Career Personality—What's Yours?

Confused over which careers will fit you best? Sure, a career should match your strengths and it should be something you are interested in, but have you considered your career values and career personality?

A career values and career personality test can help match you to careers that require the same values and personality traits that you already have. For example, if you love working alone and have a good eye for detail, you would probably not be well-suited for a sales position, but you might do well as a computer system analyst, librarian or book editor.

A career values or personality test cannot determine or guarantee your dream career, but it can provide career choices to explore that you may not have thought about. The results should only be used as a guide and perhaps to discover personality traits that you did not realize you possessed!

You know how difficult it can be when you do not get along with someone; you both have distinct, non-compatible personalities. Well, think of matching careers to personality. How miserable would you be in a career that requires you to work alone for a large part of the day, but you thrive on the energy from other people?

Determining Your Personality

In addition to a personality test, examine what you enjoy to outline traits of your personality.

• Write down everything you like to do. Just start brainstorming, don't overthink it. Create a list of everyday activities you enjoy, such as reading or hanging out with friends, as well as some more adventurous activities like travel or scuba diving.
• Think about an activity where you were successful. Many of our successes are accomplished not only by our abilities, but our personality as well. For example, perhaps your success on the soccer team was due partly to your leadership skills, not just your athletic talent, or winning that debate award was fueled by your outgoing persona, not just your knowledge of the subject matter.
• Reflect on how you spend your time. When you find some free time, how do you feel? Are you excited to have some quiet, alone time and read a book, or are you looking for friends to hang out with?
• Ask others. Sometimes our friends and family know us better than we know ourselves! Ask them to describe you. Don't interrupt or argue; they may see traits that you haven't recognized in yourself. By asking several people, you may notice patterns in their descriptions of you.

Compare your personality traits, career values and career interests, and see if there is a career that looks like a good match for you. One way to do this is to use the WiseChoice career exploration tools. It is a good idea to do some additional research on your career options, such as an informative interview with someone in the field of interest. You may learn about similar careers that you can explore in the process. Keep in mind, career personality assessment tests and any other type of career assessments should be used only as a guide to help narrow your career choices. No single test can predict how well a person will fare in a given career field. To determine if a career is right for you will take research—online searches, informative interviews, and perhaps internships—to know if it is a good fit for you.