Archive for Personality
Personality Tests
Posted by: | CommentsBefore you leap towards a new career, do yourself a huge favor and take a career personality test to ensure you’re on a 
career path that will be satisfying and rewarding for years to come.
Not much will burn you out faster than trudging away at a job you dislike and that is ill suited to your personality type. Not only will you feel endlessly stuck, you may even be paying on student loans every month, which make you resent the job even more. Now taking the assessment is not a guarantee that won’t happen… But it will cut down the odds!!
Getting education for a career is expensive in both time and money. Before investing two to four years – or even more – plus tens of thousands of dollars to go to school, it’s wise to take a few career personality tests.
Even if You’re Sure…
Even if you’re absolutely sure what you want to do, spare a few moments to take a career personality test. What you might find is that you’re well suited to a career you’d never even thought about, but now that it’s in your head, you realize it’s something you’d like to explore further. Maybe there are more job opportunities in this other field, or more travel, or more room to work from home.
Taking a career test and contemplating other career choices certainly doesn’t mean you have to follow that path, but it’s wise to explore more options rather than fewer when making an initial career choice or a career change.
A Career Personality Test Will Give You Insight
They will give you a lot of insight. The more complex tests like the Golden Personality Type Profiler and the Meyers-Briggs will have some interesting tendencies. There will be things that vary from the normal type and they usually show those in the results.
One I recommend is Dr. Keirsey’s assessment, it’s really a career test but is gives a detailed report and is free. I’ve had several clients take the assessment and so have I, it’s detailed, free, reputable and you don’t need to worry about them sending you a bunch of spam or putting you on a mailing list. They might send you one follow-up email but that’s it. And no, I’m not getting anything for recommending them.
For example, in my results it shows I am an Extrovert. Introvert is not far behind in my score, that means I typically can move into either role and be comfortable, I adapt to the situation.
Another interesting tidbit I learned from Dr. Golden’s training program is that between ages 30 to 45 people tend to develop their Auxiliary skill which is your second strongest skill.
When used effectively these assessments have been shown to help individuals understand differences, improve productivity, direction, self-esteem and satisfaction. People usually appreciate the difference in others and have stronger relationships.
They also help with succession planning, parenting, relationship counseling. The Golden Personality report is 11 pages plus a summary report and another 6 or 7 pages describing some of the other personality types.
How do They Work?
A career assessment test isn’t painful and you can’t fail it. They don’t even take very long. Career tests ask you a series of questions about your preferences and tendencies, such as:
- Do you make decisions based on feelings or fact?
- Do you prefer to work alone or in groups?
- Do you prefer to start projects or finish projects?
- Do you tend to be punctual or usually running late?
You answer the questions as best you can and that’s it! Next you’ll see a list of potentially well-suited careers.
Realistically, you’re probably leaning towards a career that does suit your personality. Unless you’re only looking at the highest paying or fastest growing jobs, there’s a reason you’re leaning towards the careers you are.
Even if you are only looking at the fastest growing jobs, you’re still going to be drawn to some fast-growing careers over others. A career personality test may not surprise you in confirming that you’re suited to what you’re pursuing, but what it can do is open your eyes to other career options that you have never considered, but might enjoy.
Personality Theories
Posted by: | CommentsThere are many personality theories. Basically, though, personality makes the person. Or it defines the person. Your
personality is the sum of your patterns of thought, behaviors, and feelings. This is what makes you unique.
There are several personality development theories that intend to determine just where your personality comes from. The study of personality is at least 25 centuries old . In 450 B.C., Hippocrates described four temperaments. Galen, in 100 A.D. also described four temperaments. Both scholars differed in their ideas and descriptions.
Personality Theory Differences
Personality Type theories put everyone into one of several “types” of personalities. This could be as simple as Type A and Type B, or one of 16 4-letter personality types such as “INFP” which stands for “Introverted, iNtuative, Feeling, Perceptive”.
Personality Trait theories say personality is genetically based, that your specific collection of internal characteristics comprises your personality.
Psychodynamic personality theories say the unconscious mind influences who we are. Psychologists Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson have contributed greatly to this personality theory.
And then…
In 1911 Carl Jung recognized that personality was “normal, healthy and biological”. In 1937 Gordon Allport identified personality traits are: more than a nominal existence, are more than habits, can be measured.
Gordon Allport (1897-1967) was one of the first psychologists to study personality, human attitudes, prejudices and religious beliefs. His theory of personality, which rejected both Freudian psychology and behaviorism, emphasized the uniqueness of the individual and the need to treat problems in terms of present conditions as opposed to childhood experiences.
The Meyers-Briggs and the Golden Personality Type Profiler are widely used today. Both are complex and founded on years of research. It would be impossible to say one is better than the other. The military has used both and compared them to each other, since the early 2000’s they have been using the Golden Personality Type Profiler.
Where Personality and Careers Collide
The list of different personality characteristics is extensive, but the bottom line when it comes to careers is that your personality makes you better suited for some career choices and ill-fitted for other careers.
For example, an introverted, shy person will most likely struggle as a salesperson, but might make a wonderful copywriter. Likewise an energy-filled people-person will probably be bored to tears sitting in front of a computer all day, writing code. Put them in a sales position, however, or customer service, and they’re more likely to thrive in that kind of job.
Another example of personality and careers colliding that is really common and often misunderstood is the way personality causes one person’s interpretation of reality to be different than another’s.
A classic case of this is often the person who believes in rules and all rules must be followed. Then you have the person who believes rules are a “guideline”. Both people often clash and don’t cooperate, often mistrusting each other, but both just perceive reality different.
There are so many examples of what different personality traits prefer and what they mean it’s really surprising more emphasis is not placed on them in the work place, schools and even preparing for marriage.
Here is an example, I am an ENFA (Extrovert, iNtuative, Feeling, Adapting). In my report it tells me I have a tendency to “change gears” and “when absorbed in your latest project, you think of little else”. So true…
My personality also has draw backs, I dislike routines among a few other things. Wouldn’t it have been beneficial to my previous bosses to know some of my shortcomings? Where they needed to watch for possible re-direction? I was fortunate that most of my bosses were very good at letting me run things as I saw fit.
Career Personality Test
It’s good practice, and even just fun, to take a career personality test every so often. Certainly you want to when you’re deciding upon a college major, but even as the years go by and your ideals and skills change, you might be surprised to see how the results of a personality test changes over time.
There is a slight difference between the career sorters and the personality type quizzes, both are a good guideline. The career quizzes typically are not as detailed in the nuances of personality types but they do a good job at understanding career and personality preferences.
You can take free career aptitude quizzes online that will offer suggestions for careers based upon your personality type. One that I like is the Keirsey Temperment Sorter, Dr. Keirsey is a leader in his field and it’s a really easy report to understand.
Personality Tests in the Interview
When you’re sitting in a job interview, if your interviewer is at all experienced, you will be faced with personality interview questions. These might be in the form of very tough or “no win” questions or they might come at you in the form of role-playing a difficult situation with the interviewers.
Know your strengths and weaknesses going in to the interview. Don’t worry about sharing your personality weaknesses. We all have them and your interviewers want to see if you’re aware of yours and if you have a plan for improving them.
It’s also a good idea to understand your management preferences and what environment you work best in. If you understand your personality you can make sure you are marketing yourself to your potential employer accurately.
Personality Types
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s not difficult to see why people with different personality types are better suited towards some jobs and less 
suited towards other jobs.
Do you know what your personality type says about you and your career choice? Are you making the right choice?
Pursuing a career as a computer programmer is a good choice for several reasons. Technology is booming and will continue to do so. Computers are everywhere. Computer jobs can be found in small towns and large cities. You have huge room for advancement, diversity in job functions, and the potential for large paychecks.
But what if your personality type suggests you’d be miserable as a programmer, but would instead be well suited as a teacher, counselor, or coach?
I know I for one, would rather do a million other things than deal with computers. I need action, people, problems and variety to be happy.
What do you need? Find out! This is a free quiz from Dr. Keirsey and takes about 10 minutes or so. They don’t hound you with emails, I’ve taken it and I think I’ve only had 1 follow-up email, it’s a very reputable company and test.
Different Theories
Several theories about personality types exist. Some are as basic as the Type A/Type B personality, with Type A personalities described as aggressive, competitive, hostile, and destined for heart attacks.
On the other hand, the Myers Briggs Type Indicator breaks personalities up into 4 dichotomies: introvert/extrovert, sensing/intuitive, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. Dr. Golden’s Personality Type Profiler is along the same lines as the Meyers-Briggs.
You have one trait from each of the 4 dichotomies, so if you are an introverted, sensing, feeling, perceiving person, you are an ISFP. If you’re are an extraverted, sensing, thinking, judging person, you are an ESTP. An ideal job for an ISFP might be a teacher or veterinarian, where an ideal job for an ESTP might be a paramedic or police detective.
DISC is another personality assessment tool. They look at people as being varying degrees of Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Conscientious. If you’re a high-C person and your boss is a high-D, you can have communication issues. You want lots of details, but your boss wants just the high-level facts. Understanding each other’s personality types allows you to modify your communication towards the others style, making communication more effective.
Some other personality typings come from the Enneagram of personality, the Four Temperaments, the Keirsey Temperament Theory, and Socionics.
Use personality typing as a tool or guide in your career choice, but not necessarily as a hard and fast rule. Sometimes we change over time, sometimes we don’t. A shy person placed in a position of having to do public speaking may or may not come to love it and no longer be introverted. Low self esteem may contribute to an introvert’s feelings, but when that self image changes, so might the personality.
The bottom line is that personality typing can help steer you towards a career or group of careers that might satisfy you more than others. If your personality lends towards working with people, you might want to reconsider your plan to pursue a career working alone in a room writing computer code.
Personality
Posted by: | CommentsSuccess isn’t permanent and failure isn’t fatal. – Mike Ditka
Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. – Thomas Edison
Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true. – John Keats
Ah…. Failure and our outlook concerning failure is influenced by our personality. Our personality is part development, part upbringing, and part genetic. How do you look at failure? What is your personality type?
Man has been studying personality for 25 centuries.
There are a few different theories with the current scholars, but there is certainly an enormous amount of progress and understanding! Be sure to read on!
