A warning about personality testing

There has been quite a lot of research into the impact of personality on specialty choice, and we would all like to enter a description of ourselves into a magic box only to find our “perfect match” career pathway revealed. This is unrealistic for a number of reasons:

1. The literature on personality and medical specialties is far from consistent. In fact a recent review article on the subject concluded that “there is more variation in personality within medical specialties than between them”! Any given personality is suitable for a satisfying career in several specialties, and any given specialty can accommodate a range of personalities.
2. Even if there were a good correlation between personality and medical specialties, this correlation would only tell us about what personalities exist within a specialty, not about the job satisfaction of individuals.
3. There are many factors other than personality that seem to be more important in specialty choice. These include values and interests, as discussed below, and pragmatic factors such as availability (competitiveness) of positions.

In so much as personality testing is a form of self-exploration, it may be of some use in choosing your specialty. We feel that its role is quite limited.

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