Does personality make a difference to education and career choices? Absolutely! Personality matters as much in education as it does in life. The decisions you make concerning your career and study areas have a lot to do with your personality and your understanding of your strengths and talents.
Knowing your personality strengths is the key to choosing a career and a study area that fits!
Utilising personality strengths when choosing a study course, strongly correlates with improved performance, high-quality work, greater creativity, and increased happiness in the job; all significant reasons for understanding one’s personality strengths and how to utilise them. That’s why it’s important that students choose the ‘right-fit’ course for them.
While there are many different theories of personality, the first step is to understand exactly what is meant by the term ‘personality’. Personality is typically defined as the unique and enduring collection of attitudes, motivations, feelings, behaviours, talents and strengths that make each of us who we are. In addition to this, personality arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life.
Predicting career success
Your personality style not only predicts how well your skills will match the demands of the work tasks in a particular job; it also predicts how well you will fit in with the culture of the company you want to work for. Thus your personality style affects your study success, satisfaction with the job and your productivity in it.
Surveys indicate that up to 70% of us claim that our work lives lack meaning; but don’t blame your career counsellor just yet. People often pick the wrong career because they’re listening to the wrong voices. They’re overly concerned with what they can do, what they (or others) feel they ought to do, and what they think they want to do. But the starting place is with understanding who they are.
Evidence now demonstrates the significant impact of measuring and developing personality strengths and natural talents for a happier and more fulfilling career.
What employers want
Employers today are looking for cultural ‘fit’ and want students who have personal qualities that match the requirements of the job as well as the qualifications and skills to do the job well.
In general, most personality traits can be grouped into the following categories: working with others; energy and drive; work style; problem-solving; dealing with pressure and stress; and managing change.
Recent studies reported that over 70 percent of companies now use assessments based on matching careers and personality. This enables them to hire people who are a better fit for their companies.
My message to you
“By using personality assessments as part of your student engagement and recruitment strategies, students will have had a positive experience with them and know which courses or majors suit their personality, improving their preparedness for the world of work after they graduate.
“We can all be happy and do work we love; we just have to understand ourselves first. MyCareerMatch connects students with their ‘best-fit’ careers; MyCourseMatch matches students to the right courses that will get them to where they want to go!” For more information Contact me
