Finding your ideal job isn’t easy. Sometimes, we toil through education and training in order to win the job of our dreams, only to find out that the dream doesn’t live up to our expectations. Often, this is because the jobs we think we want don’t necessarily align with our personalities. 

 

Nothing saddens me more than seeing people living their lives in quiet desperation, stuck in careers that are both uninspiring and unfulfilling. As James Taylor once said, “You can play the game and act out the part, even though you know it wasn’t written for you.” In the world of business, this tragic situation occurs when an individual’s natural skills and proclivities are simply not a fit for the career they chose. That’s why I believe that finding the right fit, both in terms of natural skills and interest, is the most important factor when it comes to success.

 

When people find their fit, they experience a state of happiness and creativity called flow. According to Forbes, “the concept of flow was popularized by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in the early 1990s. According to the theory, flow manifests itself when a person’s natural skills align with the challenges they face. When people operate outside of their flow, problems arise.  For example, if an individual works in a highly challenging environment in which their natural skills are outclassed, they tend to experience terrible anxiety and stress. Conversely, if an individual’s advanced skills are wasted in an industry that is neither interesting nor challenging, boredom and apathy quickly set in”

 

Flow is an important concept in life and in business. When things align naturally and people find their personal flow, happiness increases, and productivity rises. One way to find your flow is to take a personality assessment. These tests and career assessments help to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses as well as your personal values and skills. Your ideal job is often found at the intersection of these personality traits. You might just be surprised by what you find. 

 

Use Assessments To Change Careers

 

These assessments are particularly important when seeking a new job or changing careers. In addition to showing gaps in training and experience, the assessments can help to highlight the unique skills you bring to the table. 

 

Of course, these assessments don’t act as a black box that magically spits out the answer to your life’s work. They can, however, help frame the way you think about potential jobs.

 

What Kind of Tests Are Out There?

 

The available tests range from the Ten-Item Personality Index, a short, 10-question assessment that measures personality traits, to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, one of the most widely used tests for exploring career options.

 

Personality tests and other psychological tests measure your personal characteristics, your emotional makeup, and your stability. Career counselors often use them as a tool in the self-assessment part of the career planning process. Some of these tests are easily understood online, while others require a counselor to interpret them.

 

Some employers use personality tests with prospective or current employees in order to gauge the cultural makeup and compatibility of their workforce. While it is legal to use personality tests to prescreen job candidates, they must be carefully used for screening candidates. 

 

The assessments must be properly structured and administered in order to avoid the possibility of inadvertent discrimination.

 

Personality assessments may help you discover things about yourself that you didn’t already know. This, in turn, can lead you down the path to new and exciting career opportunities that you never thought about before.