I love talking Myers Briggs (you can read about my personality style here). Today’s post is written by Kat Krull, Marketing Manager at Resunate.com, the world’s only search engine optimizing resume builder.
With a weak economy and so much competition for every job on the market, it is easy to get caught up in the race of just finding a job as quickly as possible — but maybe that is not necessarily the right approach. A survey done in late 2011 by RightManagement found that a staggering amount of people (84%) are not content in their jobs and plan to look for new jobs in 2012.
Why do so many people dislike their jobs? A large part of the reason is that they are just not a good fit with the job or the organization.
Chances are that you fit in with the 84% of people who are not content with their job in some way or another…and that is what has brought you to read this article. So, let’s take a look at why it is important to know your personality type when looking for jobs. This way, you will know which positions are a good fit for you while job searching.
To find the right job for your personality, ask yourself the following questions:
1) What type of work do you get passionate about?
This is important because if you can’t identify what truly ignites your motivation, then you won’t find a long-term job. If you have a hard time figuring this out, there are a number of questions you can ask yourself such as: What puts a smile on your face? What do you find easy? What sparks your creativity? What would you do for free? What do you like to talk about? What makes you unafraid of failure? What would you regret not having tried?
If you can’t answer these questions, then ask your closest friends what they think the answers are. Others pick up on the excitement in your voice when you talk about certain things.
2) What type of management style helps you be most productive?
This is important — although you may be a good fit with employees and the type of organization, this doesn’t mean you will be able to work with management easily.
There are many types of management styles and you have to figure out which one works best with your personality. If you need guidance, then you may do better with a coaching type of manager, rather than a democratic or commanding one who doesn’t want to chit-chat but would rather see results.
3) What types of people do you work well with?
You will need to assess if you are more of a loner or a team player and what types of personalities you can handle. It is important to note what types of people gravitate toward you as well. The last thing you want to do is be bored because you want small talk during work while your cubicle mate has his or her earphones in all day. When you go on interviews, really assess the surroundings and see if the ambiance and current employees fit with your style and way that you would like to work.
4) Is your vitality at stake?
This is ultimately the most important reason to make sure you are a good fit for your job.Vitality is your inner power to live and grow to your full potential and gives you a sense of being alive and excited. A recent research study found that managers can employ four measures that will build off of each other to promote a culture of vitality and learning, which will help employees thrive at work.
Here are the four things you should make sure are part of the company that you want to work for:
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Provide decision-making discretion—Empowering workers at every level to make decisions gives them a greater sense of control, more say in how things get done and more opportunities for learning.
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Share information—People contribute more effectively when they understand how their work fits with an organization’s mission and strategy. Doing your job in a vacuum is tedious and uninspiring; there’s no reason to look for innovative solutions if you can’t see the larger impact.
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Minimize incivility—Faced with such behavior, employees are likely to narrow their focus to avoid risks and lose opportunities to learn in the process. Corporate culture is inherently contagious; if you hire for civility, you’re more likely to breed it into your culture.
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Offer performance feedback—By resolving feelings of uncertainty, feedback keeps people’s work-related activities focused on personal and organizational goals. The quicker and more direct the feedback, the more useful it is.
