Expert Interview: How Your Personality Can Be a Clue to a Job That Will Make You Happy

Sarah E. Brown, PhD

Sarah E. Brown has had several careers, all of which she says took her full circle to what she originally set out to do right out of college: teaching, writing, and researching. Along the way, she has learned what she believes makes for a happy, successful work experience. She is married and lives in Wilmington, Delaware. When she is not working, she can be found rowing on the Christina River or romping through the woods with her standard poodle, Maharani.

How Your Personality Can Be a Clue to a Job That Will Make You Happy

“When I was managing director for Accenture, one of the things I really loved was working with my clients. Many of them were not happy in their jobs. When I would ask them what they wanted in their jobs, many of then couldn’t answer the question. That got me thinking, what is it that makes it so hard for people to get clear about what they want in a job? I discovered that some of these unhappy clients who were working with coaches were actually making either small changes in their current jobs or big changes in terms of finding new jobs that were really right for them. I asked myself what are these coaches doing and how can we make that available to everybody else?”

Why Is This Important?

“The coaches were helping each individual get in touch with what was unique about them. Then, the coaches were supporting them and making changes to take advantage of that. I did some research and discovered that if we can get very clear about things in our personality that are significant contributors to our happiness and success at work, that would go a long way in helping people understand and know what kind of job will make them happy. So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past five years or so. I’ve been focusing on helping people understand their unique personality components and how they can translate that into job success.”

What Are the Key Lessons Learned Here?

“With an understanding of three components of personality —interests, behavioral strengths and motivational needs—we can then see what people will likely do when things aren’t going their way, when their expectations are not met. We can go a long way toward jump-starting the process of finding jobs that are right for individuals. Of those three components, finding a person’s motivational needs can be the hardest. It’s here that a personality assessment tool can often be most helpful, especially when its findings are applied