As an undergrad, one of my favorite professors had us complete an assignment called “Me at my best.” It was designed to help us think about our strengths so that we’d be able to place ourselves in situations in which we excel. That assignment taught me one of the most important lessons of my undergraduate career, and I was reminded of it this week while reading a book called First, Break All the Rules. In one chapter, author Marcus Buckingham distills the wisdom of thousands of talented managers down to this great nugget:

People don’t change that much.
Don’t waste time trying to put in what was left out.
Try to draw out what was left in.
That is hard enough.

Everyone has a different set of talents and weaknesses, and you’ll find the most success by taking advantage of that fact rather than fighting it. Great managers understand this about their people, and you should understand it about yourself. Continuous improvement is important, but too often we focus only on areas of weakness to improve upon.

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A friend of mine recently passed along The MBTI Map, by the Integrated Design Laboratory at South Korea’s Ajou University. It’s a really fascinating information visualization project that displays the 16 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator types as a subway map, with ’stops’ representing each of 39 representative personality words. It’s useful in understanding some of the fundamental differences, as well as similarities, among the various MBTI types. Also, I want a huge print of the poster, because it would look awesome on my wall.

I’m a sucker for anything involving the MBTI. I’m certainly not an expert, but I’m always on the lookout for tools that can help me better understand the different MBTI types and how they interact with each other. I’ve recently had the opportunity to take the lead on a summer project at work, and I spent a little time thinking about how my type, ENFP, affects the way that I manage projects.

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“Am I supposed to put my education section first, or my experience? Also, should I put my Physics class in ‘related coursework’? And I’m not wild about my objective statement. What do you think?”

Hold on a minute. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important to take the time to craft a well-written resume. To make sure the experiences you list are relevant, and speak to skills and accomplishments rather than just responsibilities. To have someone from career services take a look when you’re finished, just to be sure. But you’ve been job searching for a while now, and you aren’t having much luck. Obsess over the little details all you want, but your resume is not the problem.

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