Introduction
I'm one of those people who is a walking contradiction in the way I feel and think about everything. I'm extremely introverted but I love performing. I've always had a more logical mind but I spend most of my time focused on the arts. When it comes to tv and movies, I like everything from kids shows to serious dramas. Personality and career quizzes often have a difficult time with my answers because they are all over the place. Thankfully, the Meyers-Briggs and Enneagram tests have a type for people like me, but most quizzes don't. This is a problem because it lands me in the center of two polar opposites and where I should be would be no man's land. After enrolling in university, I was required to take a quiz to see what type of degrees I should be considering. I was interested in two of the twenty options that it showed to me. I do know that this quiz doesn't take disability limitations into account so I will give it credit for that but, still, only two of them were things I was interested in. That's not how a career quiz should work. For it to be a widely used career quiz, it should be able to account for as many kinds of people as possible. At least, that's what I think. Wouldn't it be better for everyone to gain insight from a require career quiz than to waste thirty minutes? I'm just saying.
What Degrees & Careers am I Considering?
To give you some background, I thought I should explain just exactly how many degrees I'm thinking about. Recently, it was narrowed down to Psychology, Women's and Gender Studies, or Theatre Studies. However, when I started learning how to code and reacquainted myself with my long lost friend, STEM. It brought up other many other options that I didn't think I would ever be considering. These include Forensic Psychology, Computer Science, Genetic Counseling. After thinking about this, I started considering even more degrees because why not? There can never be too many. I have also been thinking about English, Foreign Languages, and more. All of these degrees still correlate to my goal of creating a business and international organization for trauma survivors...just in different ways. It's really hard to figure out what will help me the most in the future when the future isn't the present.
If you couldn't tell, this is a wide range of degrees and, so, it makes sense that a career quiz wouldn't be spot on. What doesn't make sense is how, out of all of these options, only two of the results applied to me. Some example results include things like Business Administration and Chemistry (which I detest).
My Meyers-Briggs & Enneagram Type
I don't know as much about Enneagram but I am pretty sure I am a type 4 or a type 9. My answers change every time I've taken the quiz. I took my first Meyer's Briggs test in eighth grade and have been obsessed ever since. I was much closer to the middle of each option the first time and landed with ISTJ. The S and T were so close to the middle that I knew I would have to take it again in a couple of years. I kind of forgot about it and then stumbled upon a free test. This time my score was INFJ and I really connected to it. There wasn't one thing that wasn't true about me. For that reason, I chose to stick with the INFJ result. Unsurprisingly to me (now that I'm a professional personality/career quiz taker), this is the rarest result. Only an estimated 2-4% receives this result.
Koala or Peacock or Owl? All three?
Over the summer, I went to a camp and took their version of the Meyers-Briggs test. There were four results: Koala, Koala, Owl, and Peacock. I had about the same score for Koala, Peacock, and Owl. When we were separated into groups based on our results, I went with Owl. It was the more introverted and analytical of the three. Peacock was very loud and extraverted (I still don't know how I scored so high on this one). Koala was probably where I should have gone but I related to more Owl things so I went there. I was one of four girls out of a group of around fifty people. I immediately knew I was in the wrong place. I was definitely a solid mix of all three types. Something like this happens to me nearly every time I take one of these quizzes. It never really bothered me until this career quiz, though. That's a lie. I was definitely bothered when I was in a group of know-it-alls.
The Hard Truth
I have recently realized that I have two very important needs: to be taken seriously and to be understood. These two ideas drive me more than anything else does and I think they always will. If I feel I'm not being taken seriously by you, then we're not going to spend a lot of time together. If we do spend a lot of time together, then it won't be long before one of us leaves. If I feel I'm not understood (when it matters), I will feel wronged and betrayed even though not understanding me isn't against the law. I know that there will always be people who don't understand me because of my complicated and contradictory ways. I'm trying to become more okay with that but it's not working. I know I shouldn't be upset about a career quiz not understanding me. It's just a quiz and one that (probably) won't affect my future in any way. It does make me wonder that if a calculated algorithm created by humans can't understand me, what's to say that humans can (as they were the ones responsible for creating the algorithm)? I feel I constantly misrepresent myself with my words because no matter what I say or which answer I choose, there is never an option that will completely portray my truth. I know because it's my truth I am the one creating it. Therefore, I get to control what happens and how I get there. It's just that a stupid career quiz is making me wonder if what I am wanting for is even something that exists. I already carved out a unique path for myself during my primary education. I don't have the health or the energy to do it again. I'm getting the sense that I've already started carving out another, though. Maybe, I'm just reading too much into these quizzes and I have no reason to feel worried or get upset. I guess all I can do, now, is wait and see.