How to Choose Your Career Based on Your Personality

Does your personality type affect the type of career you’ll be good at? Psychologists say, yes. Your personality can dictate your strengths, weaknesses, which type of environment you’ll flourish in, and what skills you might find come naturally to you.

Personality Career Testing Options

There are many options to help you identify what ‘type’ of career suits your personality.

  • Holland’s six personality types

    include investigative, social, conventional, realistic, artistic, and enterprising

  • Enneagram

    is a complex, interwoven model with nine different personality types, the reformer, helper, achiever, individualise, investigator, loyalist, enthusiast, and challenger

  • Keirsey

    sorts people into four temperaments, artisan, idealist, guardian, and rational

  • The Predictive Index

    associates the user with one of the five workplace behaviours, dominance, extraversion, patience, formality, and objectivity

However, the Myers Briggs ’16 types’ assessment is more widely accepted as accurate across time and cultures. It was created during WWII by a mother and daughter team, specifically with the aim of helping women find jobs to match their personalities.

It can help you identify your personality style, which can lead to identifying the roles or workplaces you’ll naturally feel most comfortable and productive in.

Why Choose a Career That Suits Your Personality?

If you’re investing in an international education, you want to do all you can to make sure you’re positioning yourself for success. Research has shown that a positive match between personality and career leads to higher motivation levels and better teamwork. This means the job is completed to a higher standard, the workplace runs better, and individuals have more satisfaction in their roles.

The flow-on effects of enjoying your job to your personal life are immense.

What is Your Career Personality Type?

The Myers-Briggs assessment has 16 personality types. There are 16 ‘sociotypes’ which are four letters derived from E or I, S or I, F or T, and J or P.

These letters stand for:

  • Extroverted-Introverted

  • Sensing – Intuition

  • Feeling- Thinking

  • Judging-Perceiving

The combination of letters show your natural default settings, which form your overall personality. For example, are you extroverted, or introverted? If you’re extroverted, a job locked away in an office without contact with people might be soul destroying, sap your energy, and end up on a fast track to failure.

Things to Note About Myers-Briggs Personality Tests

  • You will see a bit of yourself in every personality type. No one is 100% anything. The one you identify with most strongly is your type

  • Your ‘type’ or expression of type may change over the course of your life. While personality is relatively unchanging, the way it’s expressed can change

  • These types are consistent across cultures, but the distributions change. For instance, patriarchal societies will have less women in some categories, or some cultures are more (USA) or less (Japanese) individualistic. So, if you’re an international student and wondering if a personality test will be useful in different countries – yes, it will still be helpful

  • While distributions may change, the types tending towards certain careers are stable, with ISTJ and ESTJ people preferring law enforcements roles, for instance

  • The traits differ across cultures, with introversion being expressed in different ways in cultures. This simply changes the expression of the type, not a different type completely

  • There are no right or wrong personality types. It simply can identify which career you’ll fit more easily and naturally into

What Should Your Career Be, According to Myers-Briggs?

These tests should be taken as a guideline, not just in choosing a career, but also the type of working environment, the ability to take on a leadership role, and the type of people you’ll work well with.

If you complete a personality test, it can help you in choosing what to study overseas, creating your career, job, and life that sets you up for success (or, happiness, if that’s what your personality type prefers).

Once you’ve completed the Myers-Briggs online test, here are the basics of the outcomes, the traits, skills these people are strong in, and career matches that work within these frameworks. Even if you know what type you are, you might recognise some colleagues and friends in these types, which can help in dealing with them.

ISTJ – Inspector

These people appear formal and serious. They are traditional, placing value in qualities like hard work, responsibility, and honour. They prefer organised workplaces, with rules, targets, and standards.

  • Strengths: Detailed work, preferring facts, logic, rules, targets, set standards, familiarity, and consistency.

  • Weaknesses: They struggle with chaos, looming deadlines, lack of plans, emotions, innovation, and change

  • Career suggestions: Business analyst, dentist, accountant, engineer, law enforcement

INFJ - Counsellor

Idealists and free-thinkers, these people think deeply about the world and the people around them. They are often caring, empathetic, helpful, and insightful. They prefer peaceful, orderly work environments.

  • Strengths: Facing challenges and creating solutions, dealing with people

  • Weaknesses: Details, dealing with conflict, sharing with others, overly sensitive to criticism

  • Career suggestions: Counsellor, scientist, librarian, writer, psychologist, HR

INTJ Mastermind

Reserved and quiet, these people are often happiest alone. They like exploring theories and ideas and explaining why things happen. They like planning and creating strategies, and don’t like chaos and uncertainty.

  • Strengths: Problem solving, practical solutions that use their intellect and creativity

  • Weaknesses: Intolerant of irrational or illogical solutions, they may seem arrogant and condescending. Can become bored easily

  • Career suggestions: Musical performer, teacher, marketing, financial advisor

ENFJ – Giver

These people are all about people. They want to make the world a better place and are very idealistic. They are leaders, relying on intuition and feelings to make decisions. They thrive in roles where there is lots of learning opportunities and engagement with others.

  • Strengths: Leadership, empathy, organization, making decisions, selfless

  • Weaknesses: Taking things personally, caring too much about others and not looking after themselves, can be derailed by unexpected issues

  • Career suggestions: Guidance counsellor, sales manager, HR director, healthcare, community-based roles

ISTP – Craftsperson

These people can be unpredictable—while rational and logical, they can also be very spontaneous as the mood strikes them. Often quiet and observant, they work well towards a goal. They work best in an environment where they have freedom, not too many rules, and not tied to a desk.

  • Strengths: Troubleshooting, analytical, technical, problem-solving, practical, creative, flexible, common sense

  • Weaknesses: Does not tolerate people who they view as illogical, can take risky actions, impatient, needs solitude, avoids planning

  • Career suggestions: Carpenter, surveyor, mechanic, chef, officer manager, biologist

ESFJ – Provider

These highly social people need to be around others to thrive. The derive pleasure from making others happy, and being in the spotlight. The work best in a cooperative environment, with rules and guidelines in place.

  • Strengths: Detail oriented, conscientious, sensitive and understanding of others, loyal

  • Weaknesses: Judgemental, struggle to see outside current rules and ways, require acknowledgement, lack of creativity.

  • Career suggestions: Teacher, police officer, dentist, doctor, funeral director

INFP – Idealist

Quiet with the need to spend time alone, these people enjoy being inside their own head, analysing events and daydreaming. They are not focused on status or making money, preferring to work on a vision or towards a cause.

  • Strengths: Idealistic, great imagination, creative, great working in harmonious teams, fair and a deep sense of integrity

  • Weaknesses: Too sensitive to other’s feelings, impractical, overly vulnerable to hurt, and too selfless

  • Career suggestions: Artist, editor, writer, counsellor, social worker, training or development manager, psychologist, midwife

ESFP – Performer

These people love the spotlight. Give them a task in front of people and they will shine. Warm, gregarious, fun and lively, they care about others.

  • Strengths: Co-operative and great in groups, positive and enthusiastic, bold, practical, and want to make others happy

  • Weaknesses: Conflict avoidant, sensitive, get bored easily, focus on short term rather than big picture goals

  • Career suggestions: Teacher, nurse, social worker, personal trainer, salesperson, architect, police officer, firefighter

ENTJ – Commander

These people are powerful leaders and can organise and create change. They loathe inefficiency and are excellent at creating systems to achieve long term goals. Assertive and enjoy taking charge of people, they seek positions of influence.

  • Strengths: Analytical, objective, decisive, productive, competent, influential, strong willed, efficient, strategic, charismatic, love working

  • Weaknesses: Blunt, can bulldoze people to achieve a goal, can be seen as arrogant and critical, intolerant of others who are slow, unempathetic

  • Career suggestions: Auditor, financial manager, executive, architect, engineer, scientist, writer

ENFP – Champion

Highly individualistic, perceptive, enthusiastic, and people-centered, these people love to help others explore their creative potential. Can work best in a less structured, more casual atmosphere. Often will work for passion, rather than financial gain.

  • Strengths: Artistic, creative, agile, expressive, great communicators, imaginative natural leaders, social conscience

  • Weaknesses: Overly sensitive to imagined bad intentions and as a result can damage relationships. Lack of focus, overthinkers, approval-seeking

  • Career suggestions: Actor, HR, cosmetologist, child care worker, psychologist, librarian, teacher assistant

ESTP – Doer

Logical thinkers, these people enjoy processes. They seek out new opportunities and are innovative and diligent. They can get bored quickly, as they are energetic and dynamic. They love a fun workplace, where things can be fast and chaotic.

  • Strengths: Bold, will get the job done, sociable, direct, efficient, quick thinkers and create on-the-fly, logical solutions.

  • Weaknesses: Judgemental, impatient, unstructured and chaotic with little planning. Does not like commitment or boredom

  • Career suggestions: Mechanic, fitness instructor, carpenter, sales, police or military, paramedic, pilot, engineer

INTP - Thinker

Verry logical, can see discrepancies, and can read people around them. Not practical in a day-to-day sense, they are creative, coming up with insightful solutions to vexing problems. Often get lost in their own philosophical and conceptual thoughts.

  • Strengths: Analysis, intellectual, objective, imaginative, enthusiastic, great at finding errors and fixing problems.

  • Weaknesses: Suffer from self-consciousness of ideas and themselves, absent minded, can be condescending and insensitive

  • Career suggestions: Computer programmers/ analysts/ developers, engineer, architect, anything science- based, technical writers

ISFJ Nurturer

These people value cooperation, harmony, and being generous. They are sensitive to how others might be feeling and are warm and empathetic. They prefer orderly environments where they can be productive and industrious.

  • Strengths: Conscientious, methodical, hard working, responsible, practical, supportive

  • Weaknesses: Resistant to change, take things personally, take on too much work, and too trusting and loyal

  • Career suggestions: Probation officer, social worker, science technician, medical/ dental assistant, principal or technical education teacher, office assistant roles

ENTP Visionary

Intelligent, logical, informed and rational, these people prefer work and problem solving, not small talk and social situations. Will work best out of hierarchical structures and in an entrepreneurial environment where there’s banter and exchange of ideas.

  • Strengths: Fearless when facing challenges, innovative and inventive, adaptable and highly confident

  • Weaknesses: Can be impractical, push boundaries and do things in poorly thought-out ways, procrastinate, and can suffer from FOMO and flightiness

  • Career suggestions: Top executive, financial analyst, designer, director, lawyer, economist

ISFP Composer

These introverts look like extroverts because they are cheerful, friendly, and live in the moment. However, they are quiet and can be reserved. They are attuned to the beauty in their surroundings and are quite artistic in various ways.

  • Strengths: Observant and can see patterns and connections. Spontaneous, bold, and individualistic, and highly principled

  • Weaknesses: Too sensitive and kind, can be indecisive and unpredictable, easily bored, and not great at planning ahead

  • Career suggestions: Fashion designer, artist, carpenter, mechanic, nurse, occupational therapist, teachers aide

What’s Your Dream Career?

Once you’ve completed your Myers-Briggs personality test, it might help you understand who you are better, and where you’ll fit best in the future. For instance, if you have an interest in medicine, which type of medicine- will you be more suited to a nursing role, as an MD, or a specialised surgeon? Contact IDP to help narrow down the options and choose your career, based on your personality and preferences.