types of careers they are best suited for. It’s important to have a career because that is what will give someone income and allow a person to live with shelter, food, clothing, and entertainment. It’s also important for a person to choose a career that they would like and enjoy, considering that a career will be what that person will do for the rest of their life to receive income, or money. In order to choose a career, the person must know and understand themselves, otherwise they won’t be able to find a career that suits and satisfies them.
“Pathways to the World of Careers” is a survey that helps someone decide which type of career they want, and maybe even a specific job that deals with the desired type of career. In this survey, the “test-taker” will answer many questions about his or her specific interests. Then that person will add up their number of “yes” answers to the questions, which then shows what main types of careers that person is interested in. The careers listed in the survey are very general, so it doesn’t necessarily mean that that person really is interested in the specific jobs listed for each of his or her “higher ranked” types of pathways.
My results for this survey didn’t completely, correctly correspond to what types of careers I’m personally interested in. My three “highest ranking” types of careers are: Industrial and Technology, Home Economics Careers and Technology, and Arts, Media, and Entertainment. Although these were my results from the survey, the types of careers I actually like better, in order from greatest to least, are: Industrial and Technology, Business, and Engineering Technology. Even though this survey isn’t always 100 percent correct, it’s really close to what types of careers a person really wants.
“Pathways to the World of Careers” determines the types of careers the “test-taker” is interested in by asking many life-related questions and examples of personal interests and general characteristics. A few examples of those various questions are: “I really enjoy hiking, fishing, camping, and rock climbing, I want to fix problems with my hands instead of just talking about them, I can think clearly and focus only on the facts of a problem, and I would feel successful if I could lessen pain for others.” (Pathways 1-2, 4, 22). I personally think that these are great questions to ask a person to find out what kind of person they are. Again, these questions aren’t always 100 percent correct when considered towards this survey’s “Pathways” to each of the different main types of careers, but they are considerably close, sometimes even extremely close, to a persons true interests for careers.
“Similar Minds” is a website that contains a many types of tests, one of which is the “Myers-Briggs” personality test, which is somewhat similar to the “Pathways to the World of Careers” survey. According to this test, I’m:
“Organized, group orientated, focused, leader, emotionally stable, attention seeking, planner, realistic, fearless, responsible, finisher, decisive, norm following, punctual, hard working, self confident, follows the rules, clean, outgoing, social, content, does not like being alone, normal, regular, does not like weird or strange people/things – intolerant of differences, strict, disciplined, aggressive, assertive, happy, proper, formal.”
The results of this personality test are very accurate when dealing with what someone is like, but it kind of fails to correctly tell which careers someone likes and dislikes. Although I myself found my character traits to be extremely accurate, my career results weren’t exactly “dead on”. Almost all of the “favored careers” appealed to me very much, but there were also quite a few “disfavored careers” that I actually was interested in. A few of the “favored careers” I liked the most were: manager, business person, and financial planner. Just like all good career and personality tests, the “Myers-Briggs” test is very accurate, but it still has its own flaws. Overall, I thought that it was a very interesting test to take.
Another interesting, and more factual, test is “The Keirsey Temperament Sorter 2”, which is also very similar to the previous two tests, except with more information listed for each type of person. Upon reading the information I was given about my type of person, The Supervisor Guardian, I found that my type of person has many interesting qualities. These qualities include: being on the side of rules and procedures, can be very serious about seeing that others do what is expected of them or face the consequences, they always freely express directions or suggestions for improvement, they will always stick to what they say, and feel surprised when other aren’t very grateful or don’t appreciate their help. One could also say that they are good leaders if they need to and want to be.
It is also said that ten percent of the world population is comprised of Supervisor Guardians, and that they go by experience, not speculation, experimentation, and fantasy. They also make sure that everybody is doing their job right and that not a single person, including themselves, is messing around or behaving inappropriately. Supervisor Guardians will not stand for this while there is a job to be done, and will firmly put their foot down and call the disputant out for a talk or punishment. It would be very smart to stay on task when around these types of people.
According to the information I was given after taking this temperament sorter, Supervisor Guardians are:
“Gregarious and civic-minded, and are usually key players in my community. They are generous with their time and energy, and very often belong to a variety of groups, supporting them through steady attendance, but also taking a vocal leadership role. Membership groups of all kinds attract Supervisor Guardians like magnets, perhaps because membership satisfies their need to maintain the stability of social institutions. Like all Guardians, Supervisors worry about society falling apart, morality decaying, standards being undermined, traditions being lost, and they do all they can to preserve and to extend the institutions that embody social order.”
After taking all of these tests and surveys, I found out more about myself and what types of careers I’m interested in. Even though I’m still not sure what I want to do for a living, I’ve still at least gotten a step closer after taking those tests and surveys. They helped me find out more about who I am and listed some jobs that I might be interested in. Overall, they were a big help towards finding career choices that interest me.