The concept of professionally important features
Professionally important characteristics include psychological characteristics of sensory activity, attention, memory, emotional-volitional sphere and personality traits.
Let's take a closer look at these professional characteristics.
Sensory activity. Many professions require continuous tracking over a wide sensory field. And some professions, on the contrary, require a sharp narrowing of the field of perception. There are also professions where tracking moving and flickering objects is of great importance.
So, sensory activity is a very important professionally important sign.
Mental activity. Thinking as a professionally important feature is primarily identified in those professions where it is necessary to evaluate a situation, which, in turn, requires making a certain decision depending on the situation.
Motor activity. Any motor activity caused by a sensory component. There are professions in which the motor component of the action is of a very simple nature, namely: in response to a certain situation, perform manual actions (press a button). There are also professions with complex sensorimotor coordination of not only the arms, but also the legs. These are, for example, driving professions: drivers, pilots, seamstress professions and various machine operator professions.
Attention. Attention carries out the function of monitoring activity; it is necessarily present in any activity. But in different professions, individual properties of attention have different meanings. There are professions that require prolonged attention directed at one or several objects throughout the day.
There are also professions that require an exceptionally broad expansion or shift of attention.
Thanks to good attention, a person has the opportunity to correct many mistakes he has made.
Memory. Memory is always needed regardless of activity. But there are professions in which memory is one of the most important features. For example, the work of a telegraph operator, a typist, when they need to remember a lot of numbers, some codes and write or voice them correctly. This type of memory is called short-term memory.
Emotional-volitional sphere. Positive emotions, for example, satisfaction with one’s job, a sense of responsibility, have a very good effect on any work activity. Labor productivity increases significantly. But, unfortunately, there are also negative emotions. This is when a person doesn't like his job.
In addition, there are such emotions, the state of mind at the moment. Labor productivity also depends on the state of mind in which a person comes to work.
There are many cases where a person is inexperienced in this activity, but he is very excited by the work, copes wonderfully with the tasks assigned, and over time becomes an expert in his field.
Individual personality characteristics. These, one might say, are qualities that reflect the originality of a person’s psyche, his uniqueness.
Individuality is manifested in temperamental traits, character, and self-esteem.
Temperament is the properties that characterize the dynamics of individual mental processes.
There are four types of temperament: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic.
Features of temperament are of great importance in the organization of work activity. For example, sanguine people are characterized by high mental activity and energy; they are cheerful and sociable. This gives them the opportunity to influence the behavior of other people. A person with a choleric temperament is also characterized by high mental activity and energy; but a tendency to change mood, impatience, and imbalance sometimes make a choleric person aggressive. Phlegmatic people tend to switch from one type of activity to another. This type of temperament is determined by a calm disposition of spirit and endurance in any difficult situation. Such people always complete their work to the end.
Professional qualities for different types of professions
In order to master a certain profession and then work successfully, a person must have certain qualities that meet the requirements that this profession places on the personality of the worker.
Professions of the “human-technical” type.
Examples of professions: industrial engineer, electrician, mechanic, installer, carpenter, seamstress, electric and gas welder, car driver, bulldozer driver, plasterer-painter.
It requires precision, certainty of action, high performance discipline, accuracy, responsibility, practical thinking, and technical imagination. High demands are placed on vision, hearing, muscle sensitivity, attention, and a wide variety of types of memory.
Professions of the “person-to-person” type.
Examples of professions: trainer, lawyer, psychologist, teacher, nurse, waiter, salesman, manager, social worker, advertising agent, consultant.
Special training is required to work in a specific field of production, science, technology, and art. Personal qualities are important: stable, good mood in the process of working with people; the need for communication, the ability to mentally put oneself in the place of another person, to quickly understand the intentions, thoughts, and moods of people; ability to understand human relationships, good memory; ability to find a common language with different people, patience.
Professions of the “man-nature” type.
Examples of professions: agronomist, livestock specialist, veterinarian, ecologist, geologist, dog handler, landscaper, meteorologist, teacher of chemistry, biology, geography.
An important quality is love for nature, associated with knowledge of the laws of nature and their application. You need to have foresight, be prepared for unforeseen events, and you have to keep a lot of information in mind. Initiative and independence in solving specific work problems are important. Changing working conditions require creative thinking from the employee.
Professions of the “person-sign system” type.
Examples of professions: proofreader, translator, programmer, dispatcher, librarian, accountant, economist, lawyer, architect, archivist, bank employee.
It is important for a specialist who works with signs to be able, on the one hand, to be able to distract from the real properties of objects indicated by signs (developed abstract thinking), and on the other, to imagine and perceive the characteristics behind the signs (developed recreating imagination); the following qualities are also necessary: such as concentration, stability of attention, perseverance.
Professions such as “person-artistic image”
Examples of professions: actor, graphic artist, makeup artist, writer, composer, photographer, artistic director, hairdresser, designer.
It requires aptitude for the arts, creative imagination, imaginative thinking, and, of course, hard work. An artist must be purposeful, have a realistic level of aspirations for public recognition (not claim more than he deserves) in order to receive satisfaction from his work.
Personal qualities vs professional qualities
Have you ever wondered how important your professional qualities are to employers? Do you think this is the most important thing they consider when hiring? Do you think that the more technologies and programming languages you know, the more likely you are to find a job?
See how many vacancies are created daily. It would seem that good specialists are already a dime a dozen, but the problem is that for some reason the market still experiences difficulties in recruiting personnel. On the one hand, there are many vacancies and candidates, on the other, it is difficult to find suitable ones. What's the matter?
Maybe in professional capacity? Not sure. IT people are quite enthusiastic people and usually have no difficulties with professional development. Most people have enough motivation to constantly improve their skills. It is easy to make up for shortcomings in professional qualities, but correcting shortcomings in personal qualities is much more difficult. This is why many are ready to hire promising interns without knowledge and experience and raise them in their company simply because he is a “cool guy.” Personal qualities play a greater role than professional ones.
No, no, don’t rush to add template phrases like “communication skills”, “initiative” and other similar heresies to your resume. Just look at yourself from the outside and try to analyze your actions through the eyes of your employer. This article will have more questions than answers. I'm sure you'll find the latter yourself.
Do more than required
You don't go beyond the required task. You don't do more because you won't get paid extra for it. You think about how to work less or delegate the work to someone else. You do the bare minimum because that's enough.
Forget about the “you tell me, I tell you” approach. This is a losing strategy. Always do more than is expected of you. What are you risking? Wasted time? Close the Facebook tab and don't be ridiculous.
Example: Offer the customer several options for work, even if he did not require this from you.
Answer yourself the question “What controls you?” Does extrinsic motivation decide how well you will perform, or do you always perform well without expecting anything in return?
However, do not think that your efforts will go unnoticed. You will be surprised how much the attitude towards you will change.
Are you the hands or the head?
You hands: “Tell me what and how to draw, and I will draw.” You're the head: “Tell me what you want and I'll figure out how to draw it.”
How do you usually act?
An eternal story about responsibility
I know how important this is, but sometimes it’s easier to throw responsibility off to “chance.”
“I didn’t do it because the Internet didn’t work.” “I didn’t do it because the designer didn’t provide the layout on time.”
The company needs you to take on part of the work and be fully responsible for it. Just say that now everyone can sleep peacefully, because you are the same super hero who makes sure that the company’s websites do not fall under DDoS attacks*. You will be appreciated for this.
*this is just an example, do not try to repeat it.
Do you talk about problems or solve them?
You either talk about problems or solve them. What do you do when faced with a problem? Every time you talk about a problem so that someone can take over the work, or do you try to find a solution yourself?
Do you feel like this problem has no solution? Or are complex unsolvable problems an interesting challenge for you?
What do you do when faced with a problem? Do you know exactly who is to blame, or do you know exactly what needs to be done about it?
My priority == company priority
Remember that you were hired to work as part of a team. Before choosing a new-fangled framework for development or implementing a new technology, evaluate how much of a priority it is for the company. What's important now? Quick results or fundamental approach? You cannot ignore the company's priorities, otherwise you will not help it, but oppose it. Working in a team and being able to take other people's opinions into account is an important skill.
Your own opinion is your enemy
Every person has the ability to teach us something, even if his opinion does not coincide with our own. But we are used to arguing just to assert ourselves, and we don’t think that anything useful can be taken from this person. We have such a strong sense of our own that we are willing to eat anyone who does not meet our standards. We can't hear each other.
Instead of a conclusion
This is not all that can be said about personal qualities. I just wanted to draw your attention to this side of your development. Everyone wants to surround themselves with honest and decent people. Let them value you for this very reason. Don't stop developing.
For those who want to become a programmer, we recommend the profession “Web Developer”.
