Career Chemistry: The Best Jobs for Six Personality Types Part 3
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 Artistic People
Artistic people are creative and imaginative, as you might expect. But they can also be strong problem solvers, since they bring an intuitive mindset that complements the more rational approach others might offer. Compatible careers: landscape architect, graphic designer, director or producer, interior designer, editor.
Many people enjoy decorating their home, orchestrating a wardrobe, or tending a colorful garden. But for some folks, creative inclinations are much more than hobbies. True artistic types prefer jobs where they can do creative, expressive work rather than structured tasks. They think of themselves as nonconformist, artsy, and often disorganized. As part of our guide to career chemistry, we’ve highlighted these top career picks for people with the artistic temperament:
Landscape architect. With just a bachelor’s degree, you can be designing resorts, industrial parks, and rich people’s backyards. And today’s hottest religion is environmentalism, so many landscape architects work in fields like coastal habitat restoration.
Literature or arts teacher. Teaching is one of the few bastions of job security for artistic types. Job availability is expected to be better in colleges than in K-12 schools. In addition to art talent and teaching ability, a knack for dealing with unruly students comes in handy.
Graphic designer. Here’s the catch: You must be an artist who accepts the reality that the best shot at making a living in your field is to design ads, magazine pages, and websites. And keep in mind that even though computers are now the predominant tools of the trade — and they can do wonders–excellent freehand drawing skills are still essential.
Director. Most director gigs are far from the Hollywood studios. Plays, movies, commercials, instructional and promotional videos, and TV shows–including local, cable, and satellite TV productions–all need directors. So do direct-to-Web videos, like many on YouTube. And relatively few people have the right mix of skills. A director must be able to manage a complex project with diverse and often temperamental casts and crew members. The job also requires an artistic and literary bent, along with knowledge of sets, lighting, sound, costumes, music, and choreography.
Producer. Most productions need, well, a producer. This entrepreneur comes up with the idea, raises the money, hires the director, makes or approves key hiring decisions, and makes the business decisions throughout the production.
Interior designer. Partway between an interior decorator and an architect, interior designers figure out how to make a space functional and beautiful. While they may suggest finishes for floors, walls, and windows, they’re as likely to recommend where to knock down a wall (without the building collapsing). A bachelor’s degree should suffice, as long as it’s from a program accredited by the American Society of Interior Designers.
Editor. Most editors do much more than processcopy. They also choose which stories to pursue, select writers, and occasionally attain the wordsmith’s holy grail–writing about the things that really interest them, knowing it will get published. The job market will probably be best for Web editors with expertise in both video and text.
Perfumer. What do laundry products, candles, lotions, and colognes have in common? Their fragrance was created by a perfumer. Most members of this small but enjoyable profession learn via an apprenticeship, such as Procter & Gamble’s. Jobs aren’t terribly plentiful, but it’s great work if you can get it.
