Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Catherine Rains

A score of less than 6 tells you that a student split their “vote”, or chose items on the assessment an almost equal amount of times on both sides of the preference pair. This would result in a slight score, and could leave the student not being sure about whether they are really an E or an I (or an S or N, etc.).

I’m a good example of this. I have scored 2 on the Extraversion scale for about a decade, and as a result, spent years pondering whether I was really an E or an I. About six years ago it finally came to me (after exhaustive introspection!) that I really was an Extrovert that did Extraversion in a very unique way, with some characteristics of Introversion. After all, no one does any of the preferences exactly the same as anyone else. When I finally realized that I really was an Extrovert, this didn’t change my score for Extraversion – I still score under 5 even though I am crystal clear that I an Extrovert. My original score of 2 simply started an exploration process to discover my true type.

For some, true type can be discovered during the first interpretation session with a counselor, and for others (like me!), it takes a decade or longer. But no matter the time it takes to clarify type, once someone claims the preference for themselves, that is their type, no matter the score. So now I’m an Extrovert, period. Not a slight Extrovert, just an Extrovert who does Extraversion in a very unique way!

Next week we’ll look at who is MORE Extraverted - someone with a score of 30 or 2. Stay tuned…

Written by Catherine Rains

To begin our discussion about unclear type, let’s look at the most common misperception - a student does both E and I (or S and N, etc.) equally well and therefore they are both types. I’ve also heard students say they are well developed because they do both equally well.

The truth is that your student could have developed skills in his/her non-preference that would look to the outside world, and maybe even to themselves, as though they do their non-preference just as well as their true preference. However, a skill is not a preference. For instance, I was trained by my father to have a preference for Judging, which is his preference. He trained me to be Judging because it is the preference that made him successful, and he thought that this preference would work well for me as well. As a result, I do J exceptionally well. Most people trying to guess my type think that I am a J because I am very organized, timely and goal oriented. However, I am a Perceiver who has learned skills to function in a J world. Because I was trained as a J, however, I couldn’t decide whether I was a J or P until well into my 30’s. I had unclear type in this preference pair until I realized that although I function well as a J, it takes more energy for me to do this, and if I had my druthers, I would do Perceiving most the time. In my professional life, however, I often have to rely on my Judging skills to be successful and survive.

Having unclear type, or a preference score 5 or under, is a type in itself. In other words, at this moment, your student is not clear about their type and that IS a type – unclear. But type theory says that at some point in a student’s life, they will become clear about all 4 preferences, and claim one side of each preference pair as their own. Until then, their type is unclear.

Next week we’ll look at another misconception: You have to have a score over 5 to have clear type.

Written by Catherine Rains

During the past 14 years, I have traveled the U.S. teaching MBTI® and Strong Interest Inventory® assessment workshops to college career counselors. What do you think is the number one question counselors have asked me about the MBTI assessment?

Probably the same question you get as well. It goes something like this: “I can’t decide whether I am an E or an I (or an S or an N, etc) because I do both! How can I be just one of these?" Or how about, "Do I really have to be one or the other?” I love this one, don’t you?

For the next month, we’re going to look at this question in detail. Let’s begin with what an unclear result looks like on the MBTI report. Also known as a slight result, it is a score of 5 or less in either direction for a particular scale such as Extraversion/Introversion. This basically means that your student chose an almost equal number of answers on both sides of a certain scale, resulting in a report that says they are an E or an I. But because the score is so low, the student isn’t quite sure the result reflects who they really are, or what it really means to have a score so close to the middle. Some questions to ask are:

• Do they do both equally well? 
• Could they really be both? Do they need to choose at all?
• Are they less Extraverted than their friend who got a score of 30?
• If they don’t know their type, how can they choose a career that fits their type?

Starting next week, we’re going to look at the common misconceptions about slight scores, followed by a discussion on strategies to help students discover their true or best fit type. Until next week…

On March 1st, Judith Grutter hosted a Q&A webinar on “Starting your Students out Strong with iStartStrong”. If you weren’t able to attend, or haven’t yet heard about it, iStartStrong is our first self-service report based on the Strong Interest Inventory® assessment. We had tremendous positive responses by our attendees and a whole lot of excitement! We posted the webinar and supporting slides to www.cpp.com/askanexpert (under “archived webinars”).

Here is a little bit of background on iStartStrong:

This report was designed to empower your students to identify and pursue a career path that aligns with their interests and personality. It presents results as General Themes (based on GOTs) and Specific Interests (based on BISs). One of the really exciting features is that it provides hyperlinks to related O*NET occupations for easy research by helping your students understand their career possibilities and chart a plan of action toward finding a fulfilling career. This in turn allows you to get the most out of limited time with students who need more direction, while using this report to still help others you are not able to meet with. Click here to learn more about iStartStrong.

Enjoy the webinar and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at custserv@cpp.com!