Testing Your Resolve

Happy New Year! The year ahead is sure to be one full of exciting changes. Are you ready for it? The best resolution you can make this year is to be prepared- particularly when it comes to the next step you take professionally. What comes after graduation? Are you going to graduate school? Taking time off to travel or volunteer? Securing that first "real world" job? Whatever path you take, it’s best to combine the celebration of the new year with a reflection on your life and where it’s headed.

How will your personality, skills, interests and values dictate what comes next? One way to find out is to take a skills inventory test. There are dozens of great resources that will help you discern how to mesh your passions with your abilities. (Take a trip to your campus’s career counseling center for more detailed information.)

One of the most popular skills inventory tests is the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI. Based on Jungian psychology, the MBTI was created by a mother-daughter team, and helps individuals like you and me discover things we may not have realized about ourselves otherwise. Click here for an abridged version of the Myer-Briggs and start learning more about yourself now!

Don’t be surprised when the results of your test are revealed. Assessment tools like the MBTI can be brutally honest. My personal results, for example, show that I tend to be a big picture thinker who makes logic-based decisions. Not bad. However, the instrument also indicates that because of my pragmatism, others might find me insensitive and dispassionate at times. Ouch! That knowledge, however, might help me relate to friends and coworkers better in the future. Good to know.

Skills inventory tests like the MBTI are only as useful as you make them. Take time to review your results carefully. Ask close friends and family if they agree with your final assessment. Decide what advanced areas of study or career paths go well with your particular profile and act on that knowledge.

This awkward time in our lives has been referred to as the Quarterlife Crisis for good reason. We are deciding who it is we want to become. This New Year, resolve to make that decision a well-informed one.

If you’re interested in learning more about self discovery, here are a few books I’ve read and would recommend: What Should I Do With My Life? by Po Bronson (C’mon now, this book was featured on Oprah!); Road Trip Nation by Nathan Gebhard, et al (a fun, quick read about a couple college guys who take an RV through uncharted territory).