St9-Careers and Your Personality

8/14/2019 St9-Careers and Your Personality

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hat Career Next!Car eer Changeand Pl acement Speciali sts

CAREERS AND YOUR PERSONALITY - WHAT CAN YOU

CHANGE?

There is a school of thought developed by Edgar Schein that people have a single self-image that grows with them over time. This led Schein and others to develop the idea that

people had single career preferences or needs that they should seek to fill by matching

their job with this self-image. He called this preference their career anchor and proceededto research them. He found that there are eight such career anchors that I have listed

below. His research showed that people indeed do seem to have one and only one strong

career anchor. From knowing this anchor, they can better choose their career and job tosatisfy their needs. On this basis, they can be happier and more productive at work. The

eight career anchors are:

1. Technical/functional competence

2. General Managerial competence3. Autonomy/Independence

4. Security/Stability5. Entrepreneurial Creativity

6. Service/Dedication to a Cause

7. Pure Challenge8. Lifestyle

His research showed that even if you have a job change, a change in country or a change

in fortunes your career anchor would not change.

This is because it links directly to your image of yourself. How you see yourself and whatyou believe it is important for you to do. This concept grows on you through the twentiesand thirties as you try various roles in life and your idea about yourself and your values

crystallise. His research found this happened to the people that he researched.

He says that if an individual does not know his or her own needs and interests then they

will not be able to manage their career effectively. Therefore, the responsibility for self-

knowledge rests with the employee to find out about themselves. Companies, on the otherhand, can facilitate this process, by either making such tests available internally or

sponsoring them externally.

What about your personality and your career? How do these two aspects relate?

I find that many people do not really understand what is personality. They can confuse it

with many things including their interests, or their values and beliefs, and theirpreferences and abilities. So perhaps we can briefly discuss some definitions for everyone

to consider


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Personality = a collection of traits (lasting over time and consistent in the individual such

as optimistic; opposed to states which are temporary conditions of the person such as

anger). This collection is a unique combination that reflects the each individuals lastingcharacter. Can be changed only moderately after adulthood by external circumstances;

say by specific traumatic events.

Personality Development = the interaction of innate characteristics (traits) with the

environment, promoting some traits and modifying or inhibiting others. Studies through

childhood and beyond show that the inborn traits and characteristics (like activity level,attention span, adaptability to changes in the environment, and general mood) are very

persistent over time.

Abilities = accomplished skills, skills already learnt. Learning is also a skill, so thatsomeone may have a strong (or weaker) learning ability. Abilities can be grouped

together, such as intelligence, or divided into specific sub-groupings like mechanical,

musical, clerical, etc.

Interests = Activities that you find attractive and want to pay attention to or engage in.

Things that you like to do, reflecting your values and preferences.

Values = Internal rules that you use to determine acceptability of actions, situations and

choices. Grows over time and through social (family) learning.

Now that we have all these aspects introduced lets put them together into a career

matching process. Companies invest a lot of time and resources to ensure that candidates

are eligible for jobs. Eligibility means that the candidate has the required qualificationsand experience to enable them to do the job. This gives no guarantee of how well the

candidate will do the job. Past-experience is only a moderate guide to future

performance. It is incomplete as a candidate screening process.

How well is the candidate going to fit with your company and how well do they fit

with the job itself? These two aspects are called suitability. A candidates suitability for ajob can determine up to 90% of their success rate on the job. Suitability covers the

following eight different areas:

1. Task preferences2. Work Environment preferences

3. Motivation and Stress management

4. Attitudes5. Interests

6. Personality

7. Interpersonal skills/preferences8. Decision making skills/preferences

This collection of characteristics predicts on the job performance up to 90% when

properly matched to a researched profile of the job.


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Job interviews and a check of the candidates background will only give slightly better

than chance results or only 55% percent chance of successful performance on the job.

What Career Next! uses a single tool, the Harrison Inner View to assess these eight

characteristics. The reports produced allow the candidate to be specifically assessedagainst the job (or career path) and their fit measured and quantified.

So we come back to the start what can be changed? Can the candidate change theirresults on this assessment somehow to improve their match to a particular job? We can

now answer what can and what cannot be readily changed:

CAN BE CHANGED HOW TO CHANGE CANNOT BE EASILY

CHANGED

SKILLS Training and education,Practice

PERSONALITY

ATTITUDES Self analysis, experiences,

feedbackTASK PREFERENCES

KNOWLEDGE Training and education,reading, internet surfing

WORK ENVIRONMENT

PREFERENCES

INTERESTS Experience, education and

training

MOTIVATION Self analysis, experiences,feedback; education and

training, social group

changes

STRESSMANAGEMENT

Education and training,practice, lifestyle changes

Oh, there is one more important thing that CAN be changed: your CAREER. I will cover

this in a future article.

John M. Read

Certified International Job & Career Transition Coach

Managing ConsultantWhat Career Next!

Registered in Singapore

[email protected]: (65) 354 3551

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St9-Careers and Your Personality