Personality Assessments: The Good, The Bad, and The Ridiculous

Over the last week, I have been spending time taking personality assessments, both online and on paper.

Some have been downright bad. Meaning you have to pay to get your answers. I don’t know about you, but spending twenty minutes answering questions (albeit easy ones) and then being told you have to pay “ONLY $29.95!!!” for your results is not my idea of a good personality assessment.

Some of them have been ridiculous and pretty unhelpful, like the one where I had to rank colors in order of how good they made me feel. The end result: a full two page description on sources of stress in my life, what my problems are and what dreams I have for the future. Excuse me? I’m pretty sure all the information I gave you was that my favorite color is red, followed by orange, black, yellow, green, gray, then brown….

Don’t get me wrong…I’m not a brain/behavior specialist and maybe there is a connection between color preference and personality type, but when I take a personality assessment, I guess I’m hoping for something slightly more helpful than a horoscope-like “profile”.

Some, however, ARE really good. Many of the best assessments I found were based on the theories of Dr. John Holland, a psychologist who believed that there are six basic personality types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising and Conventional.
These six types all have a  personality stereotype associated with them. Most people are a mixture of a few different types. HERE is a brief run-down of each one.

My favorite is the Career Interest Game (which I found on the University of Missouri’s Career Center website). It’s more of a self-assessment-you can read character traits of Holland’s 6 personality types, pick which ones you identify with the most and then see a list of potential occupations, which links you to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job profile website. They provide a lot of detailed information on each occupation, including the nature of the work, necessary education or training, average wages, and job outlook statistics through 2018.

Of course, there are many many many other personality and career-fit assessments out there that are helpful.

Other helpful assessments, if you’re interested:

• http://www.roguecc.edu/counseling/hollandcodes/test.asp
• http://www.jobhuntersbible.com/counseling/sec_page.php?sub_item=048
• http://www.123test.com/holland-codes-career-tests/
• http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/ (not career-oriented, but interesting nonetheless!)

Well, that’s it for the week!

As always, if you have need anything, come on in to the CESC office!!!