5 Tips for Matching Your Personality and Career Options

The philosopher Aristotle famously wrote, “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” Whether or not you’re feeling particularly wise, knowing yourself, your personality, and your strengths and weaknesses can lead to improved satisfaction and fulfillment in your career.

Your working hours make up a third of your day and sometimes more than half of your waking hours, so finding a job that allows you to apply your unique gifts gives your life meaning and leaves you feeling replenished, not drained, at the end of each day. Conversely, selecting a career path unsuited to your sparkling personality makes every workday an exercise in drudgery.

Once you can take a step back to understand yourself and your goals in life, your career path should become easier to navigate. So whether only beginning your career journey or feeling like your current position doesn’t suit you, use the following free assessments to ensure your next job meshes your personality perfectly.

1. Good Ole Myers-Briggs

By far one of the most popular career assessments, the Myers-Briggs Personality Assessment measures four key aspects of your personality: extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving.

Extroverted people do well in careers involving dealing with the public, such as customer service or sales, while introverted individuals find themselves drawn to creative or scientific fields that allow for independent work.

Those scoring high in sensing base their perceptions on external stimuli, making them a good fit for law enforcement or construction, while intuitive individuals focus more on their internal worlds, making them excellent psychologists and counselors.

Those who score high in thinking use logic to solve problems, making them excel in the STEM and legal fields. People scoring high in feeling let emotions determine right from wrong and are often drawn to helping fields, such as nursing.

Judging folks thrive on predictable routine and organization needed in fields such as accounting, while perceiving individuals enjoy improvisation and creative solutions, making them well suited for careers in technology development.

2. Mapp Assessment

The Motivational Appraisal Personal Potential Career Assessment consists of 71 questions and takes approximately 22 minutes to complete. This assessment works most accurately when test-takers move quickly through the questions rather than taking a slower, logical approach, as this leads to selecting the answers you think are right over honestly assessing your career personality.

The Mapp Assessment measures your temperament, aptitude, and learning style and aligns these traits with your vocational interests to help you select the correct position for you.

Some employers have likewise implemented the Mapp Assessment to narrow their candidate search during the application process, so take the time to assess yourself before sending out resumes to save yourself time and potential disappointment.

3. The DISC Assessment

Job-seekers just starting out or those looking for a career change do well to take the DISC Assessment. DISC stands for dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness. This non-judgmental exam helps job seekers determine how their innate behavioral reactions drive their motivations in the workplace.

The DISC Assessment takes approximately 50 minutes to complete. Upon completion, test takers learn how they respond to stress, interpersonal conflict and dilemmas. Organizations can also complete a form of a DISC Assessment to evaluate their workplace culture and identify areas of improvement.

4. Holland Code

The Holland Code Career Test measures six factors about your personality that determine your best career fit: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising and conventional (RIASEC). These factors determine anything from how much you enjoy physical labor and working with your hands to how much creativity you prefer to exercise on the job.

This free assessment takes less time to complete than other career personality profiles, with the free test taking only approximately 10 minutes to complete. The full report costs a very reasonable $19 fee.

5. The Prediction Index

The Prediction Index (PI) measures your behavioral and cognitive aptitude for any number of careers. Many employers now utilize this assessment during the hiring process to reduce employee turnover. This assessment also reveals what motivates individual test-takers so their employers can create a work atmosphere that boosts productivity among current employees.

Finding the correct career path that matches your personality greatly impacts your overall satisfaction and joy in life. Take a hint from these assessments to help you mesh your personality and career. They will help you select work opportunities that make you feel productive while on the clock and fulfilled when you leave the office.