Personality Pre-Work

Today I will teach my first Management II class. We will be speaking about personality which really excites me. I think it is a really fascinating topic and I am also excited to hear my classmates thoughts. Here are my responses to the pre-work that we sent out.

1.     Have someone who knew you during your childhood (preferably a parent or relative) and someone who knows you now (college friend, significant other, etc) take the MBTI test and answer the questions as if they were you. Reflect on these. Are they the same or different? Were you surprised by the results? Rank the personalities from most to least accurate. 

For this, I had both my Dad and my best friend take the test for me. My dad got ENFP "The Campaigner" and my best friend got ESTP. I thought it was really cool that my dad got the same result as I did when I took it myself. When I mentioned this to him he laughed and said he knew me well. Which was obviously true. When researching the ESTP personality, I was somewhat surprised when reading the description of this and how I did relate to it."They live in the moment and dive into the action – they are the eye of the storm" "But if they minimize the trouble-making, harness their energy, and focus through the boring stuff, Entrepreneurs are a force to be reckoned with." these two statements stuck out to me. I don't think I am as severe about rule breaking as this personality suggests but it talked about how formal education is a struggle. I definitely do not like structure and really really hate busy work. Homework was really hard for me in high school because I felt a lot of it was just busy work. I also thought the weaknesses of this personality were pretty accurate for me. Insensitive, impatient, unstructured. I am extremely impatient and I know that. It doesn't really hurt me but it can distract me. As soon as I hand in an assignment especially a big one like a paper or a test, I want to know my grade. Or as soon as I reply to an important email, I check my inbox every five minutes hoping for a quick response. Overall there were certain aspects of this that were definitely true, but if I had to rank them I would say that the ENFP is most accurate. However I see why my friend got this and don't think she was completely wrong.

2.     Look up your horoscope. Are the traits of your sign similar to the traits of the personality you were given when you took the MBTI? Do you have a similar horoscope with the people in your group? 

My birthday is August 21st making me a Leo. I have looked up my traits before and find it to be pretty much almost spot on. "Warm, action-oriented and driven by the desire to be loved and admired, the Leo have an air royalty about them. They love to be in the limelight, which is why many of them make a career in the performing arts." Positive Traits: Kind and big hearted, energetic, optimistic, straightforward, loyal. Negative Traits: Egoistic, possessive, dominating, impatient, arrogant. I think the only thing I don't agree with is the extreme egotistical traits of Leo's. I really do see the loyalty trait in myself. For the people in my life that I am extremely close to, there is next to nothing that I would not do for them.

3.     Which statement do you relate to the most?

I feel that I can control my own destiny and what happens to me is my own doing.

I feel that things happen to me because of fate, luck, or a powerful being.

I absolutely agree with the first statement. I think that there are certain circumstances or outside factors, such as the impact of the actions of those around us, that we cannot always control, but I fully feel that the actions that I make have an impact on my life and that I am in control of my own destiny.

4.     What Big Five Trait do you think is most desired by recruiters and why? 

Through my research I know the answer to this so I am going to skip over this one. 

5.     Who do you relate to the most from this list: Flanders from the Simpsons, Stewie from Family Guy, House, or Darth Sidious from Star Wars? 

This question probably stumped a lot of people because these are four very different characters that truthfully I am not sure I even relate with. I would say I am somewhere in between Flanders and House. We will be showing a video that will explain why we chose to ask this question and how it relates to personality.