Are Your Personality Traits Right for Your Career Path?
Long gone are the days of separating “life” and “work” into two separate buckets hoping to achieve some sort of balance. Employers and employees alike are now becoming increasingly aware that the personality traits that make each of us unique at home are the same things that can make us successful in the workplace. This shift has been highlighted as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic further blur the line between professional and personal.
Now, instead of simply checking boxes of required technical abilities and education, job seekers are having to ask themselves deeper questions about their personalities. These questions can include:
“Am I more reserved around new people or do I feel at ease when I’m in the spotlight?”
“Am I comfortable when things are not organized or do I prefer instructions in unfamiliar situations?”
“Do I simply focus on getting a task done or do I take time to focus deeply on the details?”
This amount of self reflection can be overwhelming when there’s a ticking clock for finding work! How can job seekers better understand themselves in order to prepare for the new world of job searching? Thankfully, there is more information than ever to identify which personality traits are more likely to lead to success in a given career path.
Identifying Your Personality Traits
Most job seekers are familiar with the standard questions they’ll likely face in a job interview, such as, “What are your strengths/weaknesses?” However, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of telling meandering stories that are heavy on details but light on proven takeaways.
What hiring managers are really looking for in job interview responses are what are known as, “transferable skills.” These are the types of skills that are not specific to a single industry or role. Rather, transferable skills — such as personality traits — can be used in a variety of settings.
In order to go deeper when identifying your transferable skills, consider taking an assessment backed by science, such as MyPrint®! Supporting anecdotal evidence from your experiences with tools built on data-driven people analytics can add credibility to your claims. Furthermore, the MyPrint assessment evaluates individuals on 13 distinct dimensions of personality, and gives information on 26 total personality traits. Pinpointing your personality traits can help narrow your job search to roles that are more likely to be the right fit for your career.
Popular Fields and Noteworthy Personality Traits
Once you have a better understanding of the personality traits that make you unique, it’s time to connect them to jobs that will allow them to shine! Based on our Talentoday user database, here are the key personality traits that align with 14 of the most in-demand career paths today:
- Administrative: Compliant, Structured, Conventional Thinker, Practical
- Art Design: Imaginative, Spontaneous, Critical-Thinker, Precise
- Education: Empathetic, Modest, Extroverted
- Engineering: Precise, Confident, Determined, Positive, Individualistic
- Finance/Bank/Accounting/Audit: Confident, Positive, Relaxed, Determined, Individualistic
- HR/Purchasing: Positive, Extroverted, Confident, Striving
- Health and Social Care Provider: Empathetic, Extroverted, Imaginative, Big Picture, Striving
- Information Technology: Confident, Relaxed, Positive, Striving
- Legal: Determined, Relaxed, Big Picture, Compliant
- PR/Writing/Editing: Empathetic, Imaginative, Extroverted, Spontaneous
- Production: Positive, Practical, Confident, Extroverted, Striving
- Research Science: Critical-Thinker, Imaginative, Assertive, Big Picture
- Sales: Extroverted, Practical, Positive, Determined, Striving, Patient, Confident
- Security: Confident, Positive, Relaxed, Striving, Assertive, Determined, Practical
Do any of these personality trait groupings sound like you? If they do but you’re currently on another path, it might be the right time to consider a change! With the transferable skills needed for a successful foundation, all that’s left is to fill in the hard skills gaps you may be missing. If you’re currently working in any of the fields above and are lacking some of the soft skills that are prominent in your position, that’s okay too! This is the perfect time to start developing your strengths in the areas critical to your industry.
Are you interested in learning more about the personality traits that make you…you? Click here to take MyPrint and receive a detailed assessment of your unique personality, motivational and behavioral traits! Then, you’ll be able to use that information to connect your unique strengths to today’s most in-demand jobs.
