When it comes to recruiting from the ranks of people who have been displaced or laid off, recruiters who understand job families can help determine whether or not a person’s personality profile will aid in his or her new career.

As the subprime lending collapse continues to echo and spread, taking jobs with it, there are more than just commissioned mortgage brokers affected. Others affected include everyone from information technology staff, human resource specialists, accountants, marketers, and graphic designers to property managers responsible for branch office locations.

The heightened volatility in the U.S. job market affects more industries than mortgage providers and residential homebuilidng. Those who have been set adrift as a result of mid-life job changes and recent shifts in the economy may not know what to do and may find that they have become angry, confused, or even depressed. Personality assessment can help these people find focus. It can help people find a job fit in a particular job family that takes advantage of their experience, education, and preferences.

Employees who are leaving a place of business to which they have dedicated a significant amount of time may not know about the myriad changes that have taken place when it comes to finding -- and preparing for -- a new job. But as hard as it is to hear when in the middle of a drastic, life-changing employment situation, new jobs are a time to take stock, find hidden skills, and get excited about a new future as it opens up.

People may have skills they have never even considered using at work -- skills which may have lain dormant during a lengthy tenure at a job where workers may have lacked the ability to advance in responsibility and leadership.

Additionally, a new work environment that better caters to a person’s core interests may lower stress, and promote a better, more enriching daily life. Reinventing a career can be simply a matter of reorienting, and using the science of self-analysis to take stock before taking risks. Personality assessment is an effective tool to guide such analysis, especially in the hands of a skilled career counselor or coach.

The breathing economy

While Ford recently announced that 30,000 of its hourly employees will be eliminated, receiving “early retirement packages,” it is not alone in cutting back its American labor force. Fifty thousand GM employees have recently taken similar "early out" offers, as have numerous employees in the telecommunications sector.

When people who are only ten to 15 years away from traditional retirement are suddenly thrust into the job market, they can quickly become frustrated by what appear to be limited options. But really, a layoff can be an opportunity to reevaluate what is important to them as far as well-being, and may be the catalyst that they need to start a more fulfilling career.

Additionally, the economy breathes: it generally inhales after it exhales. For instance, a recent Harris Interactive survey of hiring managers and HR professionals has determined that 40% are planning to add full-time, permanent employees next year, and 81% expect to increase existing salaries.

This could be the best time in years for employees to leave unwanted jobs that lack the prospect of advancement or a future. However, finding a more fulfilling position in an industry of interest might seem like an overwhelming challenge to some individuals. This is a problem that experts find could be remedied by comprehensive personality testing at the outset of a job hunt to find hidden strengths and desires.

Job reevaluation and replacement
The right assessment helps people quit the jobs they are barely tolerating and transition into more fulfilling career paths that better fit their core personality features. They are more likely to perform to their true potential once they find careers and positions that are more aligned with their interests and work-styles.

The trick is finding the right job family, a path that can be tested for. A test for a job family distills the most important characteristics and responsibilities from a job, and shows how they are interrelated to other jobs in completely different fields.

Testing for job families can be as simple as relying upon a questionnaire, or as in-depth as relying on a full scientific assessment of preferences, skills, experience, and work ethos.

For instance, a real-estate agent may not consider all of the ways in which high-powered sales experience is useful, or may only tentatively understand the options for transitioning skills – such as going into financial services or insurance sales positions. By testing to find a person’s hidden stressors and desires, a better job fit can be found that takes advantage of a subject’s job skills, while putting them in a position that allows for a healthier, happier way of working. Sales skills can be leveraged into thousands of fields, with thousands of different work styles and agendas.

Even if a person is not being forced to leave a job, reevaluation of a job’s advancement and training prospects is always a good idea. At any given time, a huge portion of Americans are underemployed – working in jobs that do not take advantage of the full range of their skills, and which can slowly erode their chances at landing a better, more fulfilling career.

Underemployment occurs in many ways. People may choose to take jobs that meet their day-to-day needs, thinking that will be able to focus on higher aspirations in their free time. People may also take the first available job during a job search, or the job that pays the most money.

Often, people find themselves trying to do the same job over and over again because it is comfortable. They make the same mistakes and trap themselves in dead-end positions, watching peers climb the ranks in careers that provide for advancement.

A good recruiter will try to find the people who are the most qualified for a given position. They will test to find people who will fit, and expect nothing less than the most qualified candidates for a job – helping people become the best they can be, for the future of the individual, and the future of the company they are working for.

About the Author:
Taking over for her father, Dr. Roger Birkman, in 2001, Sharon Birkman Fink is President and CEO of Birkman International, Inc. providing a unique assessment tool that accurately measures internal needs, behaviors, occupational preferences and organizational strengths. She can be reached at 713-623-2760 or sfink@birkman.com.

About Birkman:
The Birkman Method ® has been in use for over 50 years and has been used by over 2 million people and 5,000 organizations worldwide, including corporations, not-for-profit organizations, governmental agencies, and individuals in their hiring, retention, motivational and organizational development activities. The assessment accurately measures social behaviors, underlying expectations of interpersonal and task actions, potential stress reactions to unmet expectations, occupational preferences and organizational strengths. For more information: www.birkman.com or 1-800-215-2760.