The article is probably not what you expect. When we think about personality we think of it as something that someone has or does not have. For example: “She has a great personality” or “He has a big personality”. Often we associate personality with a certain limited amount of characteristics such as gregariousness and extroversion. These traits are associated with people who are persuasive and as a result, they may convince their employers (current or future) to pay them more. I’m no psychic, but that is probably what you thought this article is about. The fact is that everyone has a personality (believe me) and there is new research to prove that “people whose personality traits match up well with the demands of their jobs earn more than those who are in less ideal careers for their personality types” (Winerman, 2018, p.11). And that is what this article is really about. Career Guidance.
In Namibia, several people have bemoaned the lack of proper career guidance. Aina Kiiyala (2016) wrote to the Namibian Newspaper to confirm the importance of career guidance. Limba Mupetami (2014) also makes a case for proper career guidance stating that it is no minor matter. In a letter to the Namibian, Isak Ileni (2018) asks “Where is Career Guidance in Namibia?” while the New Era’s Youth Corner (2016) reported that students seemed to lack career guidance.
Career Guidance Services in Namibia
Noting all of this, there are Career Guidance services in Namibia. The Ministry of Labour provides career guidance in the form of vocational counseling (which is just a nice name for career guidance). The two biggest universities, UNAM and NUST, also provide career guidance services. In addition, the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED) created a Career Guidance Manual. Finally, there are several privately registered professionals and consultancies (such as Capacity Trust) in the psychology field who are able to assist with career guidance. You can find more information on the Private Service Providers, Ministry of Labour, NUST Career Guidance Services, UNAM Career Guidance Services and the NIED Career Guidance Manual in the list of references below.
Personality’s Power to Increase Your Income
If you are still reading, you may have forgotten what attracted you to this article initially and that is that your personality may have the power to increase your income. This is a bold statement to make, but in the right context, your personality can do just that. Researchers Jaap Dennison and his co-collaborators (2018) found that “individuals can earn additional income of more than their monthly salary per year if they hold a job that fits their personality.” they go on to state that: “economic success depends not only on having a “successful personality” but also, in part, on finding the best niche for one’s personality”.
Research Methods and Results
In their research, they used a sample of 8458 people and compared their personality traits to the required traits to be successful in a position. As an example, an accountant may need to be organised and a person in customer service may need to be orientated toward people. In their comparison the researchers did a personality test with the sample group, then they got a team of experts to analyse the different jobs these people were in according to the characteristics and traits that someone would need to be successful in these positions. Often you would find this kind of information in a Person Specification in a Job Description.
Once the researchers had the “fit” between the individuals in the jobs and the person specifications for the jobs they looked at their current salaries. What they found was a trend where the higher the fit between the required traits and the actual traits the higher the salary. This lead the researchers to conclude that individuals can earn more if their they hold a job that fits their personality.
What about Emotional Intelligence?
Another interesting side note is that on average they found that the demands for emotional stability and conscientiousness for jobs in general were higher than the actual levels of the job holders’ personalities. Can we then conclude that becoming more Emotionally Intelligent can make you rich?
More on that in another article, but what we can definitely conclude from this research is that Career Guidance is crucially important to students, scholars and even anyone who is considering a career change.
Contact us for Career Guidance
Contact Us to arrange a Career Guidance Test for yourself or your child and click here to find out more about the Capacity Trust Career Guidance Solution.
Resources
Please click the links below to see more about the sources noted above.
Check out these references for more information
Mupetami, L (2014) Career Guidance No Minor Matter. Features, The Namibian Newspaper 11 March 2014.
Ileni, I (2018) Where is Career Guidance in Namibia? Letters, The Namibian Newspaper 1 June 2018
Vocational Services (Career Guidance) @ Ministry of Labour
Psychology Association of Namibia – Find a Practitioner near you
