You are an independent spirit. You enjoy being self-sufficient and feeling in control of your life. People always praise you for your resourcefulness – you need very little to thrive!
You crave freedom, flexibility and choices. You want to take full ownership of your work and be instrumental in making your projects the way you want them to be. You probably have a brag book of what you’ve achieved and overcome all on your own over the years! You often dislike following the crowd and would rather define your own success, discover your own path and explore uncharted waters.
Naturally future-oriented, and a lover of planning and goal-setting, you strive to realise your full potential. You need momentum and growth, which is why you are prone to feeling limited after you overcome a major challenge and your work becomes a routine. No one can stop you from achieving your goals once they are set – you’ve got really strong discipline and are determined to get things done.
Since you respect everyone’s autonomy as much as your own, normally you don’t have a strong desire to fight “against all odds” or to influence a million people, per se. However, when you are working on something you care deeply about, and realise the cultural context is a major obstacle, the rebellious part of you will then appear, and your eagerness to interact and inspire more people will come in.
You love simple and straightforward work arrangements that offer flexibility. Bureaucracy, office politics and obsolete rules and policies are offputting to you.
You like roles that define the company mission, goals and project scopes clearly, and at the same time empower you with the ownership, responsibility and room to make decisions on HOW to get things done.
Managing a big team is not appealing to you because it feels too troublesome to work with and be responsible for many others.
You feel constrained, trapped or suppressed. You feel stuck in routines and rigid formalities, and you get pissed off with senior management and the politics they play. At times you become antisocial at work. You retreat to your office or desk whenever possible.
Being accustomed to self-reliance, you are probably hesitant to ask for help when you need it, so you tend to put too much pressure on yourself. Moreover, you often bite off more than you can chew, which makes your teammates feel like you do not trust them enough to share the workload. If you have ever wondered why no one appreciates your efforts, this could be a major reason.
You are self-driven with a can-do attitude, and will deliver what you promise without needing close supervision. Your ideal career is result-oriented rather than process-driven, which offers the space for you to explore new possibilities and do things effectively.
A flat hierarchy where management is open-minded and growth-oriented would be attractive to you. You are also naturally drawn to hustling, freelancing or entrepreneurship, i.e. the self-employment route.
You are an artist of life. It doesn’t matter what tools or canvas you use; your career happiness lies in having a channel where you can fully immerse yourself in the moment, and creatively express your awesomeness through your work.
As an honest, truthful and opinionated being, you wear your heart on your sleeve, and are unapologetically yourself. You have a strong need for expression and remain authentic to who you truly are. Whether people like you or not, that is another issue.
Your career is passion-driven. You are naturally curious about varied topics. You crave inspiration, stories and innovative ideas. Variety fuels you, and you love to jump from project to project.
Addicted to the trancelike flow state you find yourself in at work, you appreciate the beauty in the present moment and enjoy the process of experimentation. You learn best by doing.
You are present-focused, naturally spontaneous and open to life’s possibilities. You often have unique, quirky thoughts. You dislike rules and believe they limit your creativity.
Being on a different path doesn’t bother you. In fact, being special is part of your identity, and you don’t follow the so-called success paths set by others blindly.
You knew you were a creator early on in life, whether in writing, art, music, architecture, technology, performance or something else. You have a strong need of expression to let the art be created through you. You have developed unique rituals or habits to facilitate your creative process.
You are always in your head playing with your ideas, and hate constant interruptions. Roles that require frequent meetings with team members might not work well for you.
You are at your best when you are flexible to explore and experiment with how you work as the idea generator. Management roles are not attractive to you, as they complicate your creative process.
People do not appreciate, or even allow your creativity to sprout. You feel limited, suppressed and shut down. You use your best talents as technical skills and feel like a robot at times. You start to wonder if you should just “get practical” and follow the policies and procedures like everyone else.
Your ideal career provides an immersive experience in the work process. You have a rich inner world that keeps you engaged and helps you lose track of time.
Creative by nature, your work must give you lots of freedom for exploration and experimentation, and the creative space to tweet your way to the best creation.
You favour work environments with minimal rules – those which are fun and friendly, growth-oriented and don’t require you to handle too many execution details.
You are a natural giver. You were born to be of service to other people, especially to those who are in need. You have a tender heart and cannot stand to see others suffer.
Whatever format you choose, whether it is through art, healing, entertainment or taking care of others, you give freely and go all out with what you have.
You are happy when you see others happy because of your actions. You need to feel loved, respected and valued to keep going.
Some kind words of appreciation or gratitude can fuel you up for a long time. You work hard to please people, and you need love and attention to feel important.
You value humanity more than financial returns. Your job satisfaction comes from being able to help others get out of a difficult situation, and in response, those people will share their love, kindness and appreciation with you.
You are a people person, and you enjoy working directly with others and supporting them through your work. You love sharing and teaching. It makes you feel good to be listened to.
A harmonious workplace and a positive relationship with your colleagues are essential to you.
You are an excellent observer, and you are able to read people’s minds. You intuitively know what others need and provide it before they even tell you.
Secretly you crave admiration, and you need the crowd (aka your fan club) to feel valued. When the love you are giving is not reciprocated, you feel unworthy.
You feel taken for granted, underappreciated and misunderstood. The most heartbreaking scenario is when you work with hostile people in a highly-competitive environment each day. However, you may be the one to say you’re quitting without taking action.
Naturally friendly and cooperative, your ideal work environment will allow you to see your co-workers as friends in a supportive, conflict-free setting.
As a loyal and reliable contributor, you perform best when you can follow established procedures, cultivate warm and genuine relationships with people and work in tangible ways to improve their lives.
You are a born leader. You love inspiring others to change and take action. Your motto is “If I can do it, you can too!”
You love seeing people improving, and you enjoy helping them get what they want. Making an impact and seeing what you did to make those amazing things happen is key to your career satisfaction.
You have a strong need to feel respected and be important in people’s lives. Your success is built on others’ successes. You love to evoke other people’s potential, sometimes in an iron-tough way to push their limits and expand their capacities.
You are a great teacher and love to spread your ideas. You have a charismatic way of spreading your message, whether it’s in writing, multimedia formats or speaking.
You have a natural inclination to guide people through their challenges. You don’t need to receive thank-you notes to feel your impact; you gain an enormous satisfaction whenever you see people progress.
You are strongly attracted to management roles where you can leverage the team to achieve bigger and better things.
Usually, you are assertive, driven and vocal in your opinions, and can easily get people on board. People look up to you in problem-solving and decision-making scenarios.
Following instructions closely may not be your tendency. However, you get furious when your subordinates are not doing their work as you instructed.
Your suggestions and opinions are not being taken seriously. You are in a role that is not significant or impactful to the organisation’s success. You feel small and invisible. You cannot see the impact you are making, and think you are not useful to others. Feeling discouraged, you refrain from speaking up and helping people.
People may see you as too controlling, bossy or authoritative when you try to interfere with others’ lives. Resist the urge to change others’ perspectives, even you think it’s in their best interest. “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
Moreover, your dominant nature may keep other people from speaking up. Make sure there is room for open-minded discussion within your team, and agree to disagree with your teammates.
You enjoy an active and challenging work environment where expectations are clear, contributions are appreciated, and growth is encouraged.
As a masterful and diplomatic communicator, your ideal role allows you to meet and establish relationships quickly, leading your people to achieve a mission together with commitment and a can-do spirit.
You are always on a quest for excellence.
As a perfectionist, you set really high standards for yourself. “The sky is the limit” is your life motto, and you always want to do things right.
You are naturally more task-focused than people-driven. You are drawn to professions that involve specialisation and skill mastery. You want to be recognised as an expert in your field, and have the single-minded focus on topics you feel drawn to.
Competitions and challenges excite you, even when you are only competing with yourself. You are ambitious. You aren’t easily satisfied with the status-quo, and are always striving for more.
You have high integrity and do your best even when no one is watching. You are an advocate of life-long self-improvement, and hungry for learning continuously. You have a growth mindset, and your creativity often appears in the HOW of doing things and in practical applications.
You are the kind of person who always goes for quality, not quantity nor efficiency. You cannot stand mediocrity, complacency or going with the status quo.
You love systems. Your favourite work component always involves “optimisation” of some kind. You admire craftsmanship, and emphasise superb quality.
You believe in compliance and regulations because they keep things in order and help maintain the proper structure. You have a methodical approach to work, and enjoy having a clear career path ahead. You take calculated risks when needed.
You feel grumpy, overworked and like you are settling for less than you deserve. You feel like you are the only one on your team who aims for greatness. You wonder how your co-workers can live with their “relatively low” standard of work without feeling ashamed, so sometimes you go out of your way to help them raise their standards. Note that your effort might not always be well-received.
You prefer an established work environment with a visible career path, comprehensive systems and policies in place and clearly-defined job duties among teams.
It is important for the organisational culture to value quality, continuous improvement and achievements.
You will steadily grow your expertise in one field with self-imposed commitment. In return, you expect your pursuit of excellence to be rewarded with respect and recognition of your capability and intelligence.
You work to live, not the other way around. A job is what you do in exchange for a more flexible lifestyle. Your career is not the end goal; life is. You can separate work and life with no guilt.
Living a life well-lived means a lot to you, and maintaining a secure and stable income through work is your way of accumulating life currencies in exchange for more alternative freedom. You believe we only live once, so life’s enjoyment is crucial to your values.
Sometimes you feel out of place when people around you keep talking about following their passions or changing the world, or when people take pride in overworking (or “hustling”). However, what you aim for in life is to have fun and obtain lots of freedom so you can enjoy every possible experience. People may think you are too “unambitious”; that said, you do not mind it because you respect people’s different life priorities.
You can always find the most efficient way to execute so you can get things done and be off work on time (or early!). You strive to maintain a work-life balance, both mentally and physically.
You are grounded and hands-on, and enjoy routines. In turn, you enjoy predictability in your daily tasks. Unlike perfectionists, who are obsessed with details only they care about, you do good enough work and move on to the next task.
You are a dutiful, hardworking and reliable co-worker. You are not interested in playing office power games. You also prefer keeping your professional peers separate from your private life.
You prefer to work in a relatively stable and predictable work environment. You rely on your loyal contribution at work to sustain your everyday lifestyle.
Your ideal role is one that allows you to be hands-on and involved in operations that do not involve too many intellectual puzzles. This work environment would also value efficiency, smooth execution and result-orientation. Flexitime and remote working arrangements appeal to you.