Dear Archna
I am sorry for not replying earlier, I was away over a long weekend!!
The practical usage of MBTI would come into scenarios such as the HR/Recruitment Manager wants to have a final assessment before deciding on whom to make an offer from a set of short-listed candidates. I would reiterate that the usage of MBTI is rare in Indian recruitment. Lets take the example of hiring a sales person, There are a set of factors that would come up here. In this case, the most important traits of a salesman are:
1) Should be an extrovert (So that he can talk, talk and talk and sell things) (I am!! lets see if this means anything to you :) )
2) Intuitive/Sensor? Now this one and the next one are a bit tricky to decide on. Lets clarify,
An intuitive person would prefer to get information from non conventional sources, meaning that they are not based just on physical senses viz, smell, taste, sight, touch and hearing, but on, maybe, say experience. [Maybe, because, some might assume or infer that it is based on things such as ESP etc., which is/are not scientifically accepted. And I have used 'experience' as a possibility because, experience makes people understand that life is more based on probabilities, and hence always make "wise" decisions etc.] [I do not mean to offend anyone and that being an INTJ, I think that way(explanations later)]
It purely depends on how a sales man would do the job being a N/S. N's might just look at people and infer that they are easy to sell to. S's might have their own skills.
3) Thinking and Feeling. A person who thinks, uses his logic to make decisions and not hunches etc. A person who feels, might override the most logical decision for the sake of the "wrong/right feeling" they get/have.
Maybe the feeling of going to one area to direct sell goods based on area i son a hunch, and to someother sales man, because it is logic.. Such as selling paper near the court that near a college. Of, course, there would be lots of Xerox shops there, and you could have a great day because they use paper all the time, but in front of a college, unless there is an assignment, who needs paper/pens? :)
4) Now, the last, Judging or Perceiving tells you how a person will act. Whether s/he would act step-by-step which is the J type. Such as a person who, not necessarily one thing at a time, but step-by-step and not hurrying off everything in one go. A perceiving type person would do the contrary.
If something has to be done, it has to be done the way it has to be done. Thats a J speaking! A J salesman might talk to one customer and ask the other 3 to wait in a queue, but a P salesman might like talking to 4 customers at the same time and a selling different things to different people.
Okay, now, you have 16 combinations (you know that). I, am an INTJ. I am into recruitment, a job more suitable for an extrovert. Now, am I not good doing it? Wrong, I have set records in my previous company, yet I do not speak too much while at office. How do I balance it? I am more suitable for the job of a scientist, and I feel that is what I do sitting in front of a computer and analyzing people and their mentalities, and how they react to what situation, and what a person would do in what situation etc. Maybe, I would come out with a book someday.
All the above being very modest. What I meant to say with all that is... if you were to ask me take a test to decide by my MBTI-type and offer me the job of a recruiter, you might be wrong, and at the same time, you might be right. Why do I say that? Because, there are times when I NEED to recharge my introvert batteries, that I just take my bike and hit the roads for trips of a least of 1000 kms on an off from work for 4 days or so (hey! this was a long weekend, yes, out of station, but not alone... hence, my batteries are still low, and I might just take another two days off for that purpose).
Okay, so now Archna, do you understand the complexity of how people fit or do not fit in a job? If I work and out perform by working for just 7 hours a day, and I take 4 days off in 2 months, I am a good hire or a bad one?
Thats is why, the MBTI should not be used in making hiring decisions while it does not favour an applicant just because our understanding of human personality is not perfect yet.
Or rather, that it is eventually destiny that controls everything!
PL&E
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Please note that I have written whatever I have just to give you an understanding of how just another person might think. We are all the same piece of flesh and bones, yet we think and are very different from each other, and that none of us has the right to judge each other on the way we think because one person's right might be another person's left :) (not wrong, not privilege)
I hope this was of help