The Right Job for You

The Right Job for You


Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash
It’s hard to find a job that fits you. However, it is something we all need to do.
The price for failing this task is steep. Being unclear about what job fits you will cause you to waste a lot of time making progress in the wrong direction.
You can use the Big 5 Personality Test to find out what type of job fits you. You can then find out what other You’s in the world work as. Once you have selected a career based on the test results that resonate with you, you just need to adopt the right attitude. If you do this, you are likely to find a job that fits just you.

The Problem with Passion

“Follow your passion”. Have you heard this aphorism? It isn’t as easy as it sounds. First of all, what is your passion? Are we all supposed to have a singular careerable passion? If we don’t, then we obviously can’t follow it.
It’s not easy to follow general advice like that. Outside influences don’t make things easier either. We are constantly prayed upon and influenced by companies or other institutions that make money off of our decisions.
“Purchase this 3-month Bootcamp to enter this new and trendy field!”
Parents are often no better, suggesting financially safe cards like becoming a lawyer or doctor, which can be a great and stable option or a horrible nightmare of a job, depending on who you ask.

The Danger of Taking the Wrong Path

What happens to many is that they take “placeholder” jobs until they find what they want to do. While certainly better than no job, the risk is that you get stuck in that “placeholder” job.
We’re all human. It’s easy to get comfortable to the point where ambition and career seem unnecessary, and too difficult anyway.

The daze of comfort is pleasant. Time is plenty after all. However, — and not to sound preachy — you may wake up one day at 40, stuck in that tedious “placeholder” job that you have had since 20. You would do anything to leave that job now, but you don’t have many options. Many people end up here.

The Solution

This is a very difficult problem to solve for most people. However, the advantage is that it is a universal problem. This means that many smart people have tried tirelessly to solve it for a long time. They have come up with many great ideas.
One great idea is that you should fit your job to your personality. You know yourself. You may be outgoing, creative, introverted, disciplined, traditional, etc.
Many use the Myers-Briggs test to analyze their personality. However, there is another test that is far more accurate and scientifically supported, and that of course is the Big 5 Personality Test.
This test analyses your personality across 5 dimensions. These dimensions are:

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  Openness to experience
  
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  Conscientiousness
  
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  Extraversion
  
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  Agreeableness
  
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  Neuroticism
  

There is a mountain of information about how to read these dimensions. However, the main idea is that you should look to see what your largest values are here. From there, you can speculate and strategize about what job would fit you.
For example, if you are 90th percentile in Openness to experience, that means that you are creative. Great! Now we can narrow career fields to ones that are creative. Things like art, media, and design are good examples. If you also score high on extraversion, you may have the perfect personality for an on-stage musician or a dancer. If you are very introverted, you may prefer to work on the computer doing art, design, or music there.
Another scenario could be that you score very high on agreeableness. This means that you really like to help other people. However, if you have extremely high neuroticism— which is the negative emotion dimension — then you may want to avoid high-stress jobs. In that case, you may prefer helping people as a physical therapist versus being a trauma nurse, for example.

Conclusion

Wasting your potential is very easy. Some might say it’s the default state. However, it comes with a heavy price.
Unless you have the right tool to guide you in your career, you will waste a lot of time making progress in the wrong direction.
Take the Big 5 Personality Test and try to deeply understand what a person like you needs, and what is best for you. The test results may require some interpretation, luckily a lot of that is already done for you in places like CrystalKnows, for example. Here you can find career suggestions based on your big 5.