 Can a Personality Test Affect Your CareerCan a personality test help you find the right career? Will taking a personality test limit your job options? Personal development and career exploration go hand-in-hand. Personality tests and assessments help career hopefuls and hiring managers determine a best fit for different roles and careers. But what are these all about and how do personality tests affect your career? Personality tests can serve as a guide in your career pursuit, offering insights that can help you navigate your professional journey. There are a seemingly endless range of options from MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), the Big Five, and CliftonStrengths to what color or animal are you. All of these assessments different levels of insight into the strengths, preferences, and potential areas for growth in one's career. However, while these tools can be incredibly insightful, they also come with certain drawbacks that might limit your potential. Let’s dive into how personality tests can both enhance and complicate your career options. The Upside: How Can a Personality Test Affect Your Career Options Positively1. Understanding Personal Strengths and Weaknesses Personality tests can provide a clear picture of your personal strengths and weaknesses. For example, if an assessment reveals a preference towards detail-oriented tasks and structured environments, you might find fulfillment in roles such as accounting, project management, or data analysis. Conversely, if you're identified as a visionary thinker who thrives in dynamic settings, careers in entrepreneurship or creative industries may align better with your personality. Quick Action Step: Reflect on a time when you were successful at something that required a lot of personal effort. What strengths or abilities supported your success? 2. Enhancing Career Satisfaction When you choose a career path that resonates with your personality traits, you’re more likely to experience job satisfaction and engagement. Research has found a significant correlation between how much an individual uses their strengths and their overall level of satisfaction and work engagement. For example, introverted individuals may excel in roles that allow for deep, independent work, while extroverts might thrive in collaborative environments with frequent interpersonal interactions. Personality assessments can guide you to the roles where you're more likely to be at your best, which can then improve your overall career happiness. 3. Identifying Potential Career Paths Personality assessments can identify careers you might not otherwise have considered. If a test indicates you have strong leadership qualities and enjoy problem-solving, you might explore management roles or team leader roles. If your experience supports this, you can capitalize on this and demonstrate your natural talent and preference alongside your work history. Personality tests can affect your career search by giving you the tools you need to understand different options and opportunities.. The Downside: How Can a Personality Test Affect Your Career Options Negatively1. Pigeonholing Candidates One significant drawback of personality tests is the risk of pigeonholing individuals into specific roles based on their test results. This can work against the candidate and the employer. While these assessments offer valuable insights, they are not definitive measures of a person's capabilities or potential. Many of the more reputable assessments argue that personality tests should not be used in hiring for this very reason. Over-reliance on personality tests can lead employers to overlook candidates who might bring unique perspectives or skills that are not captured by the test. Beyond this, you might not look at jobs in which you would excel because you have put too much stock in what your assessment has identified. 2. Limiting Career Exploration When individuals or employers heavily focus on personality test results, there is a danger of narrowing career exploration too early in the process. For example, a test might suggest that a person is not suited for a high-stress environment, potentially steering them away from challenging yet rewarding opportunities. If someone is particularly gifted in strategic thinking abilities, this should not limit the individual to fields where this is the primary focus. Otherwise, there may be great opportunities that are passed over for so-called "better fit" options. 3. Eliminating Valuable Candidates Another potential pitfall is the risk of excluding talented candidates based on personality test results alone. For instance, a candidate who scores as a less conventional fit for a team role might be overlooked, despite having exceptional skills or innovative ideas. In fact, many outside-the-box candidates might help increase the diversity of ideas and create new ways of achieving success. This can lead to missed opportunities for both the employer and the candidate, as the true potential of the individual is not fully explored. Using Personality Tests Wisely in the Career SearchFinding ways to use personality assessments to help your decision making and knowledge of self can be invaluable ways to achieve personal and professional growth. Finding ways to use these wisely, striking a balance between the benefits and downfalls, is key to this process. So how do you do it?
Use Tests as a Guiding Tool Consider personality tests as a starting point, rather than an end, for self-discovery and career exploration. As you dive into useful assessments (and be careful here - not all assessments are built equally), combine your insights with other sources of feedback, such as professional experiences, mentorship, and personal interests. Encourage Open-Mindedness For employers, it’s important to remain open-minded and avoid letting personality test results dominate your thinking around potential candidates. Instead, consider each assessment result as clarifying information rather than evaluative information. Instead, evaluate candidates holistically, considering their experiences, skills, and potential contributions. In the end, personality tests can be a valuable tool in uncovering your strengths and aligning your career path with your natural inclinations. However, they should be used thoughtfully and not as the primary influence on your process. By integrating personality insights with a broader perspective, you can make more informed and fulfilling career choices, paving the way for long-term success and satisfaction. To dive deeper into who you are, consider hiring a coach who has experience with assessments. At DeGraaf Coaching, we have extensive experience and expertise in using CliftonStrengths (one of the leading and most research-backed assessments) with individuals and teams. If you want to dive deeper into who your team is and how they can function at their best based on who they are, contact DeGraaf Coaching for a quick conversation about how we could partner to make you and your team function naturally at their best.
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 CliftonStrengths as a FilterCliftonStrengths® is a powerful tool for a variety of reasons. Most view their Strengths as a way to increase performance and research has demonstrated that it can give advantage to people around the world. One way that is less often utilized is viewing Strengths as a way to filter through the world, as a lens for how we see and interact with our environment.
There is little available on CliftonStrengths as a filter. In order to offer my own perspective on this, I wanted to share how each of your Strengths can work as a lens for your world, how they can help you understand how others see the world differently. Below is your guide to seeing the world through your Strengths and appreciating the ways we all see the world a little differently. We are all giving unique Strengths that impact how we interact with and think about our lives. Understanding our own filters and bias can help us improve our approach to almost every situation. Going further, it allows us to better understand those who we live and work with, to see and celebrate how they understand the world. Finding Intrinsic Motivation in Strengths
Work Motivation Quotes to Get You MovingWe all have moments where we lack all motivation. Right before writing this post, I was struggling with exactly that. Everything gets more difficult when you don't have motivation.
I talk often about the ways that life purpose can increase your general levels of motivation. This is still absolutely true. But there are still moments, even if you've found the perfect job and know exactly what your purpose is, that we struggle to put in even an inch of effort. In these moments, I like to look at a few quotes that remind me of my purpose but also just encourage me to move forward. Here are 15 inspirational quotes that will give you the motivation for work you've been needing. On top of that, I want to give you some added information on how each quote can help you and then a reflection question to get your mind going further. What is the Personality Color Test? It seems like every public speaker, life coach, and school has their own form of assessments and personality tests. There’s good reasons for it. These tests allow you to get a better understanding of who you are and what your tendencies are. People can find out everything from their deepest motivations to which Harry Potter character best fits them.
One recent addition to the personality test world is K Test One’s Personal Color Test. Here's my review of the test, what it is, how it works, and why it might actually be worth trying. |
