Your personality can not only
affect your career
choice but also how you
perform and interact with
others at your workplace.
To help you have an in-depth
understanding of how
your personality affects your
career, here is an
overview of the five personality
traits and their
influence on your career.
The Five Big Personality Traits
and How They Can Affect Your
Career
1. Openness to Experience
People high on openness to
experience are creative,
curious, and open to change.
They have diverse
interests and are constantly
scanning the
environment for innovative
ideas. They tend to
focus more on how much a job
is fulfilling rather
than how much they earn.
Leaving a dissatisfying
job for a new adventure or in
search of more
fulfilling opportunities is not a
big deal for people
open to experience.
This group has a balanced life.
They put as much
effort into their career
development as they do in
their hobbies and passion. For
this reason, they are
more likely to be
disadvantaged than those who
are
completely work-oriented.
When this personality trait is
too strong, an
individual tends to frequently
share ideas without
thinking them through. They
might introduce a
change without a concrete plan
for its
implementation. They’ll avoid
questions, warnings,
or even suggestions aimed at
grilling their ideas and
assessing their project’s
feasibility.
Also, high levels of openness to
experience have a
challenge with saving money .
Because they make
decisions on impulse without
really giving their ideas
a thorough thought, they tend
to spend impulsively
on things they are passionate
about.
2. Conscientiousness
Conscientious individuals are
achievement-oriented.
They are highly organized,
detail-oriented, and
highly productive. This
personality trait is exhibited
by people who are dependable
and careful planners.
They undertake a systematic
approach to
accomplish tasks. Once they set
a goal, they don’t
take their eyes off it until they
achieve it. For that
reason, highly conscientious
people make good
employees.
People high on this personality
trait rarely achieve
extraordinary results . This is
because they stick to
the plan to the latter without
taking into
consideration any emerging
evidence. Since they
rush towards achieving results,
when new evidence
comes up, there are high
chances that they’ll
disregard it since changing the
plan is not an
option.
Individuals low in
conscientiousness are more
likely
to earn more than those high in
conscientiousness.
In addition, they are more likely
to ask for a salary
raise than those with high
levels of openness to
experience, extraversion, and
agreeableness.
3. Extraversion
Extraverted individuals are
social and outgoing.
They are more likely to impress
the interviewing
panel, connect with colleagues
fast and stand out to
their supervisors. This group is
socially confident,
assertive, talkative, and
outgoing.
Usually, they renew their
energy by interacting with
others. They jump on any
chance to mingle with
others and often grab any
opportunity to participate
in social events.
High-extraverted individuals
yawn for approval and
acceptance. They love attention
and public
acknowledgment of their
efforts at work.
People with a high score on
extraversion work well
as salespeople and even
managers as they enjoy
meeting new people,
establishing relationships, and
persuading and influencing
others. Naturally, they
are team players at the
workplace.
An extroverted employee
needs to be reminded of
deadlines constantly. They
rarely pay attention to
details. There are high chances
that they’ll be
carried away with social events
like meetings,
parties, or committees. Thus,
they must be checked
on frequently.
Because of their chatty nature
and need to be liked,
colleagues may perceive them
as insincere and
even superficial.
4. Agreeableness
Highly agreeable individuals
are easily liked and
admired by others. They are
easy to get along with
in work projects. Also,
agreeable employees are
sympathetic towards their
colleagues.
Agreeable individuals follow
the rules and
regulations to the latter. They
are well-mannered
and have higher job
performance. They are also
less likely to be involved in any
at-work conflict or
workplace accidents.
Those who score high on
agreeableness are very
positive. This tends to hinder
them from exploring
the negative aspects of a
situation. Thus, this could
lead to flawed decisions that
don’t take into account
both the negative and positive
aspects of a problem.
Highly agreeable team leaders
tend to jump into
helping team members
accomplish a task without
giving them the opportunity to
explore and work
through a challenge. Team
members might take it
that they are incapable of
solving complicated
challenges. They might
interpret the behavior as a
lack of trust in their abilities.
Also, agreeable individuals trust
easily, and hence
there are high chances they’ll
overlook contracts or
work agreements. They always
assume that people
have good intentions. This
could lead to challenges
later on.
5. Neuroticism
Neurotic personality in
moderation is a desirable
trait. However, people with
high levels of
neuroticism exhibit a lack of
focus. They also find
daily life schedules extremely
stressful. They are
prone to worry a lot and find it
hard to settle in one
job.
Neurotic employees have
negative thoughts, which
lead to negative emotions.
These individuals
experience low job satisfaction.
They also can’t
cope with workplace demands,
especially the fast-
paced work environment. This
makes neurotics
more susceptible to employee
burnout.
On the bright side, neurotics
obsess ceaselessly.
This makes them hard workers
who anticipate
challenges. They can easily
project outcomes, meet
deadlines and deliver projects
successfully.
Apart from these personality
traits, other factors
like work ethic, training ,
performance on the job, and
skill set also affect your career.
Therefore, attending
programs that empower you in
your field of interest
can go a long way in building
your personality and
equipping you for the job
market. If you are in the
health and fitness niche,
training such as health
coach programs can build your
skillset, which
equally plays a big role in your
career growth.
Wrap Up
The five personality traits
above affect your career
in different ways. The point is
not how much you
rank in each but how each of
the traits complements
each other. When you are
aware of the interplay of
the five traits in building your
personality, you can
actively work towards building
your strengths and
modifying negative behaviors
to help grow your
career.
The overall goal is to be aware
of the traits that are
detrimental and those that are
beneficial to your
work. With this awareness, you
can find positions
that better suit your
personality, which will lead to
job satisfaction and even more
success.
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