How well do you know yourself?

Gaining a deeper understanding of your strengths, motivational interests, and deeply-rooted perspectives can help you excel in your career and in your professional and personal relationships. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of the most popular and well-known personality tests on the market, but how does it compare to the Birkman Method?

What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI is a personality test that starts by dividing people into introverts and extroverts. It then expresses personality via the four functions sensing, thinking, intuiting and feeling. This test is a type indicator, which means that it does not measure the amount of the trait each person has.

Birkman vs. Myers-Briggs: Individual Uniqueness and Precision

While MBTI can be a fun and interesting test to take, it falls short when compared to the Birkman Method when it comes to how well the report is individualized. This is because MBTI results categorize each person into one of 16 different “types”. The problem with this method is that each person is unique, and most people don’t neatly fit into these predefined categories. Unfortunately, the MBTI report can suffer from the Forer Effect – the descriptions are so vague that they could be about a lot of different people.

By contrast, the Birkman Method is a trait-based test that can measure the amount or intensity of certain personality traits. This offers much more personalized insight, including the unpacking of a person’s unique strengths, and allows comparisons on the intensity of a trait from one person to another. In addition, the Birkman Method also provides insights on the underlying stress factors and needs of each individual, making it clear what you need to be happy, healthy, and successful. Another piece that Birkman offers that Myers-Briggs doesn’t is an analysis of one’s interests, making it useful in both professional and personal aspects of one’s life.

Birkman vs. Myers-Briggs: Actionable Next Steps

While your Myers-Briggs results can be interesting, they lack information about what you can do to make yourself more successful or be the best version of yourself. On the flip side, Birkman makes it easy to understand what changes you need to make and how to go about implementing them right away.

By discovering your needs, you can make better choices for yourself personally and in your career. If you’re the type of person who thrives on social interaction, you may want to pursue a career that involves collaboration, team-work, or working with the public. When you have a better understanding of yourself and what fuels you, you’ll be more productive and happier. For example, you may discover that “social service” is your lowest interest. If this is the case, you can stop feeling guilty about not wanting to volunteer and instead donate a portion of your paycheck.

Birkman vs. Myers-Briggs: Career Recommendations

Career suggestions from Myers-Briggs rely on your MBTI type, which aren’t super specific to each individual. Birkman offers more specific career recommendations based on your individual needs, motivators, personality, and more. Its recommendations are far more tailored and customized to you.

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