The first time I took a personality test was in my high-school CALM (career and life management) class. The test gave me the result of INTJ. At the time, I did not look into it in much depth, but I did find it interesting to compare with my friends. To this day I remember a few of their results too: ISFP, ENFP, ESTP. I learned a bit about what each letter meant but did not concern myself with our compatibility or anything deeper.
Fast forward ~6 years to the time frame right before and after graduating from University with a bachelor degree in Kinesiology. In 4th year university I started to wonder if I had chosen the right field. I had completed a couple of practicums and decided I wanted to pursue a masters in physiotherapy to become a Physiotherapist. Despite my interest in the subject, I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have chosen a more technical field of study. I also started to receive very subtle feedback from instructors and professionals suggesting they questioned my interest in physiotherapy. The career counselor for kinesiology more directly questioned if I would like that field, saying she wondered if I would enjoy the “lack of creativity”. After graduating I spent a couple years trying to fulfill additional academic prerequisites for the physiotherapy program, and attempting to get more practical experience by getting a job in the field. The pattern of subtle negative feedback continued, this time from potential employers. I also did not pass the interview component for entrance to the Physiotherapy program. Eventually I wondered if I should just go to a career counselor to sort myself out because I could not quite put my finger on what I was doing wrong.
Then a friend told me about their experience with the career counselor and doing a personality test that helped them decide their whole university path. After what felt like a never ending beat down of my confidence, the thought of doing a test to tell me what career path would likely work best sounded like a huge relief. I booked an appointment. I did a few personality tests with hundreds of questions involved, then attended an appointment where two career counselors discussed the results with me. They asked me more questions and explained the meaning behind the results. One of those tests was the Meyer’s Brigg’s test, and my result was INTJ. After reading more about what it meant, and especially about the potential weaknesses of this type, suddenly all my struggles started to make sense - and I was not flawed. I was simply attempting to open a door to a career path that highly favoured people whose strengths were all my weaknesses. I started to recall exact moments during interviews where I had “messed up” (from the interviewer perspective). The more I thought about it, the more my rejection from the Physiotherapy program made complete sense. Most of my answers were focused on objective criteria, research, and creative ideas when they should have been focused on client feelings, present moment criteria, and tried and true methods. After this experience, personality typing became a small guilty pleasure hobby that I occasionally indulged in, but usually amounted to “high brow” gossiping.
Luckily during this same timeframe, I had discovered a new “spark” inside. I volunteered for a small startup that created an iOS application for rehabilitating stroke survivors, and found the design process very interesting. I also took a course called Computers for Kinesiologists. I really enjoyed the programming portion, so much so that I decided to take an Intro to Programming continuing education course, and I really liked that course too. I could feel the allure of the unknown pulling me towards computer programming and eventually I took the leap and applied for the Information Technology Software Development program at a polytechnic school.
At school, one of the classes focused on career planning, which included taking a personality test. Once again I got INTJ (the only one in my class). This time was a bit different because of my previous experiences and interest in the subject. Now I understood what the results meant and I felt more interested in learning the theories behind it, and analyzing how it showed up in my life. It helped that a couple other people also took interest in it and were willing to indulge me in analytical analysis (once again, high brow gossip). But alas, my focus shifted again towards graduation and getting a job in this new field. To my surprise and happiness, I received job offers almost immediately after graduation. It felt so much easier than my previous experience. I felt confident, like all my strengths were exactly what employers were looking for. My weaknesses seemed barely noticeable; sometimes like they were also strengths. I began my career as a software developer!
On one particular team, we had a little bit of fun taking the 16 personalities quiz. Interestingly enough, our team results were very diverse! I again typed as INTJ. This time, I could compare the type my coworkers received to how I perceived them and how they solved problems. The introvert vs extrovert differences were most obvious and predictable. The S vs N dichotomy was more predictable if I worked closely with someone to solve a problem and our problem solving styles were very different - or if they focused on details or steps in the sequence of plan vs the end goal. The F/T dichotomy was much less obvious to me (not predictable), and the P/J dichotomy was only predictable for people who were highly organized or very conscientious (not all Js, but always J types).
Fast forward a number of years… my interest in personality theory comes and goes in waves. In the last year I have been riding another wave of interest in the subject. Diving deeper into the theories including the cognitive functions and type stacks. Learning the differences between various interpretations of the same idea, and evolving my understanding and analysis to uncover new ideas and perspectives on various situations in my life. I have many new questions and paths to explore. I also can’t help but wonder how I have changed so much and yet “not at all”. Understanding personality theory has helped me develop more empathy towards how other people think. It has also helped me identify and work on my weaknesses. At the very least, it continues to provide me with a lot of mind entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment