Career Services highlighted the use of personality tests in finding the best career fit on Wednesday during its first assessment workshop of the semester.
Kitty McGrath, executive director of Career Services, said the test — first offered to students last spring — meets the need for a more scientific approach to helping students evaluate their college decisions.
“A lot of people think when you select a major, it has a direct correlation with your career,” McGrath said. “That’s not the way the job-world works.”
After students seeking assessment from Career Services pay a $35 registration fee, they take either the Strong Interest Inventory or the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, followed by a group workshop and a personal consultation.
The Strong Interest Inventory assessment looks for correlations between a student’s personal characteristics and personality data gathered from people who described themselves as satisfied in various career fields.
Students also have the option to take the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a test McGrath said evaluates eight different dimensions of personality in order to match test-takers with their ideal environment instead of a specific career path.
“It helps categorize how you tend to operate in this world,” she said.
The MBTI test can also help identify personality traits that might be hidden behind surface appearances.
“A lot of our habits are self-taught,” she said. Those who are identified as introverts on the MBTI test might be more outgoing and sociable in their careers in order to adapt to their workplace.
“The most interesting part of the whole process is to find an answer from an anomalous response,” McGrath said. “It raises the question, ‘Do we always know ourselves?’”
Taylor Cody, a psychology and family and human development junior who is a success coach through Learning Support Services said the tests provide personality insights for anyone, but are particularly beneficial for new college students.
“The tests are helpful for freshmen, especially when they’re feeling overwhelmed by a college campus and all of the new choices they have,” she said. “It helps give them direction.”
McGrath said the tests also act as reinforcement for graduating students entering a tough economic job market. Knowing your personality type and suitable career field can help ease concerns, she said.
“There’s lots of people — not just students — who have grave concerns about finding a job,” she said. “What I try to impress upon people is that there is a 9 percent unemployment rate — which is very high – but that means 91 percent of people who want to have a job have one. The odds are on your side.”
Reach the reporter at jessica.testa@asu.edu.
