Why your personality plays a part in a great career choice – but is not the whole story

Two helpful dictionary definitions of personality:

‘ a set of distinguishing characteristics’

‘ the type of person you are, shown by the way you behave, feel, and think’

Psychologists believe our personality derives from both innate dispositions and inclinations, along with our experiences and environmental factors. Personality can change during a lifetime, but core personality traits tend to stay pretty consistent during adult life.

When it comes to choosing or changing careers, personality is clearly something to bring into focus. It impacts how we interact with clients, colleagues, managers, and how we view our work and our life as a whole.

You may well have taken a personality profile at some stage and wondered what to do with that information. That’s why I’m going to explore some well-known profiling tools, what the results can suggest about career choice, and importantly, what you need to add to make a really well informed decision for a fulfilled working life.

1. Personality Assessments

There are many different personality assessments including Big 5, DISC, Enneagram, and MBTI. Some are more nuanced than others, so it’s important to be aware that they are best viewed as a way of stimulating reflection, not caging you within a label.

Think spectrum not box, nuance not black and white.

While knowing your personality and your preferences is central to creating a fulfilled working life, it’s not the whole story. I like to think of the description that emerges from taking a personality assessment as a starting point or check back lens – enabling rather than defining.

If you’d like to take (or retake) a personality assessment, here are some common ways you can do that:

MBTI

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a paid assessment based on Jung’s theory of personality types. It assesses for individual preferences on 4 different dimensions:

Extraversion (E) / introversion (I)

Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or your own inner world? Do you gain energy from being with people or from being alone?

Sensing (S)/ Intuition (N)

Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or add your own interpretation or meaning?

Thinking (T) / Feeling (F)

When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people or special circumstances?

Judging (J) / Perceiving (P)

When dealing with the world around you, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new options and information?

If you take this assessment, you’ll end up with a summary like the one below, which is mine:

ENFJ

Warm, empathetic, responsive, and responsible. Highly attuned to the emotions, needs, and motivations of others. Find potential in everyone, want to help others fulfill their potential. May act as catalysts for individual and group growth. Loyal, responsive to praise and criticism. Sociable, facilitate others in a group, and provide inspiring leadership.

You’ll immediately see its relevance to career choices and there are other resources available from MBTI to explore this further if you wish to.

Other providers include:

16 personalities (free type test + career paths)

Big 5 Personality test

Truity bring a range of assessments together in one place, including Big 5 and MBTI 

2. Personality Types and Career Choice

Most of the main personality assessments also provide correlations to careers that may suit each personality type. I particularly like how Truity does this, and recognize myself in their MBTI-based report. The summary is below, but the actual report is much more detailed.

But it’s worth saying that tests like these suggest careers that are based mainly on personality and interests and don’t always or overtly take into account strengths, favourite skills, values or purpose. Neither do they recognize the importance of identifying what you need from your work at different stages of your life.

This is why I see a personality assessment as a check back, or a starting point rather than the whole picture.

Basically, this kind of tool offers information for you to examine and reflect on, but you will not necessarily gain a deeper understanding of how those results were generated, and that’s why I prefer a different approach.

3. But what else do I need to identify a more fulfilling career?

As a career change coach and a career guidance professional, I prefer an approach where you don’t just have a summary of your personality and what careers might therefore suit you, but also a deeper understanding of exactly WHY these careers are spot-on for you right now.

If you’re seeking career fulfillment, the better your understanding of precisely what you need from your work today and in the future, the more likely you will be able to identify a new direction that inspires and motivates you.

You’ll also have the clarity to motivate the changes you’re planning to make.

Neither do the career options suggested by these providers open up emerging or completely new possibilities. We all know how quickly careers are evolving and that new roles are developing to meet today’s needs. These changes will only get faster and more varied, so by being able to deconstruct elements of work that drive and inspire you and recombine them to meet today’s challenges, you are giving yourself the chance to get ahead of the curve rather than simply relying on yesterday’s jobs market

In this way you’ll understand in detail all the different moving parts that make up career fulfillment for you.

After all, there are thousands of others in your personality type, but they won’t all find career satisfaction in the same place.

I like my clients to ‘see the working’ and understand the different criteria they need for a happy life with fulfilling work. So these are the specific elements I work on with them:

·      Values – what matters most to you in life and work, and making choices to honour and expand these

·      Strengths – knowing which traits and skills you are appreciated for and want to use more

·      Purpose – what gives your work and life meaning?

·      Interests – where do you find time disappears as you dive deeper into a subject that fascinates you?

·      Motivation – what really makes you go the extra mile?

·      Ideal Working Day (or Week) – the types of activities, the people, locations, customers that make up a fulfilling day or week

·      Ideal Life – what kind of life do you really want, and where does work fit in?

With this granular self-knowledge you’ll have the clarity and confidence to start creating the life you actually want, rather than potentially sleep-walking into a very different scenario.

If you do nothing to alter course, where will you be in 20 years’ time?

4. What do YOU need to change careers?

As a multiple career changer myself, I know there are so many stumbling blocks to choosing a new direction. These are some of the most common:

·      No idea what else to do that would be better

·      Believing it’s too late, you’re too old or too specialist to make a change

·      Afraid of giving up a secure and comfortable career – even though it drains you dry

·      Going round in circles, gathering more and more and more information, and sinking beneath it

·      Terrifying yourself with all the ways it will all go horribly wrong

·      Having a few ideas but unable to make a choice

If one of these applies to you, and you’re ready to start moving towards something that inspires you again, get in touch to arrange a free 30-minute career chat.

You could also take a look at my Career Change Process, which is available as a coaching programme or self-study edition.