Understanding Status-Seeking Personalities at Work

Secondary Personality Type: Status Seeker

Taking a look at different aspects of someone’s personality yields valuable insight into their behavior in the workplace. The four main personality types (A, B, C, and D) provide an initial basis for understanding. Nevertheless, exploring the secondary personality types, as identified by Hire Success^®, can help pinpoint key attributes and traits that might be missing at first. Finally, reviewing the 20 character trait descriptions allows you to see how much the person tends toward one of two opposing traits on the sliding scale. Below, we’ll dig a little deeper into the Status Seeker personality type.

How to identify a Status Seeker personality type

Status seekers are generally outgoing and enthusiastic. Their positive outlook and trusting nature can make them well-liked and popular to be around, but they often have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions about what someone else means before that person is finished speaking. They have respect for authority, money, and power — and a liking for the tangible benefits that can come with them.

Sound like any job candidates you’ve run across? If so, some of the following Status Seeker personality traits may also ring true.

Status Seeker Personality Traits

• Optimistic
• Positive
• Enthusiastic
• Persuasive
• Trusting
• Seeks authority
• Seeks prestige
• Probably collects status symbols
• Rationalizes failure
• Uses excuses (for self and others)
• Has a tendency to finish sentences for others (or explain what the other person “really” means)

What are the best careers for a Status Seeker?

Status Seekers need to be around people, so they do well in group settings. They prefer to have established rules and guidelines and are most comfortable when there are clear tasks and an explicit chain of command in the office. Status Seeker personalities want to do well in their work (and they very often do), but in cases where they or their team members fall short, they’re likely to come up with excuses about why it wasn’t their fault that things didn’t work out as they should have.

With their desire to work with and around other people, as well as have clear hierarchies in their work environment, the best Status Seeker career options include school administrators, event organizers, managers, medical providers, and teachers.