Personality

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Now, this isn’t really a very valid personality test. It has been discredited on a number of occasions (see this article from The Guardian for a comprehensive overview), but it is still one of the most ubiquitous tests out there. As long as you keep in mind that it doesn’t really describe personality traits, but more how you cognitively process stuff, and that the MBTI deals in absolutes instead of the shades of grey in real life, it can still give a few pointers about how you do things.

My type is INTP/J. Depending on test I sometimes get P, sometimes J for the last one. The letters stand for Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving/Judging. Put these things together, and it mostly fits 🙂

INTP: Seek to develop logical explanations for everything that interests them. Theoretical and abstract, interested more in ideas than in social interaction. Quiet, contained, flexible, and adaptable. Have unusual ability to focus in depth to solve problems in their area of interest. Skeptical, sometimes critical, always analytical.

INTJ: Have original minds and great drive for implementing their ideas and achieving their goals. Quickly see patterns in external events and develop long-range explanatory perspectives. When committed, organize a job and carry it through. Skeptical and independent, have high standards of competence and performance – for themselves and others.

 

Big Five Personality test (OCEAN)

This one I’ve done at work once, but I forgot what I scored then. Probably something similar. This tests five scaled parameters, being Openness to experiences/intellect, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. I generally score very high on Openness, low middle on Conscientiousness, low on Extraversion, middle on Agreeableness and low on Neuroticism.

This mainly means that I’m very open minded, curious and tend to be a creative thinker, who isn’t very organized and an be unreliable sometimes (deadlines and stuff), while being introverted and a bit reserved. Middling on Agreeableness means I’m neither very forgiving and good-natured, nor very unforgiving and harsh, but *ta-da* somewhere in the middle. Lastly, the Neuroticism score indicates I’m very relaxed and calm and don’t stress out about stuff.