Goldberg and Norman in the 1970s hypothesised that most human personality traits can be described using 5 dimensions — openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (The Big Five model).
Openness to experience is the inclination to be imaginative, curious, creative, independent, and interested in variety. Conscientiousness is the affinity to work hard, and be prudent, organised, disciplined, cautious, neat, perfectionist, and prepared.
Extraversion is the propensity to be friendly, sociable, fun-loving, and warm. Agreeableness is the tendency to be sympathetic, trusting, supportive, and co-operative. Neuroticism is the tendency to be anxious, frustrated, stressed, emotionally unstable, and self-blaming. (Goldberg, 1993)
Career success is highly dependent on the compatibility of one’s personality traits with the traits required for the job (Judge et al, 1990). Hirschi et al suggest that there is a significant relationship between personality type and optimal career choices. Hussain et al study and exemplify this association.
Managers/Executives
Managers and executives have to get things done by others and so tend to be social, and warm. They have to be efficient and manage many resources, so, people having high conscientiousness and agreeableness perform better in these positions.
The job demands confrontation, emotional resilience, and organisation. So, being low on neuroticism helps. Managing involves negotiation, arguments, and rapport-building. Managers are often conventional in their approaches. So, good managers tend to be average on extraversion and openness to experience.
Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship requires self-drive, risk-taking, and innovation. Being high on the openness to experience scale helps entrepreneurs take risky moves, start new projects, and generate novel perspectives and solutions.
Entrepreneurs deal with risks so they must be hard-working, resilient, cautious, and well-planned to address the risks. They tend to be highly conscientious. They also have the psychological strength to deal with adversities, so, being low in the neuroticism trait helps.
Social/Non-Profit professions
These professions require empathy, altruism, and sociability. These people are helpful, emotionally supportive, and considerate. People scoring high on agreeableness and extraversion tend to excel in these careers.
People low on neuroticism tend to be stable in emotionally demanding situations and may not feel for others. People high on neuroticism may not be able to cope well with stressful situations. So, averagely neurotic people tend to be the most suitable for these professions.
Public sector professions
These professions demand self-discipline, punctuality, and practicality. You have to be high in conscientiousness to perform well. People who are more calm and emotionally stable tend to be more successful in public sector organisations. So, being low in neuroticism helps excel in these professions.
Scientists/Researchers/Engineers
Scientists, researchers, engineers, and such tend to work on complex problems which require new perspectives, and openness to learning. So, scoring high on openness to experience helps with these professions.
The higher the exposure to the discipline, the more the knowledge and capability to find new ways to solve problems. Introverts tend to be more sensitive to their environment, so, being low on extraversion can help with success in these professions.
In general, being high on conscientiousness and extraversion measures, and low on neuroticism are the best overall predictors for career success. There are exceptions, of course.
Quite relatable!!