If you notice that sometimes the employees in the marketing department seem more raucous and entertaining, while the accounting group is quiet and reserved, you may be on to something. An individual’s personality sometimes makes them more adaptable to certain jobs. Personality tests give people an idea of their psychological makeup and can be a great tool when looking for a job. Knowing what personality type you are can help you discover the ideal job and work environment for your type.
Finding Your Personality Type
Selecting a career best suited for your personality type can result in a pleasant outcome in which you find the most comfortable fit. Choosing a career not compatible with your personality may result in a stressful, unfulfilling, and unrewarding work environment. The importance of personality matching in a job search cannot be overstated
The first step in finding a career based on personality is to take a personality test. The top tests are Myers-Briggs, Keirsey Temperament Sorter, or the 16 Personality Factors. Current students may take a personality test in their college’s career resources facility. Different personality tests are offered free by websites such as HumanMetrics, Personality Test Center, and Personality Pathways Journal.
Personality and Career
After taking a personality test, you can have a better sense of your personality qualities. This helps you in researching what jobs are best for your personality type. Although there are different personality tests, all can tell you whether you have tendencies to be introverted or extroverted. The personality tests assign other criteria such as sensing, feeling or judging but these are the two main attributes.
Job hunters can research jobs to see if there is a fit between personality and career. They can also do informational interviews to obtain a view of what is involved in the daily tasks of certain careers. They can use this information to see if these tasks are compatible with their personalities.
Careers for Extroverts
If a personality test reveals that an individual has extroverted tendencies, this person would tend to be more outgoing and social. Individuals with this type of personality crave social groups and connections. They are energized by brainstorming sessions with co-workers and they tend to like open office spaces with frequent collaboration with peers. Jobs in sales, marketing or customer service give extroverted individuals the social interaction they crave. Someone with this type of personality would probably not be happy building websites at home by themselves, or being the night time security guard at an empty factory.
Careers for Introverts
Introverts are the direct opposites of extroverts. Instead of drawing energy from groups, introverts find social interactions to be energy sapping. Although introverts are not “loners,” they do tend to be more analytical and introspective. You will find many introverts in the world of finance and accounting. Spending long hours alone looking at spreadsheets is not a challenge for someone with this type of personality. IT related jobs are also a good fit for introverts.
Even though personality typing is important , it should not preclude you from pursuing a dream job. Case in point, many famous introverted actors, such as Julia Roberts and Steve Martin, are quite successful in a career not usually thought of as a fit for introverts.
A lot of recruiters still follow the rule “The better formal qualifications and practical skills a candidate has, the better fit he or she is for the company.” They may hire an applicant based on this rule even if there was someone else at the job interview who they were more interested in.
Skills are not everything
Unfortunately, such situations don’t only occur in companies which need to recruit a lot of employees at once and have no time to properly screen each applicant during the interview. The fight for a job vacancy is then often won by a candidate with the longest CV. It’s true that good qualifications and skills are a stepping stone for everyone’s career, but they don’t automatically guarantee success. It is because of differences in personality why two people with the same qualifications can make a very distinct contribution to a company. The success stems from the combination of knowledge and practical skills together with the right personality traits, values and opinions.
Observe personality traits
A lot of recruiters don’t place enough emphasis on learning about the candidate’s personality during a job interview. What might happen is that, although a newly hired employee has great computer skills, his bad temper will have a negative impact on the team ethics, workplace discipline, as well as the overall prosperity of a company. During a job interview, it’s important to not only take notice of the qualities related to professional experience, but to also observe the candidate’s behavior. In this way, you can easily discover how the applicant can handle stressful situations, whether he or she is resourceful, thoughtful and much more. Don’t forget, however, that good training might help them to eventually gain the required skills. So don’t be afraid to follow your intuition as well.
Personality testing for busy recruiters
If getting to know your candidates is important for you, but you simply don’t have enough time to identify their personality traits during a job interview, make use of personality testing. This kind of testing is available within the RECRU HR Software which allows you to detect personality strengths and weaknesses of a candidate even before the interview. In RECRU, you can create your own tests or take advantage of external psychodiagnostic tests which you simply send to a candidate and, within a second after a test is filled out, RECRU automatically evaluates it and provides a well-arranged output. Using this sophisticated way of testing will help you to triple the amount of time you can save and to avoid lengthy manual test evaluation and result processing. Place emphasis on personality when hiring and gain more efficient and satisfied employees with the use of RECRU.