Unlock Your Career Potential: How Personality Tests Guide Your Job Search

How a Career Personality Test Can Help You in Your Job Search

Many people enjoy taking personality and behavior assessments to better understand themselves. While general personality quizzes are common, career-focused evaluations are less frequently encountered. These are often administered by HR departments but may become inaccessible after leaving a company.

While no assessment can definitively dictate your ideal job or career path, they can be valuable tools for increasing self-awareness and identifying areas where you might have blind spots. This allows you to make more informed career decisions that capitalize on your strengths. Everyone has areas of themselves they are not fully aware of, which can hinder their ability to reach their full potential, especially in their professional lives.

Psychology often uses the iceberg metaphor to illustrate the conscious and unconscious mind. Just as a significant portion of an iceberg lies beneath the surface, many factors influence our behavior without our conscious knowledge. This lack of awareness can lead to dissatisfaction in various aspects of life, including work and relationships. The goal is to enhance self-awareness and implement positive, well-informed changes to improve daily life and career fulfillment.

Self-awareness involves recognizing your emotions, accurately assessing your strengths and weaknesses, and setting and achieving goals. It's essential for taking control of your career. Without it, making sound decisions and effectively communicating with others becomes more challenging.

Understanding Your Work Style

Minova offers a work styles assessment, a professional tool designed to enhance self-awareness by helping you understand your natural work style and behavioral traits.

The Minova Work Styles assessment is informed by the DISC theory, developed by Dr. William Moulton Marston at Harvard University, and the four temperaments concept from ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. While influenced by these theories, the assessment focuses on providing professionals with a better understanding of themselves in a work context.

The framework identifies four primary work styles, with most people exhibiting a combination of all four, though typically with one or two dominant styles. This assessment helps individuals recognize situations that energize or drain them, and identify tasks that come easily or present challenges. By understanding this framework, you can improve your understanding of yourself and others, and enhance your work relationships and responsibilities.

The Minova Work Styles framework is based on a two-factor model, which includes:

Factor One: Starters vs. Finishers

This factor divides the four styles into two groups: starters and finishers. Starters tend to think aloud, work quickly, focus on the big picture, and generate new ideas. Finishers, on the other hand, typically think before acting, concentrate on details, and excel at implementation and task completion.

Factor Two: Results-Oriented vs. People-Oriented

This component separates the styles into results-oriented and people-oriented categories. Results-oriented individuals prioritize tasks and outcomes and may prefer working independently. People-oriented individuals prioritize the needs of others and may prefer collaborative work environments.

It's important to remember that everyone possesses all four styles to some degree, although some behaviors are more natural than others. Your work style will be represented by a four-number sequence, with the first two numbers indicating your primary work styles. Understanding how these components interact within your sequence is also important.

Knowing your work style can be beneficial in several ways. It can improve your communication skills, help you identify energizing and draining work environments, and inform your approach to job searching. Remember that this assessment is a self-awareness tool, not a definitive label. You may strongly agree with some aspects of the report and disagree with others. Use the information that resonates with you to enhance your productivity and interactions with others. Increased self-awareness will help you move towards a more rewarding career and life.

How It Works

1. Take the quiz: Discover your four-number Work Style sequence by completing the assessment.
2. Get results: Identify what requires the most effort for you and adjust your strategies accordingly.
3. Grow with confidence: Share your results with others to gain insights into how your self-perception aligns with their perspectives.

The Benefits

Understand how your work style influences your triggers, relationships, perceptions, and energy levels. Solicit feedback from former managers, colleagues, friends, and family to gain a comprehensive understanding of how others perceive you. The more you know about your work style, the more comfortable you'll be in the workplace. Self-awareness is a crucial foundation for negotiation, presenting ideas, and influencing others.

Your personality reveals a great deal about you as an employee. Whether you're right-brained or left-brained, introverted or extroverted, your personality can affect your interactions with colleagues, your career advancement, and even the type of job you secure. Once you have a better understanding of your work style, you can begin to identify suitable job opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a career personality test differ from a standard aptitude test during a job search?

A career personality test focuses on identifying your work style, preferences, and interpersonal dynamics, which can influence job satisfaction and performance. In contrast, an aptitude test measures specific skills or intellectual abilities. Understanding your personality can help you find roles that align with your natural tendencies and work environment preferences, enhancing your long-term career success.

Can taking a career personality test limit my job search to certain industries or roles?

No, a career personality test is designed to provide insights into your work style and preferences, not to pigeonhole you into specific industries or roles. It can help you identify the types of work environments and tasks that you are likely to thrive in, which can be found across various industries and positions. The goal is to use this self-awareness to guide your job search towards opportunities where you can excel and be satisfied.

How often should I retake a career personality test to ensure it reflects my current job search needs?

It's a good idea to retake a career personality test whenever you feel a significant change in your work preferences, values, or life circumstances. This could be every few years or when considering a career transition. Regular reassessment ensures that the insights you gain remain relevant and can effectively guide your job search and career development decisions.