Making wise career decisions and choosing what major to pursue in school can all play a role toward your income as well as acquiring the knowledge and skills to meet the demands of the marketplace. What might not be as tangible as a degree are the aspects of your personality that often influence your communication style that can impact how well you interact with others.
I often talk about the significance of building rapport with people and how your communication skills can open the door to more career opportunities than just leaning on your technical skills alone. Your ability to manage people and build professional relationships is a huge factor in growing your career.
For example, take networking at conferences, no doubt there are some personalities that are more comfortable than others in meeting and greeting people. You probably know people who are shy when it comes to making new contacts versus those who can’t wait to meet a room full of new people.
It’s not a matter of having the right or wrong personality type in order to be successful in your career, but your personality preferences often create opportunities for you to meet those with hidden job leads.
One of the major cornerstones of a successful job search is reaching out and meeting people. The old adage, “it’s not what you know but who you know” still rings true in today’s marketplace. You increase your chances of “who you know” by meeting people and taking the initiative to get to know them.
Back in the 1960s a mother and daughter team, Katherine Cooks Briggs and Isabelle Myers Briggs created an assessment based off of Jungian psychiatry and developed the Myers Briggs Type Indicator that sorts personality into 16 different types. Probably the most familiar preference is whether a person is extroverted or introverted.
The types of personalities with the MBTI are represented using a four-letter code; extroverted or introverted, intuitive or sensing, thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving. The 16 types are formed using the four letter code.
salary2Aninfographic from the Career Assessment Site, combines the average household income with each sixteen personality type and the result aligns with the notion that those who derive their energy from being around others such as extroverts tend to have higher incomes. The only introverted type that rated high on income was the INTJ.
It’s important to remember that an MBTI assessment will not predict how good you will be at something; rather it’s just a tool in helping you develop a broader picture of your natural inclinations.
The two personality types that were most opposite with average income are the ENTJ and INFP. According to the infographic, extroverts have a higher income and that could be related to their comfort in socializing with people and making tough business decisions.
One conclusion might be that extroverts lean toward being natural networkers whereas introverts have to spend more energy in making connections. While extroversion and introversion relate to energy derived from being around people, those who match a feeling preference can be less comfortable in making decisions that would create disharmony.
Regardless of your personality preference learning how to build rapport with others will always be a skill that helps open doors of opportunities. There are very successful introverts who are wealthy, as well as successful extroverts that struggle to make ends meet. The infographic is not a prediction of compensation, but it gives a view of how different personality types compare to average household income.
Although personality plays a part in your career choices and growth it does not indicate whether you will be successful in your career endeavors.
What are your thoughts about personality types and income?
