The Personality Congruence of Iranian Veterinary Students with Their Field of Study

Introduction: Evidence shows problems like feelings of dislike for the profession, job inconsistency, and low rate of career success have increased among the Iranian vets in the recent years. We have studied the correlation between personality congruence of Iranian veterinary students with their field of study to find the cause of the mentioned problems. Methods: In this survey study, we administered the Holland Personality-Career Test (Self-Directed Search or SDS test) to 250 students of 6 faculties of veterinary medicine including 3 state universities (Tehran, Shiraz and Shahrekord) and 3 Azad universities (Shahrekord, Karaj, and Kazeroon). Results: The personality type of the majority of the students was investigative, realistic and social, respectively. Congruence between students’ personality types and their field of study (veterinary medicine) was obtained as 59.09% for perfect congruence, 17.36% for average congruence, 12.81% for low congruence, and 10.74% for no congruence. Conclusion: On the basis of the results of this study which indicate one forth (1/4) of the students have shown low congruence or no congruence, we suggest that tests such as Holland test be used in the admittance procedure to select the most prosperous students in the future, and therefore, students themselves feel satisfied to study and work in this field,which could improve the quality of veterinary medicine in general.