Match Your Career to Your Personality - Here's How!

Are you wondering how to match your career and your personality? Does your job feel like a badly fitting coat that you really have to stop wearing? Are you thinking of a career change and trying to find something that will suit your personal style?

Good idea! Personality matching is an aspect of career choice and career change that is often overlooked and yet a poor match between career and personality is often the source of much frustration on the job.

Here's what you should do.

Take a personality test

First of all you need to have some useful measure of your personality. There are many free personality quizzes out there, some better than others. As a career coach, my long-term favourite is MBTI or the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. The thing I like about this personality quiz is that it helps you to understand how you prefer to behave, but does not pigeon-hole you rigidly into a specific personality type. Indeed, there is a suggestion that your personality will mature as you grow and so what may seem like 'you' at 20 will probably look rather different by the time you are 50!

Take a pinch of salt!

No personality test is perfect. No test is really able to capture exactly who you are, so always take the results with a pinch of salt. Do not let yourself be 'labelled' or adopt a fixed and rigid view of who you are. Be ready to disagree with the results - they can be wrong! A lot depends on how you were feeling when you answered the questions and you could get a different result if you tried the test again in a few weeks time.

But this doesn't mean these tests are a waste of time though. A personality type test gets you thinking in detail about how you tend to habitually respond in a range of situations and puts this information together in a format that helps make your personal style clear to you. You may not agree entirely with what they say, but you will have done some useful thinking about yourself in the process.

Take a look at your job

Now take a look at the work you are currently doing in relation to the personality traits identified in the test you have taken. The key question is - does your job allow you to use your preferred ways of working or is it forcing you into an artificial 'work persona'?

The most obvious example to use here is Extraversion and Introversion. These are personality characteristics that appear in most personality tests. How does this relate to your career? Well clearly if you are a quiet and private person who likes to take time over your work and needs space to reflect before responding to questions and problems, you will find it a challenge if you are in a job where you are constantly interacting with colleagues or clients or where all decisions have to be made collaboratively and quickly.

Conversely, if you are an outgoing people person, you will want to find work where you can get that interaction with others, because that is what gives you a buzz. You will probably prefer to do your problem solving by talking things through with people and would find it hard to work for long periods on your own. So a job that demands quiet concentration would be likely to drive you up the wall pretty quickly!

OK, this is a pretty obvious example, but it makes the point that the personality traits you identify in yourself can be a very useful measure to help you assess whether a new career idea you are considering will be a good match.

Take action

Once you have identified the key aspects of your personality and especially if you have spotted a mismatch with your current career, you need to do something about it.

Assess how big the gap is between you and your job. In some cases you may feel you can stay put because the difficulties are not too severe. The next option, if you are finding your job quite a challenge, is to explore how you might be able to change some of your current duties and responsibilities within your existing role. If you are really at your wits' end with your current role, then use your personality test as a starting point to help you find out what career ideas would be a better match for you.

Don't just sit there in a job you hate - life really is too short.

In the meantime, if you would like to read more about your personality and your career, then I invite you to take a look at the How To Change Careers website http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-test.html where you can take the free quiz to give you an idea of your personality preferences and read more about what your personality type means for you and your career. And if you are ready for a career change, then you can also download my free Career Change Blueprint http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-blueprint.html, a step-by-step guide to successful career change.

From Cherry Douglas - Your Career Change Guide

Career Personality Tests - Discover How They Help Finding the Right Career!

Fact or fiction in the finding of the right career and helping you in the advancement of your career.

Many times you'll change jobs or careers and in a few months you'll realize you made a big mistake. You'll experience a high level of dissatisfaction with the new job and hate going into work each morning. Aside from the usual causes like a bad boss or the company culture is a poor fit many times your personality just does not fit the job.

A career personality test could have steered you in the right direction. This type of test can help you determine which aspects of your personality are the strongest. Then you can determine what career or types of careers are a better match for your personality. With a solid match between your personality and career you'll be excited to go to work each day and much more likely to invest time and money studying and learning all you can about advancing in your career.

Career personality tests, by going online, can be found in many shapes and sizes. Some are legitimate but others are merely for entertainment. Generally, the more authentic career personality tests can take up to 30 minutes to complete and may have a fee. The free tests can give you a peek into your personality but you should not rely upon them as completely accurate.

However, they can still point you in the direction you need to go. In general the career personality test uses statements about personality traits as questions. You then indicate the accuracy of the statement with regards to your own character. Your answers are then sorted by category such as introverted or extroverted, feeling or thinking and critical or perceptive.

If you score, for example, predominantly introverted a job working and dealing with the general public is probably not the way to go. If you score high in the critical category, making decisions in a rather unstructured environment may be for you.

You'll find that different tests use different category descriptions, so you'll typically score in every area with one or two groups of primary dominance. Once the testing is finished, you will have the opportunity to narrow down a choice of careers. While the test results can be fairly accurate and provide stunning insights, there is no one career that can be determined to be the best.

If you score highly in the extroverted category you may work well with others; however, other factors will determine if this is in a public setting such as customer service or a private setting. A career personality test merely highlights the best options. You will then have to analyze your interests to match them up with the insights uncovered in the personality test. Only then will you find the career that best suits you.

John Groth is a former HR executive and career coach. Find Career Advancement Ideas, valuable articles and a Free seven day career planning guide. Discover up to date career and recruitment strategies at our Employment Tips Guide all to assist you in advancing and managing your career.

Career Change and Personality - 5 Ways of Using Your Personality to Guide Your Career Choice

When you are looking for new career ideas, it can be really helpful to start by getting to understand your personality better.  When you know more about the kind of person you are, you will find it easier to evaluate your current job and also to judge new career ideas you may be considering.

The first step is to take a personality test.  My personal favourite is the MBTI which gives you an insight into your preferred ways of behaving.  This can be a real eye opener and can dramatically change the way you think about yourself and others.

Here's how understanding your career personality can help with your career change.

Your current job

You know you are frustrated and unhappy at work, but you can't quite pin it down.  Once you know more about your personal style, you will be able to see why certain aspects of your job are difficult for you.  It is not always just a matter of skill - whether you have or haven't got it.  If a job demands that you regularly work in a way that does not suit your personality, you will find it tough going.

The people you work with

One of the great things about the MBTI personality assessment, is that it gives you the tools to understand not just yourself, but also others around you.  So you can now see that colleague who drives you round the bend in a new light.  You get to value the different approaches people take to their work rather than just being annoyed because they don't do things your way. This makes for better working relationships now and in your future jobs.

New career ideas

Once you know more about your personal style, you can identify what kind of job will be a comfortable 'fit' for you.  When you are considering new career options, you can assess them against your own personality preferences so that you make sure you will have the right kind of work environment, the right approach to work and a management style to suit you. You may not get everything you want n a new job, but you can identify the 'must haves'.

Knowing what to avoid

It is also essential when you are choosing a new career that you do not fall into the same traps as you may have done in the past.  Understanding your personality will also make it possible for you to avoid career areas which will make demands on you that you will find difficult.  For example too hectic a pace or a very unstructured approach to work could be frustrating and exhausting for some, but might be energising and exciting for others.  Make sure you know what will not suit you and avoid careers that will demand working in that way.

Job search strategies

Your personality will influence the way you approach the search for new jobs too.  If you love meeting new people you will probably find networking and using your personal contacts an easy tactic.  Others will prefer to take time doing detailed research on the internet or in books to find out as much as possible about new career ideas.  Both are fine.  Knowing your own preferences will enable you to do some of what you prefer but also know where you must stretch yourself to try other tactics.

Bonus tip
If you are looking for more information about how your personality relates to your career, I invite you to take a look at the How To Change Careers website http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-test.html. You can take a personality test and read more about what the results mean for you and your career as well as access my ebook, Know Your Personality, Know Your Career.

And if you would like some more ideas about how you can get your career change on the move, you can download my free Career Change Blueprint http://www.how-to-change-careers.com/career-change-blueprint.html which explains the key steps to career change success.

From Cherry Douglas - Your Career Change Guide

Career Counselling - Finding a Career Suited to Your Personality

The most important aspect of finding your dream job is to look for the job or career that is matched and compatible with your personality. This may sound relatively simple, however often we often don't have a clue about what different careers really involve and too often people find themselves "ending up" in a career without ever having made a conscious choice to do so. Resources for career counseling, including career tests, can be a great help in giving people the power to make a career decisions. So what are some of the resources available to people and how can they be most effectively used to achieve outcomes?

Job Search Websites and Databases

The Internet is an exhaustive information source that allows us to select from an ever growing list of options. Most online resources help job seekers find a job based on their personal preference and skill. Unfortunately, as often happens candidates are forced to search for and take jobs that meet their requirements at that point in time based on factors such as salary, location, and often simply what jobs are on offer at the time. If not careful however, once a job seeker takes a job or role based on such factors however, they have often unknowingly move further from achieving their true career goal. Job seekers using this methods to decide on a career may eventually feel they have found themselves ultimately unhappy and in a job or career that is not suited to their personality or to them.

Identifying What Is "Really" Important To You

A critical aspect of finding a career well matched to your personality is to understand what is important to you. It sounds simple but surprisingly few job seekers actually do this. There are a few ways one can do this. You could make a list of all the things you think are important to you in a job and then place them in order from most important to least important. You could then access a jobs database and review the many thousands of jobs and careers in order to locate those that suitably match your list of priorities. While this process could potentially be successful, it would be extremely time consuming and fortunately there are more effective and time efficient ways of going about this process. One such method is for job seekers to take a career test, which when completed will review all their job preferences and personality traits before providing them with a list of all the jobs suited to their personality. Most quality tests, such as the Strong Interest Inventory (SII) also go a step further and provide a good list of detailed action steps to guide the person in taking the necessary steps to move toward achieving their desired career.

Ensure you use a quality Career Test only

Career tests aren't career tests, just as "oils ain't oils". What is meant by this is that there are many career tests or "Quizzes" on the internet today which, while fun to play around with, are along way from quality career advice and are often very unreliable. In order to use a career test to help you find a job suited to your personality you need to find a test you can rely on. This is easier said than done but the only reliable or trusted way of doing this is to select a career test or questionnaire which is backed by solid research data and one which hasn't just been created by the webmaster of the site you are visiting. For example, as mentioned above the Strong Interest Inventory is a career test which has been used by professional career counselors around the world for many years, and has had many revisions and updates. It is based on years of research and its developers publish its reliability and validity data which is publically available. Free career tests and quizzes on the internet may make many claims, but when was the last time you saw one that actually provided you with concrete reliability and validity figures and measures?

You can take the Strong Interest Inventory online at at CareerSense.com.au for a very affordable price. They will provide you with a comprehensive report reviewed by a registered psychologist and careers counselor. You can also have a one on one phone interview with a psychologist or careers counselor to discuss your results. Benefits - By taking a quality career test such as the at The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) you will be taking the first step on the path to finding your dream job. The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) report will give you a clear list of action step you can follow to move you towards being able to get your dream job. It will also give you some great insight into your personality and what is important to you in a job. Nathan Jones is the Director of CareerSense.com.au. He is a registered psychologist with extensive experience working in the field of career counselling and support. In 2009 he founded CareerSense.com.au which provides quality and affordable online career and personality testing. CareerSense use only the most respected and scientifically validated testing instruments and professional career counselling services. Visit CareerSense today for a career or personality test at CareerSense.com.au.