Newsletter #11

 

In this issue:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and Careers for INFJs and ESTPs.

About the Strong Interest Inventory®: The Data Management, Computer Activities, and Office Services Basic Interest Scales

About the FIRO-B™: The Control Scale and Myers-Briggs® Thinking - Feeling Scales

 

Careers for INFJs and ESTPs

In this issue we'll look at two types and specific jobs for both. The purpose here is not to list all the jobs that might be interesting. Instead, we're going to focus on what about the jobs is appealing to both types. I picked opposite types to illustrate the differences and why one career could appeal to one type yet be a poor choice for another.

Let's start with INFJs. For this type I selected the career of English teacher. What makes this career attractive for INFJs? Well, language, writing, and literature are interesting to many NF types. Many INFJs have strong interpersonal skills and want their jobs to match their values. They tend to be organized and good at seeing possibilities. Their personal style is frequently warm and sympathetic, great assets for teachers. Often they want to work in fields that help humans develop their abilities and teaching certainly fits that requirement. Many INFJs have good concentration skills and enjoy studying a subject in great depth. Likewise, many have quite active imaginations, which help in writing and teaching others to put thoughts into words. Artistic expression can be important for INFJs as well, and writing is one possible outlet for that creativity. Many INFJs have lofty goals for themselves and others, and tend towards idealism and philosophic reflection. Teaching English helps them grow personally, as well as doing the same for others. They are more likely to be attracted to creative writing as opposed to teaching young children basic grammar.

Let's contrast the above with a career suitable for an ESTP: smoke jumper. For those who don't know what they do, they are the people who parachute out of airplanes to fight forest fires in remote locations. Why is this kind of job appealing to ESTPs? First, it's an action job: no sitting around the desk, doing paperwork, or going to boring meetings. No endless talk about what would be best under ideal circumstances that will likely never occur. ESTPs frequently excel at troubleshooting. As a smoke jumper, you're basically on your own. The job is to put the fire out. How you do it is not as important as getting the job done. Sure, there are standard ways of doing things, but if they don't work, improvisation and flexibility are more important. Quick thinking and action are important. Using tools in a skilled fashion is an asset. ESTPs usually like solving concrete problems as opposed to abstract ones. They tend to be pragmatic and results oriented. They often are cool under pressure, a real benefit when fighting fires. Many ESTPs enjoy dangerous jobs, and thrive on excitement, energy, and risk. Generally, they follow the rules only if they make sense. Many have a good memory for facts and details, which certainly helps in this profession.

You might be one of these two types and never have considered either profession. That's perfectly okay. It's more important to see what makes these jobs attractive to these types. Conversely you might be an ESTP and English teacher. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. If you ask enough people, you're bound to find every type represented in every profession. Again, finding a career that matches your interests is more important than picking one from a list for your type.

 

About the Strong Interest Inventory: The Data Management, Computer Activities, and Office Services Basic Interest Scales

The Basic Interest Scales (BIS) on the pages 1 and 2 of the Strong Profile show how your interests match those of people working in various careers. Your BISs show the things you like to do, as opposed to just interest you. This time we'll look at three BISs on the Strong and which careers they match. You'll notice these three BISs are all from the Conventional General Occupational Scale. We'll look at the jobs that match these BISs to give you a better idea of where you might enjoy working.

Let's start with the Data Management BIS. The six professions with the highest scores on this scale are Accountant, Bookkeeper, Business Education Teacher, Actuary, Mathematics Teacher, and Investments Manager. In contrast, the lowest six professions on this scale are Fine Artist, Art Teacher, Commercial Artist, Medical Illustrator, Occupational Therapist, and Social Worker.

For the Computer Activities scale, the highest scorers were Secretary, Business Education Teacher, Military Enlisted Personnel, Mathematics Teacher, Bookkeeper, and Food Service Manager. The lowest scores were found among Fine Artists, Commercial Artists, Art Teachers, Advertising Executives, Reporters, and Photographers.

On the Office Services BIS, the highest scoring professions are Business Education Teacher, Secretary, Bookkeeper, Dental Assistant, Food Service Manager, and Banker. The lowest are Fine Artist, Commercial Artist, Medical Illustrator, Advertising Executive, Psychologist, and Architect.

You'll notice that the same professions cluster in the highest and lowest scores. Business Education Teachers score high on all three scales, while Fine Artists score low on the same scales. This makes great sense, as the Conventional scales are most distant and dissimilar to the Artist scales. This makes it quite difficult for those who have high scores on both scales to find a job that combines both scales. One profession that does so might be graphic artist. Many graphic artists use computers for much of their work, while the artistic element comes from creating new things.

Note that the Computer Activities scale is not where you find programmers and systems analysts. Those are Investigative and Realistic jobs. This particular BIS has more to do with computer operations than with more intense computer work.

It's important to remember the matches on your BISs are frequently a better indication of where you might like to work than the General Occupational Themes. That's because your answers are compared to people who are working in these particular professions.

 

The FIRO-B: The Control Scale and Myers-Briggs Thinking- Feeling Scales

One of the interesting aspects of using different measurement tools is to see if there are correlations among them. Let's look at the Control scale on the FIRO-B compared to the T-F scale on the Myers-Briggs.

As many of you might suppose, there is a greater tendency for those who had high scores on Expressed Control to be Thinkers. In one study, 61% of those who had high scores on the Expressed Control scale were Thinkers (Feelers were 4%). Conversely, 78% of those with high scores on Wanted Control were Feelers.

However, with any study, you have to be careful in reading the numbers. In this case, only 11% of the Thinkers had a high score for Expressed Control. Of those with high Expressed Control, 61% were Thinkers. In general, only about 7% of this sample had a high Expressed Control score.

On the other hand, only 3% of the Thinkers had high Wanted Control scores, while 62% had low scores. Feelers had low Expressed Control scores 76% of the time is this study, and 47% had low Wanted Control scores.

All of this might be a bit confusing. The numbers show how people scored on the FIRO-B scale and their Myers-Briggs scale. The main point to remember is that it's likely that a high scorer on the Expressed Control is a Thinker and a high scorer on the Wanted Control scale is likely to be a Feeler. Of course, as with any measurement tool, there are patterns and individual results. They do not have to match. It's okay to be a Feeler with a high Expressed Control score on the FIRO-B. Your FIRO-B scores are unique to you and do not have to follow the statistics or any set pattern. It's good to use the information from your report to understand your unique way of dealing with others.