Looking for a safe environment to grow your business skills and network? The MBA is your way to a secure career.
Join fellow business professionals for this virtual MBA event open to residents and expats living in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Business schools from around the world look forward to meeting you online on 16 March.
Discover the best in business education. Here’s what you get at the event:
Individual video meetings with MBA programme directors from INSEAD, ESCP, ESSEC Asia-Pacific, Strathclyde MBA – UAE, HEC Paris, HULT and many more
Chance to win 1000 euro in financial aid for your MBA
A free 30-min MBA consultation by Unimy.com
A free online GMAT course by GMAT Prep provider Manhattan Review
How to build your future with an MBA
The MBA degree provides what you need to be the best in business and leadership. AACSB data shows 95% of MBAs land a full-time job within 3 months of graduation, and 74% get hired while still in school. The median salary of MBA grads is 75% higher than those with a Bachelor’s, according to GMAC.
Access MBA is free of charge, but online meeting slots are limited. Register early to save your spot.
When people start thinking about their career and how to improve it, they usually think about future jobs or the next promotion. While it is good to be future-focused and to have an idea of what should come next in their career, the actual starting point for managing one’s career is one’s current job. To stand a good chance of promotion in one’s present company or to obtain a more senior position elsewhere, it is essential to become known as an above-average performer.
But what does this actually entail? How does one move from being considered as “an ok worker” or one of the general group of workers who are deemed as ‘average performers’, to being perceived as ‘above average’ or an excellent performer?
Here are some approaches to improving your work performance reputation:
List out the key requirements for doing your job well. To find these requirements, dig out the job description and/or person specification for your position. You probably had a copy of these when you applied for the job. If you can’t find it, ask your boss or the HR department for a copy. Sometimes you won’t be able to obtain a copy of these as they simply might not exist! If that is the case, don’t despair – it’s not difficult to create them yourself!
Do a Google search for three to five advertisements for the type of job you do – it doesn’t matter if the ads are a few years old. From these advertisements, what skills, qualifications and experience are commonly required? These will be most of the key requirements for doing your job well. To these, you may need to add one or two requirements that are specific to your particular employment.
Rate yourself honestly against this list of key requirements – do you possess them all? If something is missing, plan how you are going to obtain it.
Next, clarify the KPI’s (key performance indicators) for your particular job and for your section or department. As “what is measured, gets done” is a quote that applies to nearly all organisations and sections within them, it is probable that your department is meeting its KPI’s. But what can you do to improve this performance either for yourself and for the department? If you can identify this and do something positive about it, you will be known as a good performer.
However, you need to go further. Ask your boss for a meeting about improving your performance. Ask him or her what factors exactly are you being assessed on – these may be your specific KPI’s, but there may be other aspects you haven’t thought about. These factors you need to focus on in future.
In this meeting, tell your boss you want to perform excellently within the next quarter, or half-year, or annual appraisal period, and ask what you need to do to be considered as an excellent performer. Write down whatever they say and later send them an email asking if your list is correct – this way you have an agreed record of the discussion.
Now, between the key requirements to do the job well, the KPI’s for yourself and the department, and, more importantly, your boss’s judgement about how to perform excellently, you have a list of what you need to focus on. So pay attention to these factors above everything else, and before long, you will be considered as an excellent worker!
The lunar new year is a good time to take stock of your career and develop some plans for it. This is particularly important if you feel in any way that your job is not a good “fit” for you, or that you have little or no passion for it, or you no longer experience any challenges in it. Even if everything seems to be ok with your current job, your career will still benefit from an occasional stock-take.
Most people unfortunately do not have a career plan – instead they ‘drift’ from job opportunity to job opportunity, and while this can work out alright a lot of the time, they miss out on obtaining the jobs and positions that would give them more satisfaction and fulfilment. To ensure happiness and fulfilment in your career, you need to take control of its direction.
If you don’t already know the type of work, responsibilities and environment that will be most satisfying for you, you should talk to a career coach who will assist you in identifying these [see articles on this site in relation to finding career direction] – this issue is beyond the scope of this article.
If you think that you are in the right career for you, and even the right job, taking stock of where you are and developing a plan for where you want your career to head in the next five or so years will be invigorating. Here is what you can do.
Revisit your job description and determine if you are currently carrying out all the tasks and responsibilities detailed in it. If not, should you be? If doing more, then you have a case for a salary increase or a promotion. From the person specification, have you got all of the main and desirable requirements to do the job excellently? If not, the deficiencies are the basis of your career development plan and you should talk to your boss about how you can obtain the skills and/or experience needed.
Before seeking promotion, you should ensure that you are currently carrying out your job in an excellent manner.
Then you should look to the future. Where do you want to be in your career in five years’ time? Is that position just one step above your current one? If not, you need to identify a position (or positions) that would be a stepping-stone to it. Identify the requirements in terms of qualifications, skills and experience needed to be eligible for your desired position(s). Again, the gap between your current qualifications, skills and experience, and those required for your next position, form the basis of your development plan. At your next performance appraisal, the gaps you identify for both your current and next position jobs are what you tell your manager you need to develop over the next couple of years.
This exercise will give your career direction and a development plan. Have a great new year!
As this MBA Fair is relevant to many of our readers, we agreed to announce it on our website. The following is from the organisers of the event:
“Join the Access MBA Tour and connect One-to-One with world’s best business schools. Find your MBA match with the help of our international team of business education experts.
Hold personal meetings with Admissions Directors from prestigious MBA programmes, get advice from our MBA consultants and GMAT instructors, and learn about 2 million euros in scholarship opportunities.
Some of the participating schools: INSEAD, IE Business School, ESSEC Business School, Strathclyde MBA – UAE, Singapore Management University, Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business and many others!”
Date: Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Time: From 5:00pm to 10:00pm (upon invitation)
Place: Sands Expo and Convention Center, Marina Bay Sands
Address: 10 Bayfront Avenue, Metro Station: Bayfront
Many companies are faced with the prospect of laying off or retrenching staff due to restructuring, relocating parts of its operations, automation, cost saving initiatives, etc. Not only is this a shock for those affected – those who will lose their jobs, but it is also a rather uncomfortable time for those involved in the administration of the retrenchment, such as HR staff and those managing the affected department. They have to go through the uncomfortable experience of informing the affected staff in both a group meeting and in one-on-one meetings to explain what is to happen, why, when and how. Continue reading “Outplacement Support Helps Individuals and the Company”
Values are what are important to us in a particular context. In the context of our career or work for example, values are what is important to us about that and may include such things as ‘challenge’, ‘teamwork’, ‘autonomy’, or ‘recognition’. Values are what we want in a particular context.
Money is a value
Money or salary is usually a work value as well, because we all need money to live and pay the bills. For some people, just having enough to live on, look after their dependents (children and/or parents), pay the bills and have a little holiday is sufficient. For others, they want lots and lots of money. The difference between the two is another value which is about what money can do for them – for the person wanting lots of money, money can buy material goods which shows other people how successful they are. The other value here may be a self-esteem related one such as wanting others to look up to them.
Values mean different things to different people
A person who has work values such as ‘autonomy’ and ‘recognition’ will only be happy in work if their boss allows them to ‘get on with it’ – that they are allowed decide how the work is done or the desired outcome reached without being micromanaged by the boss. They also need to be given recognition for the work they do. However, recognition means different things to different people. For some, recognition may have to be in the form of a financial bonus or a pay increment. For others, they may just want the boss to acknowledge that they did a good job or get a ‘thank you’ for doing it. Again, some people want public recognition – i.e. it is also important to them that others know that the boss has recognised their effort – while for others a private word of thanks is sufficient.
Core values transcend contexts
While many of our values are only valid in a particular context such as our work or in our relationships, we also have ‘core values’ which are valid across all or most contexts. Some examples of such core values are honesty, truthfulness, or integrity. These are values that might be important to a person in their work or career, but would be equally important to them in their relationships, or in their buying decisions (where a company would need to have an ethical reputation for them to buy from).
Job satisfaction comes from our values being met
Most of the time we are not aware of our values – they operate in the back of our minds. If a person has work values of ‘teamwork’, ‘collaboration’, ‘challenge’ and ‘autonomy’, they will be happy in work as long as these values are being met. This would require a work environment where people worked together (on projects for example), but where each individual had their own part to play and, once they know what that is, are allowed to decide the best way to achieve their work goal. The work would also need to be challenging in some way – this might be that there is something new to learn or a new kind of problem to be solved. When these values are being met in work, the individual will feel contentment, job satisfaction, fulfilment, and be happy in work.
When our values are violated
But then a new boss takes over the team! This boss is very ‘hands on’ and likes to micromanage his subordinates. He decides the best way the job is to be done and tells people they just need to follow his instructions and do what they are told – no need to work with others. This would also take the challenge out of the job as the boss was deciding how everything is to be done. The person who has work values of ‘teamwork’, ‘collaboration’, ‘challenge’ and ‘autonomy’ will no longer be happy in work – they won’t have job satisfaction or a sense of fulfilment. They will feel that there is something wrong in their life, especially at work, but they probably won’t be able to articulate what or why. It’s simply that their values have been violated. They probably feel a lack of ‘fit’ with their job or the company, and start looking for a new job or even a new career. When our values are violated, we feel disrespected, and know ‘deep down’ that we need to take action.
Using values in career direction finding
When people are looking to find career direction for themselves – whether starting out in their working life or looking to change career – values play an important part. We have already seen the positive and negative impact our values can have in work, so determining whether our values will be met or not in the careers or jobs we are considering, and to what extent, is important if we are to find a career or job we will be happy and content in. Our work values can be our evaluation criteria.
People sometimes take a job that offers them a good salary or makes them look good in some way – it meets these values which can be important to some younger people. Their other values, such as challenge, meaning, or recognition, may not be met in that job, but because their more important value is being met, they work on, sometimes for years. But eventually the allure of the money and ‘looking good’ to others wears off and they feel that they just can’t go on in that type of job – they need ‘something’ more, they just don’t know what it is exactly – they need their values to be met.
Get to know your values for a more fulfilling life
So values are important in all areas of our life, and as this is a career advisory site, we emphasise their importance in work. Get to know your values – have a competent person elicit them for you – and ensure they are being met in your job. If some values are not being met, talk to your boss about it so a way to include them in your work can be found. Doing so has enormous benefits for you, your boss and the company.
Your ‘strengths’ are those skills you are good at and enjoy doing
Finding Career Direction
When trying to determine career direction, it is best to use multiple perspectives including psychometric inventories (such as the Myer Briggs Type Inventory better known as the MBTI, and the Strong Interests Inventory) and a values-based one. Another approach that augments the output of the other perspectives is a strengths-based one. Essentially this is a full identification of your skills – your work skills and other skills developed through your involvement in hobbies, leisure pursuits or sports – and these skills are then categorised.
Skills that you are good at
Everybody has skills, some of which you are good at and others not so good. It makes sense when looking at possible future careers or jobs to focus on those skills you are good at – if your work involves skills you are good at, you are going to do well in that job and progress. However, for those skills that you are good at or strong in, there are always some that you don’t particularly like doing. A job centred on skills that you don’t like doing is one that will eventually cause you stress and unhappiness.
Skills that you enjoy doing
Then there are skills that you are both good at or strong in and enjoy doing – these we call your ‘strengths’. A career or job that utilises your strengths is one that you will do well in because you are working to your strengths – those areas that you are good at. Obviously doing things that you are mostly good at will get you noticed in work, will lead to increased responsibilities, quicker promotion, and continual salary increases. Furthermore, when your work involves doing things that you enjoy doing - whether that is working with people either as colleagues or as customers, uncovering facts and figures through detailed research, using your hands to help make something, etc – your work will bring you contentment, gratification, and joy. Working to your strengths brings fulfilment, job satisfaction and happiness.
Using strengths in career direction finding
There are two ways your strengths can be used in the career direction finding process. Firstly, when you look at your strengths as a group, ask yourself do these suggest a career or job – or what career or job would facilitate you in using most of these strengths? You may have to do some research for this. Talk to family and friends about it. Discuss your strengths with a trusted mentor or teacher. Look at an occupational database such as www.onetonline.org which will allow you search jobs with various keywords. The effort involved is well worth the outcome – finding a career or job that will bring fulfilment and job satisfaction.
The other way you can use your strengths in the career direction finding process is using them as criteria to evaluate whether various jobs will be suitable for you. If you have a shortlist of jobs, ask yourself which of them will facilitate you in using your strengths? And which of them will allow you use your strengths most? If such a job has already being judged suitable to your personality type and core interests, wouldn’t that be your dream job?
We saw in part 1 of this article that recruiters are very busy people trying to match candidates to vacant positions and that they are paid by the hiring companies to do so – this means that they work for those companies and not for you the job hunter. Because recruiters are busy, job hunters should prepare properly before contacting them, including creating an ‘elevator pitch’ to use with them. We also saw how viewing recruiters as your partners in your job search makes the relationship more productive.
In this second part of the article, we look at some more tips for working with recruiters.
Be clear about your job priorities
Knowing exactly what is important to you in a job is essential so that you have criteria for evaluating an offered position. This includes establishing a salary range that identifies that figure below which you will not consider accepting a job no matter what the other favourable conditions might be, as well as the desired actual salary. You also need to be clear about your other expectations of a job such as location, travel, career advancement, career development opportunities, medical and other benefits, etc. Your job priorities should be a written list that you can refer to, and when dealing with a recruiter, that you have clearly and honestly communicated these so that they use them in matching you to a vacant position. This will make the process easier for both of you.
Be flexible with those priorities
Some of your job priorities will be ‘concrete’ in that they are “must have’s” - for example, if travel in your work is very important for you, you will not be happy in a job that doesn’t encompass this, so that’s a “must”. Other priorities may be less set in stone and you should be flexible with these. For instance, a job offer may be on the lower end of your salary expectations but it might have excellent health coverage which can add more than $400 into the overall package. Similarly, reimbursed tuition fees, increased leave or excellent opportunities for advancement may also make-up for the lower salary. So when discussing priorities with a recruiter, especially when a job offer is being made, be flexible where you can, but remain rigid with your “must have’s”.
Listen to what the recruiter suggests
Recruiters will make suggestions as to what to include (or not include) in your resume when applying to specific companies, or what to say to a particular hiring manager during interview, etc. One of recruiters’ main irritations is when candidates argue with them over such suggestions and insist on doing it “their way’ – the recruiter knows their client and is making the suggestions so that the candidate will more easily ‘fit’ with what the hiring manager is looking for. So listen and heed what they say!
Work with multiple recruiters
There are dozens and dozens of employment agencies operating in Singapore, some good, some bad, many in-between. Job searchers should do some research on which agencies deal with the industry they are targeting jobs in and through further research, find out if the agencies they are considering have a reasonable reputation. Then the job searcher should work with a number of different recruiters to increase their exposure to the job market – different recruiters and employment agencies will have different companies as clients, and not all recruiters will have access to all available positions or hiring managers. So it makes sense to work with a number of different recruiters in order to have access to as wide a pool of vacancies as possible.
Decide whether to keep your LinkedIn profile focused or general
To be effective, a resume must be focused on the specific requirements of that one job in that particular company. When applying for different jobs, you send (or should send!) differently focused resumes for each position applied for. A LinkedIn profile on the other hand has a potentially much wider audience – and you cannot have (or shouldn’t have!) different profiles for different audiences.
A question arises then, particularly during job hunting, as to whether you should have a general LinkedIn profile, or to focus your profile on your specific target job (i.e. the position you want to secure).
When you are clearly focused in your job search and have a specific job target in mind, a LinkedIn profile focused on that job is the way to go. Your LinkedIn profile will be more consistent with your focused resume, and searches from hiring managers or recruiters related to your job target are more likely to lead to you. So, for people who are searching for a new job, a focused LinkedIn profile is recommended.
However, keeping your profile general will have it look different to your resume and may be more appealing – you can ‘play’ with it more and make it more personal – more ‘you’. Being general, it will attract or match to a wider set of jobs in searches, leaving you open to a wider set of opportunities.
But if it is too general, your profile might not sufficiently match the keywords hiring managers or recruiters might be using in searches – the keywords they use are related to the key requirements for the job they wish to fill. You might end up with a prettier or more attractive profile, but it won’t be particularly useful to your job search if it doesn’t lead to ‘hits’ in job searches or tells recruiters and hiring managers that you have the skills that match their job vacancy.
The other issue in whether your LinkedIn profile should be general or focused is about what your current employer sees! If your profile is very specific or focused on a particular job, and that job is different to the one you are in now, your employer will know that you are looking for a new job. Remember that LinkedIn informs all of your contacts that you have updated your profile, and if you are ‘connected’ to your manager or others in your company, they will see your new profile and status.
If this is not an issue and won’t cause you problems, then go with a focused profile as it will achieve better results when job hunting.
If it is an issue and you don’t want your boss to know you are ‘available’ to the job market, keep your LinkedIn profile more general, but a little focused too – you want searches to lead to you for the jobs you want. The way to do this is to ensure that your profile’s Headline and Summary contain the keywords that match the type of jobs you want. Of course, there will need to be some emphasis on your current role so that your profile seems informative of your current situation and therefore less like you are looking for a new job. This dual approach is ambiguous and will serve both your purposes of looking for a new job while not alerting your boss about what you are doing!
You wake up one morning and the thought of going to work fills you with dread! You ask yourself “why am I doing this?” “I don’t love my job – I don’t even like it!” You realise that you never had passion for your work. You do it to pay the bills – that flashy new car – “do I even need it?” And the mortgage – “do I really need to keep working at this meaningless job for another twenty-something years just to pay that?” “Maybe I better keep at it. No, wait! I don’t want to feel trapped either!” “Oh God – what am I going to do?”
If you’ve ever had thoughts like these or the feeling that your work-life is empty, it is likely that you are in the wrong job. It happens to many people. They get a job after school or college, start enjoying the independence that comes with having a steady income, the holidays abroad, a car – then a new car, and eventually a home of their own – with a big mortgage of course. This is also the period that many people get married and start a family. Life has been busy – time flies! Without seemingly thinking about it, we work, get promoted, work more, accumulate more earnings and material things. And now it just doesn’t seem to matter – what was it all for? Your life lacks something – meaning, happiness, contentment, fulfillment?
Most people start their working lives to meet the expectations of their parents, their teachers, society in general. Because they were good at maths or science, they were steered into studying engineering. Because their parents wanted them to be a lawyer or a doctor or a dentist, they became one. Because everybody kept telling them that banking or financial services was the best place to work, they got a job there. They have met the expectations of others who at the time were important to them. They still are probably, but meeting their expectations is no longer that important. And now? That “great” job is boring, meaningless and devoid of happiness.
This is the moment that a person feels that they really need to do something about this. But what? Look for a new job? A new career? Start their own business? What?
This is the time to seek the services of a career coach – someone to help you make sense of what you are feeling – someone to help you find a new direction for your life – whether that new direction is a career change, or starting your own business, or doing that which you always knew inside that you should be doing.
I wrote previously about the process involved in finding career direction (you can read that article here), and such a holistic and multi-faceted approach will give you much to think about. The process will bring you to a new awareness of yourself, your personality, your interests, your strengths, and your values. From these insights, a growing consciousness of what direction your career and life should take dawns. You feel at last a sense of excitement about the future as a fuzzy pathway increasingly transforms into a clearer and richer picture of where you want to be. Once you find that, your present reality becomes unacceptable – you have found the way forward and know you must take it. Meaning, happiness, contentment and fulfillment awaits! Go get it!
For various reasons companies in Singapore are downsizing and retrenching staff. In some industries, jobs are being lost to technology, increasingly so since the government placed more emphasis on the need for greater productivity – there are many government schemes in place to support increasing productivity. Jobs are also being lost by moving them overseas to cheaper labour markets such as Malaysia, Vietnam and China.
Every year therefore, more employees in Singapore are receiving the bad news that they are to be made redundant or retrenched. This can be devastating and very frightening news. Employees with families wonder what is to happen to them and their dependents – will they be able to afford the mortgage on their apartment, pay medical fees for elderly parents, and meet other commitments. They worry whether they will be able to find a similar job elsewhere or whether their career has become obsolete. How long will it take to get a new job? The questions are endless and the anxiety high.
Downsizing and retrenching doesn’t just impact the individuals to be laid off. It also affects those whose jobs survive – they too are frightened that it could happen to them. All of this has a big effect on morale and consequently productivity suffers. This negatively impacts the company internally. But there are also external negative impacts – the company’s image and reputation are affected: people view the company as heartless and inhuman for treating their loyal workers this way and this can reduce sales.
Both internal and external negative impact can be greatly reduced if the company provides outplacement support for employees to be retrenched. Such an initiative should be a crucial part of the marketing campaign that accompanies the process. Companies that provide outplacement support are seen as less heartless and even concerned for the ongoing welfare of former staff.
So what is outplacement support? There are two elements to outplacement support. Firstly there is career review, choice and change. This is where retrenched staff receive career coaching to help them review their current worth in the labour market or assist them in choosing a new career. With some upskilling, the person may well be able to continue in the line of work they have previously done, but in industries where jobs are being downsized, usually there is a reduced demand across the board for such jobs. Retrenched staff are encourages to look at a new career, perhaps something they previously had wanted to do but never got around to it. Frequently psychometric inventories or assessments (often incorrectly called personality tests – but they are not ‘tests’ as there are no right or wrong answers!) can be used to suggest a career in which they might find fulfillment and contentment. Strengths-based and values-based approaches are often used too. The objective is that the person will have a clear idea of the job and career that they are going to pursue. This clarity and specificity is necessary for successful job searching, which is the focus of the second element of outplacement support.
People who have been employed for an extended period usually do not have the knowledge and skill required to successful secure a job in modern day Singapore. They need to know how to craft an impactful resume and to be able to refocus it on the specific requirements of an employer for a particular job. They also need to know how to promote themselves in an interview as the best candidate for the job in question. And before getting an interview and sending in a resume, they need to know the three approaches to finding an available job in Singapore. Outplacement support equips people with these necessary skills and knowledge.
The benefits to a company of providing outplacement support to retrenched staff is twofold: it lessens the negative impact internally as both outgoing and surviving staff see the company as supportive in the process; and through well-managed public relations and marketing, customers and the public in general don’t view it as heartless and only focused on the bottom line. The earlier outplacement support is planned and engaged the better – this gives retrenched workers more time to find a new job – hopefully even before their current one disappears.
Personality inventories can help find career direction
People use various methods to help them find direction for their career such as a strengths-based approach, values-based approach, etc. I previous wrote about focusing on your strengths when identifying your skills (you can read that article here) and doing so greatly helps if you are going to use a strengths-based approach. Another popular approach is to use psychometric assessments.
Psychometric assessments are frequently referred to as ‘personality tests’, but the use of the words ‘test’ or ‘tests’ conjure up associations with an examination of some kind. Even the word ‘assessments’ can conjure up such associations. But associations such as these are inaccurate and incorrect because there is no element of examination involved – they are not ‘tests’ as there are no right or wrong answers to the questions. The ‘correct’ answer to each question is the one you feel is right – the answer to provide is the one your “gut reaction” tells you. After all, the questions are asking you about your preferences and interests, so your answers are about you and how you are – there can be no right or wrong answer therefore.
So these instruments are more correctly called psychometric inventories or personality inventories – they compile the preferences, traits and interests that you report in your answers to the various questions. This leads us to another point – the output of these inventories is only as good as the input. In other words, you need to be completely honest in answering the questions. The instruments are ‘self-reporting’, which means that the final ‘assessment’ is based on the answers you provide. Any attempt to control, sway, skew or distort your answers may well affect the outcome and the final report – it could lead to you being given a false assessment of your preferences or interests. As only you and your career coach will see the final report, it doesn’t make sense to interfere with it by attempting to portray yourself as you would like to be or the way you would want others to see you. So truthful answers will lead to a final report that will be genuinely useful in assisting you in finding your career direction.
One of the better known and most popular personality inventories is the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator or MBTI for short. The MBTI is the most robust and most researched of all the personality inventories with more than three and a half million reports completed per year. The research confirms its validity and reliability. The MBTI determines your personality type based on four sets of preferences: where you prefer to focus your attention and get energised - whether you are introverted or extraverted – I or E; the way you take in or perceive information and the kind of information you trust – sensing or intuition – S or N; the way you prefer to make decisions – thinking or feeling – T or F; and how you prefer to deal with the outer world around you – judging or perceiving – J or P. These provide a four letter reference to one of sixteen personality types – e.g. ISTJ or ENFP.
That may sound a little complicated, but your career coach will explain your report to you in a simple manner!
So what are the benefits of using a psychometric inventory such as the MBTI? Firstly, it provides greater understanding of yourself and others. In relation to your career and career direction finding in particular, it helps you to see how your personality type affects your career - is your personality type in keeping with the work you do? If not, you are likely to feel stressed and unhappy in work. It explains how your MBTI preferences affect what you like about a given career, and identifies the tasks and jobs that give you satisfaction. It also explores your preferred work tasks and work environments. Most importantly, it suggests careers that people with your personality type find fulfilling and rewarding, and that they are successful at.
Another popular and useful instrument is the Strong Interest Inventory which explores your interests and what you like to do. The completed report links your interests to possible careers, generates a list of careers suitable to your interests, and indicates what you need to consider when evaluating career options. Because it connects possible careers to your interests, the careers it suggests are sure to be satisfying and fulfilling for you.
