CHOOSING TEACHING AS A PROFESSION: INFLUENCE OF BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS ON FALLBACK CAREER

Personality plays a significant role in influencing motivation for choosing a perspective profession. As empirical evidence confirmed, personality traits conscientiousness, openness to experience, extraversion are in positive correlation with intrinsic motives for choosing teaching as a profession (in negative with personality trait neuroticism), and in negative correlation with extrinsic motivation and fallback career (in positive with personality trait neuroticism). The primary aim of research is to point out the importance of personality traits in career choices via detecting which personality traits are predictors of fallback career. In the research first grade university students (teacher trainees; N = 402) completed the Five Factor Inventory and SMVUP-4-S scale. As results show, Big Five personality traits are in correlation with fallback career and are a significant predictor of fallback career. The Big Five model together explained 17.4% of the variance in fallback career, where personality traits agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness to experience and neuroticism has been shown as a statistically significant predictor of fallback career of teacher trainees.