Personality and Career Success: Concurrent and Longitudinal Relations

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Organizational Behavior
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Career success is often viewed as a combination of extrinsic factors (e.g., income) and intrinsic factors (e.g., job satisfaction).
• The Five-Factor Model of personality (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness) is a widely accepted framework for understanding individual differences.
• The interplay between personality traits and career success, particularly over time, requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the reciprocal relationship between personality traits and both extrinsic and intrinsic career success.
• To determine if personality influences career success and if career success, in turn, influences personality.
• To explore these dynamics across different career stages, with a focus on early career influences.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional and longitudinal study design was employed.
• Participants (N=731) completed personality assessments and reported on their occupational prestige, income, and job satisfaction.
• A subset (n=302) was reassessed approximately 10 years later to enable longitudinal analysis.

Main Results:

• Concurrently, higher emotional stability and conscientiousness were associated with greater income and job satisfaction.
• Longitudinal findings indicated that for younger individuals, higher baseline income predicted decreases in Neuroticism.
• Baseline Extraversion predicted increases in income over the 10-year period.

Conclusions:

• The mutual influence between career success and personality appears to be primarily linked to income.
• These reciprocal effects are most pronounced during the early stages of one's career.
• Personality traits can shape early career trajectories, and early career outcomes can, in turn, moderate personality development.