Knowing your personality matters
Psychometric testing has long been popular within recruitment; so what is it, what does it mean and why should you get to know your type?
Psycho = mind, metric = measurement; so these tools are a measurement of how we can expect our minds to work and should be used to develop better a self-understanding about the 'patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving' which can influence your career and life.
Personality profiling will identify how your strengths and weaknesses may work inside a particular role, organisation or team. Whatever tool you use, knowing your particular 'type', strengths, preferences and leanings will help you identify the best environments in which to flourish – and which areas to work on.
Indeed, sometimes people whose natural personality shows a weakness in a particular area can invest so much energy there that their weakness becomes a strength. For example, a journalist with a preference toward 'big picture' rather than 'detail' may spend a great deal of energy proofreading to compensate and thus provide a much better standard of work.
Within teams, a diversity of personality types can produce real advantages, but team members will do better working together if they understand their colleagues' type and preferences.
Using the Myer Briggs tool, an 'E' or extrovert will benefit from understanding that, unlike him her her, an 'I' or introvert will be most comfortable taking an idea to mull over independently. Asking for their views on the spot is unlikely to get the outcome the E, whose natural inclination is to hash things out through dialogue, is looking for.
Knowing your type can help you sell yourself into an organisation and when you understand your type preferences, you can approach your own work in a manner that best suits your style.
If you'd like to learn more about who you are and how you operate, take a free personality test. However, it is important to remember, any personality type can do any career – psychometric testing is about understanding yourself – not selecting which career box you fit into.