Career Exploration Using the Strong Interest Inventory and MBTI Instruments

There are new rules for career success in today's organisations, whether the organisations are corporate, educational, or not for profit. Career success is no longer what our parents believed it to be-climbing up the career ladder, with all of the accompanying promotions, salary increases, and perks. We no longer accept without questions their assumptions:Happiness and wealth are synonymous.Who we are is defined by our employers.Sixty-hour work weeks are the secret to success.We will complete our education by age 25, work until age 65, and then retire and play.For some people, a few of these assumptions still hold. But for most of us, they do not fit today's realities. Our parent's formula of choosing an employable major, obtaining the "right" credentials, and going for the gold watch has changed. We have more career opportunities now than our parents could possibly have imagined. The new rule is to take advantage of every opportunity-to actively make it happen for ourselves rather than rely on our employers to make it happen for us.Most important, we cannot take anything for granted as we set out on the path to "making it." There are no "right" degrees and credentials. Sometimes credentials are bypassed altogether in favour of unique experiences or ideas. As we develop and gain experience, we may discover that wealth is not what makes us happy; that who we are is much more than how our employers define us; that play, family, and lifelong learning are just as important as career achievement; that retirement is not age related; and that gold watches have lost their meaning. Some of us will learn these things through experience, by "trying on" different careers until we find the one that fits. If you are reading this, it probably means that you are not willing to wait for your best fit to happen by accident, that you believe there is a better way, There is.The Strong Interest Inventory career test and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test are well respected tools in the field of career development. Both inventories have been used for decades and research and revised to reflect current vocabulary, employment trends, and user requirements.The Strong Interest Inventory career test is based on the idea that there are six types of people and six corresponding types of work environments. The more similar you are to the environment in which you work, the more satisfied and productive you are likely to be. Your Strong personality is determined by comparing your likes and dislikes with those of people who enjoy their work in a wide range of occupations.The Myer-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality test results show your preference for:Source and direction of energy: Extraversion (E) vs. Introversion (I)Gathering information: Sensing (S) vs. Intuition (N)Making decisions: Thinking (T) vs. Feeling (F)Life orientation: judging (J) vs. Perceiving (P)One of 16 combinations of the preferences above fits you best and describes a pattern of broad personality characteristics. This pattern is called your MBTI type. You type suggests what kind of work might be meaningful to you and the style with which you might like to do your job.