Victoria, British Columbia, Phone: 250-744-1731

Using Personality Type to Enhance Your Career Path

Using Personality Type to Enhance Your Career Path

By Donna Dunning

Knowing your four-letter personality type helps you choose a career and succeed in the world of work.

Personality type helps you understand how you approach work

I’m sure you’ve noticed that not everyone gets motivated, organizes their day, takes in information, or makes decisions in the same way. What motivates you to do your best work?

When you wake up each day are you looking for structure? Stability? Freedom? Interactions? Independence? Challenges?

Understanding your personality type helps you figure out your approach to work. You can determine the best way to spend your working day by choosing work activities and getting tasks done in ways that suit you.

Personality type links to work options

Current research provides information on occupations that have attracted people who share your personality preferences.

As you read these lists of occupations think about why they might appeal to people who have these preferences. This can be a starting point to help you generate options and ideas for your own career.

Follow the links below to see a sample of occupations that attract people who share your preferences.

Responders: ESTPs and ESFPs

Explorers: ENTPs and ENFPs

Contributors: ESFJs and ENFJs

Expeditors: ESTJs and ENTJs

Assimilators: ISTJs and ISFJs

Visionaries: INTJs and INFJs

Analyzers: ISTPs and INTPs

Enhancers: ISFPs and INFPs

Personality type helps you identify your strengths and challenges

Although personality type is about preferences and not skills or competencies, people often develop skills in areas they prefer. They may also have blind spots and challenges in their non-preferred areas of personality.

For example, someone with a preference for Sensing may naturally be observant and attentive to the realities of a situation. Someone who prefers Intuition may find it more challenging to attend to these facts and details.

Personality type helps you develop and become more competent

Even though it is good to know and work within your preferences when possible, everyone has to learn to develop competence in areas outside of their natural preferences.

When you know your preferred approach to work and understand your challenges it is easier to make a learning and development plan.  This knowledge helps to motivate you to use the non-preferred parts of your personality “in service of” who you are and where you want to go.

For example, Isabel Myers, who had INFP preferences, was interested in helping people understand each other. She wanted everyone to learn about personality type so they could appreciate and accommodate individual differences. These strengths and motivations align to her INFP preferences. However, to make her dream come true, she had to collect and logically analyze data to create an indicator that helped people sort out their preferences. I don’t think Isabel Myers learned statistics and collected data for the innate joy of it, (as some others might). I believe she did these things to serve her desire for human growth and understanding.

When you know your natural preferences, you too can learn to consciously use and develop non-preferred aspects of yourself to reach your goals.

Resources

Want to learn more about personality type and how to use it to understand yourself and others?

Introduction to Type and Communication describes in detail how personality preferences influence communications.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Communication is now available on Kindle.

Introduction to Type and Learning can help you find your motivation for learning and help you learn more effectively.

If you live in the USA, Introduction to Type and Learning is also available on Kindle.

Looking for a practical resource to help you plan your ideal career? Check out my book, What’s Your Type of Career?: Find Your Perfect Career By Using Your Personality Type

Want to use your personality type to excel at your career? Check out 10 Career Essentials: Excel at Your Career by Using Your Personality Type

Share
This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 9:28 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Using Personality Type to Enhance Your Career Path”

  1. Janine Cirrito, ESTJ says:

    Great article. Using Isabel Myers as an example is a perfect way of sharing how while one may know, work well, and be comfortable within his/her preferences, one can truly excel in work tasks/activities within our opposite preferences as catalysts or “in service of” our ultimate goal. Love it!

  2. Donna Dunning says:

    Thanks Janine.

  3. Laurie Shellenberger says:

    As I look at enouraging people in the 2nd half of life – choosing encore careers and other ways to enhance life, you have strengthened the fact that when you work in areas that are your preference, you might have more energy and joy! Thanks

  4. Donna Dunning says:

    Thanks Laurie. I agree with your thoughts. As well, in midlife many people are interested in developing previously unused parts of their personality. Either way, understanding who they are and what they naturally prefer is the starting point.

Leave a Reply


MBTI, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and Introduction to Type are registered trademarks of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Trust in the United States and other countries.