How well do you know yourself? This sort of question may seem trivial, and you may think they have a precise answer. The truth is, understanding your personality is a lifelong process. More importantly, the average person has no conception and understanding of their true personality.

During my first year at UND I took an organizational behavior class. In the first week of the class we had to take an extensive and highly regarded personality test. At first I found the test to be pointless and immensely tedious, but naturally I had to do it for the points.

After we spent several weeks analyzing the reports I began to see the immense value. There are certain aspects of my personality that I have always understood. But the intricate details of the report were invaluable, especially the career advice.

The Myers Briggs Assessment prides itself in matching any given personality with a job family that will enable high levels of success. It is this information that is so important.

For myself I realized the major and career path I was pursuing would have been in contention with my personality type. So, I decided to switch majors, and I must say it has been one of the most crucial decisions I have ever made.

The average college student changes his or her major three times. The reasons for this are widely varied and heavily disputed. I strongly believe that students figure out the hard way. I find many people choose a major and career path with a utopian end result in mind. My view is  students switch their majors because they don’t understand their personality and find difficulties while studying within their major. Unfortunately, this realization is inefficient, and — worst of all — quite expensive.

Everyone should take a personality test as soon as possible, preferably before entering college. For the majority of people who haven’t, I can’t stress enough the importance of doing this much sooner than later.

The process of personality recognition also takes a significant amount of self reflection. Ever since I took the test I’ve spent more and more time internalizing the results. In other words, I’ve spent time trying to connect certain personality attributes with my day to day life.

According to my results I base my decisions off of logic and objective analysis of cause and effect relationships. I definitely do this everyday, even though I don’t always realize it. The ability to analyze your actions and understand why you make certain decisions is invaluable. This is a process of learning that needs to be ingrained in the framework of a college education. But it is difficult and no one is requiring you to do it. It takes personal motivation and the desire to fully appreciate yourself.

Understanding your personality has many implications for your day to day life. Through the process one can garner a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses. As a result, one can continue to use their strengths. For instance, someone like myself requires order and organization. Therefore, I try to keep all aspects of my life as organized as possible.

Similarly, one can work to understand how to cope with weaknesses. Once again, for myself, I need to keep in mind that I may come across as impersonal in social interactions. With this knowledge I now try to make more personal connections with people.

Ultimately, uncovering the intricacies of your personality can yield surprising results that you may have otherwise never figured out. In doing this one can live a more productive and fulfilling life. After all, a successful career should be filled with interest and happiness. I can’t think of a more critical way to do this: match your career and major with your personality.

Colin Mummery is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].