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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Purdue chapter.

I first took the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test a few years ago (I’m an ENFP-A if anyone’s curious), but recently I’ve been hearing more about the Enneagram personality test as well. My roommate is really into enneagrams, so she encouraged me to take the test myself the other day (I got type 4). I still have a lot of reading up to do about what my results mean, and I’m no expert on MBTI either, but I would like to share my initial thoughts.

            Overall, my enneagram description is more interesting to me, so I strongly encourage you to read into it if you have not already. Myers Briggs could be useful, but I don’t feel like I really gain anything from reading about my type. It all seems to be pretty obvious observations about my personality and behavior that I already am aware of, and I haven’t found that it offers me any significant insight into understanding myself. Other than giving me some helpful adjectives to describe my strengths and weaknesses in a job interview, nothing in my MBTI description wowed me. Enneagrams, on the other hand, do have a somewhat different perspective on personality types. The most important and interesting aspect of enneagrams, in my opinion, is the description of how your type responds to trauma or acts while in an “unhealthy” state. These traits and behaviors are not blatantly obvious characteristics you would describe yourself with. At least for me, I never noticed that I act in those ways until I read my Enneagram result. It really made me reflect, think about myself in a new way, and uncover the root of a lot of my problems. Myers Briggs did not do that for me at all, nor did it tell me anything about myself that is super useful moving forward. Understanding these enneagrams results, however, can be very useful in identifying unhealthy behaviors and noticing when you may be heading down a bad road.

            It really depends on what you’re looking for in a personality test, but personally, I think that Enneagrams gives me more meaningful insight into my personality than MBTI. I am going to continue doing some research into what my type means for me, but I have been really impressed by what the Enneagram test has to offer so far.

Katherine Raykova is the President at the Her Campus at Purdue chapter. She’s been a part of Purdue’s Her Campus chapter since fall of 2020! She oversees chapter meetings, brand partnerships, a monthly chapter newsletter, and general maintenance to keep her chapter afloat. Her favorite areas to write about are fashion, books, plants, and all things witchy. Katherine is currently a senior at Purdue University, double majoring in Mechanical Engineering and English with a minor in Intellectual Property Law for Engineers. She has completed a year of industry experience working in aerospace consulting and is currently an undergraduate research assistant for the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. Outside of classes and Her Campus, Katherine is also a writing tutor at Purdue’s On-Campus Writing Lab (OWL) and a mentor for the Women in Engineering program. She hopes to attend law school next year to become a patent attorney. When she gets the chance, Katherine reads and spends as much time outside as possible. She loves listening to music and going on long walks around campus and nearby nature centers – even in the winter. Most days, she practices yoga, plays with tarot cards, and drinks multiple cups of tea. When she feels inspired, Katherine writes fiction or takes on a sewing/knitting project.