Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type

Reviwed by Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius" for TeensReadToo.com

Choosing a career based on personality type is not a new concept; in fact, the first edition of DO WHAT YOU ARE was released in 1992 (and I can actually remember reading it when I was a junior in high school). In this, the fourth edition, hopefully even more teens will be exposed to this great resource.

The authors, both experts in personality type and career development, put forth the idea that choosing a career path based on your individual personality will be beneficial to your success. For those worried that discovering your personality type is a difficult process, don't despair, because the authors make it quite easy.

There are four dimensions to personality type:

Whether you are extroverted or introverted.
Whether you notice things by sensing or intuition.
Whether you make decisions by thinking or feeling.
Whether you prefer to live by judging or perceiving.

Once you've discovered the answer to each of these four questions, you'll be able to discover which of the sixteen possible personality types you fall into. Once you do, you can quickly skip to the relevant section in the book.

In my case, my personality is ESTJ - or extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging. According to the authors of DO WHAT YOU ARE, my strengths lie in organization, being objective, working alone, and being a good decision maker. My weaknesses are also outlined, and include impatience with those who don't follow procedures, a tendency to overrun people, and difficulty listening to opposing viewpoints. Some suggestions for careers, based on my personality type, are as a teacher, government employee, sales, supervisor, or a manager.

Of course the above is not a full list of the strengths, weaknesses, or recommended career choices for those whose personality type is ESTJ - the above is merely a sampling. But I can say with truth that DO WHAT YOU ARE can be a great resource for those beginning their search for a career choice. I can agree that ESTJ is definitely my personality type (faults and all!) and have no doubt that this book has the power to help everyone looking to correctly match their strengths to the perfect career.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.

An Interesting Read

I enjoyed reading this book. It provides useful career advice for each of the personality types and lists specific careers that are popular with each. I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about personality type or for anyone looking for a new career.

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Perfection

This book is by far the best of its kind that I have come across. Other career-guide books manage to only connect careers with people on a superficial level, based on criteria such as your ability, aptitude, what specific skills you possess, etc. 'Do What You Are' forces you to find out more about yourself (traits I never realized I have) before selecting a career. Your personality, in conjunction with your interests, makes the self-discovery process an integral part of your final decision in the end. After reading this, it would be a disservice to anyone looking for what I ultimately found to recommend another book. I found career options that I never knew existed, had never even considered, and ones that I previously thought I wasn't capable of doing. 'Do What Your Are' knows no equal, and neither does its reasonable price. Get it and I can assure you that you won't regret it.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

A good guide for anyone

I was laid off earlier in the year and since have found another job. But, in that time I read this book to try and see what fits my personality the best. The good thing is I learned that my current career already catered to my strengths. So I guess you can say I lucked out on my career path. But I was completely open to other possiblities (if the shoe were to fit).
While you are reading this book and learning career paths for each personality you may not have the "light bulb" go off in your head. But, this book will get your brain thinking and deciding what is important to you and your career. And that may be just as helpful.
In this down economy, if you have the means, there is no better time than the present to start doing or pursuing what fits you best.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Job change ideas

As someone who is looking for a change, this book tells where your strengths are in relation to who you are and gives ideas of jobs I'd never even heard of, much less considered for myself.

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Finding the right job

I felt the book was very powerful in my quest to find the career I was meant to be in. I would recommend it to anyone who is lost in their current job and needs some guidance on finding the right one. I just happened to walk by the book when I was feeling lost in my career, which I'm no longer in. It helped me to see where I belong. Definitely thumbs up!

2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

There are better books ...

I saw all the positive reviews for this book and thought "why not give it a shot?". But, the analysis-paralysis around personality types and job fits was way too much that is not even practical beyond a point. Come on, you just cannot leave a job in this economy to pursue what you are!!!!!! Instead, I prefer a book that teaches me how to excel instead in my current workplace. I chanced upon another book titled "The Career Journey" by author Ram Iyer. For some reason, that book is not listed here but I ordered from Amazon. It was really one cool book with a lot of practical suggestions and tips on how to excel at your current work environment and rise up the corporate ladder.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great Book

Provides a wonderful insight into oneself and people in general. Good guide in helping someone who is looking to start or change careers. Highly recommend!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Hound job database

The good people at Hound understand how difficult it can be to find a job in this day and age and they have done the most helpful thing possible organizing those job listings in a central location. With the advanced network that Hound utilizes, users can narrow or widen their searches to include or exclude certain listings by entering keywords, locations, and company names in accordance with what they are looking for

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Do What You Are

I was disappointed in this book. The author should have included a quick Test to determine your profile since I do not think the average person can identify their personality by just reading the traits. We often do not see ourselves accurately. I have taken a myers briggs in the past but the chapter on the profile did not tell me anything new that I had not learned from previous test results. I think the book would be more effective if it gave the test and then the additional profile data of how to relate those results to your personality. I would not recommend this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

Choosing a career based on personality type is not a new concept in fact, the first edition of DO WHAT YOU ARE was released in 1992 (and I can actually remember reading it when I was a junior in high school). In this, the fourth edition, hopefully even more teens will be exposed to this great resource. The authors, both experts in personality type and career development, put forth the idea that choosing a career path based on your individual personality will be beneficial to your success. For those worried that discovering your personality type is a difficult process, don¿t despair, because the authors make it quite easy. There are four dimensions to personality type: Whether you are extroverted or introverted. Whether you notice things by sensing or intuition. Whether you make decisions by thinking or feeling. Whether you prefer to live by judging or perceiving. Once you¿ve discovered the answer to each of these four questions, you¿ll be able to discover which of the sixteen possible personality types you fall into. Once you do, you can quickly skip to the relevant section in the book. In my case, my personality is ESTJ ¿ or extroverted, sensing, thinking, judging. According to the authors of DO WHAT YOU ARE, my strengths lie in organization, being objective, working alone, and being a good decision maker. My weaknesses are also outlined, and include impatience with those who don¿t follow procedures, a tendency to overrun people, and difficulty listening to opposing viewpoints. Some suggestions for careers, based on my personality type, are as a teacher, government employee, sales, supervisor, or a manager. Of course the above is not a full list of the strengths, weaknesses, or recommended career choices for those whose personality type is ESTJ ¿ the above is merely a sampling. But I can say with truth that DO WHAT YOU ARE can be a great resource for those beginning their search for a career choice. I can agree that ESTJ is definitely my personality type (faults and all!) and have no doubt that this book has the power to help everyone looking to correctly match their strengths to the perfect career. **Reviewed by: Jennifer Wardrip, aka 'The Genius'

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Good read but don't limit yourself to a category

This is a good book for people who do not trust themselves to find their way. However, by categorizing yourself by a personality type, you may limit yourself. I believe in being the best I can be and trusting myself to choose what is right for me. I read Optimal Thinking six months ago and defined my ultimate purpose and most important goals and then took the most constructive actions. I am now in my dream job and am glad I did it by relying on myself to choose what is best for me. You can do it too. Use the good information in this book to choose what is best for you without boxing yourself into a category!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Do What You Are

This is an amazing book! It has helped me so much! I am a college student and was lost trying to find a major, but I found this book and am on my way to graduating in the correct field!

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Perfect match

I bought this book on recommendation from a friend. This book hit right on with jobs that I really enjoy. It allowed me to explore and think about things that would contribute to 'the ideal' job for me. I recently was considering a job change and I pulled this book back out to see where I should begin. It has helped me focus on what job would help me to be excited to get up in the morning to go to work. On another note- I have bought this book for several friends that wanted to find job satisfaction- it was a great resource for them. I have also bought this book for friends that are graduating from high school or college. graduate.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Change careers with confidence!

I recently changed careers from graphic artist to fiction writer and found myself wondering if I had lost my MIND! 'Do What You Are' not only established for me that I had made the right choice, it also helped me to better understand those I work with. I would definitely reccomend this book to anyone whether they are making career decisions or simply want to understand themselves and others better.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great book for someone interested in changing careers.

I enjoyed this book a great deal because it gave ideas of what careers match well with particular personalities. For me, the description hit the nail on the head.

Would have been useful BEFORE college!

This book explains well the different personality types and provides us with real life examples. I had some challenge when it came to assessing which type of personality I was. There is no formal questionnaire to guide us and I thought it lacked structure. Even though the authors provided many examples and description for each dimension that make up our type, it felt more like guess work to me than psychological/scientific findings. However, once I managed to figure out my type, the results were VERY consistent with reality. It provides extensive descriptions of each of the 16 personality types and, highlights in detail what job satisfaction means for each of these types, accompanied with a list of best suited careers and professions. This book helped me learn more about my type and understand more about myself, but I am still no closer to selecting a second career more suited to my personality, as they all seem to imply getting a totally different education. I wish I had found that book 10 years ago, right after high school!

Do What You Are

After reading the first chapter, I am very anxious to get to the next. I felt the chapter was very 'introductory' and not quite up to my expectations. I wonder if the next chapters won't dive into more of a analytical approach to identifying personality types and further determining which kind of job is suited for the reader. I think the book has potential to be a good read.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Outstanding!!

This book is EXCELLENT! It gave me the courage to leave a Computer Comapany and go work in the horse industry. I would never have left without the idea that this really was what I was meant to do.. the book helped me come to that conclusion.. and the decision was RIGHT ON! I highly recommend it.. even if you are not planning a change in careers... maybe just looking for something else to do with in your current employment! or if you just want to get to know yourself better. Easy reading and interesting conclusions! Highly recommend!

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