This Is a Big Book, But It
Is Very Easy to Use
Psychologists have long understood a principle that many of us consider just common sense: that
people have an aspect called personality that makes them feel more comfortable in some situations
than in others. People who have a certain personality feel more capable of doing certain things
and dealing with certain problems; they also feel more accepted when they are among people with
personalities similar to their own.! is is especially true for one place where people spend a major
portion of their time: at work. People want to feel that they fi t in with the people and with the
activities where they work.If personality is the key to this feeling of fi tting in, then you need to consider this question: What
kind of personality do you have? Maybe you can come up with a few ways to describe yourself, such
as “sunny,” “energetic,” “conscientious,” “loyal,” “outgoing,” “funny,” or “competitive.” But what
do those terms suggest for the kind of work you might enjoy and do well? What terms might be
more useful?Some Things You Can Do with This Book
! is book can help you think about your personality in terms that have proven relevance to
the world of work. You’ll learn about the personality types that many psychologists and career
development practitioners use to describe people and jobs. You’ll take a quick assessment to help
you clarify your dominant personality type.! en you’ll dig into a gold mine of facts about the
jobs that are the best fi t for your personality type—and that are the best for other reasons, too,
such as their wages and job openings.! e lists of “best jobs” will help you zero in on promising
careers, and the descriptive profi les of the jobs will open your eyes to career choices that previously
you may not have known much about.We all want to fi t in somewhere. And there are probably several diff erent careers where each of us
could fi t in. But why not do it in a really good job?! at’s what this book can help you choose.Credits and Acknowledgments: While the authors created this book, it is based on the work of many others. The occupational
information is based on data obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Census Bureau. These sources provide the most
authoritative occupational information available. The job titles and their related descriptions are from the ONET database, which was
developed by researchers and developers under the direction of the U.S. Department of Labor. They, in turn, were assisted by thousands of
employers who provided details on the nature of work in the many thousands of job samplings used in the database’s development. We used
the most recent version of the ONET database, release 13.0. We appreciate and thank the staff of the U.S. Department of Labor for their
efforts and expertise in providing such a rich source of data.