This doesn’t mean you’re Jason Bourne, trying to figure out who you are. But do you know a succinct way to describe your personality type? And would you like to know some interesting/easy ways in which you can use personality type information?
Many of you are familiar with the Jungian MBTI types – that four-letter acronym soup swimming with ESFJ, INTP, etc. You may even know which one you’re supposed to be. If not, I’d recommend a recent article penned by Amit. In “How Personality Type Affects Your Career & Job Search” he provides a background to the 16 types, includes a free test to figure out your type, and describes some career and job search implications based on your personality.
There are many more tools that help you figure out your MBTI type and what that means for different situations/contexts - whether that’s a job search, your professional life, or even your romantic relationships. Some tools also try to use these types to calculate the strength of your compatibility or match with another specific MBTI type.
These are two tools that I thought were interesting.
41Q asks 41 quick questions that take about 5 minutes, and give the results in an easy to read format, including a graphic on how strongly you fall along the four MBTI dimensions. So you can see that you may be a mix of two or more different types if your scores are close to the middle.
These were part of my results:
Your personality type: “Groundbreaking Thinker”
Creative, resourceful and intellectually quick. Good at a broad range of things. Enjoy debating issues and may be into “one-upmanship”. They get very excited about new ideas and projects, but may neglect the more routine aspects of life. Generally outspoken and assertive. They enjoy people and are stimulating company. Excellent ability to understand concepts and apply logic to find solutions.
Careers that could fit you include:
Entrepreneurs, lawyers, psychologists, photographers, consultants, sales represenatives, actors, engineers, scientists, inventors, marketers, computer programmers, comedians, computer analysts, credit investigators, journalists, psychiatrists, public relations, designers, writers, artists, musicians, politicians.
Renowned persons with similar personality types:
- Alexander the Great, king
- Alfred Hitchcock, filmmaker
- Celine Dion, singer
- John Adams, American president
- Matthew Perry, actor
- Nikola Tesla, inventor, physicist and engineer
- Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, American president
- Thomas Edison, inventor
- Tom Hanks, actor
- Walt Disney, filmmaker and entrepreneur
While ENTP (Groundbreaking Thinker) is my predominant type (results have been robust across several tools), only the E and T are strong, as the 41Q scales show. So there may be a bit of ESTP (Energetic Doer), ESTJ (Determined Realist) and ENTJ (Dynamic Thinker) in me as well, but ENTP dominates.
There is a list of potential careers that could be a good match for that type. In addition, 41Q has a relationship-matching tool that measures romantic compatibility, but could also be used to get an indication on how professional relationships may pan out.
The iPersonic test also takes 5 minutes and makes us decide where we lean along those 4 dimensions. They also have a set of terms, which provide a pithy, emotionally satisfying way to describe personality types. Here is a summary I’ve put together for you (click on any to see a detailed description).
| MBTI Type | Personality Type |
| ENFJ | Engaged Idealist (EI) |
| ENFP | Spontaneous Idealist (SI) |
| ENTJ | Dynamic Thinker (DT) |
| ENTP | Groundbreaking Thinker (GT) |
| ESFJ | Social Realist (SR) |
| ESFP | Laid-back Doer (LD) |
| ESTJ | Determined Realist (DR) |
| ESTP | Energetic Doer (ED) |
| INFJ | Harmony-seeking Idealist (HI) |
| INFP | Dreamy Idealist (DI) |
| INTJ | Independent Thinker (IT) |
| INTP | Analytical Thinker (AT) |
| ISFJ | Good-natured Realist (GR) |
| ISFP | Sensitive Doer (SD) |
| ISTJ | Reliable Realist (RR) |
| ISTP | Individualistic Doer (ID) |
Interesting names, aren’t they? It would be an intriguing exercise to see how colleagues and friends in your circles do on these tests (you can try to guess their types in advance and see if your assessment is correct).
While this test doesn’t fine-tune where one falls on each continuum, there is more detail provided on the personality type, and a color-coding that helps you figure out the kind of people you are likely to get along with better.
The closer the colors are, the stronger the chemistry – which can matter in the workplace, as well as in your personal life. So greens and yellows might get along well, but a red and a green may have trouble.
Personal chemistry and compatibility matter whether it’s any type of a relationship – a marriage, team members at work or co-founders of a startup. Carefully choosing who we work with, play with or live with can mean the difference between success and failure, happiness and well, the absence of it!
