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If you’re not familiar with the Myers-Briggs approach, Do What You Are
provides an excellent and down-to-earth explanation of how to understand
both your personality profile and its applications in your career choices. It’s
a great place to start exploring the inherent characteristics that drive how
you relate to the world — and people — around you. Are you an ENFJ, one
of those outgoing individuals who loves people? Or an INTP, an intellectual
adept at solving problems? (The flip side of understanding your own profile,
of course, is that it can help you understand how to work more effectively
with others whose profiles are the polar opposite of yours.)
The Myers-Briggs approach provides a great way to think about such
questions as whether you, the extrovert, would really be happy with the
more solitary life of a medical IT specialist, for example. However, it’s
important to keep in mind that the MBTI assessment simply provides
indicators of your personality type, and personality type is not career
destiny. For example, you may be an extroverted introvert, able to be
highly engaged in social situations, but thriving in solitude. Or you may,
like Susan Cain, author of the best-selling Quiet: The Power of Introverts in
a World That Can’t Stop Talking (Broadway Books, 2013) and find a way
to build your basic personality characteristics into a platform for strength,
accomplishment, and impact.
Keirsey. A second well-known personality test is the Keirsey
temperaments assessment, which reframes the idea of personality types
into four temperaments — “traditionalists,” “experiencers,” “idealists,”
and “conceptualizers.” Like the Myers-Briggs test, the Keirsey approach
is another way to understand how we process our environments, and
by extension, how we can find the best fit for you in the workplace.
Keirsey presented not only his ideas but also their application in Please
Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (Prometheus
Nemesis, 1998), which provides the best starting place for understanding
your temperament.
Temperament becomes important as you consider not just the work
that you do, but also the environment in which you do it. For example, a
conceptualizer, adept at ideas and innovation, would be less than effective
in an administrative role but an excellent contributor in a strategy role. An
idealist would be uninspired in most corporate bureaucracies, but bring
passion and commitment if leading a nonprofit.

Aptitudes. Another aspect to understand about yourself are the aptitudes
or talents that come naturally to you. Nearly every career book has some
sort of aptitude checklist, but what you’re looking for is the cross-point
between those things you’ve always been good at and those you’ve always
enjoyed doing. Someone may have an aptitude for math, or for many of
those in the nursing profession, an aptitude for empathy and caring at a
deeply personal level.

www.americansentinel.edu

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