If you were to Google ‘how to build a great career’, you would receive myriad suggestions from identifying your goals, assessing your strengths to working hard and assuming full responsibility for your life. Everyone wants to lead a successful life, and a great career is an essential part of achieving it. But how many of us have a clear understanding of what it takes to build a successful career? Education and abilities are essential, but if there is one factor that significantly influences how well we do in our career, it is our personality.
As children, when we are asked about what we want to be when we grow up, most of us invariably say doctor, engineer, teacher and other cliched career options we knew of. It is only much later that we realize how naive we were as kids, totally ignorant about the impact of the choices we made during those years. If we begin to appreciate how much our personality is likely to change as we grow up, and how we can play a role in shaping that change, it would alter our perspective about our career.
The importance of personality cannot be undermined; our personality impacts how we interact with our coworkers, bosses, and clients on the job. If you were to describe your personality in a nutshell, how would you do it? In simple terms, personality is the sum total of our behaviour, cognition and emotional patterns that make all of us unique. Our personality is shaped by the biological and environmental factors around us. So, how exactly does our personality affect our career, and does it influence our earning potential as well? Let’s explore.
Personal development
An individual’s personality changes tremendously between adolescence and early adulthood, and these changes predict various aspects of our future careers, including our earnings, job and career happiness, degree of achievement, and occupational status. According to this idea, our personality modifications significantly influence our professional choices more than any other element. For instance, if we become more focused in early adulthood, it will impact our career decision, as well as our ability to do well in a particular field.
The years that shape us
Personality traits can be seen across emotions, thoughts, and actions. These personality attributes are substantially predictive of professional success across numerous areas. Whereas these elements have long been viewed as permanent characteristics that largely describe us, in reality, they are quite malleable. An individual’s flexibility is most obvious during the early years. It is quite normal for individuals to become more emotionally stable, pleasant, and conscientious as they get older. Personal maturity and a shift into professionalism are based on these changes. These attributes have a tremendous effect on our careers. Emotional stability, for example, is connected with income, whereas conscientiousness is linked to work satisfaction.
Changing the course of our lives
Understanding how our personality influences our career has various crucial effects. For example, when analyzing how personality impacts professional choices, we should keep in mind that personality is not a static feature but may grow in meaningful ways over time. It’s more important than ever for young people to appreciate the significance of mental ability and flexibility. The success and popularity of personality development programs are based on the premise that one can work on various aspects of personality traits to enhance professional and personal experience.
The four success markers
The four primary components of personality that establish the key to promotion and career growth, hold great value when it comes to making career decisions.
- Concern: This generally refers to how much one cares for the future. One must plan for the right orientation and goal mapping.
- Control: This refers to aspects of personal success that one can control, such as effort, perseverance, and self-discipline. Those who exhibit self-control and motivation, are more likely to create stable career pathways.
- Curiosity: A feeling of adventure and the thirst to know more, opens doors to myriad opportunities. One must consider themselves in various roles and professions as they begin to make career choices.
- Confidence: The conviction that one can achieve objectives and the self-belief that one is capable of overcoming any hurdles, is key to a successful career. Confidence is the starting point of all success stories.
When one is curious to know more, concerned about the future, in control of their attitudes and confident about themselves, it adds a definite charm to the personality.
Choosing a career based on personality
Choosing a career based on your personality has many advantages: it utilizes your strengths, helps you work on your weaknesses, and enhances your chances of having a stable, long-term career. You can now choose a career path based on your personality traits with LaunchMyCareer by your side. Now the question arises – how to know what your personality type is? LaunchMyCareer’s Personality Quiz is a simple and fun method to understand your unique characteristics, know your interests and aptitudes, and find out about careers that are a good fit for who you are. According to the Personality Theory, every individual fits into one of the 16 personality types, knowing about which enables you to make career decisions that allow you to use your innate abilities.ur innate abilities.
Once you take the Personality Quiz, you will learn the following about yourself in less than five minutes:
- Your motivations and strengths
- Type of personality you have (based on different animal personalities)
- Which celebrities have personalities similar to yours?
- Careers that match your personality
Visit LaunchMyCareer, take the Personality Quiz, unlock your personality animal and allow our Career Counsellors to guide you to career success!
