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Personality quiz for all you IT bods: Are you a chameleon or an outlaw? A diplomat or a high flier? Vote right here
More entertaining than Myers-Briggs, about as useful as a bag of… sticks
Poll Do you spend more time chatting at the watercooler than at your work desk? You’re probably a curious collaborator. Do you take pleasure in pointing out other people’s mistakes? You might just be a diplomat.
No, we haven’t smoked illegal substances here at The Reg: IT jobs board CWjobs has worked with “culture fit specialists” Good&Co to survey 1,000 IT professionals and create a gloriously nonsensical [PDF] document that divides techies into six personality types.
Good&Co is one of those startups that believe it’s your personality, not your skills, that define success in the workplace. It also believes faceless conglomerates that employ thousands of people all around the world each have their own culture – something that plays well with faceless conglomerates.
The High Fliers are apparently in it for the money: they care about career progression above all else, which means they are likely to stay in the same job for at least five years. After all, nothing says "high flyer" like a lifetime spent in corporate bondage. They prefer to work in IT and cloud computing, regardless of what kind of immoral organization is paying their salary.
The Chameleons, according to Good&Co, are the opposite of High Flyers – they are all about mixing it up and get bored quickly if they are stuck in the same job, doing the same thing. You’ll find your chameleons blending into the environment across IT departments, in cloud data centres and code factories.
The Outlaws want an easy ride: a healthy work-life balance, and a role that doesn’t push them too hard, states the paper. These guys often plague financial and legal companies.
The Curious Collaborators are the sociable extroverts that just want to be friends with you, and will never threaten your position, or snitch to the boss. They are great fun at parties. They like cyber, as well as your general IT.
The Diplomats apparently score the highest in empathy and have great persuasion skills. They care about people and want to protect their stuff - for these reasons, they often end up in security, as well as AI and cloud computing.
The Provocateurs are a pain in the ass: they are drawn to extremes, and want a job that serves them, not the industry. This group is supposedly the most interested in training and upskilling, and strongly prefers to work in IT and telecoms.
While this "research" is unlikely to actually help employers, it succeeds in celebrating the diversity of the IT workforce. Vote below, dear readers, so we can all see what kind of folks you are:
The jobs board also highlighted a few of its more serious findings, like the fact that 52 per cent of IT workers are ready to walk over lack of learning and development opportunities, and that micromanagement would drive four in 10 out of the door.
It also confirms our suspicion that millennials are not interested in earthly possessions: more than half (56 per cent) of Gen Z workers say a new challenge is more important than higher salary and other benefits (33 per cent.)
“Striking the right balance between a competitive remuneration package and opportunities for development is one of the biggest challenges facing employers,” said the jobs-finding crowd. ®
Biting the hand that feeds IT
