What is your career?
Computer programmer (aka, "software architect').
How much do you like your career?
I like it fairly well. While it's not perfect fit for me, I find it enjoyably challenging without being too stressful. The pay is good, which makes other parts of life less stressful.
What do you not like about your career?
I sometimes wish I had a career that was more personally meaningful. This is especially true since my employer was bought by MegaCorp (not the real name), a company of dubious-at-best values. I had previously thought about being a therapist (a better fit in some ways), but I suspect that the lower stakes of programming were better for my psychological make-up just after college.
At work, I sometimes feel like the odd guy out, since I'm more emotionally oriented than most of my coworkers. At times I wish for more deep and personal conversations with my closer friends at work. Luckily, there are a couple of other INFPs at work, so occasionally I stop by and chat about life. In many ways, I feel like I have geek interests but don't fit in well with emotionally unaware geek circles.
What are your strengths and weaknesses in that job?
I'd say for my strengths:
- I have an intuitively quick grasp of code, and am quick to grasp what the other person means during technical discussions.
- I'm generally fairly focused. (Although as a Perceiver, I go through periods where I can't focus, a specially after a big push to meet a goal or deadline.)
- I'm usually patient about problem solving and working with others.
- I do well with multiple levels of abstraction, and have no problem thinking about the larger impact of changes, even when working on the highly specific.
- I can design and implement a big, complicated feature starting from vague requirements.
- I have an person-oriented aesthetic sense, which helps make my code understandable to others. Programming is largely about communication, so know how to guide the understanding of the person who may be maintaining one's code in the future is important.
- Unlike many of my coworkers, I actually listen to what the other person is saying. This means I spend a lot of time telling coworkers they actually really agree with each other, if they'd just listen to what the other person is saying.
I'd say for my weaknesses at my job:
- I'm not very scheduling/time aware. I've become good at estimating how long tasks will take, but I'm really not very good about staying on top of scheduling.
- I'm not good at consistently monitoring the work of others (which is sometimes expected of someone who is fairly senior). Thankfully, I have coworkers that are, but sometimes things slip by that shouldn't.
- I'm not very directive, so sometimes what I say sounds like mild suggestions rather than anything stronger. That generally works out okay (since I can be relentless when I have to do be), but sometimes discussions could be shortened.
- I'm not patient with endless detail. I can be very focused on a problem or issue once (especially if it is novel), but staying focused while running through a massive amount of repetitive detail makes me want to gnaw my arm off in order to escape.
- I tend to be hyper focused about what I'm doing right now, which means that other priorities tend to slide.
Have you had other jobs that you liked or didn't like? If so, what is it that you liked or didn't like about them?
At the end of college, worked as a mental health specialist (I was thinking about being a therapist). That job was frustrating, since you couldn't study up in advance: that's hell for someone who is e5-ish. In that job you just had to muddle along and get yelled at when you did something wrong. After I ran out of money while working that job, I shifted over into programming, and have been a programmer ever since.
Other non-programming high-school & college summer jobs:
- Pawn shop employee (too much repetitive tedium)
- Hospital clerk (very boring once one figured out how to optimize things)
- Animal lab weekend help (that was sometimes heartbreaking)
