Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Michael Segovia
CPP Lead MBTI® Certification Trainer

You would think that two people with the same preference would be able to communicate well all of the time. Of course, we know that in reality this is not the case.

Sometimes when I am trying to communicate with another Introvert, my own Introversion gets in the way. I have trouble expressing my point of view on the spot. As a result, the other Introvert in the conversation may assume I mean one thing when instead I mean another thing. Then the other Introvert starts pondering what all this might mean and then come to a completely incorrect conclusion. Whew! I get exhausted just thinking about it.

Anyway, I’ve learned to give these situations a little time, and they usually work themselves out as long as I eventually go to the other person to explain myself. I have also learned that if I work harder at flexing my type in the moment, I won’t get into these situations in the first place.

I value the Introverted part of who I am, but I realize that flexing to Extraversion from time to time is essential to healthy, effective communication.

So, I’m going to stop writing and go talk to the person that led me to write this post in the first place.

For more of Michael's blogs, visit www.mbtitalk.com to "Connect, Learn, and Talk MBTI® Type".

At CPP, we’re constantly looking for ways to expand our MBTI® product suite and want to make you aware of two of our most recent efforts—the college editions of the MBTI® Form M Self-Scorable and the MBTI® Form M Profile! We've updated these tools in order to provide you with an easier way to interpret and help your students to understand their results.

The MBTI® Profile, College Edition furnishes a summary of your student's MBTI results, allowing you the ability to tailor interpretation and feedback sessions to your student's needs. It provides reported type, explanations of the preferences, characteristics frequently associated with the type, and an easy-to-read graph displaying the preference clarity index. Click here to learn more.




The MBTI® Self-Scorable, College Edition is a compact, all-inclusive booklet which makes administration of the MBTI instrument easy in a classroom, group or teambuilding setting. It contains 93 items, an answer sheet, and basic interpretive information. Easy-to-understand instructions and a simple three-step process make scoring quick and easy. Click here to learn more.

We're very excited to have these college editions especially for our educators! We are currently working to expand on these and will keep you updated!

According to Introduction to Type® in Careers by John K. Ditiberio and Allen L. Hammer, people tend to be attracted to, and are most satisfied in, careers that provide them with the opportunity to express and use their preferences. When students learn about their personality type, they can be better prepared on their search for a career. Knowing the type of work settings they can expect from certain occupations (which is something they can research) can help them decide if that will fit with their personality. A great example is the article I shared in my last blog.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing how each of the sixteen types chooses a major on our facebook and twitter pages. I encourage you to check out the booklet. It is broken out in six main sections which lead to more specific insights for each of the sixteen types:

1. Choosing Courses, Majors and Careers – includes how students choose majors and what majors students choose. 
2. Learning styles – each of the sixteen types has a different style that works best for them.
3. The tasks of a college student – includes writing, studying and taking tests.
4. Its not all work - this section focuses on dating and relationships.
5. Living with a roommate – learning how to deal with other types in a situation where there isn’t much control on the student’s part. 
6. Dealing with stress – each person copes differently, but knowing what works best for one’s personality type can be helpful.

If you haven’t connected with us yet, find us on www.facebook.com/cppeducation and www.twitter.com/cppeducation. Don’t forget to visit us to collect all sixteen insights!

I understand that I’m a little biased saying this, but I love hearing success stories from students who have used our products. I was one of them, but many feel it’s much more credible to hear from others who have no ties with CPP (i.e. aren’t employed there, as I am). I came across a blog site called “Beyond the Elms: Exploring Careers with Scripps Students and Alumnae” where several students from Scripps College track their career search journey by blogging. One blog in particular is from a student, Emily Chesbrough, who was having a hard time deciding on what major to choose. She felt she loved each equally but needed to pick one. After meeting with a career counselor at her college, she was advised to take the Myers-Briggs® assessment. Click here to read more about her experience and how the MBTI® helped her make a decision.

Have you attended any education conferences this past year? Every year, we travel nationwide to attend regional and national conferences. We love the opportunity to connect with our customers and meet new faces along the way – as well as learn about what’s going in the Education market!

Here are three (of the many) reasons why you should attend a conference:

-They are a great opportunity to advance in your field
- You can network with like-minded professionals and peers – and make some new friends!
- Gain new learning experiences – many conferences, especially the national ones, offer informational seminars and workshops

Our next conference stop will be at NACADA (National Academic Advising Association) from October 3 – 6, 2010. It will be held at Coronado Spring Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida with an expected attendance of 2,500. Take a look at the workshop schedule here. There will be over 350 workshops, individual concurrent and panel sessions and poster presentations on relevant topics to aid in professional development. To learn more, go to NACADA’s Conference website.

And don’t forget to stop by our booth #2 to say hello!

It’s back-to-school time once again! What better way to start the school year than by having some MBTI® type learning strategies handy? In the next few weeks, I’ll be posting learning strategies from Introduction to Type® and Learning by Donna Dunning for each of the 16 MBTI types on our CPP Education Facebook page.

According to the booklet, personality type plays a significant part in an individual’s learning style, influencing what and how that person prefers to learn. Consider trying out some new strategies based on both your preferred personality type as well as opposite your own. This way you’ll learn to be more flexible with your approach to learning under varying circumstances. Here are a few of the many insights picked up from the booklet for each of the 8 preferences:

Extraverts prefer to learn by:

• Being active and interactive
• Plunging in and doing something.
• Changing learning topics, tasks, and activities relatively frequently.

Introverts prefer to learn by:

• Working on a task in a quiet space. 
• Understanding material by reflecting on it. 
• Having access to additional information for studying in depth.

Sensing types prefer to learn by:

• Engaging in “hands-on” learning. 
• Using visual aids such as color highlighting, videos and diagrams.
• Focusing first on memorizing specific facts and details of the material to be learned.

Intuitive types prefer to learn by:

• Exploring concepts, extrapolating data, and finding patterns. 
• Using symbols, metaphors, associations, or abstractions to represent ideas. 
• Mapping out concepts or creating theoretical frameworks.

Thinking types prefer to learn by:

• Exploring logical consequences and implications. 
• Having clear evaluation and performance criteria.
• Debating, questioning, and critiquing information.

Feeling types prefer to learn by:

• Focusing on the effects of ideas and information on people. 
• Connecting with other learners. 
• Mentoring, helping, cooperating, or collaborating.

Judging types prefer to learn by:

• Structuring and scheduling time and tasks. 
• Clarifying others’ expectations. 
• Starting early and completing projects well before deadlines when possible.

Perceiving types prefer to learn by:

• Approaching learning in an open-ended, flexible way. 
• Using a variety of information sources. 
• Taking advantage of last-minute or unexpected opportunities.

Introduction to Type® and Learning is packed with more insights, strategies and even checklists to help you become familiar with and adopt new learning styles. These are especially helpful to share with your students as they adjust to their classes and pick up new learning habits. I hope you enjoy the posts to come!

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If you're looking for a fun way to keep the learning top of mind after a Myers-Briggs® feedback session with your students (or after you’ve had one yourself), here is a new and easy way to help them apply what they learn!

Check out the latest addition to the MBTI® product suite – the MBTI® Type Tower. This fun visual aid can provide you and your students with a striking, affordable way to display type and reinforce learning about the eight preferences. At 8 inches high and just over 2 inches wide, it is a small way to make a big impact.

What makes it the perfect training takeaway?

• Spinning blocks allow individuals to display their own type
• Compact design makes it easy to display on any desk
• Information on the eight preferences for quick reference is provided
• It's an affordable way to add value to your MBTI engagements
• It is the ideal gift for the MBTI enthusiast in your life

For more details and to order, click here.

Have you come across any challenging profiles while interpreting the Strong Interest Inventory® assessment with your students? Most of these profiles normally fall into two groups: 1) Profiles with few elevations, referred to as “Flat Profiles” and 2) Profiles with many elevations, referred to as “Elevated Profiles”.

So what are Flat Profiles? According to the Strong Interest Inventory® College Profile User’s Guide, written by Jeffrey P. Prince, profiles with scores on all the General Occupational Themes (GOTs) and Basic Interest Scales (BISs) at the “Moderate” level or below are generally considered to be “flat”. The students in this case indicated “little” or “very little” interest level to most of the items on the assessment. These are fairly uncommon for general client populations, but they occur frequently with younger college students.

Elevated Profiles are those with a large number of high scores on the General Occupational Themes and Basic Interest Scales. This usually means that the students indicated “like” or “strongly like” to most of the items on the assessment. This can be frustrating to both the interpreter and the student as the results won’t offer clear direction.

I’ll be sharing some common causes of both Flat Profiles and Elevated Profiles, as well some insights on how to interpret these in the next few weeks on both our Facebook and Twitter pages. If you are not already part of our community, please join us!

Facebook: www.facebook.com/cppeducation

Twitter: www.twitter.com/cppeducation

Many of you already use the MBTI® assessment to help your students during the career development process. Are there other ways you use the tool? I have spoken with a few educators who use the tool for team building in classrooms, depending on the major. They feel its important to use for students once they’ve declared their majors, as most often than not, they will be encountering the same classmates throughout their remaining time in school until graduation. This is a great way to help students learn to work with one another early on, so they can take these skills to the workplace after graduation. Working on teambuilding with your own coworkers is also a great way to improve productivity.

For that reason, I wanted to share an indispensable tool if you are considering holding a workshop: The third edition of the MBTI® Team Building Program – Leader’s Resource Guide. This edition includes plenty of new handouts and activities for you to use to conduct a teambuilding workshop. Truthfully, I had never gone through any of our binders before, so I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do so. I found the binder to be overwhelmingly filled with resources.

Here is a broad overview of what the MBTI Team Building Program binder includes, as it is divided into five parts:

1) Beginning the Teambuilding Process – This part includes all the prep work of the workshop, such as the initial student contact and the recommended steps in the contracting and interviewing process. There is a section that includes several resources on how to “sell” your student on teambuilding. You will find samples such as interview questions, interview forms, a teambuilding contract and more. These are all intended to be reproducible materials.

2) The Teambuilding Workshop – This second part includes things to cover during the workshop, as well as post-workshop ideas of how to conduct a follow-up session and an understanding of how and why teambuilding interventions can go awry. Also includes a pre-workshop checklist, a sample one-day teambuilding workshop agenda, two activities to “break the ice” when starting a workshop, handouts, more activities, and an evaluation form to help you assess your teambuilding effectiveness.

3) Team Analysis Using the Type Table and the Lenses – Includes tools to help you conduct a team analysis in which you analyze the types that make up your team. This part also describes the Lens approach, which is a useful way to group types according to common attributes.

4) Applying Type Lenses to Core Issues of Teambuilding – This part will review each Lens (Function, Quadrants, Temperaments and Dynamics) in depth showing how each relates to communication, team culture, leadership, change, problem solving/conflict resolution, and stress. It will cover three components of each lens including: about the lens; applying the lens; one activity for each core issue, for a total of six activities to use with your clients.

5) Additional Resources – There is an alternative workshop format here for you to use, along with more team-building activities for you to use. You’ll also find a handy bibliography to the sources mentioned throughout as well as organizations you can contact to deepen your knowledge on the MBTI® instrument.

In addition to all this, a CD of handouts and templates for you to print as well as training slides to use during your presentation is included. You’ll notice that a big theme in all five parts is ‘activities’. There is a wealth of information in this binder, so I hope this overview was helpful! To learn more, click here.

How do you counsel your students when it comes to career planning? Do you have a set way of counseling them or do you adjust your style for each individual student? More specifically, do you use what you know about personality type and the Myers-Briggs® (MBTI®) assessment to aid you during these sessions?

What I’ve heard from several career counselors is that institutions normally use a one-size fits all approach when it comes to counseling or advising students. These counselors understand the importance of keeping their students engaged by adjusting to the students’ preferred personality type. Personality type theory, as stated in the booklet Type and Career Development by CPP author Donna Dunning, can enhance the career development process in a number of ways and help practitioners (such as you) identify potential blind spots when guiding others through the process.

The focus of the booklet covers setting the stage, conducting self assessment, generating and researching options, making decisions, and taking action, all of which are stages that can be applied to other developmental situations and not strictly career counseling. The advice found here is applicable in any situation in which a student is solving a problem, assessing a relationship, or looking to change patterns of behavior. By understanding his or her own type preferences, a student will be better equipped to deepen their understanding of the kind of work that will suit them as they begin to better understand themselves.

In the next few weeks, I’ll be pulling some tips on learning to work with your students based on their preferred MBTI® type and posting these on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Here is the first:

Tips for working with ESTPs

1. Establish your credibility and competence immediately
2. Make the process flexible and fun but also relevant to the task at hand
3. Let them critique and question the importance of tasks
4. Provide opportunities for them to act independently
5. Create challenges and opportunities to compete or take risks

If you haven't already, find us on www.facebook.com/cppeducation and www.twitter.com/cppeducation to continue receiving our tips!

I came across an article in which students were interviewed to determine what they thought about career services. The responses were very interesting and I wanted to share them with you.

What I found the most interesting was that the students who made negative comments regarding the value of career centers had little to no knowledge of what a career center really has to offer. Many students who actually visit their career centers (as we all know that there are many more who don’t take advantage of them) expect to walk out with a job. They don’t realize that the career center is not just about having job listings available, but instead serve to prep the student for interviews and life after college in the workplace. It is crucial for students to understand that they need to learn these skills, especially for the tough job market they will face once they graduate. Click here to read their responses.

With the limited resources of the recession, more and more employers are turning to phone interviews to save time and money. When I graduated about three years ago, I had no idea that phone interviews would become the norm in the interview process. I had learned how to prepare for a live interview just fine: rehearse beforehand, always arrive 15 minutes early, be well groomed, bring a copy of your resume along with other necessary documentation, use body language to show interest, etc. So when I had my first phone interview, I really didn’t know what to expect! How could I make a good first impression by using direct eye contact or using a firm handshake with my prospective employer, while their first impression of me would literally be my voice?

I found an article online called “Don’t Wear Pajamas to a Phone Interview” where Anne Fisher helps people become comfortable with this impersonal style of communication. This article gives 15 helpful pointers on how to nail a phone interview. Share these with your students and learn some new tips for yourself as well!

How much history do you know about the Myers-Briggs® assessment? How has the use of the MBTI® instrument reflected cultural trends over the years? How has it transcended into cultures and nationalities?

Tune in next week on March 30th (1pm PDT/ 9pm UK) for the live airing of BBC’s radio story on “How MBTI Conquered the Office” as Mariella Frostrup (who has taken the assessment and received an interpretation of her results) touches on these key topics. We will be tweeting live, so make sure to follow our discussions and join us! @MBTI, @cppeducation.

Check out the story here.

So what does stress have to do with MBTI® type? Plenty. Learning about your MBTI type and how you can leverage your personality traits into different aspects of your life can be very useful. For example, my ENFJ tendency is that I try to take care of others more than myself. In college, when I needed to study for an exam and had limited time to do it, that in itself was cause for stress. Yet if I had a friend who was struggling with something, I always felt the need to help them first, thus reducing the time I had to work on my own studying. This would cause me much more stress.

College is a stressful time and students aren’t yet equipped with knowing how to handle stress. Here I list some possible causes of stress as well as some tips for dealing with it which I pulled up from our Introduction to Type® In College booklet. These are specifically for ENFJ’s, but the booklet references all MBTI types:

Possible Causes of Stress:

-May try to take care of others more than themselves
-May overidealize others
-May be oversensitive to indifference and personalize it
-Their need to socialize may interfere with work
-May try to live by others’ “shoulds”

Some Ways for ENFJs to Alleviate Stress:

-Like going to movies with friends to relieve tension
-Naturally rely on friends for support
-Naturally give their personal best to any task
-Learn to identify and take care of own needs
-Must make time for studies in busy social schedule

Teaching your students how to deal with stress while in college, will help them develop these skills for when they graduate. They can learn to apply these in the workplace and in their personal lives.