Stabb Ingrid - The career within you: how to find the perfect job for your personality

W HERE ARE YOU IN YOUR CAREER TODAY? Perhaps youre just starting outanticipating the end of your education and brimming with hope for your future. Maybe youre unhappy with your career. Youve been on a treadmill for a few decades and contemplating stepping off, but to where? Or you recently lost your job and want to get back on track. But which track? You have important decisions to make, and you want to honor your passions, your financial needs, and your sense of belonging when you make them.

Wherever you are at this point, you have a feeling there is an authentic career within you. Watch it unfold as you learn about the nine career types, discover which one fits you, and then match yourself to a career that is right for your particular combination of traits, gifts, and wishes. Then, this book will help you determine how to best fit into todays job marketplace.

The first step is to ask some questions that have fascinating answers. Who are you? What are your greatest strengths? What do you need in a career (which may be different from what an employer is looking for from you)? This book will help you answer these questions and teach you how to avoid common career traps and obstacles.

Why do we choose the work we do? Some of us try to follow in our familys footsteps, only to find out later that our temperament is more suited for a different line of work. Or a favorite teacher may encourage us to pursue a talent we have, but deep down we cherish another set of gifts even more. People who care about us mean well when they give us career advice, but because it is based upon their own experiences and standards it can miss the mark. When we are young, getting approval from othersor the opposite, staking out our own separate territorymay be important to us. But as we get older many of us are more interested in choosing a career that truly pleases us than in winning either approval or raised eyebrows. After you read this book you will be able to express your unique strengths, weaknesses, needs, and desires more clearly. Knowing who you are relative to others will put you in a strong position for planning your next career moves or landing a job. Friends and family can then support you with the assistance you request.

Growing up, Cherie received much praise for her intellect. When she graduated from college with a BS in computer science, she was recruited into a rotational program in a reputable software company with a good paycheck. After working there six months, she attended a workshop where she discovered the nine career types. She determined that hers was the Romantic, the person who loves authenticity and self-expression above all. Over the next few days she had trouble concentrating at work. She thought about the part of herself that was artistically creative and longed for a way to express herself in her work. At the end of the week she called her best friend to tell her she was starting to feel depressed. Her role within information technology seemed to lack meaning, and she needed to talk about it. That Friday she couldnt make herself go to work. Instead she made the chocolates that had become her passion to create and that she loved to give to everyone on birthdays and holidays. This cheered her up and brought her back to a sense of feeling alive.

In the career workshop she had learned that Romantics can be fearless in pursuing their hearts desires. Among their greatest strengths are their aesthetic sense and their imagination. Cherie realized she wasnt expressing herself sufficiently. While she did use creativity as a software developer, she couldnt make use of her excellent aesthetic sense in the way she would have liked. Cherie felt most happy when she was creating new chocolates. On weekends she invented imaginatively shaped candies and new recipes, tried them out on friends, and did research about how to start a small business. Eventually Cherie started selling her chocolates at the local farmers market on weekends. Business boomed from there to specialty grocers. Then she sold her confections online, using her Web development abilities to further her marketing. Since then Cherie has quit her job. Now she is so successful she makes more money making chocolates to express her creativity.

Sound career advice for Cherie might be completely different from appropriate advice for you . Cherie is a Romantic, but what are some other choices? What career type are you?

There are many ways to describe your career strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Materials abound that can be applied to aid sound career decision making, including popular typing systems such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the Strengths Finder. However, the typing system called the Enneagram (Any-a-gram) is most powerful for understanding yourself because it goes a step further and examines your core values. Other systems stop short by only describing traits and not analyzing the motivation for those traits.

You will readily identify the nine kinds of people as described by the Enneagram in people you know and in yourself. Beyond that, you will learn why you and your co-workers are motivated to do what you do. So, for example, if you value making the world a happier, fun-filled place, you may have a joyous temperament like the Adventurer career type. If reducing risks is your focal point, you will seek answers to all of your safety questions in order to feel sure youre okay. This career type, the Questioner, wants to have fewer unknowns to fear.

At lasta career that fits my style!

You will get to know each of the nine different career types sets of strengths, needs, and weaknesses. But first, heres a list of what drives them. Which of these is most important for you?

1. The Perfectionist is motivated to make improvements.
2. The Helper is motivated to meet other peoples needs.
3. The Achiever is motivated to attain a successful image.
4. The Romantic is motivated to express individuality.
5. The Observer is motivated to acquire knowledge.
6. The Questioner is motivated to reduce risk.
7. The Adventurer is motivated to explore possibilities.
8. The Asserter is motivated to set clear boundaries.
9. The Peace Seeker is motivated to maintain inner calm.

To find the type that describes you, check off the phrases below that you most relate to, or download the free quiz at www.careerwithinyou.com.

• 1. The Perfectionist
  • Doing the right thing is important to me.
  • I have a strong inner critic that constantly tells me I could have done something better.
  • Im usually a stickler about following rules.
  • I want to be seen as highly ethical.
  • If someone makes an error, it is important to me that they try to improve next time.