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Myers Briggs and Work

Myers Briggs and Work August 5, 2007Your Personality at Work0 Comments

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality testing system that has been around for quite some time. While it is not as highly regarded in the psychology community as the Big-Five and has not shown as high a reliability as the latter (according to the wikipedia site) it does have some interesting points with regard to career preference.

Remember when I said that not everyone was going to find the information in this website pertinent, and that some people like being an employee? Well, my theory is that certain personality types actually do just fine in the 8-to-5 routine while others would rather live on the moon.

With regard to Myers-Briggs, I would say that as a general rule, Perceiving (P) types are more entrepreneurial-minded while Judging (J) types are more employee minded. This is not always the case, however, as Intuitive-Judgers (NJ) if they are so inclined, have both the innovation, independence, vision and the follow-through abilities to create their own income. This is, of course, speculation on my part.

Below, I have sumarized Keirsey’s four MBTI temperments and their likelihood to “enjoy” the rat-race.

SJ – These types are diligent, hard-working, like to play by the rules, and are very reliable. In other words, the workforce was built for SJs, and most of them feel quite at home here. I’m guessing that not many SJ’s will think very highly of this website. 🙂

Are you an SJ? Check out my article Self Employment for the Myers Briggs Types: The Guardians for your rat-race escape guide!

NF – Idealistic, personal, humanitarian, deep and with a mission, NFs find meaning and significance in everything and seem to naturally side with the underdog. For an idea of their character, think Eleanor Roosevelt or Lisa Simpson. With regard to the rat race, they can fit in if they get along with the people there. NFJ’s probably do a lot better than the fun-loving NFP’s.

Are you an NF? Check out my article Self Employment for the Myers Briggs Types: The Idealists for your rat-race escape guide!

NT – NT’s are similar to NF’s in that they are very innovative, sometimes brilliant, and are on a mission. The difference is that NF’s are passionate while NTs are more objective. I would say that NT’s are more likely than any other temperment to have entrepreneurial tendencies, or at the very least to have a need to specialize in a certain field.

Are you an NT? Check out my article Self Employment for the Myers Briggs Types: The Rationals for your rat-race escape guide!

SP – Most SPs are fun-loving, a bit hedonistic, realistic, down-to-earth, kinesthetic and love to exercise and play sports. They were the jocks and in the popular crowd in high school, and in life they tend to be reluctant to settle down. Some SPs do well in an 8-to-5 setting (as long as it’s “fun”) but by and large it is against their nature.

Are you an SP? Check out my article Self Employment for the Myers Briggs Types: The Artisans for your rat-race escape guide!

Would you like to take the test? Go to this site. If you come out as an SJ, I’m sorry if I offended you earlier. I hope you don’t hate me or my website.

To determine your temperament, check the second letter of your results. If it’s an S, then the final letter completes the temperament code. If it is an N, then the 3rd letter does the trick.

One final comment: based on various readings it would seem like the SJ is the most common of all the temperaments. They make up almost half the population. But the other three types are still more prevelant as whole. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that more than half the population may not be a good fit for the 8-to-5 routine (if one assumes a decent levels of validity in the myers-briggs and accepts my hypothesis.)

Check out my newer article Self-Employment and the Myers Briggs Types: A Guide for a more in-depth analysis of the Myers-Briggs types and their best method to escape the rat race.