Look at the attributes below and click on those which you feel are your most like you. Print these off or note them down.
Each day read out the list to remind yourself of what you do well!
Try to focus on the things that you are good at: your talents, the things you are passionate about,
rather than worrying too much about the things you don't do well.
Your skills may determine your chances of success in a career and
your interests and values will help you decide where to apply these skills: but do you need to also consider your personality?
Some characteristics are widely applicable. Resilience can be equally valuable to a police officer, a television
producer, or anybody who commutes to work! Tact and sensitivity are
not just for social workers but help anybody to get on with their colleagues.
These personal characteristics can have a strong influence on
your career choice. Anybody who feels that terms like ‘‘outgoing'',
and ‘‘independent''
are the complete antithesis of their personality is unlikely to be happy, for
example, in sales or at the Bar.
You may think that certain personal styles, such as being careful have negative connotations, but it is a valuable attribute
in financial jobs and crucial for medical occupations (imagine the
surgeon who isn't careful!). Similarly, being reserved may be linked to
powers of concentration and attention to detail: important
in the science and computing fields.
You need
to also make sure that you know what a particular career demands.
If you are methodical, meticulous and reliable you may do well
as an accountant: but you also need to be adaptable and confident to deal with the range of clients you will encounter.
RELATING YOUR PERSONALITY TO JOBS
Now click on the buttons below to link some of the above personal styles with some jobs that might use them.
The five main personality traits and their relation to work
The BBC Personality Test is a full personality test based on the following five-factor model, a system of classifying personality traits. You will be asked to rate yourself on 68 different emotional states. Takes about 15 minutes.
www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/personality/index.shtml
HIGH
LOW
Agreeableness
Altruistic: thinks about others before themselves.
Cooperative: sympathetic to others and eager to help.
Harmonious: give up their own ideas easily to get on well with others.
People with this trait are usually happiest in careers that involve helping, caring for and teaching others.
Active: take more exercise but also more likely to be involved in more risk taking activities: they are more liekly to smoke, be a heavy drinker and to drive fast cars!
Extroverts tend to be happier in jobs with lots of social contact, such as sales, marketing, and teaching.
Reserved: internally focused
Spends time alone: finds large groups stressful.
Independent of thought
Even paced.
Prefers having meeting agendas in advance to think through ideas beforehand. May feel these ideas are then ignored by extroverts who say the first thing that enters their head. Introverts' best ideas may emerge after a meeting when extroverts have moved on to their next exciting job.
Thye tend to be more prudent and thus live longer on average.
Emotional: higher levels of positive and negative emotions
Increased focus on inner world of thoughts and feelings.
People with this trait tend to be happiest in jobs which require creativity and abstract thinking, for example advertising, marketing, scientific research, the media and art
Set ideas: prefer the traditional to the novel.
Not able to adapt easily or change quickly
Less emotional
Extroversion and conscientiousness tend to increase as you get older.
Extroversion, openness and emotional stability are important to career satisfaction, but not life satisfaction which also includes leisure pursuits and social relationships.
Conscientiousness seems to be vital to a successful job search:“Perhaps, conscientious job seekers conducted better quality job searches by scrutinizing their fit with prospective employers more carefully or more effectively following up with employers”
Conscientiousness (e.g. your self discipline and dependability) affected "metacognitive" activities (thinking and learning) and directly influenced the number of job offers received.
"Perhaps, conscientious job seekers conducted better quality job searches by scrutinizing their fit with prospective employers more carefully or more effectively following up with employers,"
A survey of 800 employers by Reed Recruitment found that the top attributes looked for in candidates were honesty and trustworthiness, followed by commitment, adaptability and accountability.
Of the five personality traits outlined above conscientiousness in the most highly correlated with interview success, followed by extroversion and finally emotional stability. Agreeableness and openness only have low correlations with success at interview.
Extroverts and conscientious people tend to like their job whatever it is. Jobs provide structure, which conscientious individuals like, and and environments where you can meet lots of other people which extroverts like.
Bus drivers with few accidents were low on extroversion and high emotional stability, those with high accident rates had high extroversion and neuroticism.
The situation is more important than your personality when predicting how you will behave.
US citizens score high on openness and low on conscientiousness.
Traits are hereditary: some people are more outgoing and sociable, other more resilient against stress, friendlier, more inquisitive.
Self-control (the ability to regulate our attention, emotions and behaviours) is part inherited and part learned A study by Dr Terrie Moffitt evaluated children's’ attention, persistence and impulsiveness to assess their level of self-control and they were evaluated again at the age of 32. Children with lower self-control were more likely to struggle in school, behave badly and begin smoking earlier and as adults be single parents, have money problems and a criminal record, depend on drugs or alcohol, be unemployed, overeat and be in poor health and to live a shorter life. The more self-control a child had, the better off he or she was as an adult. The good news is that you can learn to have better self control!
Personality Tests
BBC Personality Type Indicator Testwww.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/whatamilike/index.shtml At the end of the test you will be assigned one of 16 possible personality types. It is a simplified personality test based on personality type theory (Myers-Briggs). 20 questions long and should take about 10 minutes.
The Keirsey Temperament Sorterhttp://keirsey.com Personality questionnaire with instant feedback on personality types
Personality Test Center www.personalitytest.net A collection of free professionally developed tests that help users discover their personality type and individual personality traits
Career Development Profilerwww.testing-direct.com assess your personality, motivation and work interests.
Career Demonwww.careerdemon.com Assess aptitudes, career interests, preferences for working conditions, and verbal and other reasoning skills (free). Can get a report giving you a detailed rundown on your test performance and career options (must pay for this part). Very good but takes a while to download and enter.
