Over a 40-year career using personality type, I’ve trained thousands of people around the world, and been asked hundreds of questions. Here are the ten most frequently asked questions and answers.
As the famous Stephen Stills song goes: “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” Although the song was written about personal relationships, the same philosophy is helpful to apply to your current job – especially if it’s not as satisfying and fulfilling as you’d like it to be.
The simple truth is most jobs allow a good deal of flexibility in how people perform their tasks. And while the COVID-19 pandemic has created many new obstacles to how many of us worked in the past, it has also created new opportunities.
In Part I of this blog, I shared some key interviewing strengths and potential blind spots for each of the sixteen types and suggested that you try to identify the one from each category that resonates most with you. Being able to capitalize on your strengths and mitigate your blind spots can make the difference between landing that great job, or not.
Like so many other things, the pandemic has turned pretty much every aspect of job hunting on its head. But “The Great Resignation” – the mass exit from the job market – has created new opportunities for job hunters, as employers scramble to fill tens of thousands of vacant positions.
By now, you’ve probably heard the term “The Great Resignation,” and maybe have even participated in it. Four point three million Americans quit their jobs in August (including over 500,000 healthcare workers), the highest monthly total since they started collecting this kind of data in 2000.
Since the publication of Do What You Are (DWYA) thirty years ago, career counselors have recognized the critical role Personality Type plays in career satisfaction and success. When my co-author Barbara Barron and I were first doing our research for DWYA way back when, we interviewed hundreds of people of all types representing dozens of careers. Our Eureka! moment came when we discovered that for each of the sixteen personality types, there were certain elements that led to greater career satisfaction. Later on, we realized they also led to career success.
In my last blog I introduced the concept of GLOBAL TYPOLOGY, a term I coined to describe “how personality type shapes the values and behaviors of groups and cultures.” Rather than focusing on individuals’ behavior, GT takes the macro view. And, because of the huge disparity in percentages between Sensors and Intuitives, America has a “Sensing Culture” which has a profound influence on almost every aspect of American life.
Imagine you are walking down hotel row in a large city. On the right side is a Marriott hosting a convention of 1,000 members of the American Psychological Association. Directly across the street at the Hilton, 1,000 plumbers have gathered for the annual meeting of the American Plumbing Association. We know from decades of research – as well as from direct personal experience – that psychologists and plumbers tend to be different kinds of people. This is not to say all plumbers are one type and all psychologists another.
A first-of-its-kind original, scientific study showed that Personality Type is strongly correlated with certain health-risk factors and may predict susceptibility to specific chronic illnesses. These findings may help patients with innate predispositions to avoid developing serious medical conditions.
“The jury’s back.”
Three words that get every trial attorney’s blood pumping. While only a small fraction of cases ever go to trial, the moment of truth for those that do comes when the clerk knocks on the door and makes this announcement.
THE FINE PRINT:
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