Did you know that your handwriting is totally unique? It's true - no other human being alive today (or anyone who's ever lived or will ever live for that matter) has exactly the same handwriting as you.

In the same way that your fingerprints and personality are unique, so is your handwriting. You may have similar handwriting to some of your close relatives or even other people who are not related to you, but it will never be identical.

Practitioners of the art (it's a bit too contentious to call it a science) of handwriting analysis - also known as graphology - contend that elements of your personality can be read from your handwriting. Because of this, they believe that they can accurately ascertain information about your character and aptitudes etc. by studying a representative sample of your handwriting.

Apart from being interesting in its own right, graphology has many practical uses. It can be used in criminal investigations. An example of such use could be in deciding if a signature on a document is a forgery. An expert graphologist will also believe that they can work out truth from falsehood in a sample of handwriting.

Another popular use of graphology is in the world of Human Resources. Personnel departments of quite large companies have been known to employ graphologists to help find the right candidates with the right aptitudes for their job vacancies. The next time you're asked to submit a job application 'in your own handwriting’; it may be for this very purpose.

A person trained in handwriting analysis will be able to spot differences and similarities in a whole variety of different handwriting characteristics and will have an understanding of what these characteristics supposedly mean in terms of the subjects character, personality and aptitudes.

There are certainly opportunities to pursue handwriting analysis as a career. Search the Internet and you will find many courses available, quite a few of them for home study so they can fit around your personal commitments. When going down this route you should carry out due diligence into the teacher's fitness to teach the subject - what credentials do they have, can they give you checkable references? Obviously, the more impressive the client list they have (as long as your checks prove it to be accurate), the more useful this graphology teacher is likely to be to you.

When deciding whether a career in graphology would be right for you, bear in mind that it can certainly be tedious and boring at times, but if you are the sort of person who enjoys paying attention to the minutest of details and you have an intense interest in your fellow man and what makes them tick, it could just be the perfect career for you.