Which Job Personality Test Should You Take to Improve Your Job Performance?

By Helene Segura | November 9, 2017 |

I’ve had several clients of late who took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) as a job personality test a decade or so ago and swear by the results. I’m a firm believer in understanding how your brain is put together so that you can figure out how to work with your traits instead of against them. Understanding how your co-workers and family members are wired brain-wise is helpful as well because it helps explain why they do things the way they do.

However, I’ve witnessed many times the following two flaws in how some people use (or don’t use) a job personality test:

1) You believe that you are only “that type” so you must continue to function that way 100% of the time.

2) You don’t use the information to better your situation or your relationships with those around you.

Furthermore, if you take a career personality test or other personality inventory that has not had its validity proven (or has had its validity shaken to the core), you might not even be getting accurate results.

I spent a few hours doing research on the “best job personality test” to take. I know that some of my clients can get stuck in analysis-paralysis mode and might spend even more time than that looking for a perfect answer. So, to save you time, I’ve filtered through the information that I gathered and will share here the most helpful documents that I found.

I came across three articles that opened my eyes to this subject and did a great job of succinctly explaining the pros and cons of personality tests:

Article 1: http://www.businessinsider.com/myers-briggs-personality-test-is-misleading-2014-6

Article 2: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die

Article 3: https://imeetcentral.com/top-5-alternatives-to-the-myers-briggs-test

The summary of what I learned?

*The Myers-Briggs inventory is not your best bet to help you figure yourself out.

*The Big 5 inventory is great for research, but can be tough for self-understanding. If you use this, be sure to invest time in studying the results.

Free open-source version: http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Psychology today version: https://www.psychologytoday.com/tests/personality/big-five-personality-test

*These four received positive reviews from various academic entities:

http://keys2cognition.com/explore.htm

https://www.16personalities.com/

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

http://personality-testing.info/tests/OEJTS/

Bottom line: If you feel the need to take a personality inventory or job personality test, choose one that is recommended by academic institutions and entities as well as the psychology community. Realize that it’s very rare that someone is 100% solid in one particular personality trait. You’re going to be a mixture – and that mixture can change on a daily basis depending on what’s going on in your life. Once you find out the results, decide how you’re going to use this information. Are there any changes that you’d like to make or are you happy with the status quo? Are you going to approach others differently? Are you going to change the way you tackle tasks and projects? How can you use the inventory results to make your personal life or work life even better?

About Helene Segura

As The Inefficiency Assassin™, Time Management Fixer Helene Segura empowers professionals on the go with the tools to slay lost time. Personal inefficiency at work leads to increased stress levels, lower morale, higher absenteeism, more turnover – and rising spending on employee health care and hiring. Why not improve productivity, decrease stress levels, and increase profits instead?The author of four books – two of which were Amazon best-sellers – Helene Segura has been the featured organization expert in more than 200 media interviews. She has coached hundreds of clients to productivity success and performance improvement by applying neuroscience and behavioral modification techniques to wipe out destructive, time-wasting habits.Helene turns time management on its head by sharing both client case studies and pop culture examples to teach her mind-bending framework for decreasing interruptions, distractions and procrastination so that companies can spend more time generating revenue.

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