[ISTP] ISTP Career Interest

[sLiPpY]

Dear gawd, appears nary a government official between here and Canada has a pea brain to split betwixt

 

[countrygirl]

Dear gawd, appears nary a government official between here and Canada has a pea brain to split betwixt

So true....

 

[mcmartinez84]

•Electrical Technician
•Transportation Operator
•Construction, Warehouse, Groundskeeper
•Mechanic
•Surveyor
•Carpenter
•Construction Worker
•Mechanical Engineer
•Computer Programmer
•Machine Worker
•Engineering: All Categories
•Computer Operations & Systems
•School Bus Driver

•Police Detective
•Aeronautical Engineer
•Architect

I am currently a programmer. I've done tech support. I've been a classroom/computer lab assistant. I've tutored. I've been an operating room translator (to and from English and Spanish) for orthopedic surgery.

I hated tech support after the first year or so. It was part time on campus and at some point you kinda stop learning new stuff. It was all the same crap from the same dumb students with the same stupid problems. "My internet won't work." "My computer has popups and it's slow." "I think I have a virus."

Translating was fun. It was always something different, watching the surgery was really cool. Drilling into bones, putting plates here and screws there, cutting parts off, putting it all back together, heal for 6 weeks and voila! Back to normal!

Tutoring was alright as long as the kid was paying attention. I worked with 7th graders for the most part - Math, which they naturally hated. I feel like I'm pretty good at bringing math down to their level and making it seem really simple. Idk why there are so many problems with math classes, I think it's fairly universal too. As soon as a student gets a teeny bit behind it's all downhill and they can't catch up. Then there's not enough time to figure out what they're confused about, at what point did it stop making sense, is there any other way to explain it that will work? One time in a probability class, my prof explained something one way that made sense to almost everyone but me. So I went to his office confused. I can't remember how he talked about it the first time...it was so abstract, but when he said "weighted average" it all made sense. It was totally clear after that, but I could tell he was frustrated with the fact that I didn't understand his initial explanation. Well, that's no way to keep me interested, sorry I'm not as smart as you are. Math classes are good at making people feel stupid, I guess. Lord knows I felt stupid in all of my classes and that's what my degree is in! /rant

Being a lab assistant would have been way more fun if the lead had been able to actually speak English. Poor guy was fresh from China, some of the worst Engrish I've ever heard... He knew his stuff, but he just couldn't get it to the students.

Being a programmer is alright. It pays the bills. It's not too hard most of the time. Low stress. It really doesn't have the hands-on part that I want tho. Since I'm buying a house, I think I'll get my hands-on cravings satisfied with projects at home. I feel a lot more accomplished when I can really see my results than when I write lines of code.

And I'd like to do the rest of the jobs in that list above! Maybe not forever, but I like learning about one thing, coming to a satisfactory proficiency level and moving on to learn something new. Jack of all trades, master of none, really. And that's fine with me.

 

[Halla74]

Being a programmer is alright. It pays the bills. It's not too hard most of the time. Low stress. It really doesn't have the hands-on part that I want tho. Since I'm buying a house, I think I'll get my hands-on cravings satisfied with projects at home. I feel a lot more accomplished when I can really see my results than when I write lines of code.

Totally. I can't stand expending effort and not seeing the tangible benefits of it.

You'll have alot of fun decorating your house and making it totally "tactical" for your lifestyle. I was an Army brat as a kid, and therefore we never painted the walls, we never planted trees, we never improved a place a whole lot because in two years or less we knew we would be out of it.

BUT then I became grown up and bought my own house in 1999. Man, oh man have I overcompensated. The whole place is painted every color imaginable. I've finished everything with trim, shelves, etc. My house is equipped to let me enjoy being comfortable with very little effort. Plus, its aesthetically pleaseing to me and my family, and that's the only audience I care about really. It's my house after all.

And I'd like to do the rest of the jobs in that list above! Maybe not forever, but I like learning about one thing, coming to a satisfactory proficiency level and moving on to learn something new. Jack of all trades, master of none, really. And that's fine with me.

Good on you for coming to that realization as you have. I'm of the same thinking. If I do anything for too long I get bored as hell...and then I end up getting into trouble.

 

[ChocolateMoose123]

I am currently a programmer. I've done tech support. I've been a classroom/computer lab assistant. I've tutored. I've been an operating room translator (to and from English and Spanish) for orthopedic surgery.

I hated tech support after the first year or so. It was part time on campus and at some point you kinda stop learning new stuff. It was all the same crap from the same dumb students with the same stupid problems. "My internet won't work." "My computer has popups and it's slow." "I think I have a virus."

Translating was fun. It was always something different, watching the surgery was really cool. Drilling into bones, putting plates here and screws there, cutting parts off, putting it all back together, heal for 6 weeks and voila! Back to normal!

Tutoring was alright as long as the kid was paying attention. I worked with 7th graders for the most part - Math, which they naturally hated. I feel like I'm pretty good at bringing math down to their level and making it seem really simple. Idk why there are so many problems with math classes, I think it's fairly universal too. As soon as a student gets a teeny bit behind it's all downhill and they can't catch up. Then there's not enough time to figure out what they're confused about, at what point did it stop making sense, is there any other way to explain it that will work? One time in a probability class, my prof explained something one way that made sense to almost everyone but me. So I went to his office confused. I can't remember how he talked about it the first time...it was so abstract, but when he said "weighted average" it all made sense. It was totally clear after that, but I could tell he was frustrated with the fact that I didn't understand his initial explanation. Well, that's no way to keep me interested, sorry I'm not as smart as you are. Math classes are good at making people feel stupid, I guess. Lord knows I felt stupid in all of my classes and that's what my degree is in! /rant

Being a lab assistant would have been way more fun if the lead had been able to actually speak English. Poor guy was fresh from China, some of the worst Engrish I've ever heard... He knew his stuff, but he just couldn't get it to the students.

Being a programmer is alright. It pays the bills. It's not too hard most of the time. Low stress. It really doesn't have the hands-on part that I want tho. Since I'm buying a house, I think I'll get my hands-on cravings satisfied with projects at home. I feel a lot more accomplished when I can really see my results than when I write lines of code.

And I'd like to do the rest of the jobs in that list above! Maybe not forever, but I like learning about one thing, coming to a satisfactory proficiency level and moving on to learn something new. Jack of all trades, master of none, really. And that's fine with me.

Great post. Congrats on your new home. I really had a difficult time in math classes. I had to take Algebra II twice. Couldn't see the point. I was much better at word problems where I could see why I was doing some equation or what not. It had a purpose. Plus, they gave the added benefit, by way of logical estimation, to know if you were way off on your answer and I could go back and figure out what I did wrong myself.

I love this:

 

[mcmartinez84]

Totally. I can't stand expending effort and not seeing the tangible benefits of it.

You'll have alot of fun decorating your house and making it totally "tactical" for your lifestyle. I was an Army brat as a kid, and therefore we never painted the walls, we never planted trees, we never improved a place a whole lot because in two years or less we knew we would be out of it.

BUT then I became grown up and bought my own house in 1999. Man, oh man have I overcompensated. The whole place is painted every color imaginable. I've finished everything with trim, shelves, etc. My house is equipped to let me enjoy being comfortable with very little effort. Plus, its aesthetically pleaseing to me and my family, and that's the only audience I care about really. It's my house after all.

Good on you for coming to that realization as you have. I'm of the same thinking. If I do anything for too long I get bored as hell...and then I end up getting into trouble.

I close on Jan. 8th and there are so many little projects I want to do already!! First thing (and just about cheapest) is changing all of the outlets to be 3-prong instead of 2 (silly 1960's). Next will be adding a phone hookup in a convenient location for my DSL connection. The end of the laundry room and the far end of the master bedroom are hardly places I want the modem and router! There are at least 3 nooks in the house that would fit some shelves perfectly and I'm gonna put them there! The closets are small and the job someone did putting in rods was a little messy and ugly and it looks unfinished (I know that no one will see it, but it bothers me!). At some point I'll paint the moulding to all be the same color. For some reason most of it is white, but the frame around 1 door is just the wood (and different moulding design, wtf), and in some rooms it's the color of the walls.

The list goes on...

I definitely agree about making a house comfy for me! It's my space, I might as well like it!

When I get bored at a job I just kinda stop doing it. With the tech support one I cut back my hours and worked less...

Great post. Congrats on your new home. I really had a difficult time in math classes. I had to take Algebra II twice. Couldn't see the point. I was much better at word problems where I could see why I was doing some equation or what not. It had a purpose. Plus, they gave the added benefit, by way of logical estimation, to know if you were way off on your answer and I could go back and figure out what I did wrong myself.

I love this:

Thanks!!

I'm really not a math whiz. Stuff made sense months after it mattered for my grades. I'd complain to my (mainly high school) teachers that I was never going to use integration or derivatives in the real world and they were all "psh, you can apply it to anything!" and I was like...I see that, but really, I won't be taking derivatives of pretty little textbook functions, not out in the industry. I eventually got the hang of that stuff, but I was right. I don't take derivatives of nothin' these days! I had stronger views on that for classes like Biology...who cares what this itty bitty part of the cell does? Cell division and the names of all of the stages? Really? I don't care. I'm never going to use this again.

 

[JRT]

Transportation Operator!! This made me laugh since I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a kid which later turned to Pilot...still want to be a pilot lol

 

[sLiPpY]

Transportation Operator!! This made me laugh since I wanted to be a bus driver when I was a kid which later turned to Pilot...still want to be a pilot lol

I did get to drive a bus for one summer. Had to get licensed for my Y Camp counselor job, got to say three things I enjoyed most about that type of thing was planning the recreational activities...teaching the kids sports related skills and driving that bus.

 

[lilikoi]

I've enjoyed everyone else's posts here so I thought I'd share, too:

•Farmer - Grew up on a farm and those may have been my most peaceful days. I do gardening in my free time, and am considering studying agriculture.
•Legal Secretary - I have considered being a paralegal. I like conversing with lawyers and picking their brains. I can see how being one might be fun for a while. Not a long term career though, just a fun experience.
•Cook - I am considering becoming a baker.
•Mechanical Engineer - I did this for two years. It was too much desk work for me and almost no hands on work. There was the occasional field work, but this took me to dirty, smelly, usually very noisy places. Didn't mind the first two that much, but I don't like noise. The benefits weren't that great and my last boss was an out-of-touch-w/-reality idiot that had a flawed biz plan IMO. If I stay in this field, I will learn SolidWorks and work for a company that makes consumer products, preferably sporting goods like kayaks or something else that is useful to everyday people.
•Craft Worker - I am currently looking into selling crafts at a farmer's market while I am in between jobs just to see if I can turn a profit running my own mini "business".
•Computer Programmer - I like programming. I took classes on Java and C in college and had a natural knack for it. I am an extremely fast typer - I could type faster than the kids actually majoring in programming. They sure got a kick out of that. I enjoy the logic in programming.
•Lawyer - I have considered this, but too much indoors. I enjoy picking a part laws, finding the loopholes, building a bulletproof argument. I enjoy logic. I enjoy argumentative, critical writing. I don't enjoy people, and I'm not good at talking or responding quickly so I probably wouldn't make a good trial lawyer. I'd be good at contract or patent law.
•Optometrist - Too indoors for me. Pays well and seems like a pretty cruise job. You get to interact w/ people which I enjoy in moderation, operate machinery and use your hands. Would be fun if you could handle working in an office setting.
•Physical therapist - Always thought this would be fun.
Detective - Same.

•Architect - I used to draw little floor plans of houses for fun as a kid. I always liked looking at blueprints. But, I prefer working w/ nature than the built enviro.


Others people have mentioned to me that I find intriguing:

Pilot
Boat captain
Geologist
Marine biologist
Welder
Diver

 

[StephMC]

Computer programmer here, too... Although I've been thinking about taking actuarial exams and/or still hope to get my master's in Statistics. I have an ENTP friend at work getting me into currency trading because he says I have the skillset (they often look for programmers and/or stats people) and the attitude (relative control over my emotional responses ). I've heard a lot of ISTPs in Stats and a lot in programming, but never in trading. It'd be an interesting experiment. What do y'all think? ISTPs + trading = genius or disaster?

 

[sLiPpY]

I think trading works, in that it involves a "system" and the ability to spot something and anticipate cause and effect.

i.e. In March of 2003 I anticipated a housing bubble
In 2001 I anticipated stagnant wages for a decade.
In May of 2006 I anticipated the financial crisis

Just spotting items in news stories and having the ISTP internal magician pull outcomes together without any applied thought.

Reasoning for stagnant wages was pretty simple. Increased immigration in conjunction with manufacturing, technical and customer services roles being outsourced in mass. If one isn't making something you can't really create wealth.

Reasoning for the housing bubble, changes in lending standards in conjunction with CDS driving a loosening of standards.

Reasoning for anticipating the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3, and other related data that indicated the short term lending facility balance sheets weren't "pretty."

Rather simplistic and "gut" responses however later shown to be "spot on."

So yes, I think an ISTP could be good at trading.

 

[sLiPpY]

Almost forgot, back in February 2009 I predicted the Dow would recover to 9000 by June.

Posted that prediction and would give a forecast daily on what the market would do each day for that entire period. I was only wrong once, and the root cause of that was someone in the SF Fed office making offhand comments about inflation which trimmed about 100 points off.

After making those daily predictions for a period of four months, I got rather bored with it and said fooey! Time for something else.

 

[StephMC]

Thanks for the awesome feedback, sLiPpY!

After making those daily predictions for a period of four months, I got rather bored with it and said fooey! Time for something else.

This is probably the only thing I'm really worried about

 

[Intricate Mystic]

I think trading works, in that it involves a "system" and the ability to spot something and anticipate cause and effect.

i.e. In March of 2003 I anticipated a housing bubble
In 2001 I anticipated stagnant wages for a decade.
In May of 2006 I anticipated the financial crisis

Just spotting items in news stories and having the ISTP internal magician pull outcomes together without any applied thought.

Reasoning for stagnant wages was pretty simple. Increased immigration in conjunction with manufacturing, technical and customer services roles being outsourced in mass. If one isn't making something you can't really create wealth.

Reasoning for the housing bubble, changes in lending standards in conjunction with CDS driving a loosening of standards.

Reasoning for anticipating the financial crisis. The Federal Reserve stopped publishing M3, and other related data that indicated the short term lending facility balance sheets weren't "pretty."

Rather simplistic and "gut" responses however later shown to be "spot on."

So yes, I think an ISTP could be good at trading.

This is all pretty impressive. I didn't know what was coming with the housing bubble until 2005. We lived in one of the most exuberant, frothy real estate areas, and I noticed how incredibly arrogant everyone was getting at that point. We refinanced our existing mortgage balance when the rates dropped (AND DID NOT TAKE OUT ANY HOME EQUITY). The mortgage co. sent an appraiser out to appraise our house as part of the process. He rang the doorbell, collected a check, and didn't look at the house at all! People were renovating their houses right and left (gotta have that new kitchen with granite countertops, travertine tile everywhere, etc..). All of the associated businesses like Home Depot, Lowes, furniture companies, businesses selling tile, carpeting, etc.. were booming, and more and more illegal immigrants were coming to the city. One hot day, I was thirsty and stopped off at a McDonalds in a part of the city I didn't usually go to. Everyone in the entire place, including employees, was speaking Spanish. I was like, "Dammit, if I have to speak Spanish to order a soda here I'm going to be really pissed... this isn't Mexico!" They understood English, though, so it was all good.
Overall, it was clear to me (but not to many others, apparently) that a huge chunk of the economy was being driven by real estate, and this was an unsustainable situation.

Do you have any observations about our current economy that you would like to share?

Edit: Please forgive the rant.

 

[Poki]

Almost forgot, back in February 2009 I predicted the Dow would recover to 9000 by June.

Posted that prediction and would give a forecast daily on what the market would do each day for that entire period. I was only wrong once, and the root cause of that was someone in the SF Fed office making offhand comments about inflation which trimmed about 100 points off.

After making those daily predictions for a period of four months, I got rather bored with it and said fooey! Time for something else.

You should hook up with antisocial-one for some retirement planning advice service.

 

[sLiPpY]

Well, as to current economy we're not out of the woods yet. I think foreclosures for residential and commercial properties will continue...finally peaking later in the year.

There's a distinct possibility of a double dip recession. GDP growth has primarily been driven by government stimulus, and temporary inventory cycles.

Credit is still pretty dry for smaller businesses, so more difficult for them to expand and grow. Which reminds me I stopped looking at the data, in that it's too depressing...

Sunshine on the horizon? Have to make our own. Projected job recovery date, 2015. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[ColonelGadaafi]

Anyhow who is to say that ISTP need to have specialized career interest's. Their penchant for reason, is enough to make them suitable for 90% of the world's professions, ranging from professor to professional dancer, or a marine or sports nut. The more they are liable to actively search for knowledge and learning, the more eligible they become. Just a generalization, ISTP's probably have the most versatile career choices of all type's.

 

[sLiPpY]

Nice thoughts ColonelGadaafi, and I don't intend the statement to be type centric...but most of the ISTP's I've met I've thought could do anything.

Which is exactly what the problem is, setting one's mind to something and fully committing. Too many choices aren't always such a good thing.

But then again, life tends to unfold as it chooses.

 

[Intricate Mystic]

You should hook up with antisocial-one for some retirement planning advice service.

... or perhaps send out a twice per year newsletter by e-mail with general thoughts about things? I would subscribe!

Anyhow who is to say that ISTP need to have specialized career interest's. Their penchant for reason, is enough to make them suitable for 90% of the world's professions, ranging from professor to professional dancer, or a marine or sports nut. The more they are liable to actively search for knowledge and learning, the more eligible they become. Just a generalization, ISTP's probably have the most versatile career choices of all type's.

I agree with you. My ISTP husband is brilliant and can do anything he puts his mind to. I think people in general just don't realize how amazing ISTPS are.

 

[Zoom]

•Transportation Operator
•Dental Hygienist
•Construction, Warehouse, Groundskeeper
•Mechanic
•Legal Secretary
•Cleaning Service Worker
•Surveyor
•Corrections Officer
•Carpenter
•Construction Worker
•Steelworker
•Cook
•Small Business Manager
•Physician: Pathology
•Mechanical Engineer
•Craft Worker
•Computer Programmer
•Law Enforcement
•Lawyer
•Engineering

I'm honestly surprised "Pilot" was not a category considering the hands-on aspect combined with its necessary technical proficiency. I've wanted to be a pilot since I was... in the single digits for age, and actually discarded structural engineering as a major (after being in it for long enough to experience the lifestyle). My mind was certainly up to the mental acrobatics required for the task, but I could not stand to work in an office environment for the long run; the mere idea of it disturbs and bores me because I would not see the results of my labor (as touched on by two others), and wouldn't get to use my hands, mind and body as one. The disconnect I see with so many between their minds and bodies only strengthens my resolve to keep mine in tune and active.

I'm in languages as a major because I love knowledge that blends seamlessly into everyday life, and which one can actually use on a regular basis - the ability to communicate is never useless, and is reflected in so many other facets of life. I'm on track to become a helicopter pilot, and will learn to pilot planes as well once I have the funds.

As for mechanicking - I love figuring out how to fix things on my own, and wish to learn how to do major repairs on my own motorcycle, as well.