When Choosing Your Career, Focus on the Nature of Your Work
By: Adriana Sim
Tags: Passion, Career Advice, Careers, Self, Psychology

1. Cognitive ability

As much as we want to believe that everyone has equal chances and equal capabilities, intellectual and otherwise, that’s just not true. Some people will naturally have a higher IQ and be better suited for complex jobs than other people.

Jordan Peterson advises that, when figuring out your career, you should choose a field where you’re in the upper percentile of intelligence. You don’t want to be the stupidest person in the room — that’s going to make you miserable. But you shouldn’t want to be the smartest one there either, because you won’t have any opportunity for growth.

From the outside, things often look more simple than they actually are. You won’t understand the challenges of your work until you’re already deeply involved, so even choosing a career based on your intellect can prove to be a difficult task.

My parents didn’t understand the complexities that a job as a notary or a dentist would require. They only saw the outer actions: the notary reading and signing some papers, the doctor doing a consult, the orthodontist changing a wire, and it all seemed so simple. But there were years of blood, sweat, and tears behind those simple actions.

Do you love to study and solve complicated problems? How are your grades? What are your skills? When choosing your career, you should focus on something that you’re already good at, or at least be confident in your capacity of becoming proficient in your chosen field.

2. Conscientiousness

Conscientiousness is the personality trait of being diligent, well organized, and responsible. Highly conscientious people are goal-oriented, hard-working, and reliable. This trait is directly linked to job performance, but the downside to being highly conscientious is a tendency towards perfectionism and workaholism.

Even though this trait is glorified by society as the ultimate productivity model, many of us aren’t wired that way. Some of us need more time for leisure, more time to rejuvenate, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s part of our personality.

When choosing your job, consider if you need ample time to rest, or if you’re the kind of person who hates standing still, even for a moment. Some people thrive on working long hours, while others need freedom in their schedule so that they can allow for innovation and creativity.

3. Stress tolerance

Most of us choose our careers in a period of our lives when we’re relatively carefree. We haven’t yet experienced major stressors. So there’s really no way of knowing how much stress we can actually tolerate.

But maybe that’s not you. Maybe you’ve been through some challenging times. You’ve grown to be resilient, and nothing can phase you. In that case, you already have an advantage in this stressful society.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, you may have always been an anxious child. You like quiet environments and don’t like to be under pressure. Anxiety is on the rise, and a stressful work environment could worsen an already fragile mental health.

In my own life, I’ve come to realize that, while I enjoyed the scientific aspect of my job, I eventually became very affected by the stressful nature of it, to the point that I developed severe anxiety and panic attacks.

The pressure to do your job correctly in a limited amount of time, the fear of litigation, and occasional unpleasant interactions with difficult patients can make any medical career very stressful, as a lot of things can go wrong.

And this can be true for any job, but it’s rarely obvious from the surface.

4. Introversion vs. Extroversion

Jordan Peterson didn’t include this in his lecture, but, based on my life experience, I think it’s important to mention it here.

Introversion and extroversion are probably the most popular personality types, and even if being a “true” introvert or extrovert is debatable, most of us have already identified with one or the other.

For the longest time, I knew I was a quiet, introverted person who was drained by too much social interaction. Even as a child, I loved nothing more than to sit in a corner and read a book. I loved locking myself in a room to study or write. Yet, I chose a career where I interact with over a dozen people a day, and talk until my mouth dries up. This exhausts me beyond measure, and I wish I had considered this before choosing my job.

My assistant is the complete opposite. She loves the dynamic nature of the workplace and thrives on running around, getting instruments ready, answering phone calls, and talking to people. This year’s lockdown drove her up a wall, while I was happy to be home and sip coffee in my pajamas.

It took me 35 years to figure out that I really love writing, researching and anything creative that is essentially solitary quiet work. I always knew that about myself but didn’t think that it would matter that much, so I suppressed it for years until I couldn’t hold it down any longer.