Book Summary: Gifts Differing: Part 4 Type and Occupation

1. Accountants:64% ST; 23% SF; 4% NF; 9% NT;
2. Bank employees:47% ST; 24% SF; 11% NF; 18% NT;
3. Sales, customer relations:11% ST; 81% SF; 8% NF; 0% NT;
4. Creative writers:12% ST; 0% SF; 65% NF; 23% NT;
5. Research Scientists:0% ST; 0% SF; 23% NF; 77% NT;
   

--Gifts Differing

Much of what I have learned from books, speeches and workshops on career choice can be summarized into this one idea: an ideal career enables one to use his best skills to do what he values the most. Personality plays a role in career choice by shaping one's interests, values and skills. The above quoted data prove exactly this point. For example, the S types, who prefers the concrete and facts occupy a high percentage of accountants and bank employees; by contrast, none of the S types shows up in research scientists, who deal with theories and the possibilities. By similar analysis, it's no surprise that sales people are dominantly SF type. Also, creative writers, who sees possibilities more than facts, are mostly N types.

E/I preference and J/P preference also influences one's job choice. We would expect that I types favors quiet workplace while E types loves the opposite; J types enjoys planning well ahead while P types prefers to response to what requires the attention at the moment.

This type theory was originally developed to guide one's career choice, so a lot more can be said about one's type and occupations. Not to bore you with all those detailed descriptions, I will simply stop here with one important reminder from I.B. Myers: "People should not be discouraged from pursuing an occupation because they are 'not the type'......they may be valuable as contributors of abilities that are rare among their co-workers."