I am an INFJ and a physician, just finishing up residency now. I have an interesting story that really reflects how our personality type impacts our learning and working style as well as the specialty that we thrive best in.
At one point after I made the switch, i read the MBTI preferences for certain medical specialties, and it said infj tends to be happiest doing internal medicine or neurology. Anesthesiology apparently is better preferred among sensing types. Makes a lot of sense, in retrospect.
Things to keep in mind, going through the world of medicine as an INFJ:
--you are going to be evaluated by a lot of extroverted sensing types. They will not always understand you, nor will they be interested in trying to understand you. They judge you by whatever you tell them, and they want you to take initiative in telling them what you did, what you thought, etc, selling your ideas. Doing all this is unnatural for the INFJ and REALLY saps our energy trying to. I just came to terms with the fact that some of my evaluators will just underappreciate me and I can live with that, as long as I did justice in caring for my patients and in teaching my interns/medstudents.
--as a corollary to the above, I have tended to sacrifice efficiency/quickness for the sake of spending time listening to the patient, making sure I thought thoroughly through my patient's complaints and what might be going on with them, and making sure I addressed as much as I could for them. It just made my job more meaningful to me, to do so. I think this was the INFJ in me. The side effects of this are as follows:
a) your hours will be MUCH longer than those of your non-INFJ peers, because the workload is geared for superficiality and lack of caring. I was ok with the longer hours because I hated being rushed and I wanted my work to be meaningful for me. However, towards the end of residency I am feeling quite burnt out and needing a few years of "me time" to recharge. I also ended up gaining quite a few pounds because on most of my harder months I would really have no time to work out, and when i did have a day off, I would need it to recharge from the energy sapping ES world of medicine.
So in summary, yes INFJs are doctors. Sure there are challenges in getting through the ES world of medicine and medical training, but ultimately i think it's easier for us to persevere despite those challenges because we dont care so much about "fitting in" and impressing our evaluators. We do this for a purpose, to add meaning to our lives through good patient care. And as long as we do justice to this purpose, we are happy. Just be careful about picking an appropriate medical specialty for yourself.
Hi just wanna say thanks so much for sharing your experience.
i'm a med student, and i recently just googled INFJ doctor specialty just to see what experiences any doctor who has an INFJ personality have. The tests I'm done show I'm a borderline INFJ/ISFJ. But I lean a bit more towards the INFJ, and a lot of stuff about INFJs apply to me as well.
I just wanna say that it's not being an INFJ in medical school. I'm already in my 4th year, almost at the end of my journey, ready to graduate.
Being an INFJ - I am a sensitive person. There, I said it. Haha. But with medical school, there is no such thing as NO CRITICISM. Out of 100 corrections, you get 1 compliment/praise. Yup, there's the ratio. And every day of my clerkship, I have to endure correction. Correction on my presentation, on my physical examination, on my clerking, on my dearth of knowledge, so on and so forth. It has not been easy dealing with correction, as I tend to take it personally, (even though I know in my head it's not,) and imagine facing that every single day. (Disclaimer: My grades are (fortunately) relatively good, so I am not saying this because of my individual performance, but that I want to state a point that correction is part and parcel of one's medical education, and even the culture of medicine itself.)
You are expected to perform (as in, literally, perform) in medical school. Tutors grade you based on their impression on you - how well you present your cases, how smooth your clerking is, how well you (pretend to) treat your patient and communicate, and show empathy etc etc. It's all a song-and-dance. And how well you show off your knowledge in the end. For the extroverts, I think they thrive in this. An introvert, it is highly uncomfortable, and I have to practise a lot harder than my extroverted peers in terms of presentation. It is not natural, and difficult to adapt to.
In medical school, it is extremely competitive and cut-throat. I don't like to fight with others. I like to see others happy. But I realise that I can't keep on putting other people's needs in front of mine. I need to clerk my own patients. I need to fight for myself, if not, no one else will. And that is something extremely uncomfortable as well, but is something one has to face in medical practice with your colleagues.
One thing that is awesome about being an INFJ is that I find i read people's intentions easily. But I find myself not trusting others that easily. In medical school, everyone is competing against each other. And it is a sort of protection against people's bad intentions.
But I find in med school, there are many "STs". These "STs" are cold. They just want to get things done, and they do. I find myself admiring them for it, but yet, I long for some warmth in my interactions with them, some kind of deeper intimacy, than just a proximity-based or utility-based relationship.
So for those who want to enter med school and do medicine, think twice, thrice, because it is not an easy place. Fulfilling? Without a doubt. I can't imagine myself in any other profession, but I do think back during the hard times sometimes, if it were better had I taken an alternative route.
Anyone with me here? Let me know.