Do you know really yourself?

A few years ago, while I was preparing an interview for a role at Apple, I discovered that they were using sometimes the MBTI? assessment (https://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/) to confirm/to discover the personality of their employees or candidates. The MBTI? framework is about positive differences and increasing self-awareness. It isn’t about putting in a box or telling to someone what he/she can or can’t do.

I decided to do it as I was sure I will discover new aspects of my personality. I decided to do it through the official website as it gave me more confidence about the accuracy of the results than an open-source one but also it gave me access to courses to give me some guidance to boost my confidence, find my motivation, etc…

Once done, the results indicated that I was ESTJ. While reading the complete report, I was really amazed to see that my personality was described line after line. Even, if this report is not 100% accurate, overall, this report, was me! In a second time, it helped me to understand my past successes and failures and helped me to improve my weaknesses, develop my strengths, prioritize, and take time to recharge when I need to.

For example, as per my MBTI? profile, I may have difficulty working in an ambiguous or confusing environment. It was true! My personality was really challenged in 2021 when the coup happened in Myanmar and, unfortunately on top of the Covid. I already lived in disrupted environments but never, at the level, I experienced here and I’m not sure that, I will still live in Myanmar if I didn’t know better my character and been guided to improve it. Moreover, we will see later in this article another characteristic of my personality that helped me.

Now, that I know Me, Myself and I, and arrive to manage positively my differences (own personality) from other personalities, I developed a strong resilience (thanks to Covid and the Coup), my roller coaster journey was not yet finished and something new, opened my eyes, to again questioning myself.?

Am I really loving what I’m doing (Merchandising)? Is there something else that I would love to do? Am I good at what I’m doing? what I don’t want to do anymore? Where I don’t want to go? What kind of people I don't want to work with anymore?

While reading here and there, trying to help me to find answers to my questions, I found a lot of articles but 3 paid my attention (https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/18/what-gen-z-and-millennials-want-from-employers-amid-great-resignation.html), the one below unfortunately only in French (https://www.forbes.fr/business/le-recrutement-par-les-appetences-une-innovation-manageriale-pour-lutter-contre-la-penurie-de-candidats/). To summarize the 2nd article. It’s about recruitment taking into consideration palatability (Love to do) instead of only Hard skills and experience (know-how).

Those 2 articles are completely related, with the current resignation wave in the USA but also in Europe following Covid and the trends coming from Gen Z & Millennials regarding a new way to work, challenging seriously the recruiters and the companies. Indeed, this new way to work has, as, expectations (3rd article):

(https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/genzmillennialsurvey.html)

- ?“prioritizing work/life balance, learning, and development, and well-being will be critical, as will having a clear purpose and giving employees the opportunity to address societal issues through their work”.

However, despite the major trends being the ones above, each individual doesn’t have the same wishes or expectations even in the same generation as the previous ones! But also, are we sure that the previous Generations don’t have the same wishes as the new ones? Nevertheless, several studies have shown that 80% of the employees said “they are happy at work” but only 20% said that “their work gives them pleasure” (Love to do), all generations combined.

While continuing to read here and there, I found a Japanese concept called; The Ikigai.

The Ikigai concept is referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living, and what makes life worth living (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikigai)

This is exactly what I was looking for! I read more about it and decided to do the test (https://ikigaitest.com/). I don’t know exactly the accuracy of the results but I think this website is the reference. Furthermore, you can access additional information (if you pay) as, a quick summary of your personality, your top 20 Ikigai jobs, your weirdness, and your work style.

I did it as I was so curious, 1st, to discover if the results will be in line with my personality and 2nd, if my Ikigai matches with me or if there are surprises.

The main results are in the pic below and surprisingly, there are no surprises! I Just to go a bit further in the detail, in my Top20 Ikigai job, roles related to Merchandising/buying/Supply chain are in the top position.

Also, if you remember, earlier in the article, I mentioned that “I may have difficulty working in an ambiguous or confusing environment”. When you look inside my Ikigai, “My profession”, it’s again me! It’s crazy!

Finally, MBTI? really helped me from the time I did it to become a better me, and the Ikigai double confirmed several aspects of my personality and new information that strengthens what I was already thinking.

Let’s move forward now!

Those among you, who still think that you don’t know yourself, I really invite you to use those 2 tools as, if they worked for me, there are no reasons why they shouldn't work for you