While preparing for a personality assessment workshop 2 weeks ago, I was reminded of Basil plant I grew some 7 years ago.
You see, cooking is a hobby of mine and one of the key influences on my cooking style is my having lived in Thailand for 3 years.Of course, it also helps that I once owned and operated a cafe that served great food. ; )
Thai cooking uses a fair amount of Basil leaves and instead of buying them from the grocery store each time I want to cook, I decided to grow them in home.

Growing them was easy. I bought the seeds, got some soil in a pot and within a week or so, I saw the shoots emerging from the soil and before long, I got a full grown Basil plant from which I harvest the fragrant leaves for some of my favourite dishes.
The Basil plant was placed just inside my apartment next to a large ceiling-to-floor window with good exposure to sunlight and was given sufficient water each day.
However,  all of a sudden, I noticed that the leaves started to wilt. And the Basil plant became rather frail although it wasn’t totally gone. I thought it might be lacking soil nutrients and began to supply it with fertilizers.
Still, the situation didn’t improve and I became increasing puzzled. My Basil plant had all the resources it needed (or so I thought). What else was the problem??
One day while shopping at IKEA, I noticed that some window hooks for potted plants were on sale and I bought a few with the intent of hanging the Basil plant outside of the window.
Guess what?
Within 3 days of putting the Basil plant out, its leaves grew plum and it blossomed into quite a bush!
It appeared that although the Basil was exposed to sunlight previously, it was indoors and the light was filtered by the window. It couldn’t thrive under that environment. Being outside the window, the Basil plant received direct, unfiltered sunlight and this made all the difference. It seemed like a small difference to me but it was a matter of life and death for the Basil.
The lesson I drew from this little episode is that the same principle applies to each of us.
We each have a preferred type of environment that is most conducive for us to grow and develop. Without such an environment that fits our personality, we can be given all the resources and motivation yet we will find ourselves struggling and wilting away, energy drained from us instead of being energized.
Before you jump into a job, it is vital for you to gain a keen awareness of who you are (passion, values, beliefs, skills) and what your dominant personality types might be.
With these, it is then possible to identify jobs and work environments that are most suitable for YOU which will enable you to thrive. It is with such a compatible match that you are more likely to be successful in your career.
There are several prominent personality assessment tools available which you should consider – examples are Myer-Briggs Type Indicators (MBTI), Holland’s Codes, and DiSC.
If you are studying, your university career centre may have some of these tools which you can take for free (mind you, some of these can be expensive!).
If you’d like to take a quick and accurate (and cheap too!) assessment online, here’s one on our website.