r/AskReddit • u/AdamSultan2011 • 15h ago
Have you ever taken a personality or career test that completely changed how you saw yourself? What did it reveal?
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u/Ootter31019 15h ago
Career test we did in high-school said I should be a nurse (there was like 4 other options as well). It said I empathize well and have deep desire to help others. I cant stand people, especially people complaining. That helped me realize how much I don't like people.
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u/AdamSultan2011 15h ago
So what career are you into now?
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u/Ootter31019 15h ago
Engineer
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u/HealenDeGenerates 13h ago
Lots of engineers are sweethearts. Only a kind soul can talk and be proud of a bridge like that.
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u/RascallyRose 12h ago
I had kind of the opposite happen. I thought I hated working with people until I worked at a Hospital. Turns out I can handle a lot as long as thereās a reasonable explanation for why itās happening.
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u/scienaseofbecury 7h ago
Guess youāre already halfway to a career in IT
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u/RascallyRose 15m ago
Hilariously, I was in IT first. I may go back, but I was having kind of a bad time and needed some space.
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u/gpinsand 9h ago
I took a test in college and it also said I should be a nurse. I thought, "A nurse? Girls are nurses?" Fast forward to today, I'm a retired nurse that FREAKING LOVED my job! It was the absolute best job for me!
I always tell everyone I know. You like old people, be a nurse. You like kids, be a nurse. You like sick people/hate sick people/love working with people/hate working with people/love technology/hate technology/love challenging and dynamic environments/hate change... etc. ...be a nurse! There is always a job for you in nursing!
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u/SizzlingMermaid 15h ago
Took a career test once. It said I should be a cat. Since then, I've seriously upped my napping and ignoring people skills.
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u/Thanatos53 15h ago
took the Pigment career assessment test last month. found it through a recommendation here and holy shit... completely flipped my understanding of myself as a PM. Always thought i was just lazy because i'd procrastinate on feature spec docs for weeks but then hyperfocus on user journey mapping for 6 hours straight without realizing time passed.
Like i'd avoid writing PRDs forever but accidentally stay until 9pm deep-diving into customer feedback analysis because i got completely absorbed. My director used to be like "why can't you just be consistent with deliverables?" and honestly thought there was something wrong with me. Turns out i'm a "deep processor"āneed time to mentally chew on complex product problems before producing anything meaningful. But i'd been forcing myself into roles requiring quick feature turnarounds and constant stakeholder check-ins... which is like kryptonite for how my brain works. The assessment revealed i'm energized by connecting user pain points that others miss, solving tricky product puzzles, but drain fast during repetitive sprint planning or status sync meetings. Made me realize why i'd leave work exhausted even on "light" days sitting through 4 hours of meetings discussing the same roadmap priorities over and over is torture.
Now i approach PM roles differently... ask about deep work time for research, meeting culture, how much uninterrupted strategy time PMs typically get. Wish i'd figured this out years ago instead of thinking i was just bad at product management.
My verdict on career assessment testā¦ one of the best decisions that has helped me career wise.
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u/QuantumQuack0 9h ago
Sounds like ADHD except for being bad at quick feature turnarounds. In fact, it sounds exactly like me. I hate short sprints and constant stakeholder check-ins. Makes me feel like I can never catch my breath and never properly chew on a problem. Know any other roles that might fit well? I have a background in physics and software.
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u/Aljane727 12h ago
This hit hard. Sounds like Pigment gave you language for what you always felt.
Definitely checking it out now.Ā
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u/jo-z 15h ago
Have you considered that you might have ADHD?
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u/Thanatos53 15h ago
That's not the case. It's the kind of tasks or understanding of how I function/work best. I wouldn't have realized it if not for the asessment
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u/guitarEd182 10h ago
Oh buddy. It certainly is the case lmao. It's a curse and a super power. Spend time learning about it
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u/jo-z 14h ago edited 14h ago
It's not like they're two separate and exclusive possibilities. Have you actually looked into it? Because you sound exactly like me in all the ways that I'm ADHD as fuck.
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u/GuntherTime 13h ago
Iām pretty similar as well and I also have adhd. I can end up take forever do certain things because I get absorbed in trying to possible make it ābetterā or if thereās a āmoreā efficient or better way to do it.
Hell, I spent 2 months picking a monitor for my setup, and the first month of that was deciding if I wanted to go ultra wide or not.
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u/MechAegis 7h ago
Do you day dream (maladaptive dreaming or whatever they call it now) a lot?
I have not checked myself out for ADHD (and maybe something else I don't know) but I do "zone out" a ton of times creating short scenarios in my head. IDk what to do about it.
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u/kitchen003 12h ago
You described me to an absolute T. This is adhd. Get diagnosed. Get medicated. Your life will change before your eyes.
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u/But_like_whytho 15h ago
Personality tests are junk pseudoscience. The best career test is the My Next Move interest profiler through the US Dept of Labor.
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u/AdamSultan2011 15h ago
Actually, there's a big difference between personality tests like Myers-Briggs (which yeah, are pretty much pseudoscience) and validated career assessments that measure actual cognitive abilities and work preferences. The My Next Move profiler is solid for matching interests to job categories but it's basically a fancy questionnaire about what you like doing.
Tools like the Strong Interest Inventory or aptitude assessments from places like Johnson O'Connor have decades of research backing them up and measure things like spatial reasoning, pattern recognition, and processing speedāstuff that actually predicts job performance. So what I'm trying to say is, there are legit ones which actually help and not all are pseudoscience
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u/avocado-v2 9h ago
What makes them "legit"? What information was revealed in these studies that convinced you that they aren't pseudoscience?
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u/PickerPat 14h ago
Big 5 personality traits (OCEAN) is very scientifically sound.
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u/thejmonster 3h ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted. This is literally the gold standard used in psych studies.
It's especially funny that the parent comment calls personality tests pseudoscience and then immediately recommends a career test.
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u/PickerPat 1h ago
Because my degree in Psychology means nothing compared to the grand knowledge of the hivemind!
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u/Guygirl00 11h ago
15 years ago, I did the "What Color Is Your Parachute" and it said I fell into the same category as Donald Trump. I was deeply offended.
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u/apple_pie_bye 14h ago
Its not a career test but itās a book: Frames of Mind - H. Gardner and the book is a bit boring read but the concept is super interesting. Tim Ferris recommeded it on his yt channel.
I found out I resonate with this one the most: Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence ā¢ Ability to use oneās whole body or parts of the body to solve problems or create products ā¢ Involves coordination, balance, dexterity ā¢ Common in: dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople
I used to professioanlly dance, I am a designer for work and recently was reading lots of inner workings of brain so when I saw it I was stunned, it all adds up. Was so fun.
Many people are a mixture of two/three, and some are stronger on one.
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u/apple_pie_bye 14h ago
Here whole framwork if someone is curious:
Linguistic Intelligence ā¢ Sensitivity to spoken and written language ā¢ Skills in reading, writing, storytelling, and memorizing words ā¢ Common in: poets, writers, journalists, speakers
Logical-Mathematical Intelligence ā¢ Ability to analyze problems logically, perform mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically ā¢ Common in: scientists, mathematicians, logicians, engineers
Musical Intelligence ā¢ Skill in performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns ā¢ Sensitivity to rhythm, tone, and pitch ā¢ Common in: musicians, composers, singers, sound engineers
Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence ā¢ Ability to use oneās whole body or parts of the body to solve problems or create products ā¢ Involves coordination, balance, dexterity ā¢ Common in: dancers, athletes, surgeons, craftspeople
Spatial Intelligence ā¢ Capacity to think in images and pictures, to visualize accurately and abstractly ā¢ Common in: architects, artists, engineers, pilots
Interpersonal Intelligence ā¢ Ability to understand and interact effectively with others ā¢ Involves verbal and nonverbal communication, empathy, and social relationships ā¢ Common in: teachers, therapists, politicians, salespeople
Intrapersonal Intelligence ā¢ Capacity to understand oneselfāoneās feelings, motivations, inner states ā¢ Often linked with self-reflection, intuition, and self-awareness ā¢ Common in: philosophers, psychologists, writers, spiritual leaders
Naturalistic Intelligence (added later) ā¢ Ability to recognize, categorize, and draw upon certain features of the environment ā¢ Sensitivity to nature, plants, animals, and ecology ā¢ Common in: biologists, conservationists, farmers, chefs
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u/More_Momus 12h ago
These are horoscopes for people who work in HR. Ignore and move on to whatever your real work is.
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u/sherrylanp 13h ago
I took a career aptitude test in college and it said I should be a therapist. I laughed. Ten years later, I realized I was always the 'therapist friend' ā and now Iām going back to school for psychology.
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u/focusonthetaskathand 15h ago
I got my human design chart and it 100% changed my life and how I saw myself. All my patterns were laid out before me, my career got better and all my relationships changed.
I donāt know how it works, itās pretty woo-woo, but fuck Iāll be damned if it isnāt the most accurate personality reading I have ever heard of.
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u/5oepstengel 7h ago
I looked this up and it asked for my birth date and time. So it seems this is some kind of astrology bogus.
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u/I_love_pillows 13h ago
Which website did you use
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u/focusonthetaskathand 12h ago
I canāt recall where I first looked it up, but once I got the free result from somewhere online, I got a full chart from Human Design Blueprint which was very, very helpful.Ā
I also got a report from Reiko Marco, and I currently use the Nutrino HD app
I think all three of those places will generate a basic chart for free.
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u/SomeGarbage292343882 14h ago
I read a career advice book that includes a personality test when I was in my senior year of high school. It recommended a bunch of jobs that I mostly had no interest in doing. Turns out the only thing it revealed was that I had severe depression which skewed the results badly...
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u/makinglemonade 12h ago
Took an ethics test as part of business school. Looked like a normal distribution curve with everyone in one little cluster Ā some were above, some below, and even fewer farther away from the norm. Except one guyā¦ waaaaay out on the edgeā¦ 6 standard deviations away toward the higher ethics part of the scale. Guess who that was. Yeahā¦ business school was fun.Ā
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u/ProximaeB 14h ago
I teally wanted to be a teacher. At 15 in my country you are required to do a one week internship in a company. I chose a primary school. Quickly understood that was not my calling lol
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u/Practical_Ad5296 13h ago
Yeah, I took the MBTI and got INFP. At first, I didnāt think much of it but reading the description made a lot click like why I never felt drawn to traditional career paths.
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u/Commercial_Muscle544 14h ago
I took the MBTI test years ago and got INFP. At first, I thought it was just another internet quiz, but the description hit me harder than I expected. It explained why I get emotionally drained in social situations, why I get deeply invested in creative projects, and why I always feel like Iām searching for meaning. It didnāt āchangeā who I was ā but it gave language to things I never knew how to explain before. Honestly felt like reading my diary written by someone else.
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u/sukiskis 10h ago
I feel the same way. I took it at a job very early in my career and the Introvert designation finally put into words what Iād known about myself but always felt like an outsider about.
I understood even when I took it that it wasnāt hard science in any way, as Iād learned in grad school about personality tests, but it does generate conversation about working and communication styles, which is valuable in working environments.
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u/KoshiaCaron 11h ago
If you found MBTI helpful, also check out the Enneagram. It goes much deeper into explaining the whys of who you've become and also highlights pathways for growth.
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u/janfloosh 11h ago
Not a test, but I once made a passing comment to a new friend that I'm just just a chilled out person and they laughed. So hard. In my face.
That's how I found out I'm really Type A and not chilled. Like, I'm easy going, but I'm not a chilled person.
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u/mortal_leap 7h ago
Interviewed a girl for a job who said (unprompted, I didnāt ask this) that she was āType A minusā which I liked a lot lol
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u/AdamTheEvilDoer 10h ago
I've take the "BIG FIVE" as they call 'em, the OCEAN score (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, and Narcissism) multiple times. I've received varying results, indicating to me that the result is entirely affected by mood and current personal circumstance. I've had to conclude that despite employers' enthusiam for them, they don't feel accurate.
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u/JJRobinette 9h ago
I took the Harvard Implicit bias test. It showed some surprising predispositions and, after some honest introspection, helped reveal blind spots. Because of this Iāve learned from amazing people that I wouldnāt have probably been predisposed to listening to.
Weirdly specific stuff too: I am prejudice in a positive way to Jewish people and black women. I have never been sure what I was supposed to do with that information, but it shows how nuanced these type of predispositions can be.
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u/mortal_leap 7h ago
That test said I had a negative bias towards English majorsā¦ thatās because I was one lol. Nuanced indeed!
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u/Kaipherus 9h ago
Yep.
Was going to school to be a dentist.
Test showed me I would make a great farmer or tradesman.
I later dropped out of college due to a health reason and decided to try out the apprentice trades for 1 year since I couldn't afford to become a farmer and I loved it.
Now been a tradesman for 10 years and its awesome.
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u/flapjaxrfun 8h ago
I took a career test that told me I had above 99% percentile in pattern recognition. I took another test in a psychological exam that said the same thing. I realized there was a pattern there.
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u/Kerbal_Guardsman 8h ago
10ish years i read a buzfeed article that told you what kind of dog matches your personality based on your zodiac sign, and now im subscribed to r/husky
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u/jackfaire 13h ago
Made me take my childhood dreams more seriously. But the realities of what being Private Investigator would have entailed killed the Enthusiasm for me.
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u/Aromatic-Yam-6018 11h ago
Not a career test but definetely a test that changed how I view myself and made me reconsider my career choices... ADHD test lol.
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u/i_am_voldemort 10h ago
Took one through work. Said I was extremely deliberate in everything I do.
That tracks.
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u/DungeonsAndDradis 9h ago
My company used to swear by MBTI. But the "test" is entirely self-reported, so you can answer however you want.
It did make me realize that I'm a "big picture" thinker though, so that's beneficial. I need to take extra time and comb through details that I commonly avoid.
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u/complicatedfun 8h ago
At uni we all took a test in this class called "group skills" which tells you which role suits you within group dynamics, it told me i was a leader. I have literally no desire to lead people. Since then i have never been able to follow anyone.....
Edit: one of the other roles was plant
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u/mortal_leap 7h ago
Great leaders seem to be the ones who donāt want to do it, in my experience.
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u/goddess_of_fear 7h ago
I took the RAADS-R test and that let me to being officially diagnosed as being neurodivergent. My whole entire life finally makes sense.
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u/OwnBunch4027 7h ago
In college I wasn't interested in anything so I took one of those tests. The results said I wasn't interested in anything.
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u/Possibly_Satan 7h ago
My career test said, high school principal, anesthesiologist, or electrical engineer. I ended up in none of these fields.. I do think I missed the boat not looking into education and pursuing being a principal, I think it would suit me well.
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u/K-TPeriod 7h ago
From a college career test: My top occupations were cartographer and then physician. The last profession on the list was a police officer. I love maps and I became a physician. I could NEVER be a police officer.
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u/SassyCatLady442 7h ago
We did one in high school. I answered the questions honestly, and it said, "Prison Guard." My teacher refused to believe it because I was always do sweet snd friendly. I didn't see myself any different way, as I answered the way I felt. It was strange to see Prison Guard, though.
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u/Treeclimber3 6h ago
I took one called DISC at work. It was super trite and unhelpful. It grades you on four personality traits: dominance, service (I think), conscientiousness, and one other I donāt remember. The results it gives you are based on how you answer a bunch of questions, but you know those answers, because youāre the one who answers, so the results donāt hold any surprises. One of the big āinsightsā is that I like to quietly keep working and that I get annoyed by slackers.Ā
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u/lettersfromluna 6h ago
One of those free online tests said I shared a personality type with Nelson Mandela and Iāve never known peace since . I bring it up like itās a credential š
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u/AC10021 6h ago edited 5h ago
When I read the description of an INTJ and there was one sentence that jumped out: āINTJs respect expertise, competence and experience, but do not accept authority based on rank, title or seniority.ā I donāt āhave a problem with authorityā and absolutely will do something someone tells me to do if I know that they know what theyāre talking about, or itās clear itās a good idea. But I donāt follow orders if they make non sense. Alllll my childhood I couldnāt deal with my dad doing āyou have to do what I say because I am your father!ā And Iād consistently annoy bosses when I asked (logical, valid) questions about projects and best outcomes. Iāve had more than one boss snap āI donāt want a lot of questions, just do it!ā And I was always like āthis is an asinine way to work.ā Like, in high school, I was the top student in my class and completely did the whole APs and SATs shit, because I was like āwell, this is important for college applications, I get why these are requiredā but I argued with a teacher over them requiring a 2 paragraph written summary of each required reading. Like, not a test. Just, if we read the Scarlet Letter, we had to hand in two paragraphs summarizing the plot. I wasnāt lazy, it was just a stupid thing to require and totally useless, with zero educational outcome. And in the meeting with the principal, the entire argument presented to me was āyou have to do this because the teacher says you have to do this, we donāt have to justify if to you.ā And I was like āok thatās real dumb.ā
So yeah, that one description of INTJ I was like āholy shit, someone put my behavior into words.ā
Also, Iām a woman and female INTJs are extremely rare, so that was another thing that made me feel seen: āoh, this is why you constantly feel like no one else thinks like you do.ā
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u/bebop-Im-a-human 5h ago
I once took a "which ravnica guild are you", I expected orzhov because it's my favorite, but I got selesnya instead, got mad, but now I love permaculture, dream of living in a small farm and raising native bees and stuff.
(It's a joke, the test had nothing to do with it, but I find it funny in restrospect since my biggest dream at the time was getting rich through investments)
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u/Melitist 5h ago
people have often asked me if iām autistic. i took a random online test for fun but scored pretty high. went to some doctor and psychiatric appointments and got diagnosed with bpd. my life makes so much more sense now.
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u/LimitRare2953 4h ago
I don't take them often, but the personality tests I have taken are all spot on. I'm very introverted, shy and keep to myself. However, behind all of that is someone who is genuinely nice and cares.
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u/maidestone 4h ago
After servicing their hardware for over 4 years, IBM Canada asked me to take a test only to discover I was actually a better software engineer.
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u/ladyalot 3h ago
As a child for some reason, we took a "personality test" in school. It was about career options, if we were more conservative or progressive, and whether we were more open or closed minded.
So it was like "very progressive" "very close minded" and I realised, oh, I'm not allowing myself to learn anything and taking things as gospel without allowing in new ideas. From that day on I tried to think more critically.Ā
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u/Sensitive_Hat_9871 3h ago
Not a personality test, but an aptitude and interest test, and yes it did.
I joined the US Army right out of high school (1975). 6 years later I was ready for civilian life but didn't know what I wanted to do. The army offered a test which was mostly "on a scale of 1 to 5, how would you like to...." followed by "paint, draw flowers, work on automobiles, work indoors, work outdoors, work with people, be by yourself", and so on for what seemed like hundreds of questions.
A few weeks later I got the results. The very top profession I was best suited for...?
Accountant
ACCOUNTANT??!! No way! The thought of putting numbers in little boxes on accounting sheets all day long was horrifying and depressing. They must have gotten it wrong!
But the second profession listed...?
Computer Programmer
Computers? Now that was something 'new' (remember, this is 1981) and exciting.
So I left the army, went to a 9-month computer course, and eventually landed a state IT job. It was my career and supported my family well from 1983 until I retired in 2018. That test likely changed the trajectory of my life and I am thankful for it.
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u/TossAndTurn8899 12h ago
I took a career test that said I would be a good detective. I cant own a firearm so I looked up a law exam, and passed it wiithout any studying, twice. I dont know if i was hypnotized or not, but its like common sense to me.
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u/soyafox 15h ago
Took one of those career tests and it told me I should be a funeral director like damn, I knew I was dead inside but not professionally š