Impact of Your Personality on Your Career

List three words that describe you. These three words are just a start to defining your personality, that is, the qualities and traits that are unique to you and make you who you are.

Your personality plays a large role in the workplace. It affects how you:

• perform your work
• communicate with others
• deal with conflict
• demonstrate your worth to the organization

The list goes on. Ironically, it is easy to overlook your personality when you are deciding on a job opportunity.

Job Decision Considerations

When you are considering a job, you naturally make sure your interests and skills are a great match. In a recent blog, I touched on making sure your work values fit with the company culture. This is definitely important and often overlooked. In the same way, we often neglect to make sure our personalities match the job too.

When deciding on a job opportunity, ask yourself, “How well do I fit into this company, the work environment and the culture?”

But how do you find out about the personality of the company? Here are some ideas:

• Ask questions at the end of the interview about the environment. What is the interviewer’s favorite thing about working there? What is their least favorite thing about working there? How would they describe the company culture?
• Do some research. What information is available about the company?
• Talk to people. Do you know anyone who works for the company? They are a great source of information about the company’s culture and the work environment.

Is There a Match?

Once you have some data, compare that data to your information about your personality. Given the information you have, will this job be a good fit for you? An easy transition? If your personality does not match the company culture, you can find your energy drained at the end of each day because you are putting so much effort into fitting in.

The work itself can be draining enough let alone layering on the energy you exert trying to force your personality to fit into that work environment. Ultimately this can adversely impact your job performance as you are exhausted and may begin to resent the job itself.

Personality is a key component to deciding if a job is right for you yet also a component that is easy to overlook. Make sure a job opportunity is a successful match for you by ensuring that your personality is a good fit for the organization’s work environment.

Have you ever found out the hard way that your personality did not fit with your company or career?  Let us know in the comments section below!