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Work, it's a hard fact of life.
Sometimes just finding work we enjoy
and are good at is challenge enough.
Some people spend their entire life
searching for the right job.
Many don't know where to even start looking.
In the United States alone,
there are more than a hundred and fifty million people working
thousands of different kinds of jobs.
From accountants to athletes.
From dancers to dentists.
From teachers to top executives.
Every job requires its own set of skills
and comes with its own rigors and rewards.
And just as not everybody is right for every job,
not every job is right for everybody.
In fact, your personality, those characteristics,
traits and preferences that make you who you are,
is a major factor in determining which
occupations are right for you.
People who follow career paths that match their personalities
are more likely to be both satisfied
and successful with those careers.
This video will introduce you to one of the best ways to find
work that fits with your personality.
It's called the RIASEC personality theory
and it is a time-tested tool for exploring
and deciding on a career that's right for you.
You'll learn how the tasks and work environments of jobs
match with personality types and even learn which jobs
tend to be a better fit for each type.
Along the way, you may discover careers
that match your own interests,
perhaps leading to greater career satisfaction
down the road.
So, let's get started.
In the 1950s, renowned psychologist John L. Holland
developed a theory and a process that helped individuals
match their work interests,
otherwise known as their vocational personalities,
to their preferred work environments.
Holland's theory says that most people can be described
by one or more of six personality types:
realistic, investigative, artistic,
social, enterprising and conventional.
People who share the same personality type tend to
group together and create work environments with shared values.
What does this mean?
In short, people who work in an environment that is a good fit
for their personality type
and with people who share their interests and personality traits
are more likely to find satisfaction
and success in their career.
What Holland did was to give us a way to view the world
of work from forty thousand feet,
plus a quick way to take stock of our abilities and preferences
so we can really understand where we fit in best.
If you were to consider all the
hundreds of possible career choices,
you might be overwhelmed by the task
of narrowing down your options.
The Holland personality types simplify this process
by helping you to make a quick first cut.
The terms that Holland invented for personality types
may be a little puzzling when you first encounter them.
What do you mean, I'm not realistic?
But once you learn what they mean,
you'll find they provide real insights into yourself
and your career choices.
But which personality type or types best describe you?
Are you the kind of person who likes to help others?
Are you a risk taker who is always looking for
a new business opportunity?
Do you prefer to work with your hands or with ideas?
Indoors or out?
In groups or by yourself?
Knowing your answers to these and other questions
about work preferences can help you to discover your
vocational interests and, thus,
the kind of work that will fit you best.
It's important to realize that most people have a variety
of interests and most of us can't be pigeonholed
into just one personality type.
Usually it helps if we think in terms
of a primary type that describes us best,
plus one or two secondary types
that reflect other interests we have.
For example, you might have primarily realistic interests
but also have investigative or conventional interests.
Your work may not satisfy all of your interests,
that's why we have hobbies,
but once you have an understanding of your
dominant personality type or types,
you can identify work situations where you'll fit in best.
Keep in mind that just as people are varied,
work situations are too.
A particular career might combine aspects
that are attractive to, for example,
social and enterprising personality types.
Also, remember that it's not a good thing for everybody
in a certain career to be exactly alike.
You may have heard of something called group think,
which happens when there's no diversity in the workplace.
In fact, in most workplaces you'll find a variety of people
but they will share a core of certain interests
and preferences that drew them to this kind of work.
That's what the Holland types are designed to describe.
The rest of this video will better introduce you to
the six Holland personality types.
You'll learn about the interests and values
that characterize each personality type as well as
specific jobs whose work situations
cater to those interests and values.
As you progress through this video,
think about the kinds of work that you enjoy or might enjoy.
Don't worry about fitting yourself into
one personality type.
Keep your options open.
But if one or more of the six types interests you
or seems to match your personal characteristics,
pay close attention to the jobs that go with that type.
Who knows, one of those may be the job of your dreams.