It's all about you

Personality profiling has become a huge part of career planning, team building and leadership development - with employers and individuals alike fascinated by what a personality type says about someone.
‍
There are loads of ways to find out your personality type - from expensive, time-intensive tools to five minute online pop-sci quizzes - and even more articles telling you how to interpret your ‘type’, whether it’s finding out which Friends or Game of Thrones character you are most like or by matching your profile to a list of suggested occupations that align best with what makes you, you.
‍
At Voco, we thoroughly enjoy getting to know more about ourselves and think it’s really important to help define what you want from work and what will make you happiest - but we also know there are loads of people out there who specialise in personality profiling so if you want to get an in-depth read on your type, we suggest you check out 16personalities.com who offer a great, fun and insightful take on the traditional MBTI framework.
‍
But we also know that understanding a few key points about your personality type can help you build really effective connections with other Voco members, and help us curate your community so it works for you. So we asked you a few questions when you joined us which have helped us to create an idea of some of the traits most important to the Voco experience and we call this your ‘Pen Portrait’ - an informal sketch of some of your preferences.

Unpacking your Pen Portrait

In your Pen Portrait you will find a loose description of your preference across three themes:-
‍
If you get your energy from working with others - commonly termed extroverted thinking - or from figuring things out on your own - introverted thinking.

If you favour structured planning and goal setting; or if you prefer a more dynamic, spontaneous approach to getting things done.

If you tend to let your heart and emotions lead your decision making; or if you favour your head, using data and facts to drive key decisions.
‍

Putting it into practice

Remember there are no good or bad Pen Portraits and they are not set in stone - there’s no pathologising here! They are just a useful snapshot of some key indicators which are worth keeping in mind throughout your Voco conversations.
‍
For example, if you strongly favour extroverted thinking, it’s wise to see if your match also likes thinking things through out loud, or else you might end up doing most of the talking. Or if you’re a very dynamic planner, you might need to impose some extra structure to your Voco journey to keep you on track, and make sure you’re providing timely and structured feedback to others.
‍
Your Pen Portrait is just one tool to help you map your path and figure out what you want from Voco and from work; and it’s also a great talking point with your Voco matches as understanding how each other thinks is important to building an effective connection.

But remember, your personality is unique to you, so don’t let your Pen Portrait define you!

‍