The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) assessment is one of the world’s most widely used personality questionnaires. Many people have found the insights gained from going through the MBTI process to be invaluable, boosting their self-awareness and helping them with applications such as working in teams, communication, dealing with conflict, and personal development. But, like everything in life, the MBTI has its limitations. Here are four things that you should never use the MBTI assessment for.

1. Hiring, Recruiting, or Selecting

The MBTI assessment should never be used to hire someone or as part of any hiring decision. One of the main reasons for this is that the MBTI isn’t just an assessment—it isn’t just a questionnaire—it’s a whole process. People don’t just complete an assessment and get a report. They complete the assessment, but then before they are given their results, they work through a facilitated self-assessment process where they learn more about MBTI personality type and start to think about what their type preferences might be. Then they are given their assessment results, compare this with their self-assessment, and use both pieces of evidence to decide what type fits them best. Along the way, they are given the opportunity to think about how this will help with their original purpose in taking the assessment. This process, where an individual ultimately decides for themselves who they really are, is incredibly powerful as a development tool. However, it is entirely unsuited to selection.

In addition, because the MBTI is not designed to be used in selection or recruitment, it lacks the additional scales often seen in selection personality assessments. These typically include “social desirability measures” or “lie scales” designed to try and check whether job candidates have been truthful in their responses. Because the MBTI is only intended to be used for developmental purposes, and therefore relies on an open discussion and self-assessment, such scales are not needed.

Using the assessment in selection would also go against the whole ethos of the MBTI approach. Our MBTI type is a preference; it shows us how we typically do things and what comes easiest to us, but the framework also allows us to “act against type” when we need to. In a developmental context, this can lead to some very powerful discussions and “aha moments,” but again this does not fit easily into hiring situations.

2. Deciding Who to Promote

Any promotion is just a special sort of selection decision, so the MBTI assessment should not be used to decide who is promoted or whether any individual is or is not promoted. As a development tool, the MBTI process can help people gain the skills and self-knowledge that will be useful when they seek promotion, but it should never be used as part of the promotion process itself.

3. As an Excuse or Stereotype

Our MBTI type tells us our personality preferences, and this will drive how we typically behave. However, we have the freedom to “act against type” when we need to. This means that we should not use type as an excuse. For example, the Judging-Perceiving dimension looks at whether we prefer to live and work in an organized, structured, planned way (Judging), or in a spontaneous, emergent way (Perceiving). Someone with a Perceiving preference could frequently deliver work late, using their type as an excuse; someone with a Judging preference could demand that unrealistically early deadlines are put in place. Neither approach is valid. Knowing our type gives us an insight into our strengths, but also shows us where we may need to flex our behavior.

Similarly, we should not use type to limit our expectations of others to stereotype them. Rather than thinking about type as a rigid box to confine someone’s behavior, think of it as a springboard. That’s where they start, but given the opportunity they can and will go beyond this in ways that might surprise you.

4. As a Diagnostic Tool

The MBTI assessment is not a clinical tool. It is designed to look at a common framework of personality that underlies the behavior of all of us; it is not designed to allow diagnosis of forms of neurodivergence, mental illness, or other psychological conditions. The MBTI framework is in practice used by some clinicians, but only alongside other specialized assessments that they have had training and experience in using. There is also some overlap between MBTI type and neurodivergent conditions such as ADHD, but the MBTI assessment is not diagnostic of these.