About the Author
Kat is a Wisconsin-based freelance writer who focuses on careers, productivity, and self-development. She has written content for The Muse, Trello, Atlassian, QuickBooks, Toggl, Wrike, and more. When she's not at her desk, you'll find her spending time with her family—which includes two adorable sons and two rebellious rescue mutts.
I have a confession to make: I haven’t always been a big believer in personality or career aptitude tests.
That all ties back to an experience I had in the seventh grade. As part of a class assignment, we were required to take a personality assessment to guide our career choices. I sat in that dark computer lab, doing my best to answer each prompt as honestly as possible.
When I got the results? Well, let’s just say I was disappointed.
When I was in college, I was confident that I knew exactly what I wanted to do as a career: I wanted to work in broadcast journalism.
It seemed like it was the perfect blend of my passion for theater and storytelling, so I secured a summer internship to help out in a local newsroom.
We all want fulfillment from our careers. In fact, research from BetterUp, a career experience platform, found that more than nine out of 10 people would be willing to trade a percentage of their lifetime earning for more meaningful work.
It’s important, but it’s definitely not so easy to find. Often, you get so wrapped up in the daily fires and minutiae, you end the workday feeling deflated rather than delighted.
As much as most of us would rather avoid them, conflicts are almost inevitable in the workplace. One study commissioned by CPP Inc. found that 85% of employees deal with conflict on some level. Even more surprising? 29% of employees say they deal with conflict almost constantly.
Statistics like those might seem alarming at first glance. But, is this level of friction really that unexpected?
You’ve made it to the interview stage of your job hunt, which means that employer thinks you might be a good match for their open position.
But now ask yourself this: Are they a good match for you?
It’s easy to forget that the hiring process is a two-way street. As much as companies are weeding through applicants to find the best fit, candidates are also sussing out organizations to find ones that are most aligned with their values and desires.
You aren’t totally happy with your current career. Maybe it’s just a mild dissatisfaction or a yearning for a change of pace that keeps nagging at you. Or, perhaps it’s full-fledged misery that makes it difficult to pull yourself out of bed in the morning.
Either way, you feel itchy, restless, and like something needs to change in your professional life.
Like clockwork, your coworkers grab lunch together every day at noon on the dot. They vent over the morning’s challenges, connect about shared interests, and laugh about the ridiculous typo in that recent email.
Their camaraderie doesn’t stop there. They’re constantly planning happy hours and after-work social events, and they’re notorious for talking over each other in team meetings.
THE FINE PRINT:
Myers-Briggs® and MBTI® are registered trademarks of the MBTI Trust, Inc., which has no affiliation with this site. Truity offers a free personality test based on Myers and Briggs' types, but does not offer the official MBTI® assessment. For more information on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® assessment, please go here.
The Five Love Languages® is a registered trademark of The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, which has no affiliation with this site. You can find more information about the five love languages here.
