Personality test results
The two personality profiles I am choosing to talk about are firstly the Enterprise Catalyst (Venture To Think Ltd, 2019) and secondly the Get2 test (Caird, 2019).
The Enterprise Catalyst put my motivation and drive at approximately 75/100, my capacity to self-determine at approximately 50/100 and my willingness to learn at approximately 50/100. The first thing I have to say about this is that I am quite surprised, this is because I know that because of my depression my motivation and drive is a lot lower than it could/should be. This could either mean that during my ‘happier’ times I have a very high drive and motivation and that when I am depressed it cancels some of it out or this test is inaccurate. In my opinion I think that this test is not necessarily inaccurate but it is not a complete representation of me 100% of the time, for example, if I were to take it again when in a depression then I think that my score for drive and motivation would be significantly lower. I was also surprised by my willingness to learn being so low — I know that I have much to learn about entrepreneurship and I don’t yet see myself as worthy of the title of an entrepreneur because I have done nothing to prove otherwise and so either maybe I am more confident (or even arrogant) than I think or this test hasn’t accurately portrayed my willingness to learn. I wasn’t however surprised by my capacity to self-determine because in my mind I believe that I know what I can achieve and what I cannot; I think of myself as a realist which in my opinion is a good trait for an entrepreneur because it means that I am not opposed to new opportunities but I am also not likely to pursue something that is unachievable. This test also confirmed that I am an introvert (but I also recognise the importance of teamwork) meaning that I need to socialise and perhaps network more to support my future ventures; I like to start new projects/ventures more than I like finishing them and although it tells me I have good focus I should perhaps stick to completing tasks and satisfying my need for achievement; I avoid risk — mostly because I do not want to waste my hard work on a gamble (I prefer to research as much as possible to gather every fact and piece of information I can find so that it is calculated and the risk is minimised) and my strongest skill is my own reflective learning, hence why I was surprised about my unwillingness to learn because I feel that I know exactly what areas of entrepreneurship I need to improve on.
The Get2 test explained to me that I am “occasionally enterprising” with an overall test score of 80%. This test has five sub-sections with myself scoring 100% in the first: Need for achievement. This indicates that I can (and do) rely on my own ability; I am more pessimistic than optimistic; I have effective time management; I have a strong drive with high energy levels; I am opinionated and I am willing to work long and hard when necessary. Again, a lot of this was surprising to me: whilst I do rely on my own ability a lot I often reach out for help when needed; as I have already said I see myself as a realist rather than an optimistic or pessimistic; I think I have mediocre time management; again I still think that I lack drive and have low energy levels a significant amount of the time; I agree that I am opinionated (although I prefer to keep quiet unless I have actual evidence to support my arguments) and I do agree that I am more than willing to work long and hard when necessary. Scoring 100% on this section would imply that it is impossible for me to improve but as I previously stated I have an extremely long way before I am anywhere close to perfection (if there even is such a thing).
Both my need for autonomy and creative tendency scores were low at 67%. Whilst the creativeness doesn’t surprise me — as I recently took another creativity test scoring 60 (Aulive N.D.) and I now know that I need to use certain creativity tools like Design Thinking (Rikke Dam and Teo Siang, 2019) or SCAMPER (Olivier Serrat, 2017) to overcome creativity barriers I have — this need for autonomy opposes the Enterprise Catalyst test because it told me that I am an introvert which infers that one of these two tests are inaccurate as I took them consecutively meaning my answers will not have differed due to my mood changing. If I was to just go from these results I would not know whether I need to be more independent or work within groups more (in my opinion I think that I need to focus slightly more on teamwork).
My calculated risk score was average at 75% showing that whilst I mentioned from the Enterprise Catalyst that I do not take risk because I like to ensure I calculate them first I was in fact wrong and it is now apparent that I simply prefer not to risk anything (something I hope I can improve upon in the future — perhaps by starting with small risks such as contributing more in class even when I am uncertain and then progressing higher as my confidence grows).
Finally, my internal locus of control scored at 83% showing that I take opportunities when they arise, I have confidence to do so and the determination to see them through. This is a huge surprise to me because I listed opportunism/seizing opportunities when they arise as one of my weakest competencies in the Entrecomp Audit () and I still feel that this is something I need to really work on because I have no problem spotting opportunities but taking them is a different story.
Overall, I think that whilst I do not believe these tests are inaccurate, I feel that they do not represent a person 100% of the time and that peoples’ results would differ depending upon when they take the test. However, it has given me more insight into what traits of entrepreneurship I need to focus on in the future.
References:
Aulive (N.D.)Test My Creativity[online] available from <http://www.testmycreativity.com/>[N.D.]
Olivier Serrat (2017) ‘The SCAMPER Technique’. Knowledge Solutions 1, 311–314.
Rikke Dam, Teo Siang (2019) 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process [online] available from <https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/5-stages-in-the-design-thinking-process> [2019].
Venture To Think Ltd (2019) Enterprise Catalyst personality test results [online] available from <file:///C:/Users/bradforh/AppData/Local/Packages/Microsoft.MicrosoftEdge_8wekyb3d8bbwe/TempState/Downloads/Your_Enterprise_Catalyst_Report%20(1).pdf> [28 October 2019].
Caird (2019) Get2 personality test results [online] available from <http://www.get2test.net/get2result.html> [28 October 2019].