How a personality test could help you win voice over jobs or help your business succeed.
Scott Dickson
There are 5 key human characteristics that we all have in common. These characteristics, knows as “The Big 5”, ultimately make up our personalities
1. Openness – Your willingness accept new and uncommon experiences. This measures your level of creativity.
2. Conscientiousness – The degree of care throughout your life. The higher your score the more likely organized and thorough you are.
3. Extraversion – How social are you? Are you quiet or outgoing?
4. Agreeableness – This measure the amount of empathy or sympathy you have for others. It’s an indicator of kindness and friendliness.
5. Neuroticism or Natural Reactions – How level are you emotions? Do you tend to overreact or react negatively to bad news or stressful situations? Or do you not sweat the small stuff and remain calm in those situations?
How the Big Five Traits can be utilized.
Business
This is a good recruiting tool to help find the right talent for the right position. Evaluate what the role requires. Independent thinking? Creativity? Organization? This can be an indicator to guide your decisions about a potential candidate. Using other recruiting methods in conjunction with the Big 5 is recommended.
This tool can also be useful when building effective teams within an organization.
Personally
The Big Five can provide insights into understanding your personality to help you choose the right job or identify a new role. I am a voice over actor. As a voice over actor, understanding who you are is very important. You must be authentic in your delivery to establish a connection to your listening audience. Without understanding your personality traits, you run the risk of auditioning for roles that are not the best for you. And since acting is a necessity to being a good voice over artist or landing a voice over job, it’s worth doing some self-evaluation before your next audition.
This is not a one-size fits all method, but here are some ways voice over actors could use this Big Five personality test to help choose the right role:
· Openness – Voice overs scripts that require ad libbing or creativity such as creating a voice for an animated character or video games.
· High Conscientiousness – You may be most successful in Professional or corporate role
· High Extraversion – Upbeat, energetic, friendly voice over styles.
· High Agreeableness – Compassionate and kind voice overs. For example, hospital and health PSA’s.
· High Neuroticism or Natural Reaction – Voice overs that require anxious, nervous or worrisome actions.
My “Big Five” personality test report results
I took the 15 minute test and my results are below. Factor scores give a broad global description of an individual. Facet scores give, in more detail, information about specific personality traits that determine the broad global description. If you would like to take the survey yourself, head over here: https://www.123test.com/personality-test/.
Understanding the scores
This report ranks your scores within a range from 'very low' to 'very high'. To enable you to make a comparison the percentage of people who normally fall within each range is indicated.
*Normal adult working population. Please note that distribution of scores may differ if comparisons are being made against other cultural, demographic or specific occupational groups.
The Strongest Personality Factor
The Factor test score furthest away from 50 - above or below - indicates the person's strongest personality trait. This personality trait is likely to have the greatest influence on your overall behavior, motivation, values and reactions to life and work situations. The next furthest away from 50 - above or below - is likely to have the next greatest influence and so on.
From my results, I scored highest on Natural Reactions. Looking for a calm voice over delivery anyone? Meditation apps maybe? My next highest score furthest away from 50 was in extraversion, an indicator to consider voice over auditions that may require an upbeat, guy-next door, friendly tone. The results of this test will help me audition for the right roles and increase my chances of landing the right voice over job. Try it for yourself! At the very least you’ll learn a little about yourself.
Scott Dickson is a voice over actor and owner of Scott Dickson Voiceover, LLC. Additionally, he is a Brand Marketing and Advertising professional with over 15 years experience working for top recognizable brands such as SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, Southwest Airlines, and March of Dimes. As a marketing professional, he has worked in diverse business sectors including travel & tourism, not-for-profit, and higher education.
scott@scottdicksonvoiceover.com
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