Capricorn Astrology Career Profile

Top Careers

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Capricorn

December 22 - January 20

By Jane Hodges

Capricorns, ruled by obstacle-maker Saturn, know that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Top Career Programs for Capricorns

What Motivates Capricorn

This sign is known for thriving in the face of adversity and for personifying the skill of resourcefulness. Capricorns crave the opportunity to build their lives and careers from scratch, and they take great pleasure in the process of plotting a course to manifest their dreams.

It's All About R-E-S-P-E-C-T

These success-driven folks don't want popularity as much as respect, but in their quest to get the one they often achieve the other, too. Capricorns work tirelessly for anything—and anyone—they love. They never take a step forward without first asking themselves if the gesture they're making will truly advance them. If the answer is no, they'll sit patiently. Their power is in restraint and timing, not abandon.

At work, Capricorns are competent, reliable, and resourceful. They rarely complain to management—indeed, they often manage themselves and thus win superiors' favor. Capricorns may work long hours and often need to be told to take their vacation days and slow down. However, because Capricorns are builders, it's hard for them to put down their hammers and nails and call it a night. After all, the sun's still shining at 9 p.m. in summer, and there's work to do, a job to finish. What's another hour?

Capricorns are concerned with image—not with being "cool," but with seeming "normal" and competent. They usually opt for conservative, classic or mildly witty outfits, and though they're emotional, they tend to hide their feelings behind the machine-gun fire of one-liners and witty asides. Of course, Capricorns won't let loose with their humor until after they're confident that they've established others' respect. They'd never want to be mistaken as flighty or unserious.

Rules: Made to be Rewritten

Capricorns are expert managers, talented at figuring out how to carefully deploy resources, and they enjoy the world of big business or old industries that have clear and careful rules. Even Capricorn artists operate like business people, eavesdropping on their agents' negotiations and serving on boards.

Though these folks don't always have a nurturing bedside manner with younger underlings, they do have an even temper and a realistic, down-to-earth outlook, and they rarely play petty power games with others. Instead, they spot character weakness and keep an eye on the opponent, predicting when, and how, he will slip up and create an opportunity for Capricorn to leverage the timing.

Known for being serious, many Capricorns have a slightly worried air that can either endear them to others or get them left off many an after-hours happy hour list. They may be mistaken as blindly obedient to corporate America or even unimaginative, when really Capricorns are learning the rules so they can improve upon them and, yes, maybe even rewrite them.

Over time, these upright citizens gain the respect they deserve and even bask, for a minute anyway, in a job well done. Capricorn folks bring management skills and a strong work ethic—as well as creative ideas and an even temper—to any professional environment.

How to Spot a Capricorn at Work

Capricorn career manual: The Economist or One Up on Wall Street
Colors: Forest green, brown
Capricorn success symbol: Ivy League diploma, high-end handbag
Spare time pursuits: Endurance sports, woodworking, jewelry-making, day trading

Capricorn in Action

Katie Couric, talk show host and news anchor, personifies Capricorn's typical climb to the top. Her girl-next-door persona coupled with her serious and straightforward air made her a shoo-in to host the CBS evening news show.

She became the first female solo anchor to handle the job on any American network. Couric's climb to the top has not been painless: She has endured critiques by observers who say her previous TV experience doesn't qualify her to anchor news, as well as critiques of her clothing style. She has suffered through the death of her husband and sister from cancer. Still, like any Capricorn, she treated these difficulties as learning experiences—and she even filmed two television segments about cancer screening and awareness as a result of her own painful losses of loved ones.

Respecting the Foundations

Like Couric, Capricorn leaders are concerned with foundation-building. Capricorns tend to work in large enterprises where they can build their own role and also advance the overall business in which they work. They serve government (Benjamin Franklin) by working in politics, policy or law, or they serve people by using a rational (rather than radical) approach to activism, as did Martin Luther King, Jr., who appealed to the tenets of both Christianity and the Constitution to encourage equal rights.

Capricorns relish working in business, and many Capricorns succeed because they understand the foundations of their particular industry and can thus modify how their industry works to great effect—as did Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, who pioneered online retailing. These folks are unafraid to work in somewhat cynical corners of the business world, such as hedge funds or private equity firms that make money from distressed companies (Peter Kravis). Hotelier Conrad Hilton and makeup/hair products experts Helena Rubinstein, Elizabeth Arden and Vidal Sassoon were also Capricorns.

Dry Wit and Discipline

As humorists, Capricorns display a neurotic, dry wit (Jim Carrey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kirstie Alley). When it comes to sports, Capricorn athletes often wind up in the boxing ring, where their battle is singular and strategic and their power as fighters results from their discipline at training (Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier).

Capricorn advice is not for the faint of heart. These folks deliver the cold-hard-light-of-day truth as they see it, as demonstrated by media personalities Dr. Laura Schlesinger, Rush Limbaugh, Andy Rooney and Howard Stern. Indeed, Capricorn's sometimes harsh-reality mindset and high standards have sent some highly talented natives into permanent hibernation—the choice of entrepreneur Howard Hughes and celebrated author JD Salinger.

But this sign also includes many professionals whose careers didn't begin to flourish until their later years: Betty White, George Burns and celebrity librarian Nancy Pearl are Capricorns. Capricorns achieve solidity and celebrate longevity in any endeavor they choose.