Personal assessment and analysis of popular methods for classifying personality traits as part of job fitting

Personality tests are a common form of assessment implemented by organizations during their recruitment process. This is because it is believed that personality traits are unique dispositions and tendencies of an individual that prompt specific behaviors, which will thereby impact their performance in different corporate positions. Through countless empirical researches, many highlights the results from personality tests may not act as a true indicator for a person’s ability in certain roles, but it can help employers and employees better understand their preferences and strengths. Therefore, as an attempt to improve my current work performance and future career advancements, this essay will critically analyze the results from 3 popular personality diagnostic tools, the Myers Briggs personality Indicator (MBTI), The Five factor model and the emotional competence framework. The results clearly articulated my strength and weakness in terms of communication. However more significantly, I have become much more aware of my communication style and how my style of resolving conflict may impact other’s emotions. By becoming increasingly aware of both my strengths and weakness, I now seek to capitalize on opportunities that complement my strength while actively identifying and implementing strategies to overcome my weaknesses.

One of the oldest and most popular methods for classifying personality traits as part of job fitting is the Myers Briggs personality type indicator. The questionnaire is designed to allocate personal traits into four dichotomous categories which are (1) Extrovert (E) versus Introvert (I); (2) Sensing (S) versus Intuitive (N); (3) Thinking (T) versus Feeling (F); and (4) Judging (J) versus Perceiving (P). This thereby allocates people into 16 possible personality types. The MBTI produced the result of ENTP where I scored the highest on extraversion (5), Intuition (5), thinking (7) and Perceiving (4). From these results, I can infer that as an extrovert I draw energy and ideas externally using social connections to develop ideas and inspiration. By having a relatively high intuitive, I recognize during decision making, I rely heavily on my own speculations and personal beliefs rather than facts. Thinking as my highest scored characteristics articulated how my decisions and thought process tend to be objective and logical rather than emotionally driven. Lastly Perceiving illustrates that in terms of conflict or general scenarios, I seek to be a spectator and view issues from various sides before placing judgment on an issue. ENTP as a personally trait is also named the innovator. ENTP characteristically are very outspoken, articulate and logical when stating their views. They are lovers of uncertainty and novelty items. These multifaceted personalities all contribute significantly towards my relationships between my friends, family and colleagues. As an extrovert, I thrive in busy, stimulating environments with an outward orientation. Therefore, majority of the group planning and leadership activities become my responsibility. In addition, due to my perceiving and thinking characteristics, I act as a mediator in both my friendship group and work environment. Due to my ability to analyze situations without bias and without judgment, I find it as a strength to mediator and assist individuals to explore different options and negotiate to resolve conflict. In a work setting, due to my personality as an ENTP, I’m adaptable in taking charge or following directions, which gives me a wide range of option when it comes to future career choices.

However, I also recognized my weakness in areas such as feeling and sensing in the MBTI. Feeling and Sensing are also extremely important aspects in decision making. My Low sensing score reflects how I would let my personal feelings impact a decision that should be made by looking at the facts. An example of such flaw is time management for assignments. Although objectively, utilizing a week to research and complete an essay is the most accurate method to ensure an assignment could be completed on time and to a satisfactory standard. However, many times, my reluctance to complete an assignment would impact my decision and negatively affect my studies and my overall schedule. I realize how this is detrimental to my studies alongside my future work career. Therefore, I have actively tried to resolve this issue. As an ENTP, I am extremely goal driven. Therefore, utilizing my strength, I set a goal for each day in a form of a to-do-list. To motivate myself, there is an allocated reward if I finish all the tasks. This resolves my reluctance to work and help build a habit of good time management. Another huge weakness is my score in Feeling. A score of 0 shocked me and left me concerned regarding how I evaluate issues. Feeling is associated with how a decision would impact on other’s emotions. The result of this section brought an issue I rarely consider when organizing activities. Many times, as a leader and as an organizer, there are many complications in organizing. Many times, the focus is on finish organizing the event and make sure the event will run smoothly. Very rarely I would consider how others would feel and base those emotions to organize an event. I now realize that this is a weakness in my communication skill. Where I would not effectively elaborate or constantly provide information regarding the planned activities. Instead I would personally plan everything according to my own satisfaction. I have realized this and tried to overcome this by actively providing constant updates in event planning and asking for feedback. This way I can gauge people’s reactions and emotions towards the planning and better situate to fulfill everyone’s demands.

Other than the MBTI, the 5-factor model or the big 5 personality test is also used because it is the most widely accepted and robust taxonomy of personality traits. The 5-factor model has 5 dimensions which are open to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. The results I received in each category are 3. 9, 3. 1, 3. 8, 2. 9 and 2. 1. By comparing the results from both analytical tool, correlation are found between the 2 tests, particularly in areas of open to experience (3. 9) and extraversion (3. 8). Results from both tests indicate my extraversion which highlights my preference of communication within crowds. In addition, I recognized that my high score in open to experience is also verified by my personality as an ENTP who loves mystery and uncertainty. I believe much of this are strengths in my communication skill. As an extrovert, I recognize my outgoing nature would assist me in future working environments. My ability to exude energy and enthusiasm while working with others makes me more prone to cooperate with colleagues, and more willing to engage in behaviors that would benefit the organization. Open to experience highlights my willingness to take on risk and challenges and my ability to innovate. Suggested by Phipps, Preieto & Deis (2015) those who score highly in open to experience tend to think outside the box and are unafraid of accepting and challenging ideas. I believe the ability to communicate and share new development concepts will be much valued in future working environments.

On the other hand, the 5-factor model also articulates my weakness in areas of Agreeableness where I scored 2. 9. Agreeableness is the measure of the desire to be accepted within a community and a level of compassion. The recognition of this flaw is through self-reflection rather than the indicative score. The realization came when I find myself unable to provide affirmative feedback to my friends when they sought for reassurance and confirmation. Due to my personality as a thinker, although I can logically dissect issues and come to a rational conclusion. Many times, the element of human factor is missing. People may be complaining about their how they are unable to find a job or generally how stressed they are with their life. Many times, I would try and provide constructive advice or provide logistical methods to resolve their problems. However, I now recognize what is desired by the complainer was not a method to resolve their issues, but a kind and empathetic understanding of their situation. I have become much more aware of my responses towards these conversations and have bonded much strongly with others. I now understand the importance of agreeableness in communication as it helps to build rapport and establish strong sense of community which will aid in creating a healthy and cooperative working environment.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is commonly recognized as the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, as well as the ability to effectively manage our feelings as we interact with others. To measure EI, an emotional competence framework is created and measures 5 areas which fall under personal competence or social competence. Personal competence measures how people manage their emotions and is evaluated through areas of self-awareness, self-regulation and motivation. Social competence measures how relationships are managed and looks specifically at empathy and social skills. The results I received for emotional intelligence is 98 (self-awareness 21, self-regulation 22, motivation 15, empathy 20 and social skills 20) which overall reflects relatively high EI with areas for future development. However, through analyzing individual areas, the results were able to provide more insightful information regarding my strength and weakness. My strength lies within self-awareness and self-regulation while also scoring moderately on empathy and social skills. This indicates that I can effectively recognize and regulate my emotions which thereby allow me to understand other’s emotions and thus send convincing messages. This is reflected by my communication styles during conflicts. When arguments arise, I can quickly identify my emotions are escalating and are impacting me to behave negatively, to prevent negative emotions impacting the content of the message. I would actively change the tone of my voice and overall posture to communicate of my intended message to make sure it does not sound aggressive or hurtful. I realized the ability discern the emotional impact of your action are important and has direct correlation to work performances. As suggested by Doe, Ndinguri, Phipps (2015) due to BP’s inability to find a resolution that appealed to the public emotion during the oil spill incident. The company not only suffered $42. 2 billion in compensation but more importantly their reputation plummeted. Therefore, it is mandatory that in work environments. One must always be aware of their actions and words and how it affects others. Seeing this is one of my strength, it will aid me in my future job advancements as it is found to have a positive effect on organization commitment but I must actively capitalize on these strengths and use them effectively.

Despite my high scores in 4 areas of the EI, I have found myself lacking in motivation (15). I have noted this is a weakness in my personality as I find it increasingly difficult to preserver in a hobby for extensive periods. In addition, in terms of assignments, I find it extremely difficult to become interested or motivated to complete assigned work unless necessary. I have recognized this as a flaw and have actively attempted to resolve this issue. Other than motivating myself with rewards for task completions, I have also attempted to view tasks in a different mentality. Instead of thinking that an assignment is a chore, I would now attempt to recognize this is a process that will fundamentally asset me in my future career. As I attempt to place a more positive emphasis and outlook towards tasks, I find myself more actively working and completing them without reluctance. Although my EI score is quite high but I understand there is always room for improvement. Ways to improve EI could very easily come in forms of communication. Such methods include giving listeners sincere appreciation, talking in terms of the listener’s interests rather than one’s own, saying “ we” instead of “ I,” welcoming constructive criticism, and not forcing one’s point of view on others. As an extrovert, I am very talkative and do often cut others off when speaking and I have recognized this as a huge flaw of mine. Therefore, I have actively paid attention to listen to what people are saying and use their point of interest to facilitate the flow of the conversation. I find these little steps in improving my EI will not only assist me in work settings but also more relevantly in university. Particularly in group assignments which require active communication and free expression of ideas.

Personality tests are a good form of assessment for individuals to better understand their personal strength and weakness. The largely popular Myers Briggs personality Inventory, the 5-factor model and the emotional competence framework all reflected very accurate reflect my personality. Therefore, through analyzing each test and their components, not only was I able to discover how my personal traits played into my strength and weaknesses. I was also able to further understand how I interact with people and found opportunities and resolution which will aid to refine my communication abilities to better situate myself for employment.