# Resumes - Anyone use MBTI descriptions in them?



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

Nah, I wouldn't. Although if I were ever in a position to hire someone, I'd say no to ENTPs. You can thank Psyphon for that.


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## firedell (Aug 5, 2009)

I don't use the profile descriptions, and I don't mention my type. I do look at the cognitive functions and see if some keywords and phrases would fit in well into it.


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## kemmicals (Nov 14, 2010)

"Hi, I'm an INFP, please hire me for this hands-on, high-end fashion retail position!"

- me, never.


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## Jennywocky (Aug 7, 2009)

danlikesgirls said:


> Haha come on feelers have their place. lol


What's hilarious is that in my tech department some of the feelers are better tech analysts than the thinkers. It all depends on the person. At least they can be more diligent about their work. Especially because I work in requirements and have to interface with users, the feelers have better social skills; and even the dev and validation teams make use of thinkers and feelers because (as my hiring boss says) you have to be able to communicate and get along with people, and some of the thinkers are either incapable of communicating their ideas and/or having decent enough social understanding to get along.

In terms of my submitting a resume somewhere, I would never use the actual MBTI call letters in my standard resume. However, I use insights gleaned about my personality (i.e., adjectives and lines that could type-describe me) in my resume..


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## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

Jennywocky said:


> What's hilarious is that in my tech department some of the feelers are better tech analysts than the thinkers. It all depends on the person. At least they can be more diligent about their work. Especially because I work in requirements and have to interface with users, the feelers have better social skills; and even the dev and validation teams make use of thinkers and feelers because (as my hiring boss says) you have to be able to communicate and get along with people, and some of the thinkers are either incapable of communicating their ideas and/or having decent enough social understanding to get along.


TBH, I think it's a better idea to hire an intelligent feeler with good social skills than a thinker with poor social skills. Most technical skills can be taught if a person is at least capable of learning yet social skills apparently are not very easily learned. Especially if there's an arrogance attached to the poor sociability.


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## Jennywocky (Aug 7, 2009)

MNiS said:


> TBH, I think it's a better idea to hire an intelligent feeler with good social skills than a thinker with poor social skills. Most technical skills can be taught if a person is at least capable of learning yet social skills apparently are not very easily learned. Especially if there's an arrogance attached to the poor sociability.


yuppers. Case in point: One of the validators here is realllllly smart, but the very first day he came to see me about my detailed functional doc, I found him offensive enough to want to slap him... a reaction I don't really ever have, I'm non-physical. When I thought about it, I decided he didn't mean to be rude, but his lack of social skills really made him seem aggressive, assuming, demanding, and blunt enough to be insulting, and not sensitive to cues to chillax. With that context, I was able to step back and just look at the content of his dialogue and then work to improve the product, but I know some people are not as good at that... detaching is easier for me.

At the group meeting a day or two later, when he started with the same relentless question bombardment, I realized I wasn't the only one; the rest of his teammates on that squad were put off by him too. 

He did manage to lighten up and temper his approach, and I actually valued him at that point because he was one of the few validators who asked me important questions about the requirements.

Also, when I was hired for my position, there was a huge pool of equivalently talented applicants, and by poor luck of the draw, I was probably more the 15-20th applicant they considered for the opening.... but I was offered the position almost immediately. My supervisor (who ran the interview with two others, via phone) told me later that it was because I was smart AND knew how to communicate/interact with people that nailed the position for me, because they've had problems in the past with really smart people who unnecessarily disrupt the workflow because they have no skills with people in order to best utilize their abilities. In a workplace where people need to actually form a cohesive unit (with various project teams), there is no place for someone who can't work with others or who does a maverick thing. It ends up in shoddy product and additional costs.

Finally, one of my good friends here is an ENFJ, but she's actually one of the best analysts on the team, once she took the training. same thing with the ESFJs. If they're mature and not prone to drama, and if they leverage their analytical skills, their attention to detail and need to understand all the pieces (again, that bent for detail) combines with a very powerful ability to communicate and work cohesively wth others. I really admired my team lead, she understands more of the tech right now than I do; I might be better at conceptual analysis, but she's got very detailed knowledge of the project that I do not yet have and is very good at making sure every detail is taken care of.

Knowledge can be learned. Social skills are harder to learn.


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## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

Yeah, when working with people you're almost sure to have personality clashes. Especially if you're working with people with rather blunted personalities. My first job out of college was just such a place. It's a Fortune 500 company and was briefly considered one of the top places to work for yet when I started work there everyone was pretty cool, but there seemed to be a sense of arrogance and a "holier than thou" attitude that pervaded the company culture. Plus everyone was always on edge and did things that in most other work places would be considered an abusive environment. Oh well, whatever.

The company is no longer listed as a favorable place to work so I guess I started working there when it peaked and it was all downhill from then on. (Haha major fall from grace)

So it takes all kinds, I suppose.


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