1. 50
Three Steps to Your Best Job Options
Best Jobs ®
for Your
Personality
Part of JIST’s Best Jobs Series
®
300 Job Descriptions for 6 Personality Types
s
Second
Edition
140+ Best Jobs Lists, Including Jobs with the
e
Best Pay, Fastest Growth, and Most Openings s
Make the best career fit for your personality
type: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social,
Enterprising, or Conventional.
“Best jobs” lists for each personality type,
organized by earnings, growth, education
level, and much more.
Useful job descriptions packed with the latest
details.
Featured on CareerBuilder.com, CNN.com, MSN.com, and AOL.com
Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D.
2. Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D.
Foreword by Kristine Dobson, President, Career 1 Consulting
Also in JIST’s Best Jobs Series
Best Jobs for the 21st Century 150 Best Jobs Through Military Training
200 Best Jobs for College Graduates 175 Best Jobs Not Behind a Desk
300 Best Jobs Without a Four-Year Degree 150 Best Jobs for a Better World
200 Best Jobs Through Apprenticeships 10 Best College Majors for Your Personality
40 Best Fields for Your Career 200 Best Jobs for Introverts
225 Best Jobs for Baby Boomers 150 Best Low-Stress Jobs
250 Best-Paying Jobs 150 Best Recession-Proof Jobs
150 Best Jobs for Your Skills
4. This Is a Big Book, But It
Is Very Easy to Use
Psychologists have long understood a principle that many of us consider just common sense: that
people have an aspect called personality that makes them feel more comfortable in some situations
than in others. People who have a certain personality feel more capable of doing certain things
and dealing with certain problems; they also feel more accepted when they are among people with
personalities similar to their own. This is especially true for one place where people spend a major
portion of their time: at work. People want to feel that they fit in with the people and with the
activities where they work.
If personality is the key to this feeling of fitting in, then you need to consider this question: What
kind of personality do you have? Maybe you can come up with a few ways to describe yourself, such
as “sunny,” “energetic,” “conscientious,” “loyal,” “outgoing,” “funny,” or “competitive.” But what
do those terms suggest for the kind of work you might enjoy and do well? What terms might be
more useful?
Some Things You Can Do with This Book
This book can help you think about your personality in terms that have proven relevance to
the world of work. You’ll learn about the personality types that many psychologists and career
development practitioners use to describe people and jobs. You’ll take a quick assessment to help
you clarify your dominant personality type. Then you’ll dig into a gold mine of facts about the
jobs that are the best fit for your personality type—and that are the best for other reasons, too,
such as their wages and job openings. The lists of “best jobs” will help you zero in on promising
careers, and the descriptive profiles of the jobs will open your eyes to career choices that previously
you may not have known much about.
We all want to fit in somewhere. And there are probably several different careers where each of us
could fit in. But why not do it in a really good job? That’s what this book can help you choose.
Credits and Acknowledgments: While the authors created this book, it is based on the work of many others. The occupational
information is based on data obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau. These sources provide the most
authoritative occupational information available. The job titles and their related descriptions are from the O*NET database, which was
developed by researchers and developers under the direction of the U.S. Department of Labor. They, in turn, were assisted by thousands of
employers who provided details on the nature of work in the many thousands of job samplings used in the database’s development. We used
the most recent version of the O*NET database, release 13.0. We appreciate and thank the staff of the U.S. Department of Labor for their
efforts and expertise in providing such a rich source of data.
5. Table of Contents
Summary of Major Sections Detailed Table of Contents
Introduction. A short overview to help you better Part I: Overview of Personality and Career .............. 17
understand and use the book. Starts on page 1. Why Use Personality to Choose a Career? ........................... 17
Part I: Overview of Personality and Career. Part Describing Personality Types............................................... 18
I is an overview of personality and of personality The RIASEC Personality Types ........................................... 18
types. This section also explores the relationship Other Assessments with RIASEC Output...........................22
between personality and career. Starts on page 17. Part II: What’s Your Personality Type? Take
an Assessment .................................................... 23
Part II: What’s Your Personality Type? Take Step 1: Respond to the Statements.......................................24
an Assessment. This part helps you discover your
Step 2: Score Your Responses .............................................. 31
personality type with a short, easy-to-complete
Step 3: Find Jobs That Suit Your Personality Type .............. 31
assessment. Starts on page 23.
Part III: The Best Jobs Lists: Jobs for Each
Part III: The Best Jobs Lists: Jobs for Each of of the Six Personality Types ................................. 33
the Six Personality Types. The 141 lists in Part Best Jobs Overall for Each Personality Type: Jobs with
III show you the best jobs in terms of high salaries, the Highest Pay, Fastest Growth, and Most Openings .....34
fast growth, and plentiful job openings for each of The 50 Best Realistic Jobs ................................................. 35
the six personality types. Further lists classify the The 50 Best Investigative Jobs...........................................36
jobs according to education and training required The 50 Best Artistic Jobs ..................................................38
and several other features, such as jobs with the
The 50 Best Social Jobs ....................................................40
highest percentage of women and of men and jobs
The 50 Best Enterprising Jobs ........................................... 41
with high rates of self-employment and many part-
time workers. Although there are a lot of lists, they The 50 Best Conventional Jobs .........................................43
are easy to understand because they have clear titles The 20 Best-Paying Realistic Jobs ..................................... 45
and are organized into groupings of related lists. The 20 Best-Paying Investigative Jobs ...............................46
Starts on page 33. The 20 Best-Paying Artistic Jobs ....................................... 47
The 20 Best-Paying Social Jobs ......................................... 47
Part IV: Descriptions of the 50 Best Jobs for
The 20 Best-Paying Enterprising Jobs ...............................48
Each Personality Type. This part provides a brief
but information-packed description of the 50 jobs The 20 Best-Paying Conventional Jobs ............................. 49
from each personality type that met our criteria for The 20 Fastest-Growing Realistic Jobs ..............................50
this book. Each description contains information on The 20 Fastest-Growing Investigative Jobs ........................50
earnings, projected growth, education and training The 20 Fastest-Growing Artistic Jobs................................ 51
required, job duties, skills, related job titles, related The 20 Fastest-Growing Social Jobs.................................. 52
knowledge and courses, and many other details. The 20 Fastest-Growing Enterprising Jobs ........................ 52
The descriptions are presented in alphabetical order The 20 Fastest-Growing Conventional Jobs ...................... 53
within each personality type. This structure makes The 20 Realistic Jobs with the Most Openings ...................54
it easy to look up a job that you’ve identified in a The 20 Investigative Jobs with the Most Openings ............. 55
list from Part III and that you want to learn more
The 20 Artistic Jobs with the Most Openings..................... 56
about. Starts on page 129.
The 20 Social Jobs with the Most Openings....................... 56
Part V: Appendixes. Appendix A contains a list The 20 Enterprising Jobs with the Most Openings ............. 57
of occupations in this book and their two-letter The 20 Conventional Jobs with the Most Openings ........... 58
personality codes. Appendix B lists the Guide for The Best Jobs for Each Personality Type with a High
Occupational Exploration (GOE) interest areas and Percentage of Workers Age 16–24 .................................... 58
work groups. Appendix C defines the skills and the Realistic Jobs with the Highest Percentage of Workers
types of knowledge listed in the job descriptions in Age 16–24.................................................................... 59
Part IV. Appendix D identifies resources for further
Best Realistic Jobs Overall Employing 10 Percent or
career exploration. Starts on page 451.
More Workers Age 16–24 .............................................60
Investigative Jobs with the Highest Percentage
of Workers Age 16–24...................................................60
iv
13. Foreword
When I wrote the foreword for the first edition of this book, I started by saying, Whether you’re a
counselor or a career explorer, this book is a must-have resource!
I’d like to take credit for the tens of thousands of copies that have been sold, but I am fairly
certain that readers discovered the value of this fabulous resource for themselves. I have no doubt
that 50 Best Jobs for Your Personality will continue to be a popular reference for career guidance
professionals and also for individuals who are in the process of choosing or changing their careers.
The O*NET content model as a whole and the in-depth descriptions of occupations that have
grown out of that model are of huge significance. O*NET has provided career professionals and
others the common terminology that was needed to communicate across disciplines about the
world of work. This book, 50 Best Jobs for Your Personality, takes great advantage of the O*NET
occupational database. For counselors, the book is a ready reference that includes key descriptors
of over 300 occupations, organized by the six career personality types (“RIASEC” or “Holland
Codes”) first described by John Holland. For the lay reader, there is a “How to Use This Book”
section that will promote effective use in advancing individual career exploration. Though the
focus is on personality type, the book is uniquely organized to encourage readers to consider a
range of characteristics as they investigate potential careers.
As a career counseling professional, I have experienced firsthand the gratification that comes with
helping individuals understand how their personal characteristics relate to occupational choice.
I have witnessed the effects, both in terms of job satisfaction and of productivity, when there
is a good match between an individual’s personality and an environment that supports his/her
personality traits. It’s an exciting process, one that will be furthered through the use of this book.
Kristine Dobson
President, Career 1 Consulting
xii
14. Introduction
B efore we get started finding the best jobs for your personality type, here are a few things
to know about the information in this book and how it is organized.
Where the Information Comes From
The information we used in creating this book comes from three major government sources:
The U.S. Department of Labor: We used several data sources to construct the
information we put into this book. We started with the jobs included in the U.S.
Department of Labor’s O*NET database. The O*NET includes information on about
950 occupations and is now the primary source of detailed information on occupations.
One of the information topics the O*NET covers is the personality types that are
discussed in this book. The Labor Department updates the O*NET on a regular basis,
and we used the most recent one available, release 13. As it happens, in release 13 the
data about personality types has been completely revised and updated. Because we also
wanted to include earnings, growth, and number of openings—information not included
in the O*NET—we used sources at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS). The Occupational Employment Statistics survey provided the most
reliable figures on earnings we could obtain, and the Employment Projections program
provided the nation’s best figures on job growth and openings. These two BLS programs
use a slightly different system of job titles than the O*NET does, but we were able to link
the BLS data to most of the O*NET job titles we used to develop this book.
The U.S. Census Bureau: Data on the demographic characteristics of workers came
from the Current Population Survey (CPS), conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. This
includes our information about the proportion of workers in each job who are men and
women, are self-employed, or work part time. As with the BLS data, we had to match
slightly different sets of job titles, but we were able to identify CPS data for almost all the
O*NET jobs.
The U.S. Department of Education: We used the Classification of Instructional
Programs, a system developed by the U.S. Department of Education, to cross-reference
the educational or training programs related to each job.
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