Struggle For Bright Future

Personality At Work

In job search and career development, the want ads usually advertise what skills are needed to being successful in a job. And of course, job skills are an important component of a good job match.

However, what is currently discussed and should be more emphasized is the role of personality in work. How is our success at work impacted by our personality? Does our personality assist or detract in certain instances? How can personality influence our choices for a better match? Can personality add to the skill set we have?

Even if unconsciously, personality does definitely influence success on the job and your initial job choice. Good interviewers will look not only at your skill set, but at the whole picture: you, your skills, personality and goals.

A well-known personality test, the Meyers-Briggs Type indicator (MBTI), is currently used by over 3 million people in career centers, colleges and corporate settings and has been taken by over 50 million worldwide.

In the 1920s Katherine Briggs and Isabelle Meyers developed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, based on the work of Carl Jung, who states that since childhood, we have innate preferences from which 16 personality types emerge. This test gives a glimpse of how personality types affect patterns of behavior and how those patterns affect different aspects of one’s life, including work. The MBTI can be used in a variety of contexts on and off the job.

For example

• How to better work as a team
• How to understand and appreciate others’ differences in personality, work-styles (diversity in the  workplace)
• How to understand your own personality, preferences and strengths and weaknesses and access those qualities to further your own development on and off the job
• How to look at communication patterns with family, friends and coworkers
• How to enhance your work environment

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