Career Choice and Career Development: Using the MBTI Personality Type

By Ross Reinhold, INTJ Introduction

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Whether its picking a career, changing a career, or developing a career, understanding the MBTI and Myers-Briggs concepts of Personality Type can help navigate these waters. This article will share some of the ways I used MBTI results and MBTI data with my career counseling and career development clients. I'll cover this territory primarily for the benefit of the person whose is seeking career help. Understanding your Personality Type can assist your career development in a number of ways. 1) It can help you select a career field that is a good fit for your personality make-up. 2) It can increase your awareness of your learning style so you can better benefit from career related education. 3) Understanding your personality preferences can help you better manage Job Challenges that inevitably rise their ugly heads during the course of our career. 4) Knowing your Personality Type, and especially knowing the kind of detailed information a Step II MBTI report can provide, will aid you in a job search, both in marketing yourself and in evaluating opportunities that arise. Myers-Briggs Personality Type and Career Choice - Career Planning Unlike the Strong Interest Inventory (also a helpful tool for career planning), the MBTI wasn't designed as a career assessment test. However due to interests and efforts of Isabel Myers, her long time colleague Mary McCaulley, and the staff of the Center for Applications of Psychological Type (CAPT), a substantial amount of data has been collected on the personality types of many occupational categories. This information has been compiled into the CAPT Atlas of Type Tables and ". . . contains more than 300 type tables encompassing normative populations and career groups including art and communications, business and management, counseling, engineering, government, health, industry, religion, and students." The word "Atlas" is instructive as this is a 595 page tome that is intended to be a reference book for career counselors and MBTI researchers. I've recently been informed that the Atlas is out of print so I suggest trying the library or if you engage the services of an MBTI trained career counselor, this person may have a copy of the Atlas. An alternative publication that remains in print and available is the MBTI Type Tables for Occupations, available from CAPT for $99.00. Two more affordable publications on Myers-Briggs Personality Type and Careers are Introduction to Type and Careers by Allan Hammer and Looking at Type and Careers by Charles Martin. There is also a special version of the MBTI that provides a Career Report in additional to the standard MBTI Profile Report. The rationale for why Personality Type is relevant to career selection is briefly stated by Jean Kummerow in the MBTI Manual, 3rd edition (p.293)

"According to type theory, MBTI Types would be distributed in occupations consistent with the characteristics of the work environments of those occupations. Occupations my both require and reward specific ways of perceiving information and making decisions on that information; thus different types would be expected to be attracted to different occupations." I might add that in addition to the nature of occupations "attracting" certain types there is also a culling process where certain types who discover their occupation is not suitable (with or without assistance from their employers!) will leave the occupation. So data on correlations between Type and Occupation can identify potentially good matches between the pattern of your personality and the requirements of an occupation. For example data from the Type Atlas for the ISTJ type indicates many of this type are drawn to occupations like: dentistry, auditing, accounting, mechanical engineering, math teaching, industrial arts teaching, and banking. Conversely the data suggests very few ISTJs are found among: the clergy, psychologists, journalists, marketing professionals, or professional photographers. The first set of data serves to highlight some potential occupations worth considering, while the second set of data suggests some caution (more about this later). While data such as that provided by the Type Atlas covers only a fraction of the thousands of available careers or occupations, often themes can be inferred from the most popular occupations that are recorded. In the case example above for ISTJs, it would be reasonable to infer that other occupations that regularly involve manipulation of data and numbers would be reasonably good fits for this type. At the other end of the spectrum, those occupations with a low correlation with a given type provide food for thought in the event an individual of that type was considering that as a career option. However, it is important to recognize that a low correlation ought not to veto a career alternative. This low correlation suggests that a person of a given type entering that occupation will bring an atypical tool set and perspective to that occupation and to his or her job. In some circumstances this atypical skill set or perspective may actually result in an exceptional contribution to the profession. So we need to be even-handed about this information. For example an ISTJ preference young person who thinks he wants to be a newspaper journalist should understand his particular perspective, values and approach to his profession will be different from many of his colleagues. However, he should also know that, while such differences can become working-life challenges, this uniqueness could be the wellspring of notable achievement. For mid-life career changers, these low correlation occupational and personality type associations sometimes help explain why a career has gone stale or why despite several years of experience and different employers/different work environments, career success and satisfaction remained out of reach. While the person may have come to accept that perhaps they have been a "round peg in a square hole" and need to change careers, many arrive at this conclusion also carrying some emotional baggage, a sense of failure, that they couldn't cut the mustard in this field or a sense of guilt for feeling the way they do. In my experience with career changers and in fact people who have simply had a tough time succeeding in the job market, understanding this delicate fit between their mostly innate personality patterns and the working demands of certain occupations and of certain job environments is essential. It is essential not only for selecting a "good fit" for the future, it is a key to understanding the past in a way that helps restore a person's self-confidence and optimism.

How Learning Style Affects Career & Educational Success The patterns of personality associated with the 16 personality types impact how we best learn and can assist in utilizing learning techniques and picking types of career related college educational programs that allow us to use the strengths of our learning style. Each of the preference dichotomies (E vs I, S vs N, T vs F, and J vs P) impact this style. Gordon Lawrence (author of People Types & Tiger Stripes and Looking at Type and Learning Styles) believes the most influential pair is Sensing vs. Intuition. This makes sense and seems intuitively accurate . . . for S and N are about how we perceive, the manner in which we take in information. In People Types (p. 140) Lawrence (whose type letters are ENTP) relates an experience from his early teaching days to highlight this difference:
"When I taught high school social studies, long before I knew about psychological type, I knew some of us in the department emphasized facts and some emphasized general concepts - all using the same textbooks. I taught the facts of American History only to illustrate the general concepts I thought were important. That seemed to me the much better way, and I felt superior to those who just taught the facts, not knowing, of course, that I was merely exercising my intuitive bias."

As a learner I also had an "intuitive bias" which for some courses and circumstances served me well. But for some courses and during some stages of my development, it was a handicap that put me on the brink of failure on more than one occasion. I only succeeded in the long run in school by accidentally discovering some study techniques that helped compensate for my intuitive nature (or conversely be able to employ it effectively). I now know that I often must first obtain an overall grasp or understanding about a concept or about how a thing works before I am able to assimilate the details or facts about something. When I read something, I am as if skimming the tops of waves; I don't get too deep into the material nor can I recall much of the detail that I've just read. Yet I will stop periodically and re-read sections as if a thread has been broken and I need to re-tie it. My mind is sucking up the details and forming them into patterns and it is the patterns that my head seems to want. Once these patterns are formed, I can much easier go back over the material and now focus on remembering the details. Still my conscious mind seems rooted in that pattern and overall concept orientation that is characteristic of Intuition. Facts and details seem more stuck in a dark back room of my mind and can be hard to find. On one of those TV quiz shows where a question is asked open-ended with no prompts, I don't do near as well in coming up with a correct answer as when there are multiple choices. In the latter case, the clues seem to bring forth the right answer from that back room storage of facts and details. In reflecting on my own educational trials and successes and on my experiences as a training and development professional (before learning about type), I realize how much teachers are a slave to their own mental patterns of personality type and how a learner can be either handicapped or aided by the teachers style and/or by the nature of the content to be learned. Instructional styles or techniques sometimes come in vogue and educators are taught to employ them in a way that assumes all learners are basically alike. A good deal of educational doctrine is a quest for finding the best scheme of instruction and then propagating this strategy throughout an educational system. This one-best-way mentality usually means some kinds of learners are put at a disadvantage. A learner caught with a teacher or in an instructional model not fitting his or her learning style is at a handicap. But if you have learned about your style, understand both the strengths and weaknesses of that style, you've got a fighting chance to self-direct your learning to enhance your chances of success.

Outlining the different learning styles and in particular assisting the reader in learning his or her own style is a task beyond the scope of this article. But let me give you a taste and then urge you to look among the references at the end of this piece for some recommended books or resources. In Looking at Type and Learning Styles (pp.14 - 20) Gordon Lawrence identifies a number of characteristic ways the different preferences influence learning. Here are just a few snippets from his booklet: For extraverted (E) students (who do their best when processing thoughts aloud) - small group and partner work is especially important . . . For introverted (I) students (who do their best when engrossed in mental processing) - working in private ways, with internal dialogue, is more important. For sensing (S) students - it is important to go carefully and thoroughly through new material, not skipping anything. Sensing students want to know for sure that the conclusions they reach are sound, with no gaps, and are based on facts. . . For intuitive (N) students - they want to move quickly to follow wherever their intuition leads and let insight tell them what is worthwhile. This path is not straight nor step by step. For students preferring thinking (T) - interesting problems to analyze stimulate them. They like to critique things and find flaws that can be fixed. For students preferring feeling (F)appreciation for who they are (not just the quality of their work) is important. They do best in a warm and friendly classroom atmosphere. For students who run their outer lives with a perception process (P) working in an ebband-flow style energizes them. Their energy for learning comes in bursts, surges, and impulses, sometimes with slack periods in between. For students who run their outer lives with ajudgment process (J) organizing their learning into a clear plan, including when they will work and when they will play, and knowing clearly their expectations is important. While generalities like the above can be useful to the individual learner, Lawrence's learning style profiles (pp. 31 - 54) of each of the 16 types provide more depth and breadth for students looking to capitalize on their unique learning style strengths (and effectively work around what might be their weaknesses). Because teachers tend to teach according to their own learning style and the structure of college educational programs are sometimes skewed in favor of certain styles (and to the disadvantage of others), a learner needs to be pro-active in managing their education. What works real good for your best friend may not work well at all for you. A top rated educational program or top rated school may not be a good fit for your learning style. Don't necessarily follow the crowd or conventional wisdom; learn the bend of your own twig and use that as your guide. Managing Job & Working Career Challenges Being successful and happy in your working career and with specific work situations involves similar personality factors that identify a good fit between you and a career area, but more exacting. While as a general rule, accounting work is a good fit for an ISTJ personality, there could be specific kinds of accounting jobs or accounting work situations which are not a good fit for this type.

Work organizations tend to develop a certain culture that in many ways can mimic a particular personality type (Bridges, The Character of Organizations). Likewise departments within organizations develop a certain character, often strongly influenced by the personality type of the manager. Your immediate boss's learning and communications style will have a significant impact on your job satisfaction and success. If your styles are complimentary, you'll find yourself navigating smooth waters. But if they clash, you'll have some rough going and need to adapt your style to better match his or her communication and learning style. While the first impulse when one finds themselves in a bad-fit situation (for example an ENFP who finds himself in an ISTJ organization, with an ISTJ direct supervisor) would be to look for a new job, I recommend investing some energy learning to stretch outside your box! This apparent bad-fit is a growth opportunity. You future success and happiness will be enhanced by learning how to pace yourself to a working environment that requires you to develop your non-preferred side of your personality, becoming more skilled in the use of your opposite hand, as it were. Eventually, you'll want to move on to a situation where the fit is better, where you and your work situation are flowing in the same direction. But by having spent time learning to go upstream and handle unfamiliar waters you'll be better prepared to handle the inevitable challenges that will come even in a good fit work situation. Working life is full of dynamics; change is the rule even in relatively stable situations. You may get an assignment to work on a project with a colleague whose working style is opposite your own. Your favorite boss may leave for greener pastures and the new one has a radically different working or communications style. An otherwise good customer easily triggers your hot buttons. Remodeling or a move to a new physical work location may negatively alter the goodness of fit of your work environment. No matter what your preferences or type, chances are you'll land in circumstances where some of your key strengths are no longer assets and you need to adapt. Knowing when to hold 'em, knowing when to fold 'em Like in that old Kenny Rogers song, The Gambler, there's an art to using opposite strategies . . . "Know when to walk away and know when to run." People who like written communications need to learn when to talk it out instead. Maybe you create the written document to satisfy your own need to have a clearly stated and visual sense of what you want to communicate, but then just use that as a guide for your conversation. People who like to talk it out and ramble a bit in their conversation need to learn when they need to supplement their communication with either a written synopsis with some focus or with a properly timed follow-up and to the point conversation. People whose nature seems to gravitate towards whatever is new and original need to recognize that their inspirations sometimes involve re-inventing the wheel and even when the idea is sound there can be timing and other circumstances which argue against it. Your great new idea may necessitate convincing people personalities who strongly value sticking with what works and are naturally cautious with new and original ideas. It will take time and skill to win these people over to your scheme.

People whose nature is being task-oriented and sparsely communicative need to learn when and how to engage in a more relaxed and social conversation. Knowing Yourself "Knowing when to hold and when to fold" begins with knowing yourself: your natural strengths that you go to instinctively and understanding what is the opposite of those strengths. There is an advanced form of the MBTI called the Step II that I've found quite helpful in identifying areas of strength as well as areas of potential vulnerability. Click Here to view it. The Step II inventory identifies 5 trait dichotomies that are correlated with each of the four Myers-Briggs MBTI preference dimensions. In my experience coaching and working with people I've found each person has a unique constellation of these trait pairs. Some people are hard-wired quite strongly to favor one end of the trait scale and would have great difficulty moving to the other side. However on other scales, even though they favor one end, they may have flexibility to move away from their natural trait when circumstances require. For instance I am by nature more contained, well controlled, and sometimes hard to read. But when circumstances warrant I can turn up the juice a bit and be more expressive, approachable, and easy to know. While I have a natural tendency to be one way, I can open up and be more flexible on this particular trait dimension. I am also by nature an early starter on most long term tasks and am focused in my approach to a task, managing one-ball-in-the air at a time. When I have a deadline down the road, I make progress towards it in pieces, doing a piece here, a piece there over time. I hate waiting till the last minute to get started. And when I work on the project it gets my full attention, I do not like distractions when I'm cookin'. My opposite number on this characteristic is pressure-prompted, a multi-tasker who craves variety and generally doesn't work at his or her best until the deadline is very near.This is especially the case with any task that has some objectionable features. I can't be this way; I have very little flexibility on this particular dimension. So when I am confronted with a situation where being an early-starter is a disadvantage, I need to find other ways to adapt. Knowing these kinds of things about yourself is very important. Where do you have flexibility; where do you have very little room to negotiate? What kind of traits in a person you might have to interact with have the potential to drive you up a wall? How can you effectively adapt to this circumstance? Knowing and understanding these key traits that are correlated with personality type is a step towards more skillful self-management. This in turn will help you succeed in and better enjoy whatever job you find yourself employed. Marketing Yourself, Job Search Another use of knowing your strengths that are closely related to personality type involves your effective job search preparation. Job Interviewers often seek to have you state what

you consider your strengths and your weaknesses. They may not be this direct, yet understand that this could well be what is being sought in more oblique questions. So how do you assess yourself? Do you parrot the Boy Scout Code; try to guess what the interviewer wants to hear; try to guess the right answer? Treating these strength and weakness self-assessment questions like a quiz and trying to provide the right answer will earn you no better than a C grade and could be worse. Getting caught trying to project a false image to get hired will end your employment chances right there. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Constructing a profile of your strengths around traits drawn from your personality type insures credibility. They are genuine and individually they hang well together as they are tied to a common theme: your personality type. Be able to describe the overall theme of who you are as well as being able to list your strengths. I'm not sure I'd recommend actually saying I'm an ENFP (or whatever is your type) but I'd hope you'd be able to describe yourself drawing upon aspects of your type you find most relevant to you. The other important portion of your profile is your potential weaknesses. These are the traits that are the polar opposite of your strengths. Again, we insure credibility because they are true - not some trumped up failing that you trot out in hopes that it doesn't make any difference. But the real beauty of being able to identify real areas of vulnerability is that you can, at the same time, contrast them with your strengths. Example: "Because I've found one of my main assets or strengths is my ability to adapt to changing circumstances, think on my feet, plan on the go . . . I feel constrained when I am in a 'highly pre-planned and structured' situation." OK, you say what happens if in they were looking for someone who does well in "highly pre-planned and structured" situations. Good point, but why in the world would you want that job anyhow? You just saved yourself from getting hired into the wrong job. The Job Interview is a two way street; you are evaluating the job as well as the employer evaluating you. If what you reveal about yourself tells the interviewer that this is not a good fit, the process is working like it should. Being Pro-Active in Your Job Search What I've essentially recommended here is that you prepare a customized Personality Type Job Search Profile. It will materially enhance the effective presentation of yourself. It also will help you better focus your job search. From your strengths and areas of potential vulnerability, you can infer important characteristics about a job and work environment that you ought to seek . . . or ought to avoid. An example:
John is pursuing a job in sales. On the regular MBTI preference dichotomies he comes out on the Extraverted side; overall he prefers extraversion. But on the Step II inventory trait scale results, on the Gregarious - Intimate scale, John comes out on the Intimate or introverted side. John verifies this result: he is most comfortable in one-one relationships and his friendship circle tends to be smaller and long-lasting. What does this suggest about the type of job situation John ought to seek? In my experience John would be ideally suited for a situation where sales to and maintenance of existing accounts is very important. His preference for more intimate relationships will be an asset as he will naturally cultivate relationships with these existing accounts. On the other hand, a situation with a lot of cold-calling and which is dependent upon selling a big ticket item that may be the last sale to that customer for years is not a good fit. While he may be able to "handle" such a situation, it is not drawing upon one of his important people strengths so he'll need to find ways to compensate for that missing connection.

Review your Personality Type Job Search Profile's strengths and vulnerabilities. See if you can infer some positive and negative aspects about the nature of jobs and organizations that may be "green lights" or "flashing yellow" or "red lights." Develop an understanding of what you are seeking in a job. Have more depth than the usual salary, fringe benefit, and perks list. When you network with people, you'll be able to sketch a more meaningful profile of the kind of job and work situation you are seeking. You aren't networking for job opening information; you are networking for potential good fit work situations and contacts in those situations. You may hit a situation two weeks before active recruitment begins or you may hit a situation one month after recruitment has been suspended because it wasn't successful. Both of these are advantages because you have the attention all to yourself; you are not in a parade of contestants for a job. I've also seen situations where the "right" person showing up and getting an introductory interview ends up creating a job opening. Hiring is time consuming and sometimes risky business. Most managers don't have the constitution, unlike Donald Trump, to say "you're fired." They end up suffering through a hiring mistake and looking for indirect ways to encourage that person to move on. So not all employment needs are instantly serviced; some lie in waiting for a need to get greater or the right person to come along. A pro-active job searcher goes to the action and goes prepared to present his or her case for who he/she is and what he/she is seeking.