Personality, which consists of distinct qualities and characteristics, shapes how individuals interact with others and the world. It affects our relationships, goals, and even the careers we pursue.
That said, many people make use of personality tests to understand how they tick. They utilize them for better self-awareness, helping them unlock their potential. Workplaces also use these instruments to find people who are the right fit for their job roles.
If you still haven’t tried taking any personality tests, maybe you should start now. Below are several kinds of tests that you may want to try.
1. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or simply MBTI, is a widely known self-report personality inventory developed by Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs.
The tool is based on Carl Jung’s theory on psychological types and helps you understand and explore your likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, relationships, and even career preferences and outlook on life.
The test considers your preferences and identifies your personality using four scales or dichotomies, namely:
- Extroversion to Introversion
- Intuitive to Sensing
- Feeling to Thinking
- Perceiving to Judging
So based on your preferences, if you prefer your inner world over the world outside, then you’ll get Introversion over Extroversion.
Here are some free online MBTI tests for you to try:
- 16Personalities
- TypeFinder Personality Test by Truity
- Jung personality test by 123test
2. DISC
The DISC profile is another behavior assessment tool designed to help people gain insights into their personalities. This tool is widely used in companies to help develop stronger teams, better working relationships, better leadership, better communication, and boost productivity in their employees.
If you’re not familiar, the animal test where you’re typed either as a dog, an otter, a beaver, or a lion, is based on DISC.
DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. Here is a quick background of each type:
- D: Strong-willed and direct people focused on accomplishing results.
- I: Sociable people who prioritize relationships and are good at persuading people.
- S: Gentle and dependable people who prefer unity and cooperation.
- C: Logical people who value accuracy, precision, and quality
Some tests provide you with just one letter, while others give you your dominant and secondary traits.
Here are some DISC tests you can take for free:
- Free DISC Personality Test by discpersonalitytesting
- The Disc Assessment from Tony Robbin’s website
- DISC Personality Test by 123 test
3. Emotional Intelligence Tests
You may have already heard how emotional intelligence is more important than the traditional intelligence. So maybe an emotional intelligence test is better than an IQ that measures your cognitive abilities, such as logical reasoning, math, and verbal skills.
To put it simply, emotional intelligence is your ability to perceive, understand, manage, and control your own emotions. This skill is not only directed towards yourself, though. Emotional intelligence involves understanding other people’s emotions and adequately responding to them.
If you have great emotional intelligence, you can utilize this skill to make others feel better and empower others to act. Knowing your ability is especially essential if you're in a leadership role, or if your day consists of interacting with and influencing other people.
Here are several free EQ tests online:
- Emotional Intelligence Quiz by the Institute for Health and Human Potential
- Emotional Intelligence Test by Psychology Today
- Test Your Emotional Intelligence from Greater Good Magazine
Aside from these tests, you can also check one of our other articles we took a look at several other free emotional intelligence tests.
4. Career Assessments
While you can always venture into any career of your liking, there might be a more efficient way to find a job. Taking your values, preferences, strengths, skills, and goals into consideration can help you find a job where you’re more likely to thrive.
Likewise, these assessments offer no assurance that you’ll find your dream job. But gaining insights about the kind of environment you’re likely to flourish in and the working style you have, can help you find a job you’re more likely to enjoy and commit to.
Some career tests can even offer guidance with your career journey, considering your current career role, while others provide job listings and schools that offer the degrees for the career you want to pursue.
Below are some free career quizzes you may want to check out:
- Career Explorer by Sokanu
- Career Aptitude Test by What Career is Right for Me?
- O*Net Interest Profiler by the US Department of Labor
It's always tricky to work out what you want to do as a career. And if you’re a student who still doesn’t know which path to go, you may benefit from tools that can help you find the right career or profession for you.
5. IPR Skills Test
Humans are social beings. All of us communicate daily, if not hourly, or a bit more frequently. Communication is a vital skill that every human needs to learn to function well in society. Some even say that they’re central to success in relationships.
Interpersonal skills, or simply IPR skills, is an umbrella term covering a wide range of skills and abilities necessary for interacting and communicating with people around you. These skills are deemed necessary, especially if you are in a managerial or leadership role.
These include verbal and non-verbal communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, working with teams and groups, and more. Here are some free IPR tests that you can take:
- Interpersonal Skills Self-Assessment by SkillsYouNeed
- Interpersonal Communication Skills Test Online by Good Therapy
- Interpersonal Skills Test by Psychometric Tests
Use Your Personality to Your Advantage
Nobody lives in a bubble, which makes understanding yourself and how you relate with others to be essential.
Knowing your predispositions, skills, talents, work styles, and manners of relating may also help you function better—and even thrive—in various areas of life, including your career and relationships.
So go ahead and take one of these personality tests. Whether you learn something new about yourself, get job recommendations, or entirely change your life around, you'll only benefit from the additional understanding of yourself.
