Personality is a very complex structure, which forms under the impacts of various life factors and cannot be changed. Therefore, your character and unique personal features should be mentioned while choosing a career. Otherwise, you are risking to go against your psychophysics and lose time at a hateful job.
In this article, we will help you determine your personality types and tell you how to choose a specialization according to your character. You can also learn more about personality traits and psychological types by visiting the American Psychological Association’s website.
Personality Types
So, the choice of a job significantly depends on the character or temperament. But what is it, and what types can we distinguish?
Temperament is an individual characteristic of a person, which concerns the peculiarities of his mental activity, speed, and pace of mental processes. Usually, specialists speak about three areas of temperament manifestation. They are the level of general activity, the characteristics of the motor sphere, and the level of emotionality.
At the first stage, characters are divided into extraversion and introversion. The main difference between the types lies in the perception of the world. Extraverts are active and communicative people who direct all their strengths to the external world. Introverts are more closed and self-absorbed people who do not depend on the environment or society and prefer their inner world. Extraversion and introversion are two poles of the whole, and each person contains traits of both types.
Also, they can be divided into four more types.
Extraverts can be:
- Sanguine people are lively, passionate, agile individuals with a frequent change of mood and impressions. They react quickly to all events but cope equally well with both success and failure. Sanguine personalities are very productive at work when they are interested in it. However, if the work is boring, they lose all excitement and do not care about its results and consequences at all.
- Choleric people are fast, passionate, impulsive, but completely unbalanced people with dramatically changing moods and emotional outbursts. They do not have a balance of nervous processes and can be rather conflicting than friendly, which are the main distinguishing features from sanguine people. As employees, such people have endless energy sources. They are ready to make quick decisions and fight until the end. Choleric employees prefer independence in work and can withstand lengthy business trips and regular change of activities.
Introverts can be:
- Phlegmatics people are unhurried, unperturbed people with steady aspirations and mood. They do not like the manifestation of emotions and feelings. As a worker, a phlegmatic shows perseverance but remains calm and balanced. He/She is productive and compensates for unhurriedness by diligence.
- Melancholic people are vulnerable and prone to the emotional perception of various events. In work, a melancholic depends on the mood and needs emotional support and regular rest. They prefer creative jobs, which do not require much initiative and communication.
How to Determine Your Type
As far as character is associated with the peculiarities of the human nervous system, scientists claim that it is almost unchanged. Therefore, the easiest and most correct approach is to take your temperament type into account while choosing a profession.
To determine the type, specialists developed numerous tests. You can find various questions on the Internet or consult a psychologist.
Here are several crucial questions, which can help you:
Is it difficult for you to find some activity when you are alone?
Do you have difficulties with expressing emotions?
Do you feel uneasiness about asking a stranger something?
How do you feel when criticized?
Etc.
Best Jobs for Each Character/Temperament Type
Sanguine
A sanguine person can realize himself/herself in all professions related to both physical and mental labor. These people are characterized by sustainable performance, which is little affected by external and internal factors. Their sociable nature helps them realize themselves in professions related to the service factor as well as occupy leading positions. Sanguine people easily adapt to any work schedule and changes but need clearly defined tasks.
On the other hand, they can like professions that require great concentration and attention to detail. However, such occupations should provide some source of interest.
This temperament type can be called universal in terms of specialization choice.
The best jobs for such people are teacher, correspondent, sales manager, lawyer, HR specialist, businessman, jeweler, and so on.
Among the jobs that are less likely to attract a sanguine are office manager, accountant, installation specialist, and the like.
Choleric
Choleric people achieve great success in those professions where the human factor plays a key role. They quickly make contacts, join new activities, and adapt to changes. High resistance to stress allows choleric people to be good leaders. And, on the contrary, they hardly tolerate monotonous work. To maintain a high level of performance, such employees need constant emotional reinforcement.
The list of most suitable professions for a choleric includes a reporter, radio and TV presenter, director, sales manager, PR specialist, advertising agent. They can also start their own business.
Examples of inappropriate jobs are assembly line worker, archivist, librarian, scientist, etc.
Phlegmatic
Phlegmatic people are incredibly efficient, as they have the most stable nervous system. They can perform any monotonous work for a long time keeping high productivity. The emotional stability of phlegmatic is beneficial in those areas that require meticulousness, calm analysis, and informed decision making. Such people achieve success in professions with a clear schedule, algorithms, detailed tasks, and deadlines. Though phlegmatic employees are characterized by low sociability, they can occupy positions that involve moderate communication.
Individuals with phlegmatic character successfully cope with the professions of a dispatcher, laboratory assistant, scientist, doctor, veterinarian, engineer, economist.
If you`re a phlegmatic, you`ll feel extremely uncomfortable working as a secretary, entertainer, journalist, and choosing all jobs that require frequent improvisation, changes, and new participants.
Melancholic
These people are successful in activities, which require observation and attention to details but are not associated with a lot of communication. They should choose professions, the effectiveness of which is evaluated by qualitative but not quantitative mark. The job can be monotonous, though it should provide constant food for the intellectual and creative abilities of a person.
People with melancholic temperament type do not easily tolerate activities with frequent force majeure and changes. The slightest stress can significantly damage their performance. A large amount of communication with strangers and regular rejections are categorically contraindicated.
Melancholic people can become successful writers, critics, programmers, architects, accountants, scientists, psychologists, etc.
We do not recommend them to choose such jobs as advertising agents, interpreters, sales manager.
In conclusion, we should note that the choice of a job depends on various factors, which must be considered. Thus, if you like a specific type of activity, but it is not recommended to your temperament type, it doesn`t mean that you cannot reach success in this area at all. However, there are so many professions in the modern world that you can easily find the one where your individual abilities and character traits will be appreciated.