Personality Assessment and Careers

The Big Five

Building on decades of research within the lexical tradition, Paul Costa and Robert McCrae recently popularized the idea that there are five broad domains of personality traits, known as the Big Five: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness. This empirical approach describes relationships between personality descriptors that have been encoded into language systems. The NEO Personality Inventory-Revised is frequently used to assess the Big Five and 30 more specific facets (e.g., Fantasy, Impulsiveness, Order) relevant to career choice and performance. Many personality assessments comprise different aspects of the Big Five related to career counseling.

Individually, these broad domains affect how clients might interact with counselors or approach work tasks and settings. For example, extraverts, who tend to be more sociable and active, might prefer people-oriented occupations and are more likely to be talkative and enthusiastic during counseling sessions. Those high on Openness frequently have wide interests, which may interfere with their ability to commit to one career option. Their openness to new ideas and imaginative qualities also increase receptivity to novel counseling interventions. Given their attention to details and dutiful approach to tasks, conscientious individuals often demonstrate greater job performance. Moreover, highly conscientious individuals likely show greater motivation to engage in the challenging tasks involved in planning a career. By combining two or more of the Big Five domains, even more refined insights are possible. For example, levels of Openness and Conscientiousness can inform one's approach to learning. Those high on both may flourish in an academic setting because they are naturally curious, have greater aspirations, and are motivated to seek high goals. However, those high on Openness, but low on Conscientiousness, might struggle to realize their imaginative ideas due to lesser diligence or achievement motivation.

Holland's Typological Theory

John Holland's prominent personality theory of vocational types has generated almost 50 years of research informing career assessment. Holland identified six broad types of individuals and postulated that people will achieve greater work satisfaction by selecting work environments that match their vocational personality type. These six types, briefly summarized below, represent syndromes that include qualities related to individuals' preferred activities, goals, work values, and perceived abilities:

• Realistic: Mechanical or hands-on tasks including agriculture, nature, operating machines/tools, and manufacturing, often in outdoor settings.
• Investigative: Analytic tasks involving math, science, or research.
• Artistic: Creative, unstructured tasks including music, fine art, drama, or writing.
• Social: Helping, supporting, or teaching others.
• Enterprising: Leading or persuading others.
• Conventional: Structured tasks involving organizing data in office or financial settings.

These six types have been operationally defined by Holland's Vocational Preference Inventory in 1958 and the Self-Directed Search in 1985. Most major interest inventories now incorporate measures of Holland's types (e.g., Kuder Career Search, Strong Interest Inventory). Holland's theory is a foundation for career counseling and taxonomies for organizing occupational information, including for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles and the Occupational Information Network (0∗NET). Counselors assist clients in identifying their top Holland scores and then in exploring occupational possibilities that match their work personality. Other important factors considered include abilities, work values, and needs. Astute counselors help clients integrate information across these important life domains to construct a meaningful career path through maximizing overlap between their personality and opportunities.

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