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PERSONALITY MATTERS

In This Issue
Green Careers
David Keirsey's Rationals
Wrong Career?
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Greetings!

 

Millions of people in the workplace are being forced to consider career changes.This is the time of year that high school juniors are beginning to think about a college to choose and an undergraduate major to favor. This issue of Personality Matters starts a 4-week exploration of what you are doing right now vs. what you might consider doing instead -- for a career, or even a college major. We start with Green people.

Jack

Jack in park

Checking Out Green Careers on the Web

 

There are dozens of websites that match up careers with personality surveys. Here is what to enter in a Google browser if you are Green.

 

Googling people  

 

 

If you are....

 

Introverted Green-Gold: enter "INTJ Careers"

 

Extraverted Green-Gold: enter "ENTJ Careers"

Introverted Green-Orange: enter "INTP Careers"

Extraverted Green-Orange: enter "ENTP Careers"

First of all, here is proof that the Color that is in second place for "most like you" really matters. As you play around on the internet, you will see differences between common career choices between Green-Gold and Green-Orange folks.

NOTE: in the temperament world, "Blue" is usually not recognized as strong enough a factor compared to either Gold or Orange. If Blue is your second Color, use your third (Gold or Orange) as the criterion for making a career search.

 

CAUTION! While exploring around the web, stay interested in your findings but be a little skeptical. Careers lists are not prescriptions for your own career choices. What the lists might actually do, however, are open several avenues:

  1. Reassure you that you may be on the right track with your existing plans.
  2. Open your eyes to possibilities you had not thought of and which might excite you.
  3. Provide you with options to present the people who support you - especially if you realize that their choices for you could be missing the mark.
  4. Force yourself to pause and seriously ask yourself who you really are and what kind of person you want to be.

 

 

  

 

 

 

Greens are called "Rationals" in David Keirsey's world

  

The man who has most influenced me on temperament theory is Dr. David Keirsey whose landmark book Please Understand Me rocked the world with its years of research presented in an understandable way for millions of people.

  

This short video from Keirsey.com showcases folks with a Rational temperament - what we call "Green" in Four Windows. Best of all, the video provides a few examples and a framework for a Green person who is looking to choose a college major or career.

Keirsey Personality Types: Portrait of a Rational (INTJ, ENTJ, INTP, ENTP)
Keirsey Personality Types: Portrait of a Rational (INTJ, ENTJ, INTP, ENTP)

 

 

 

 

 

Don't Waste Years in the Wrong Career!  

  

Frustration  

  

  

One of the most useful outcomes of understanding your temperament through Four Windows is the chance to take a good look at the college majors and careers that could fit you best.

 

Majors and careers for Green people usually relate to solving problems, figuring out complex puzzles, gaining knowledge, becoming highly competent in challenging areas, and peering over their domains with strategic thinking and enjoying the thrill of making logical - or even somewhat illogical - connections that most other people may not understand.

 

The problem is that a Green's family, community, and nation may not have a clue about the Green person's natural temperament. Those bodies can overly endorse college majors and careers that frustrate rather than excite. An extreme example might be a Green student bent on an engineering career whose parents insist  he enter religious ministry, work on an assembly line, do customer service, or be in charge of stocking shelves in a family grocery store. The nation's government might draft a Green in the army and make a military cop out of him instead of recognizing the intelligence officer he was born to be.

 

There are exceptions of course. Plenty of Green people find peace, joy, and challenges in careers that draw from other strengths besides Green strengths.

 

When we get career insights from personality surveys, it's a good idea to not only pause long enough to think about the implications. It's even a better idea to talk with counselors and others about the results. Some of us end up wasting decades studying the wrong subjects because we don't seem to be able to figure ourselves out soon enough. I have friends who have spent decades in wrong careers because they were too impulsive about life decisions at an early age. I myself am such a time waster. I had a chance at age 39 to consider public service but rejected it because I was certain the personality survey that pointed me in that direction had misinterpreted my career path. What I failed to do was explore the information more patiently - to spend some time with a few experts. Alas it took me another 15 years to find that perfect job.

 

On the other hand, you will find people who "get it" early and make some pretty smart decisions. After a workshop in California, I got talking with a participant at her work station. She was the department's main receptionist - and she happened to be Green. "I have not met many Green receptionists," I remarked. "Well," she said, "I appreciate where you're coming from, but my long-term plan is to be head of the department in 15-20 years. Meanwhile, this job is easy enough so I can finish college at the City's expense and get myself promoted up the ladder in due time." You have to smile at that!

 

 

   

 

This really is YOUR newsletter. Send your stories and comments, please, to [email protected].

 

Sincerely,

 

 Jack Dermody

Jack Dermody
JackDermody dot com