Career challenge: How to match your personality traits to the right job for you

Job satisfaction is not only good for your career.

Being happy at work spills over to other areas of your life — affecting your mental, emotional and physical health. 

One of the ways to determine a good job fit is to understand how your personality traits can transfer to career success. 

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“When people have a job that is in line with their personality, they’re likely to feel more satisfied and less stressed,” Amy Morin, a psychotherapist based in Marathon, Florida, told FOX Business. 

On the flip side, working a job that isn’t a good fit can deplete you of energy and drain you of happiness, said Morin. 

Here’s a deeper dive into the issue. 

How can you learn more about your personality with regard to a good career match?

A way to gauge who you are and what you are looking for with regard to your career goals is to learn more about your personality-type preferences. 

This path can help you ascertain and understand your strengths and challenges. 

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One tool to use is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). 

“Your MBTI type doesn’t necessarily predict job performance, your skills or ability to do the job, but our research shows that it does have a big part to play in job satisfaction,” said the U.K.-based John Hackston, head of thought leadership at The Myers-Briggs Company. 

Many companies use personality tests to determine if a candidate will be a good fit for a certain role. 

For example, said Hackston, someone who prefers introversion may be more satisfied in occupations that require less interaction with people but instead offer the opportunity for quiet and reflection.

Meanwhile, someone who prefers extraversion may be more suited for careers in which they can have a higher degree of conversation and interaction. 

“In most sales roles, it helps to be outgoing, but online sales may require more resilience than selling large-scale projects.”

“Hundreds of thousands of people have taken the assessment and also told us the type of job they do and their level of satisfaction in that job,” Hackston said to FOX Business.

“From this, we’ve been able to build statistical models that can predict satisfaction levels for any occupation depending on your MBTI personality type.”

What are some personality traits that equate to specific job types? 

Hackston admitted it is difficult to give a general answer to this question. Yet jobs that sound similar on their face may be quite different when the details are examined.

Take sales, for example. 

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“In most sales roles, it helps to be outgoing, but online sales may require more resilience than selling large-scale projects, where a commitment to building long-term relationships may be more important,” Hackston said. 

Another important point is to avoid stereotypes. 

For example, being “timid” is actually neither a plus nor a minus for a role such as a data entry job. 

“It’s important that recruiters look carefully at each individual job to determine what the requirements are,” he said.

What else should people know? 

Hackston said the MBTI assessment is about understanding personality preferences and how we differ from other people — and then using this awareness for growth and looking at challenges. 

“The fact that people have a preference does not mean they can’t do it in a different way,” he said. 

“It is also important to note that the MBTI is not about putting people into boxes or pigeonholing them.” 

Anyone can access the tool via www.mbtionline.com. 

The link will take an individual through the assessment and also through an online feedback process to help people decide their true personality type and how to apply this knowledge to their life, work and career, noted Hackston.