Career Chemistry: The Best Jobs for Six Personality Types Part 2
When seeking your true love, you had better look for someone with a compatible personality. The same thing is true when choosing your career.
As part of its Best Careers guide, U.S. News has selected the top careers for each of six personality types. Sure, everybody’s an individual, but researchers have observed that most people have certain characteristics that can be grouped into a small number of categories. We’ve used the methodology developed by respected career psychologist John Holland, who identifies six general types of people. For each, we’ve selected careers>both white-and blue- collar>with good job availability and respectable pay, in fields that offer psychological satisfaction and reasonable quality of life. Most people will recognize themselves in at least one of these categories:
Best Jobs for Investigative People
Investigative people are analytical, intellectual, and scientific. Typically, they like to gather a lot of information before making decisions. And they question ideas that aren’t backed up by rational data. Compatible careers: professor, software developer, physician’s assistant, veterinarian, librarian.
Do you think of yourself as scientific, precise, and analytical? Good at developing intellectually rigorous solutions to problems? As part of our guide to career chemistry, we’ve highlighted these top career picks for “investigative” folks who love to absorb detail, prefer logic over whimsy, and don’t mind working alone:
Science researcher/professor. The coming decades will see a revolution in how we prevent and treat disease, cope with environmental degradation, and address health threats such as bioterrorism and drug-resistant bacteria. Be advised, this a tough field to enter: Advanced degrees are rampant, and a plain ol’ Ph.D. in molecular biology is no longer enough. Landing a good job usually requires extra expertise in fields like computational biology, computer programming, or biophysics, and one to three years as a post-doc student. After that, however, you’ll have the opportunity to become involved in work that might save countless lives.
Software engineer/developer. Designing and creating new applications and operating systems requires a rigorous, logical thinker who can, at the same time, divine what interfaces work best for human beings. Computer security remains a growth industry, with demand for experts likely to increase indefinitely.
Computer systems analyst/architect. When you’re tired of cranking code, you can become a systems analyst or even architect–if you have the people skills and ability to see the big picture. Your job is to analyze the organization’s needs, propose computer-centric solutions, and supervise implementation.
Physician assistant. You get to do many of a physician’s most rewarding tasks–conduct exams, treat basic problems, and provide health education–without the enormous cost, time, and stress of medical school. Nor does this job require those insane, 100-hour-week internships.
Optometrist. Here’s another M.D.-like career, with less training required than for ophthalmologists, who do surgery. Optometrists typically train for four years after getting a bachelor’s degree. Once practicing, there are many rewards: Optometry is a profession with a high cure rate, regular hours, good pay, and realistic potential for being successfully self-employed.
Veterinarian. Vets have to go to school for four years after college, but no internship, residency, or board certification is required. And because most patients–well, the owners of patients–pay out-of-pocket, there’s much less hassle with insurance companies. One downside: Veterinary clinics can be noisy: ruff-ruff.
Librarian. Forget the mousy bookworm image. Tomorrow’s librarian will be more of a high-tech data sleuth, using computers and sophisticated software to track down information. Some of the best jobs are as special librarians: those who work in corporations, universities, and law firms.
