It’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.