Bulletproof Your Profession
Sometimes being an obsessive neat freak is beneficial when your job requires attention to the tiniest detail; it has a fancier term: meticulousness. See! Not psychotic after all!! A bossy and controlling person would actually function best as an operational executive; s/he would know who should do which task and ensure all tasks are completed on time. As for those turtles who seem to take forever to do anything, those can audit with all the calmness in the world without losing their cool out of boredom. And for the ones with the short attention span but great communication skills, PR is the answer.
* In a society like ours, we are barely raised to recognize our own strengths and talents on our own. Most of the time, we are constantly told of our weaknesses and how to work on them, but very rarely are we clued in on the things that we’re good at. It usually takes a considerable number of years until we hear an opinion that mentions a point of strength, a skill, or a talent! We might be 5 years plus in the wrong career path till we first hear some magical words that motivate us to trace our own history and find out about the things that make us our very unique selves. Truth is, someone may help you point out your strengths, but you’re the one who would have to go all the way through to figure out how to properly invest them.
* Unfortunately in most situations, people don’t pursue careers compatible with their personality. It’s usually a decision based on school grade that directs you to the faculty of choice. Then, your career path is restricted to availability and convenient social status. This is why the level of job satisfaction is diminishing in the workplace. You must have noticed how almost no one is happy with what they do for a living. Does the phrase “I only do that because it pays the bills” ring a bell???
* A lot of the increasing rates of job dissatisfaction can be traced back to the stress of having to do tasks our personalities do not really equip us to do. We become more and more stressed out as we force ourselves to bear some tedious responsibility because “hey, that’s what we’re paid for after all!” With time, the productivity slope keeps going down as well as the quality of the work completed, until we’re no longer even able to get out of bed in the morning to go do that job we hate. You see, an introvert salesperson is sure to suffer when dealing with clients. S/he would probably come closer to an aneurism with every phone call or sales meeting, not to mention getting overly depressed when fails to achieve their set target. On the other hand, an extrovert accountant might probably be going insane spending his/her time with nothing but balance sheets and debit vs. credit, unable to socialize with coworkers. All it takes is the proper training to switch those two –provided that they both academically qualify of course. The result is almost guaranteed that natural personality will make the training for the new, more-fitting job significantly easier.
* The means to feel better about your occupation is to figure out your points of strength, and employ them to what you do. Of course, it would be great to help do it for your colleagues and subordinates as well; if you have the authority. The only problem here is that most of people don’t even know what their passion is in order to pursue it. And when they do, it sometimes feels a bit too late for a career change. Luckily, one does not have to do an entire career shift to make it right. There are a number of jobs within the same field that do suit different people with different personalities -all within the same range to which one’s certification or degree qualifies. The key is to just know yourself!
* Personally, I find the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator very useful to give insights about one’s personality. It comes with an additional bonus; it recommends the kind(s) of job that you can do well. Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers put Carl Jung’s theories on psychological types into practical use in order to study the role of human behavior. It is worth mentioning that the reason they developed that test was to help women who were entering the industrial force during World War II pick the most suiting jobs based on their personality! I find this a true acknowledgement to how one’s personality profile is the number one factor in determining the kind of job where they would be most comfortable and efficient.
* The main point of the test is that each personality type naturally operates with its own set of “preferences”, thus deeming the opposites of those preferences rather difficult and uncomfortable. Those preferences not only define the kinds of jobs you’d be good at, but they also help determining the learning styles most efficient to you. It’s almost like magic! Once you know the kind of information you’re more attentive to receive and how you would perceive it best, the rest would fall right into place.
* The MBTI test identifies personality by measuring against four dimensions. Each dimension ranges between two extremes -as listed underneath- resulting in 16 personality types. The below figure would help you recognize your personality group; but if you want a rather more accurate result, you can visit that link: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp. And you know what; the result comes with a career recommendation as well!!
* Test or no test, it all comes down to getting to know yourself. So it’s time you do! It’s worth it. And you’ll see that you are indeed worth getting to know.