Personality, social background, and occupational career success

Pooled cross-sectional and life-history data from the Dutch Family Survey 1998 and 2000 (N = 4000) were used to investigate whether personality was directly related to income attainment and occupational career transitions after controlling for human capital indicators, working hours, and parental social background. The results indicated that there were substantive direct relations between personality traits and occupational career success. Extraversion related positively to remuneration but only for men. Emotional stability was positively related to remuneration for both genders. Agreeableness was not associated with career outcomes. Conscientiousness was negatively related to women’s upward status mobility. Openness to experience was negatively related to earnings, but only for men. Model comparisons indicated that models of career success that excluded personality traits had to be rejected. It is concluded that personality characteristics contribute importantly to earnings and status attainment, in addition to sociological variables.