What does an occupation say about people?

Something else to ask yourself is what is your character’s profession? What does that say about your character? Often your plot will dictate what job your character has but you may want to spend some time thinking if that job is really the best job for the plot. Once you have to decide what traits your character had to have to get those traits. If your character is high up in the military or in business you know it has to be motivated and have a strong persona, unless favoritism was involved. If your character has been very low level worker for a number of years you know it has little motivation or is too honest to get promoted. Or else the job is very hard to get promoted in, which could make the character rather bitter. If your character works with kids than they must have a good imagination to understand the kids as well as a lot of patience and kindness. If the person is a sales person than they’d better hope they are a good people person or at least be able to fake it. If your person is a college professor they are likely very intellectual while a preschool teacher is likely very playful. When you think of a job, be sure you don’t have a character that is happy with their job if their personality doesn’t fit the job they’re in. What does your job suggest about you?