Does Your Personality Match Your Career Path?

By Marissa Grieco

I recently attended a very informative presentation that was involved with the Student Leadership series 2.0 program at St. Thomas Aquinas College.  I am a participant in the Student Leadership Series.  The presentation took place on Wednesday, November 19, at 4:30 in the afternoon in the McNeilis Commons private dining room.  The presenter was  Maureen Maureen, the Director of the Office of Career Development at St. Thomas Aquinas College.  

The presentation was about teaching students how to utilize their personality type to find what career path would be best for them. Many students are undecided about what path they should follow in regard to their major in college. The Meyers Briggs Type Indicator Test is a personality test that students should take to indicate what career path is right for them.  

The students who will be participating in the Student Leadership Series were required to take the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator Personality Test prior to the presentation.  The Student Leadership Series is a program that helps students--preferably in their sophomore or junior year of college who are already in leadership roles on campus--to become a more established leader.  The students needed to complete this test to determine whether or not they have chosen the correct major to correlate to their personality type.

After the students took the test, their answers to the questions were assessed as to what type of personality they have.  The personality types have four letter codes.  The personality type that I have, according to the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator test, is ENFJ.  E stands for Extrovert, N stands for Intuitive, F stands for Feeling, and J stands for Judging.  

We were given two packets: one that describes the meanings of what each letter of the personality type stands for, and the other packet is an assessment of whatever personality type best suited you.  For the most part, it seemed that the students’ personality types matched up to the major they were pursuing.  For example, the career that matched up with my personality type best was Broadcasting in Media, which is the exact career that I would like to pursue.  

During the presentation, Maureen asked everyone if they had any questions about how their majors would match up to their careers.  She explained that this assessment was based on what personality type people who are already in that career have.  For example, one famous person who has the same personality type as I do is Oprah Winfrey.  She is a very famous talk show host and is affiliated with the media, which is what I would like to do in the future.  The Meyers Briggs Type Indicator test is something that I would recommend every college student take to guide them in the right direction.