Personality Traits & the Roles They Work Best In

Within the context of recruiting, understanding a candidate’s personality is an integral part of determining fit. Take a look at some of the personality traits for jobs that may be important to keep in mind:

What Job Needs Which Personality Traits?

• Open Extroverts are well suited for inside sales jobs where people spend their days working the phones and have to be willing to talk to people. Open extroverts also make strong retail store employees and managers, especially when they are also highly agreeable. The people who best rise to the managerial level are those who can build trust and mentor and motivate their junior staff, but these personalities are all well suited for the retail environment.
• Conscientious Extroverts do better in outside sales where they are strong active listeners able to identify and match customer needs with company offerings and pay attention to details. Extroverts who are also highly conscientious make excellent nurses. Being able to talk to patients and “dig deep” to find out what a patient’s needs are or get them to open up is a necessary skill, as is being able to them identify appropriate options and ensure all necessary treatment directives are followed.
• Problem Solving, Conscientious Attention to Detail, and Agreeable Personality are desirable for individuals working in a tech support-call center role. These people have to be able to translate layperson language into solutions, help upset customers work through their anger, and be both empathetic and practical in their approach.
• Empathetic and Compassionate are also necessary qualities for billing and account support professionals who are required to be conscientious and agreeable in order to work with what are often difficult or unhappy clients.
• Openness is a personality trait highly beneficial to teachers who may be multitasking and running a classroom with diverse needs. Conscientiousness is also desirable, because teachers are required to meet so many goals and objectives on an individualized student level so being able to track and pay attention to those details is essential.
• Conscientiousness will also benefit graduate students whose job it is to challenge the existing ways of doing things and innovate themselves and their ideas to change the world. Of course, in doing so, openness is desirable to promote collaboration, a spirit of mutual respect and operating under a blanket of cooperation.

Personality traits for jobs are important to analyze to help identify the right person for your role in question. To learn more about how you can gain insight into candidates’ personality, check out interview on demand – our one-way video interviewing solution. With interview on demand, you can screen candidates anytime, anywhere while gathering insights into who they are and their personality.

About The Author

Esteban Gomez is a marketing consultant with interviewstream. He loves learning and has a passion for traveling, having visited many countries including China, Colombia, Italy, and Peru.