Finding the Perfect Job for Your Personality – A Book Review

December 29th, 2009 by lewis

Trying to figure out your next career move? The Career Within You is a new book that guides you through the process of finding the career best suited for you. It analyzes:
  • Your traits
  • Your strengths
  • Your career wishes
Unlike other personality tests, the book not only helps you understand your character traits, but also explains the core values of the nine different personality types featured in the book.
I was excited when The Career Within You PR team asked me to review the book. I’m a big fan of personality tests; I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test at least three times. I jumped right in and found that I identify most closely with “The Achiever” personality type. Here are some of the strengths Achievers bring to the workplace:
  • Inspire people
  • Have a competitive spirit and drive to win
  • Prefer efficiency
  • Work hard
  • Take risks
  • Have big dreams
  • Understand the importance of work/life balance
  • Seeks mentors and mentors others
The authors also explain common weaknesses of each personality type. For the Achiever, common blind spots include being a workaholic and difficulty accepting failure.
From there, the reader is asked to answer a five question quiz. Based on the answers, the book recommends careers that fit one’s personality profile. Here are my recommended jobs, based on my personal profile:
  • Brand manager
  • CEO
  • Finance & accounting executives
  • Financial analyst
  • Management consultant
  • Technology executive
  • Agent (for artist & performers)
  • News journalist
  • Symphony conductor
The book’s last section includes job hunting tips, which job seekers might find valuable when brushing up their resume, interviewing, or networking skills.
Steve Jobs once said, “You’ve got to find out what you love. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”
It’s never too early or late to find your true passion. For those of you who are discovering a new career that matches your interests, Elizabeth Wagele and Ingrid Stabb’s book, The Career Within You, is a quick, easy, and effective place to start.

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4 Responses to “Finding the Perfect Job for Your Personality – A Book Review”

  1. December 30, 2009 at 1:10 am, Anonymous said:

    Sounds like a book every high school guidance counselor should read. I wish mine had!

  2. January 10, 2010 at 10:19 am, ukjobsguide said:

    Enjoyable post.Glad I did.My comment is that it seems like it is “either/or” between the the two models presented. I find that truly successful leaders must have qualities from both sides of that list, so I would push back a little.

  3. February 10, 2010 at 5:05 pm, Scot said:

    Hmm, I haven't read this book, but your brief description makes me wonder about it. I agree that your personality (enneagram) type does provide you with a specific set of talents that might be suitable for one job more than another, but I also believe that many jobs can be done with many different sets of talents. What's important, of course, is realizing your own talents and your own non-talents and balancing yourself accordingly – by working with people with the talents you lack or simply working to temper your own natural talents with work to develop and reveal others.

    So I worry about a book that says you must be an Achiever to be a good CEO, or that all Acheivers make good CEOs. It's a good place to start, but not the final word by any means.

    Thanks for the post. 🙂