Type - Career "Mismatches"

[skylights]

i'd love to hear from those of you who have a career that totally doesn't match up with stereotypes for your MBTI.

• love it? use the differences to your advantage?
  
• hate it? wish you were somewhere else? working on getting out?
  
• feel neutral about it?

or, if it amuses you, just mention type-career matchups you think would blow.

to start out with... i'm currently an ENFP web designer... which is supposedly a "good" match but it grates on me. i'd like a little more structure in my life. go figure.

 

[Halla74]

i'd love to hear from those of you who have a career that totally doesn't match up with stereotypes for your MBTI.

[*]love it? use the differences to your advantage?

Policy Analyst/Business Process Analyst/Project Manager/Systems Architecht = ESTP??? Yup!!!

Somehow I am supposed to be miserable unless I am selling used cars to old people.
Well, I have news for you, I am just fine without a used car lot.
After a decade as a techie and project manager, I am at home implementing public health care programs.
I call on every job I've ever had to set each program up with style.
Sometimes I get actuaries to certify rates, or a methodology, or an algorithm.
Other times I help construct the content of outreach materials or the curricula of classes and/or training sessions.
And on occasion I design an information system using existing technology to accomplish new things, with hardly any money to spend on resources, and in very little time.

Do any of these things on their own scream ESTP?
No.
BUT - do all of them together at the same time randomly in the midst of keeping things afloat scream ESTP?
HELL YES!!!

[*]hate it? wish you were somewhere else? working on getting out?

I felt this way when I was strictly a techie.
Once I got into government a whole world of options opened up to me.

[*]feel neutral about it?

I don't feel neutral about much.
If I do I'm not aware of it existing.

or, if it amuses you, just mention type-career matchups you think would blow.

ENTP + Daycare Operator = HORRIBLE
INFJ + Political Campaign Manager = HELL.

to start out with... i'm currently an ENFP web designer... which is supposedly a "good" match but it grates on me. i'd like a little more structure in my life. go figure.

Structure only has value as an alternative to chaos.

 

[skylights]

I am at home implementing public health care programs.
I call on every job I've ever had to set each program up with style.

that sounds awesome

what do you mean though, a terrible ENTP daycare operator?! i can see it already... they'd all be running around in little groups with questionable chemicals, points for whichever team creates the biggest explosion...

Structure only has value as an alternative to chaos.

lol so true. and when chaos becomes routine and thus is... boring?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I delivered furniture this summer.

I loathed it.

 

[miss fortune]

I once worked at the front desk of a hotel... I was very good at losing paperwork, stealing the company van and taking it for a spin and fraternizing with the guests (not in that way!)... I was pretty bad at answering a multi-line phone without yelling at people

I did not enjoy it in the least... the bosses were EVIL

 

[Mr. Sherlock Holmes]

I mostly hate maths.

 

[Such Irony]

I worked fast food during college. Not INTP friendly! You have to have a customer is always right attitude which I could never swallow because the customer isn't always right! Sometimes they're just plain stupid or unreasonable. The work day alternated between insane lunch rushes and extreme boredom during slow periods.

 

[skylights]

You have to have a customer is always right attitude which I could never swallow because the customer isn't always right!

ugh, tell me about it.

i also have a problem with "the customer is always right" because it's kind of demoralizing and contradictory in general. one, i generally know better than the customer. no offense, but if you could do this yourself, i would not be here to help you. plus it disrupts the internal structure of things - if someone else is always right, then why am i doing this job, anyway? two, this is a company, and i'm supposed to be working off the company's policies and values. what if the customer disagrees? obviously, then, the customer is not right. the company is.

also, this: http://notalwaysright.com/

though one time working as a cashier i had a customer who was being really rude to me, and i called a manager to help me out. she was really rude to him too, and he told her that she was welcome to leave the store. and then he let me go home early. he was a great guy.

 

[skylights]

You have to have a customer is always right attitude which I could never swallow because the customer isn't always right!

ugh, tell me about it.

i also have a problem with "the customer is always right" because it's kind of demoralizing and contradictory in general. one, i generally know better than the customer. no offense, but if you could do this yourself, i would not be here to help you. plus it disrupts the internal structure of things - if someone else is always right, then why am i doing this job, anyway? two, this is a company, and i'm supposed to be working off the company's policies and values. what if the customer disagrees? obviously, then, the customer is not right. the company is.

also, this: http://notalwaysright.com/

though one time working as a cashier i had a customer who was being really rude to me, and i called a manager to help me out. she was really rude to him too, and he told her that she was welcome to leave the store. and then he let me go home early. he was a great guy.

 

[Moiety]

Skylights : Concerning your "need for structure" comment...I think it's a common misconception ENFPs love lack of structure.

If there is one type that needs some sort of structure it's the ENFP. I used to think freelancing might be something I'd greatly enjoy.

Now, I realize the benefits of some structure. Specially if I'm not the one dictating said structure. When I know what is required of me, provided it's not suffocating, it makes me a lot more productive. As long as I meet my boss' requirements of WHAT to achieve, I can dictate HOW I go about doing it.

Besides, to have complete freedom requires us to come up with the structure ourselves. That's something I'll gladly leave to someone else to think about

 

[Chaotic Harmony]

I'd love to hear from those of you who have a career that totally doesn't match up with stereotypes for your MBTI.
After some soul searching and research I decided I'm an ISFP... And I work at a community college as their Helpdesk Technician... All day long I troubleshoot PC problems, and if it's something I can't do over the phone I send a tech to take care of it...

love it? use the differences to your advantage?
The only thing I enjoy about it... My office is generally quiet and free of people...now if I could just get everyone to email me instead of call me. It's an okay fit for me though, I'm pretty good at troubleshooting most of the problems people bring to me... Now if someone has a seriously high tech issue I'm clueless and just send a tech.

hate it? wish you were somewhere else? working on getting out?
I'm working on getting out. I'm back in school for Nutrition and Wellness. I'll likely minor in Fitness. I guess all my weight loss efforts have really inspired me and made me want to help others experience what I experienced. I think this would fit my type pretty well... Knowing how I am in a large fitness class, I think I'd take on clients one on one or in very small groups to help them feel at ease and less embarrassed.

 

[Eckhart]

I am studying business informatics. People say INFP + business = evil.

 

[IZthe411]

I'm an ISTJ and I'm in audit. You'd think I love it. I hate it.

TOO much detail, TOO much structure. I really don't care if somebody didn't sign the TP report!

Don't get me wrong- I appreciate structure. If anything it helps me to learn the job. But the structure shouldn't be paralyzing.

 

[skylights]

Skylights : Concerning your "need for structure" comment...I think it's a common misconception ENFPs love lack of structure.

If there is one type that needs some sort of structure it's the ENFP. I used to think freelancing might be something I'd greatly enjoy.

Now, I realize the benefits of some structure. Specially if I'm not the one dictating said structure. When I know what is required of me, provided it's not suffocating, it makes me a lot more productive. As long as I meet my boss' requirements of WHAT to achieve, I can dictate HOW I go about doing it.

Besides, to have complete freedom requires us to come up with the structure ourselves. That's something I'll gladly leave to someone else to think about

haha, i completely agree!! i hate setting up structure for myself because there's no stable system of rewards and drawbacks if i'm the one implementing it. and one of the things i'm best at is streamlining a system, so for me, to be inside a system is actually pleasing in that i can always work on ways to make it better. i'm fine at coming up with a system for someone else, but if i'm the one making my own system... well, i know my own tricks, lol :/

i held a tutor job for a while that allowed me to do my own thing within the bounds of an external structure, and i really enjoyed it. it was enough leniency, because as long as i was getting results, i was fine to implement the strategies however i pleased.

I'm working on getting out. I'm back in school for Nutrition and Wellness. I'll likely minor in Fitness. I guess all my weight loss efforts have really inspired me and made me want to help others experience what I experienced. I think this would fit my type pretty well... Knowing how I am in a large fitness class, I think I'd take on clients one on one or in very small groups to help them feel at ease and less embarrassed.

sweet, excellent for you! despite my E i really despise large fitness classes, and i would way more prefer that setting too.

But the structure shouldn't be paralyzing.

so, so true.