How to Decide What Career May Be Best Suited For Your Personality

Bored at your present job? Do a personal inventory to find a new career.

Whether it's may be your very first career choice or a career change, it can be a difficult decision to choose the right one for you. There is no definite method to discover the answer to the best career fit for you, but there are ways to help you decide where you may be best suited according to your personality, likes and dislikes. Sometimes people attend school only to find out later, after working at a career, that they don't like that type of work after all and are not happy. A fortunate person is one who enjoys what he does for a living.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• Paper and pen or work on your computer.
• A list of as many as possible career choices that you can gather.

1. Take out two sheets of paper and label one sheet as "Things I Enjoy Doing" and the other, "Things I Don't Enjoy."

2. Be as thorough as possible. What you write down should be of a work-related personality analysis, such as "I like to work with numbers and enjoy math," "I don't like biology at all," "I'm shy so I don't like to be on the center stage" or maybe "I like to talk and enjoy attention." Be thoughtful and dig deep within yourself, and above all, be honest.

3. Write down your values, such as you don't want to be asked to lie for the company, and time factors, such as you can't work 10 hours a day because of family obligations. Imagine yourself doing something for the long haul.

4. Ask for the opinions of people who are close to you and interested in your well-being. You will get a more objective viewpoint this way. For instance, you may consider yourself quiet, while others consider you to be quite a talker and salesperson.

5. Upon completion of your lists, analyze your likes and dislikes, striking out careers that you probably would not be content in. If you don't like math or numbers or being quiet and at a desk all day, you probably won't enjoy being an accountant. If you enjoy working with your hands and want that sense of accomplishment through your creativity, maybe you should consider a career that allows you hands-on type of work.

6. After your analysis, pick out a few careers off your list that would allow you to express yourself the way you would most enjoy, according to your personality analysis.

7. Investigate the career choices you have made by contacting companies or individuals within those careers and question them about the reality of the job positions. Ask about the day-to-day routine. If you are really lucky, someone may allow you to spend a little time with her to give you a chance to really see what goes on. If you think the hubbub of an advertising agency is for you, tracking someone in that field can help you decide for certain.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't discard an idea simply because you just don't know enough about it. Education, career workshops and training may serve to change your mind.

• If you have a career choice in mind before you take this deeper look at yourself, try to talk to meet people in that particular career and learn about their experiences. There might a a job fair or a round-table career program in your region.

• Always tear apart and analyze any career choice. You may decide you would like to be a carpenter because you enjoy being creative and working with wood, but you also hate working with math. This could be a contradiction, since carpenters use measurements all the time.

References

• Team Technology: What Career Is Right for Me?
• The Work Buzz: Find the Top Job for Your Personality Type