What Is MBTI Test? Is It Reliable For Making Career Choices?

The expansion of MBTI is Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This is widely used as a career assessment instrument. The personality type of individual is identified using this technique and career assessment is done accordingly.

MBTI can help us in career decision-making, however, the indicator alone shouldn’t be depended upon to formulate our career paths and goals. Other important aspects of the individual including interests, skills, work-related values, life necessities should also be taken into consideration alongside the personality type in taking decisions about your career.

Here we will see some of the important features of MBTI and its classification of character types. Also, we will see some of the demerits of this Indicator. When used intelligently and maturely MBTI will help us in selecting our career options.

How does it work?

MBTI was developed by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers a mother-daughter team based on the psychiatrist Carl Jung’s theory of personality types.

Jung theorised that there are 16 different personality types. The personality of a person consists of 4 dimensions including how the person energizes, perceives information, makes decisions, and lives their life. And each of which dimensions have two opposites. Here are these dimensions and their opposites respectively

• Energizes (Extroverted or Introverted)
• Perceives Information (Sensing or Intuition)
• Makes decisions (Thinking or Feeling)
• Lives their Life (Judging or Perceiving)

93 questions are asked the test-taker to know which of the two sides he is leaning more in these four aspects. After this, the test taker will get a unique set type out of the 16 possible combinations. For example “Extrovert – Sensing – Thinking – Perceiving” (ESTP)

The type thus understood will help us to know the preferences, strengths, weaknesses, etc. of the person accordingly of which a career path will be administered.

As an example, the INTP personality type is more apt to become writers and editors.

Why should MBTI be made use of?

– It can help people limit their field and focus.

There are several careers to choose from and people may be interested in many of them probably. Knowing one’s character type may help them to focus on any particular field and mould the skills accordingly.

– Skills and weaknesses could be easily identified.

Some people may not have the experience and exposure enough to identify their areas of strengths and weaknesses.  There could also be chances about their conviction about the same being mistaken. Identifying the personality types can help people realise properly areas of strength and areas of weaknesses. The areas of strength could be further polished and the areas of potential weakness could be tried to be perfected.

– It can help them choose their best work environment.

Some people may not be comfortable in certain work environments. For example, introverts will be more efficient in a quiet working area, while extraverts can work in connection with other people more effectively. Knowing one’s personality type will help people to choose their suitable environment to be efficient and productive.

So far having seen how MBTI helps the person in opting for his career now let us see some of its drawbacks. This would help us to demonstrate why MBTI couldn’t be exclusively depended on.

Drawbacks of MBTI

Primarily MBTI is not based on any strict scientific empirical analysis. It is based as we have seen already on Jungian psychotherapy. This itself is a drawback for MBTI. Also, people are prone to obtain different tests each time if they take the test more than once.

MBTI test thus cannot be exclusively relied upon. However, it could help us to narrow down our choices. It would help us to identify some of our comfortable fields. That’s where the relevance of MBTI resides. Other aspects of the individual apart from his personality should also always be given priority in choosing the career.