# Is anyone happy in a career that conflicts with your personality type?



## DiorLips (Apr 4, 2012)

I'm having difficulty choosing a career because everything that I would like to do and/or is suggested in a career assessment test either requires too much education and/or has a pretty dismal salary. 

For example, I would love to be a social worker, but this just isn't practical for me. I'm in my 30s and am trying to have children so by the time I get through school it wouldn't be worth it to make only $40K a year and have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. If I were 18 again, I would go for it but considering the amount of time that I would spend in school, it just doesn't seem worth it financially.

I am considering a career in business, as my husband has his own business and I could help him with that. Also, I hope to eventually open my own business where I could use my desire to help people along with my creativity. 

I am hoping that I could be happy as an INFP/ENFP in this field but every single career assessment I've ever taken is pointing me in other directions. Sure, I'd love to be an art therapist, but how practical is that?

So, my question is, is it possible to be happy in a career that doesn't align with your type?


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## Engelsstaub (Apr 8, 2016)

I wouldn't be too dependent on MBTI type while choosing career. It says hardly anything about someone's talents. Best to choose what you like to do and what you feel reasonably happy doing so you won't hate it.

I once googled out of curiosity for some exotic type/profession combinations and found INFP's being: programmers, scientists (physics), lawyers, military commanders, businessmen etc. All being fine with their job. They found out about their time long after choosing their profession.

Same as me, an INFP programmer. I'm doing fine. Hardly anyone cares about MBTI in my country anyway.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

I think that NFPs in particular can do well in niches across many fields, but it may take them a while to find a position that is right for them. I have heard from happy NFPs in all sorts of jobs, often fairly specialized. 

Me personally, as an INFP, I've now tried a whole bunch of fields: retail, tutoring, baking, cake decorating, healthcare, caregiving, IT, illustration, classroom assistance, and business management. There have been aspects of all of them that I have succeeded at, but I find myself frustrated with fields whose endgoals don't align with my values. I am a decent business manager by the numbers, and I find it engaging, but frequently, I find my desire to help people diametrically opposed to what is best for business, which makes me deeply unhappy. My favorite jobs have been tutoring and caregiving, where I felt like I could usually do what was best for people without violating - and sometimes even successfully fulfilling - my job. I am a number of years out of college, now, but figure I will probably go back soon for something in the social services. I like to be able to focus on people, not a bottom line.

If you're self-driven and disciplined enough to integrate creativity and business, I think that could be a good possibility. I have an INFP friend who genuinely seems to enjoy being a freelance illustrator (though she has a full-time retail job in addition, at least for now), and I know an ISFP who quite successfully runs her own graphic design/marketing/consulting business. I think they ultimately are making less than they would in a standard job, however, even accounting for loan payback.


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## DiorLips (Apr 4, 2012)

angelfish said:


> I find myself frustrated with fields whose endgoals don't align with my values. I am a decent business manager by the numbers, and I find it engaging, but frequently, I find my desire to help people diametrically opposed to what is best for business, which makes me deeply unhappy. My favorite jobs have been tutoring and caregiving, where I felt like I could usually do what was best for people without violating - and sometimes even successfully fulfilling - my job. I am a number of years out of college, now, but figure I will probably go back soon for something in the social services. I like to be able to focus on people, not a bottom line.


That is exactly how I feel and also exactly what I fear.


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## flamesabers (Nov 20, 2012)

DiorLips said:


> So, my question is, is it possible to be happy in a career that doesn't align with your type?


Yes, I see the MBTI as more of a guide than as a set of rules written in stone.

I think something else to consider is your career doesn't have to be your passion. You could always do a job you're okay with and volunteer on your free time or whatever to fulfill your desire to help people.


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## starscream430 (Jan 14, 2014)

While I'm not in a career yet (I'm still in university...and trying to get my life together), I'm a public relations / marketing major who's also an INTJ. To be honest, I love what I do because the world of communication is surprisingly complicated. It's something that a lot of people don't think about, but it affects our lives so greatly :happy:.


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## Arzazar Szubrasznikarazar (Apr 9, 2015)

I was a CAD drafter in my mother's company for last 6 years. I found it quite pleasant because I'd usually distract myself with watching videos or playing real time wargames. Also the workload is very light. A few times I've let work to accumulate a lot of plans to draft, I'd become completely exhausted after about 4 hours of work, including pauses.

Generally, I think career bad for personality type is bearable as long as one works much less than standard work time. Otherwise bad energy flow is problematic.


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## Vast Silence (Apr 23, 2014)

Honestly as a mechanical engineer I love my work but the number one factor to my happiness is workplace atmosphere.
I make sure to look for that when going on interviews.

A super competitive non-team oriented workplace drains me regardless of the work itself.
On the other hand, if my coworkers, manager, and cubby mates are really open, pleasant, friendly, and easy going I could work on the most un creative data mining and excel data entry imaginable and still be happy when I go home.

So it's more of a hunt for a secondary family than just a career choice.

They will be people you spend 8 hours a day with, potentially more time than your kids and spouse, so choose wisely and be picky.

Also, don't go into debt to get educated. There are many ways to climb the corporate ladder.
I recommend working par time and paying for classes as you go. Taking only what you can afford to pay.
That way you may take longer to graduate but at least you will be debt free.


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## strawberryLola (Sep 19, 2010)

DiorLips said:


> I'm having difficulty choosing a career because everything that I would like to do and/or is suggested in a career assessment test either requires too much education and/or has a pretty dismal salary.
> 
> For example, I would love to be a social worker, but this just isn't practical for me. I'm in my 30s and am trying to have children so by the time I get through school it wouldn't be worth it to make only $40K a year and have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. If I were 18 again, I would go for it but considering the amount of time that I would spend in school, it just doesn't seem worth it financially.
> 
> ...


 I've seen people who say they are content about the careers they chose but does not align with their type. At the same time, they will go off on weekends and party hard, get into really hard drugs because they hate their day jobs. But, who am I to judge, maybe they like doing the drugs, I just think it's indicative of a dissatisfaction in life, in which, a career also helps to define who you are (not 100%) but we do engage in our careers for more than 1/3rd of our lives.

At the same time, I can see how being practical it is to choose a profession that will help you to do what you really want to do, but that's also a risk. 

Safe careers aren't always so safe, because the market structure is always changing. Previously, nursing was projected to be one of the fastest growing careers, and my advisor kept encouraging me to be a nurse, but I disagreed with him that just because something is projected to grow much faster than the average doesn't mean that it will. Today, most my friends who work as nurses will tell me how difficult it is to find a nursing job unless they know someone.

I think it's important to choose a career one is most passionate about. And certain careers allow you to branch into other relating careers allowing you to keep your options open, which is also an important value for most NFPs to have, I feel.


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## marbleous (Feb 21, 2014)

DiorLips said:


> I'm having difficulty choosing a career because everything that I would like to do and/or is suggested in a career assessment test either requires too much education and/or has a pretty dismal salary.
> 
> For example, I would love to be a social worker, but this just isn't practical for me. I'm in my 30s and am trying to have children so by the time I get through school it wouldn't be worth it to make only $40K a year and have to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in student loans. If I were 18 again, I would go for it but considering the amount of time that I would spend in school, it just doesn't seem worth it financially.
> 
> ...


A career in business using your desire to help people and your creativity sounds like it aligns with your type. 

I find job satisfaction is more determined by your personal interest and your values than type. I'm a technical-brained INFJ which some would consider to already be not aligned.


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## yet another intj (Feb 10, 2013)

I think choosing a career, even a temporary job can't be completely independent from personality type yet it doesn't have to be the best one possible. Keeping things reasonable with practical conditions and even being willing to take challenges is healthier. After all, you will always learn new skills by adaptation and that's also how you can genuinely participate the field on your own terms.


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## angelfish (Feb 17, 2011)

marbleous said:


> I find job satisfaction is more determined by your personal interest and your values than type.


Yes, I almost want to say values are the most important. Or maybe that is for me as an INFP; that is hard to distinguish. But if your career were constantly pulling you away from what you care about, regardless of what type you are, I think that would be very stressful in the long run. 

So maybe it's not so important that your career exactly matches your type, but that your career matches what you care about in life. If what you care about is a secure, stable career, then maybe any number of jobs could fit that. Kat pointed out that a positive "work family" is extremely important to her. So she can do tasks that don't really "fit type" as long as that requirement is met. But probably people within types tend to share what they find important, so they tend to gravitate towards certain careers on the whole.


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## Carpentet810 (Nov 17, 2013)

Don't know. I would not choose a career that clashes with my personality type.


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## DiorLips (Apr 4, 2012)

Katfeatherfoot said:


> Honestly as a mechanical engineer I love my work but the number one factor to my happiness is workplace atmosphere.
> I make sure to look for that when going on interviews.
> 
> A super competitive non-team oriented workplace drains me regardless of the work itself.
> On the other hand, if my coworkers, manager, and cubby mates are really open, pleasant, friendly, and easy going I could work on the most un creative data mining and excel data entry imaginable and still be happy when I go home.


That's a very good point. Looking back on the jobs I have had, workplace satisfaction has been an important factor for me. I sort of intuitively seek it anyway, I guess. I've been pretty fortunate to end up around people I enjoy being around, at least to some degree. I'm sure it helps that I naturally get along well with others for the most part but I also could not handle a "competitive, non-team oriented" type of environment.


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## DiorLips (Apr 4, 2012)

strawberryLola said:


> Safe careers aren't always so safe, because the market structure is always changing. Previously, nursing was projected to be one of the fastest growing careers, and my advisor kept encouraging me to be a nurse, but I disagreed with him that just because something is projected to grow much faster than the average doesn't mean that it will. Today, most my friends who work as nurses will tell me how difficult it is to find a nursing job unless they know someone.
> 
> I think it's important to choose a career one is most passionate about. And certain careers allow you to branch into other relating careers allowing you to keep your options open, which is also an important value for most NFPs to have, I feel.


That's interesting to hear about the nursing field. It is something I have been trying to "talk myself into" due to the relatively high pay considering the amount of education needed. It is still supposedly in high demand but it is competitive. I'm thinking that the field will get flooded at some point because so many people pursuing their BSN. 

I like your idea about choosing a career that leaves open the option to branch into other related careers. I know myself enough to realize that I will get bored quickly if I back myself into a corner with no room for growth.


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