“What if you’re not happy in your job? Is it possible that you’re in the wrong career entirely?”52 As you do your job day by day, you may realize that your tasks don’t mesh well with your personality or talents. Wouldn’t it seem to make more sense to strive for a match between your personality and your chosen job or career path?

Obviously, individual personalities differ. So, too, do jobs. How do we match the two? The best-documented personality–job fit theory was developed by psychologist John Holland.53 His theory states that an employee’s satisfaction with his or her job, as well as his or her likelihood of leaving that job, depends on the degree to which the individual’s personality matches the job environment. Holland identified six basic personality types, as shown in Exhibit 11–2.

Exhibit 11–2

Holland’s Personality-Job Fit

Holland’s theory proposes that satisfaction is highest and turnover lowest when personality and occupation are compatible.54 Social individuals should be in “people-type” jobs, and so forth. The key points of this theory include the following: (1) there do appear to be intrinsic differences in personality among individuals, (2) there are different types of jobs, and (3) people in job environments compatible with their personality types should be more satisfied and less likely to resign voluntarily than people in incongruent jobs.