What is the DISC in the Job Search?
Personality tests help you understand yourself more completely. They reveal behavioral traits that provide insights into what you are capable of in your life and in the workplace. The DISC assessment is one of many tests that you can take to aid your job search.
Let's delve into the world of DISC to see what it is and how you can use it (or not) in your job search.
The Four Types Components of DISC
The DISC assessment was developed by Dr. William Marston in 1928. Using four personality styles, he developed a four-quadrant model with the aim of understanding an individual's behavior. The test consists of 24 facets, and it takes under 30 minutes to complete.
Originally, DISC wasn't designed as a pre-employment tool. This hasn't stopped job seekers and organizations from utilizing it, however, as understanding an individual's behavior is vital for both the job search and business. Implementing the DISC assessment into a business context, we can see that the four personality styles are:
Dominance — Dominance types are direct and tend to focus on results. They are competitive and often feel that there are various answers to problems, but only theirs is right.
Influence — Influence types are enthusiastic, friendly, and optimistic. They believe that there is always the right person to solve a problem.
Steadiness — Steadiness types are sincere, patient, and modest. They enjoy working within a pre-set framework or system to meet the expectations of employers, workmates, or customers.
Compliance — Compliance types are cautious and contemplative with the aim of being accurate. They concentrate on producing high-quality work that employers ask of them.
These four basic personality styles of DISC make it simple to understand an individual's main behavioral and character traits. It's hard to define a person as an individual letter, so the test often defines your primary style as well as one or two secondary styles. Below are examples of the different personality types that describe an individual
How DISC can Aid Your Job Search
A DISC assessment can assist your job search as it analyzes your personality based on your traits, preferences, tendencies, and more. Take an online DISC assessment to see what personality type you are. You may realize that there are insights about your strengths, weaknesses, and preferences that you haven't considered before.
Use these insights to alter your job search to better suit your strengths and preferences. Align your job search with your personality style and see what stands out to you. If the DISC assessment has identified areas of weakness that you feel you can improve, then take it on board and seek out education or training courses.
Adding a DISC profile to a resume is an option that can stimulate an employer's interest. Giving a recruiter a full personality assessment will give them a clear picture of your personality and behavioral style. They can then assess if you will fit into their organization better than they would with just a resume.
Be Careful Not to Hurt Your Job Search!
It is important to note that DISC is a pseudoscience. It doesn't offer a completely accurate assessment of an individual's personality and it doesn't predict job success. You also may not want to be classified as a person who fits into a specific category.
When attaching your DISC profile to your resume, be sure that you aren't doing more harm than good. Showing off what is great about you is always beneficial, but you will also uncover some weaknesses that you may wish to not expose to an employer. Do this and you can risk ruling yourself out of the hiring process due to potentially unflattering information.
Many employers are unaware of what the DISC assessment is. They may not know how to read the information presented to them, let alone how to use it in the hiring process. As well as this, recruiters spend much of their time sifting through resumes which means they simply won't have the time to read a DISC profile too.
Using DISC in the Job Search
You can use a wide variety of tools to help point you down the correct path in your job search. The DISC assessment provides both benefits and drawbacks. While it can give you the advantage of identifying your strengths and weaknesses, it can also box you into one category which may limit your job search.
A DISC assessment is well worth your time but take a moment to consider whether to include it in your future resume. It may end up giving you the edge you need over candidates, or it may exclude you from the hiring process. DISC is a useful tool but remember that it doesn't give you a perfect description of yourself.
