What's Your Type of Career?: Find Your Perfect Career by Using Your Personality Type

by Donna Dunning

The best-selling career guide, now in a revised second edition!

Match Your Personality Type to Your Perfect Career-and Find Success!

The simple truth is that to be happy and successful in your work, you need a career that not only matches your interests but fits your personality type as well. In this approachable book, author Donna Dunning uses the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) to introduce eight distinct ways of working.

Encouraging you to reflect on your own natural preferences - using checklists, exercises, strategies and tips - What's Your Type of Career? provides all the tools you need to discover your own natural preferences and find your ideal career. Are you a Contributor, Expeditor, Explorer or Responder? An Analyzer, Assimilator, Enhancer or Visionary? An Extravert or an Introvert? If you identify yourself as an Extravert and a Responder, you tend to like action, scenarios that are rapidly changing and are not inclined toward a desk job. A profession as an emergency worker, a fire fighter or a police officer may be for you.

This best-selling career guide - now in a fully updated second edition - has been expanded to include the training and educational requirements of a variety of different occupations, and highlights those most in demand. It also includes details on developing type differences later in life, advice for balancing your work and personal life and many, many more preference-based career suggestions.

Genres: Psychology, Business, Self Help, Nonfiction, Reference

228 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2001

About the author

Donna Dunning, PhD, is an author, consultant, certified teacher, and member of the MBTI ® International Training Faculty. She worked as a psychologist for 20 years specializing in the areas of career development, learning, and work performance.

Donna has provided services for a wide range of clients in the public and private sector. Her services included counseling, training, assessment, research, writing, evaluation, program development, and performance management. Donna has won awards for her accomplishments in career development, her research endeavors, and her publications.

Donna facilitates programs that qualify individuals to administer and interpret the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). She also teaches advanced application workshops for MBTI users across North America. She is noted for her expertise in facilitating the professional development of counselors, teachers, trainers, and leaders.

Donna lives with her husband on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. They have two adult children. She currently is focusing on writing, training, and consulting.

For more information visit her website at http://www.dunning.ca

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book goes into great detail about the Myers Briggs Personality Test and what a reader is best suited for in their career.

Normally this could have been a good thing but the career choices were overly generic or well known. I would have preferred a wider array of career possibilities. This seemed to list the top 20% and leave it there.

OVERALL GRADE: C plus.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay. So, I happen to be really into personality tests, but this book does an excellent job of describing how your personality type intersects with your work style and the type of work you're drawn to. I recommend it for anyone who just likes a little self-examination or who needs some guidance with their career path.

[Kylie Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book works a lot with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. I personally find this very accurate and have some dealings with it in the past.
I am an INFP and I also identify as an INFJ so lots of reading for me!

As a trainer and a childcare worker and in my day to day life I can definitely identify as a Compassionate Visionary but in leadership roles or stressful situations I can be a Logical Visionary. Both resonated with me.

"I work hard if my heart is there, but I lose interest in something very quickly if I'm not committed. Without commitment I don't stick to it."

I am also an INFP and I identified as an insightful enhancer.

I am your typical creative type and I have a huge imagination and not enough time to get it on paper, this line sang true for me,

'Struggles with many ideas has trouble finishing them'.

I found this line quite amusing and I can't wait to show my husband in the hopes that he will better understand me and hopefully learn not to argue with me thinking he has a better idea when he has done no research after I have already spent days researching and weighing the pros and cons of every possible angle,

- "changing course midstream means a visionary will need to revise well thought out plan. This can be stressful especially if the changes will slow down or derail some of the original intent of the project. It is not that visionaries do you not like change or are resistant to feedback. In fact they constantly work to improve and they will often increase the scope of their plans. What is difficult for them is being forced to rethink an entire project because of an external influence. It is important to remember that visionaries both are reflective and seek movement forward. They will often finish a project in their mind before they start acting on it. Changing the plan once it is started interferes with the need for closure. Rethinking the plan will take them considerable time and energy and will slow down or change their already well thought out process."

This chapter was also a nice lesson, that even though it goes against my reflective, seemingly secretive nature, I must involve others in my thought processes somehow, or give updates, as quiet reflection is needed for me to develop my clear decision making.


The website I found fairly basic.
http://online.onetcenter.org website doesn't work very well (mentioned page 241). Turn the page to be affronted with a better laid out representation of the website, however it references letters and numbers beside each job that aren't explained until page 357. Slightly annoying though I'm sure there was perfectly sound reasoning behind this.

Overall however this was a very helpful book, with plenty of information. If it doesn't get you to decide what you want to do, hopefully it gives you a better perspective on yourself and your situation in life.

[Sorrowka · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would recommend to undergo Myers Briggs test first, aftermath reading this book.
Each section consists two complementary personalities (in example INFJ and INTJ). It covers the general view of the personalities, the good and lacks of the personality, the ways of balancing personality with environment, and some tips (especially to balance what you have and not have regarding the personality. In the case, INFJ can try to accumulate logic into the decision. While INTJ can consider and validate others' opinions on their decision making). It provides general career path for both complementary personalities, and ones for each personality.

a concise reading for self-reflection regarding career preferences. In the other hand, it's providing self-report of filling a question and checklist items as well. As it's relating to work area, it covers the views of being individual, a leader, and a team member. these barely found on other online sites. Good to give a shot!

[Yi-Jia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the cover of this book (its not as appealing as a lot of other job-hunting books), but this is by far one of the best books on career guidance i've read. Highly recommend this for graduates and people wanting to reevaluate their skills, preferences and potential in their career/career paths. Read and don't skim! The checklists were useful, but the book was insightful in general without being too detailed or informational, or you needing to complete many boring exercises. Compact, informational and certainly helpful, very useful! Accurate in describing and pointing out my weaknesses and strengths, preferences, habits and etc. A more thorough analysis on your MBTI and career match in other words.

[Iryna D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Very useful for someone who's in high school and researching different careers. Also, very good for someone who is looking into changing careers.

[Ty Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty helpful in researching what type of career would be best for me. But don't I think the career suggestions are a little dated.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, I admit it, I got this book with an eye on the future. I'm pretty sure I want to do business, but I wasn't sure exactly what (it's a big field). I was hoping that this book would help me to realise more clearly what it was exactly.

And what this book reminded me off was one of those seminars that my schools used to make us go to. The ones that make you do all those quizzes and tell you your personality types. So this is what this book is like, only without the very detailed quizzes.

What I did was to read all the relevant chapters for me. That would be the first few chapters, especially where you "diagnose" yourself. After that, the book goes into the 8 working styles there is, with plenty of excercises to help you figure out your working style, leadership style, etc. Because of this, I think this book is best used in a group. You're not going to want to read all the chapters (unless you intend to become a career guidance counsellor), and I think it might be more fun to do the different excercises together.

The writing was, well, it was attempting to engaging. For some reason though, I wasn't engaged. As I said before, it felt a lot like those workshops from school and I used to start to drift off half-way through, just like this book.

In addition, I feel like the book is a promotion for this website called O*Net (I think that's the name, I kinda stopped paying attention). The reader is constantly encouraged to use that site, to the extent that I think important information was ommited. At the end of each chapter, each type is presented with a list of jobs that might be suitable and encouraged to look through them - using O*Net. For me, I couldn't finish reading the list, and I would have really liked to have a short explanation why each job (if not each group) would suit each particular type.

In conclusion, I think that this book is best used as a workbook. The many excercises seem useful but I'd need a very strong motivator to do them seriously.

Disclaimer: I got this book from NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.

First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[Penelope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Donna Dunning uses the Myers-Briggs personality model to help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, and desires in order to find the career that will be most fulfilling for you. While she briefly explains the different personality types, you really should already know your Myers-Briggs type. I picked this book up not to find out which career I was best suited for, but rather to see what type of careers for which my children might be best suited. I found that the information on how the different personalities function in the workplace (and by extension life in general) was extremely helpful and thinking about how to homeschool my children today, not just what type of careers they will find most rewarding. I would definitely recommend this book to those just starting to explore their career options and for anyone looking for a career that better fits both their current skills and their personality.

[Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book I have read that effectively uses the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator to help you to understand yourself and fit into the right kind of job. I am an INTJ. She calls INTJ's and INTF's logical visionaries and compassionate visionaries, respectively. She describes the characteristics of the visionary very clearly, in a way that not only helped me to understand and use my strengths better, but also to feel better about my obvious weaknesses, like dealing with routine, which sends me into convulsions.

Well written. I would give it five stars, but the information is not presented clearly enough so that you can get it and remember it. I had to go through my chapter and mind map it, in order to use it effectively. Sound like something an INTJ would do? You bet!

[Aistė · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skaitydama apie savo tipą, savo profesinius interesus ir suderinus pagal tai tinkamas specialybes, sužinojau, kad man reikėjo studijuoti matematiką. :-D O šiaip knyga kažkodėl skaitėsi sunkiai ir gan nuobodžiai, nors asmenybės tipai mane labai domina. Gal dėl to, kad ji pernelyg vienoda, visų tipų aprašymai pagal vienodą struktūrą, kai kuriose dalyse netgi kartojasi tos pačios pastraipos. Pradžia apskritai panašesnė į vieno internetinio puslapio reklamavimą ir ta reklama kiekviename tolimesniame skyriuje pakartojama. Na, ir dar skaitydama supratau, kad man nereikia daugiau karjeros paieškų, aš pati žinau, ką noriu daryti gyvenime, o visi testai tik atkartoja tą patį.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up at a 1-day professional conference back in February. It's based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and is definitely an interesting read. Especially helpful for those folks thinking about changing jobs or career fields. Not everyone buys into Myers-Briggs. I get that. But it offers helpful suggestions to anyone who is dissatisfied with one's current employed state.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

After taking the Meyers Briggs Personality test, I read this book. It added an extra element to that test and further solidified my personality and gave me a better idea of the direction I should take in my career. It even offers job suggestions and strategies for your type. Interestingly enough, according to this book I'm in the wrong career. I'm in a career more suited for an extrovert which is probably why I am unhappy.

[Tar’ah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Donna's description of my type as being "The Enhancer". That was so helpful in helping me see that INFP is the type of people who adds flavor to the world and makes life better, more interesting, and more fulfilling. We are just a piece of the puzzle, doing good just by seeing the best in others and pulling it forward so that we can all recognize it and be more proud of who we are and fulfilled. Thank you, for the insight.

[Dara B · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as self-help books go, this was tremendously helpful. I'd suggest it to anyone thinking about switching careers or making making their existing work more enjoyable and effective. Familiarity with Myers-Briggs types is useful but there is both background chapter and a little cheat test in the book for those who need it.

[Anthony Robb-John]

Not everyone thinks the Myers-Briggs approach is perfect; neither is this book, in several ways. But both are useful. Frankly - when you are helping the next generation with careers choices you need as many of these sorts of things as you can get.

[Leah Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personality profiling is such fun! I love that this book gives specific and helpful descriptions and growth opportunities. I found the section on specific careers to be lacklustre. It gave so much helpful information about character traits, however, that the book was still a worthwhile read.

[Kathleen Rainwater · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful for thoses looking to change careers. Helps you to match personality type with appropriate jobs and careers.

[Asa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Because nothing says “life purpose” like letting a four-letter personality code pick your paycheck.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful in career counseling, but more for adults, not teens.

[Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a compassionate visionary (INFJ), I will initially balance my internal focus on ideas by making values-based decisions. As I mature and develop, I will also learn to place greater emphasis on logical analyses when making decisions (INTJ).