Personality Inventories
Career Services provides a place to begin and/or continue the ongoing process of self-assessment. Through individual career advising, and interest, personality and skill inventories, you can gather more information about yourself.
TypeFocus Careers measures the personality characteristics of: where a person gets his/her energy, how a person perceives his/her environment (takes in information), how a person makes decisions and judgments and how one likes to organize one’s lifestyle. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (below) measures the same personality characteristis, but with a slightly different resulting report. TypeFocus offers several additional benefits. Any student or alumnus/a can use the program free of charge. A second survey is included in the program measuring an individual’s college success factors. Gathering this information allows you, your career advisor and academic advisor to address issues of persistence in school, learning style, major selection and other issues, in addition to career exploration. Finally, users have unlimited access to the program online and can go back in and review results and conduct career-field research directly from the program using the web links provided within it.
To take this inventory, call Career Services at (512) 863-1346 to schedule a brief intake appointment and receive the password. If you receive a password from someone else, please notify Career Services. In order to receive the results of your assessment, contact Career Services to a make an appointment. TypeFocus is provided through this site for Southwestern University students and alumni only.
Take TypeFocus now (for new users or returning users who took TypeFocus after July 1, 2011).
Returning users who took TypeFocus before July 1, 2011, please click here.
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
This instrument categorizes preferences and personal characteristics in four areas:
- where you get your energy
- the way you take in information
- the way you make decisions
- the way you organize your lifestyle
To use this assessment tool, call Career Services at (512) 863-1346 to schedule a brief intake appointment and receive a Login and Password. If you receive a password from someone else, please notify Career Services. In order to receive the results of your assessment, contact Career Services to a make an appointment. The MBTI is provided through this site for Southwestern University students and alumni only. Alumni must pay a nominal fee to cover the cost of the instrument from the publisher.
If you have a Login and Password continue reading and then click on the link below. When prompted enter the username and password in all uppercase letters. Select “MBTI” on the screen following login. Note: Site requires Internet Explorer 5.5 or later or Firefox 2 or greater.
Take MBTI now
Keirsey Personality Sorter I and II
These online personality inventories classify you according to four temperaments. They give detailed explanations of each temperament with a listing of famous members of each group. After you take the inventories, you can find in-depth descriptions in Keirsey’s book, Please Understand Me, which is available in Career Services.
The Career Key
The Career Key is an online test, courtesy of North Carolina State, which categorizes your personality into one of six types, and then suggests careers in which persons of those personality types may be interested. An interesting article by The Career Key author talks about how choosing a major that fits your interests and personality is associated with higher grades and better persistence in college, based on research.
Brain Works
This site allows you to download Brain Works, a program developed by Synergistic Learning Incorporated, which analyzes which side of the brain (right or left) you favor and whether you are more visual or auditory. It´s a fun test that gives you different questions each time you use it. Also available to use in the Career Services Resource Center.
