Why a personnality or vocational test even through career assesment is a big mistake?
Career Guidance and the Role of Personality: A Critical Evaluation of Methods Based on RIASEC and MBTI
Today, the question is whether personality should play a role and if it should be central in defining a career project or choosing a profession.
Why Such a Question?
This question is crucial because personality tests and the career guidance tests created from them form the basis of guidance methods offered to students and employees undergoing career transitions through competency assessments. In other words, does it make sense to consider that a particular personality is needed to be a taxi driver, a singer, or a software engineer? This article aims to briefly touch on some concepts and elements to consider for reasoning and reflection.
Career guidance is a crucial process in an individual's career development. Historically, this approach has often emphasized the individual's personality, suggesting that matching character traits with professions was essential for a successful career. Theories of career guidance based on personality have their roots in the work of psychologists like Holland, who developed the RIASEC model. This model posits that individuals and work environments can be classified into six types: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional (Holland, 1997). The central idea is that job satisfaction and success depend on the congruence between an individual's personality type and the work environment.
While Holland's model is widely used, it has been criticized for its oversimplification and significant omissions. One of my personal criticisms is that human personality is adaptive, varying according to the environment, context, and social group in which it operates. Your behavior and preferences change. Think about whether you behaved the same way with colleagues if you have changed jobs. Do you act identically at home, when you go out for drinks with friends, or when watching a rugby match with friends? Of course not. This personality evolves over time with your experiences. If considered as a measurable value, which these tests attempt to do, it is clear that it is not stable. Betz and Fitzgerald (1987) argue that reducing career guidance to type matches neglects the complexity of individuals' interests and aptitudes. Moreover, research has shown that personality is not a reliable predictor of job success (Barrick & Mount, 1991). Therefore, relying solely on personality to guide career choices is inadequate.
In career guidance and reorientation, the emphasis on individuals' personalities is central, particularly through the use of widely used tests such as RIASEC and MBTI, often used in competency assessments and services misleadingly labeled as coaching. While this approach can offer an initial understanding of personal inclinations and preferences, it presents several major drawbacks. First, these tests tend to categorize individuals into fixed types, leading to a reductive view of personality, ignoring its complexity, evolvability, and adaptability. An individual's personality is a dynamic amalgam of traits evolving with time and experiences, which is difficult to capture in rigid categories. Moreover, focusing on personality can induce a form of determinism, implying that there are "ideal" careers for each personality type. This perspective neglects other crucial factors in career choice, such as skills, interests, values, desires, and life circumstances. Additionally, studies have questioned the scientific validity of some of these tests, particularly the MBTI, whose theoretical foundations and reliability are often criticized. The predominant use of these tests in guidance can lead to simplistic and potentially misleading conclusions about the most suitable career for an individual, hindering a more nuanced and personal exploration of their career options.
The modern job market evolves rapidly, making fixed matches between personality and profession obsolete. Today's technical skills may not be relevant tomorrow, and qualities like adaptability and continuous learning become crucial (Schwab, 2016). This evolution suggests that career guidance should focus less on personality and more on developing versatile skills.
It's possible to go further today to stay current by considering cultural and gender diversity in career guidance. Gender stereotypes and cultural norms can influence career recommendations based on personality, leading to the reproduction of inequalities (Fouad & Byars-Winston, 2005). This underscores the importance of moving away from personality-based models to embrace a more inclusive and context-sensitive approach. And indeed, context is entirely absent from all personality-based guidance methods.
Alternatives to the Personality-Based Approach
While the holistic approach to guidance, such as the "Life-Design" model by Savickas, offers a contemporary perspective, it is essential to recognize the historical importance of career or guidance coaching. Career coaching, although it has gained popularity over the past few decades, has its roots in practices and theories developed well before 2005. It is distinguished by its individualized approach and personal support. This method goes beyond simple personality-job matching to focus on the individual's personal and professional development. Theorists like Carl Rogers, with his work on the person-centered approach in the 1950s, laid some of the foundations of coaching by emphasizing the importance of empathetic listening and self-reflection in individual development (Rogers, 1951).
Savickas's model, though developed in a modern context, incorporates essential elements of career coaching, such as the importance of the individual's personal history and the narrative approach to career construction. This integration highlights not only the historical importance of career coaching but also its continued relevance in contemporary approaches to career guidance.
However, the "Life Design" model has some issues, which will likely be addressed in another article you can find on the Blog.
Career coaching stands out by adapting its methods to the constant changes in the job market and individual needs. It recognizes that career paths are not linear and supports individuals in exploring and reinventing their career paths, a flexibility essential in today's job market. This approach allows for an in-depth exploration of career choices, considering external influences and the individual's internal dynamics. Career coaching offers more personalized and adaptive support. This approach is particularly relevant in a world where career paths are increasingly "non-linear" and where continuous self-assessment is crucial for career development.
Although personality-based methods have their place in career guidance when the data collected serves multi-directional exploration and is not the sole basis of the support offered, the contribution of practices like coaching remains the most relevant today.
Conclusion
Personality has unfortunately played a significant role in the history of career guidance at a time when it was more about insertion, and finding out what individuals were made for was an illusion to fill companies so that people were not too preoccupied with what they wanted to do. The only pertinent approach in guidance is one that remains centered on the individual, nuanced, personalized, and adaptive, especially in an era where current generations seek fulfillment, meaning, and passion in their professional activities, among other things. By recognizing the complexity of career choices and integrating various factors, we can better prepare individuals to navigate an ever-evolving professional world.
References:
- Holland, J. L. (1997). Making Vocational Choices: A Theory of Vocational Personalities and Work Environments. Psychological Assessment Resources.
- Rogers, C. (1951). Client-Centered Therapy: Its Current Practice, Implications and Theory. Houghton Mifflin.
- Betz, N. E., & Fitzgerald, L. F. (1987). The Career Psychology of Women. Academic Press.
- Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: A Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology.
- Schwab, K. (2016). The Fourth Industrial Revolution. World Economic Forum.
- Fouad, N. A., & Byars-Winston, A. M. (2005). Cultural and Gender Influences in Career Decision Making. Journal of Counseling Psychology.
- Savickas, M. L. (2005). The Theory and Practice of Career Construction. In S. D. Brown & R. W. Lent (Eds.), Career Development and Counseling: Putting Theory and Research to Work. John Wiley & Sons.