When Choosing Your Career, Focus on the Nature of Your Work

Your job should match certain aspects of your personality

“You’d make a great notary,” my dad once said to me.

I was 12 years old, and I didn’t really know what a notary was. My dad explained that it was an easy desk job, had something to do with law, and was insanely well paid. His enthusiasm rubbed on me, so for a while, I truly believed I was going to be a notary. Not such a fun dream job for a kid, right?

But the notary career path was a no-go since my dad quickly realized that he needed a lot of money and connections to make that happen for me (or so he thought). So my parents started gently nudging me towards a medical career.

Family isn’t solely responsible for my career choice, but my upbringing had a lot to do with it. Selecting a career path that merged both passion and profit proved to be very difficult. Choosing passion, at the time, meant becoming a starving artist, or a modest teacher. So I chose profit over passion, oblivious to the fact that I could eventually have both.

You see, there’s so much more to choosing the work that’s right for you. It’s one of the most important decisions that you’ll ever make, and in order to get it right, you need to have a deep understanding of your personality and what drives you to do the things you do.

Most young people think they need to select a subject that’s of interest to them. But most of the time, studying a subject doesn’t really prepare you for the real world and the challenges you’ll face in your work.

Instead of simply figuring out what interests you, you should go a step further and investigate what kind of jobs you could apply to after you graduate, and how they will fit your lifestyle and personality.

Talking to prospective employers or spending time with people who are accomplished in your dream career are great things to do, but they’re not enough. The people you admire may have very different personality types, and that may be the key to their success.

Everything comes down to knowing yourself and staying true to who you are. It will save you a lot of heartache and pain down the road.

I recently came across a lecture held by professor and psychologist Jordan Peterson, called “Finding a career that matches your temperament.” In this lecture, he identifies some key personality traits that can make or break your success:

1. Cognitive ability

As much as we want to believe that everyone has equal chances and equal capabilities, intellectual and otherwise, that’s just not true. Some people will naturally have a higher IQ and be better suited for complex jobs than other people.

Jordan Peterson advises that, when figuring out your career, you should choose a field where you’re in the upper percentile of intelligence. You don’t want to be the stupidest person in the room — that’s going to make you miserable. But you shouldn’t want to be the smartest one there either, because you won’t have any opportunity for growth.

From the outside, things often look more simple than they actually are. You won’t understand the challenges of your work until you’re already deeply involved, so even choosing a career based on your intellect can prove to be a difficult task.

My parents didn’t understand the complexities that a job as a notary or a dentist would require. They only saw the outer actions: the notary reading and signing some papers, the doctor doing a consult, the orthodontist changing a wire, and it all seemed so simple. But there were years of blood, sweat, and tears behind those simple actions.

Do you love to study and solve complicated problems? How are your grades? What are your skills? When choosing your career, you should focus on something that you’re already good at, or at least be confident in your capacity of becoming proficient in your chosen field.

2. Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being diligent, well organized, and responsible. Highly conscientious people are goal-oriented, hard-working, and reliable. This trait is directly linked to job performance, but the downside to being highly conscientious is a tendency towards perfectionism and workaholism.

Even though this trait is glorified by society as the ultimate productivity model, many of us aren’t wired that way. Some of us need more time for leisure, more time to rejuvenate, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s part of our personality.

When choosing your job, consider if you need ample time to rest, or if you’re the kind of person who hates standing still, even for a moment. Some people thrive on working long hours, while others need freedom in their schedule so that they can allow for innovation and creativity.

3. Stress tolerance

Most of us choose our careers in a period of our lives when we’re relatively carefree. We haven’t yet experienced major stressors. So there’s really no way of knowing how much stress we can actually tolerate.

But maybe that’s not you. Maybe you’ve been through some challenging times. You’ve grown to be resilient, and nothing can phase you. In that case, you already have an advantage in this stressful society.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you may have always been an anxious child. You like quiet environments and don’t like to be under pressure. Anxiety is on the rise, and a stressful work environment could worsen an already fragile mental health.

In my own life, I’ve come to realize that, while I enjoyed the scientific aspect of my job, I eventually became very affected by the stressful nature of it, to the point that I developed severe anxiety and panic attacks.

The pressure to do your job correctly in a limited amount of time, the fear of litigation, and occasional unpleasant interactions with difficult patients can make any medical career very stressful, as a lot of things can go wrong.

And this can be true for any job, but it’s rarely obvious from the surface.

4. Introversion vs. Extroversion

Jordan Peterson didn’t include this in his lecture, but, based on my life experience, I think it’s important to mention it here.

Introversion and extroversion are probably the most popular personality types, and even if being a “true” introvert or extrovert is debatable, most of us have already identified with one or the other.

For the longest time, I knew I was a quiet, introverted person who was drained by too much social interaction. Even as a child, I loved nothing more than to sit in a corner and read a book. I loved locking myself in a room to study or write. Yet, I chose a career where I interact with over a dozen people a day, and talk until my mouth dries up. This exhausts me beyond measure, and I wish I had considered this before choosing my job.

My assistant is the complete opposite. She loves the dynamic nature of the workplace and thrives on running around, getting instruments ready, answering phone calls, and talking to people. This year’s lockdown drove her up a wall, while I was happy to be home and sip coffee in my pajamas.

It took me 35 years to figure out that I really love writing, researching and anything creative that is essentially solitary quiet work. I always knew that about myself but didn’t think that it would matter that much, so I suppressed it for years until I couldn’t hold it down any longer.

Takeaway

Choosing one’s career is a deeply personal decision that’s very different depending on what part of the world you come from. Asian and Eastern European cultures would scoff at someone’s desire to “follow their dreams” or “discover their purpose.” Fortunately, this profit-oriented mindset is starting to change.

While older generations didn’t have much choice, Millennials and Gen Z-ers are starting to choose jobs that are better suited to their personalities, and I believe that, as we’re moving away from the 9–5, this will be our new model of work.

There are countless opportunities out there, so when choosing your future career, don’t forget to ask yourself these questions:

Am I a fast learner, and what am I good at?

Do I like a fast-paced environment or do I need extensive leisure time?

How much stress can I tolerate?

Do I like working with people or not?

It’s never too late to pivot and change your career if you’re willing to do the work. However, getting it right the first time will save you a lot of trouble. All you need to do is figure out a direction and then follow it. You’ll come across many crossroads, but as long as you know yourself, you’ll choose what’s best suited for you.

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