“The first thing to look for when searching for a great employee is somebody with a personality that fits with your company culture. Most skills can be learned, but it is difficult to train people on their personality. If you can find people who are fun, friendly, caring and love helping others, you are on to a winner. Personality is the key.”
Richard Branson
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.
Yourskillsmay determine your chances of success in a career and yourinterestsandvalueswill help you decide where to apply these skills: but do you need to also consider yourpersonality?
Some characteristics are widely applicable.Resiliencecan be equally valuable to apolice officer, atelevision producer, or anybody who commutes to work!Tactandsensitivityare not just forsocial workersbut 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, insalesor at theBar.
You may think that certain personal styles, such as beingcarefulhave negative connotations, but it is a valuable attribute infinancial jobsand crucial formedical occupations(imagine the surgeon who isn't careful!). Similarly, beingreservedmay be linked to powers of concentration and attention to detail: important in thescienceandcomputingfields.
You need to also make sure that you know what a particular career demands. If you aremethodical,meticulousandreliableyou may do well as anaccountant:but you also need to beadaptableandconfidentto 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.
RelaxedIndependent
EnergeticAdaptable
ReservedPersistent
OutgoingIdealistic
SensitiveCreative
ResilientOrganised
CarefulDecisive
Risk-takingTactful
Co-operative
Of course, there may be many other jobs which fit your personality, and you must also take into account yourinterests,skillsandvalueswhen considering careers.
You can find out more about many of these jobs in ourI want to work in .... pages
The five main personality traits and their relation to work
TheBBC Personality Testis a full personality test based on the following five-factor system of classifying personality traits in which you are asked to rate yourself on 68 different emotional states. It takes about 15 minutes and you can find ithere
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.Scepticaland critical
Competitive: fight for their own interests
Conscientiousness
Emotionally controlled: controlled impulses
Plan in advanceandwell organised. Focus on goals and persistent in completing tasks.
Strong willed, purposeful and determined
Cautiousand diligent
Perfectionist:punctual and tidy
Conscientiousness is the best predictor of future job performance: it is linked to better motivation task completion.
Can be adrawback in jobs with lots of change: persist with task rather than adapting to changing circumstances
Conscientious peopleplan well and focus on achieving aimsso tend to be more active in balancing diet and exercising and tend to live longer.Pleasure seeking
Less thorough when working
Emotional stability
Neuroticism
Emotionally stable
Calm and even tempered
Able to face stressful situationswithout becoming anxiousNegative emotions: fear, anger, guilt, sadness, embarrassment.
More prone to psychological distress.
Extroversion
Introversion
Lively: energised through social contacts and focused outside of themselves
Sociable: prefer large groups,
Talkative: talk through problems with friends
Assertive
Cheerfuland optimistic
Think on feet: brainstorming.
Excitableand impulsive: sensation seeking
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 tothink 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.
Openness
Inhibited
Intellectually curious
Independence of judgment
Novel and controversial attitudes/values
Creative
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 artSet 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.
A study of 327 job seekers.by Prof. Daniel Turban, University of Missouri College of Business found thatwriting a plan at the start of your job search, has a big impact on success.
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 thatthe top attributes looked for in candidates were honesty and trustworthiness, followed bycommitment, adaptability and accountability.
Of the five personality traits outlined aboveconscientiousness in the most highly correlated with interview success,followed byextroversionand finally emotional stability. Agreeableness and openness only have low correlations with success at interview.
Extroverts and conscientious people tend to like their jobwhatever 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 accidentswere 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 citizensscore 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 Moffittevaluated 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.shtmlAt 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.
Team Technologywww.teamtechnology.co.uk/tt/common/contents.htmthe Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) - discover your personality type.
The Keirsey Temperament Sorterhttp://keirsey.comPersonality questionnaire with instant feedback on personality types
Personality Test Centerwww.personalitytest.netA collection of free professionally developed tests that help users discover their personality type and individual personality traits
Outofservicewww.outofservice.comfun personality tests
Windmills Programmewww.windmillsprogramme.comexercises to help you manage your career.
Career Development Profilerwww.testing-direct.comassess your personality, motivation and work interests.
Career Demonwww.careerdemon.comAssess 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.