do what you do

Because I am having to re-apply for my job at work in the new re-organised structure, I have been spending some time updating my CV. This has in turn prompted me to talk to a couple of agencies about some outside positions.

I have got this far in life without having any sort of game plan or career direction. I've always tended to drift along picking up opportunities that seem interesting or jumping ship when the companies I have been with have hit the rocks. This probably goes against all professional career advice but it seems to have worked out ok for me so far.

In the medium to long term, I know that I want to get out of salaried employment and either end up becoming fully self employed or on freelance contracts. So it's probably time that I took a more considered approach to my next move.

Each time I have taken the MBTI assessment, I have been rated as an INTJ. Although sometimes I come out as borderline INTP. I'm not sure how much stock should be attributed to the results and conclusions of this assessment but it does at least provide a starting point to consider who I am and what I could do.

From a quick google, I found this list of INTJ traits:

• Able to absorb extremely complex theoretical and complex material
• Driven to create order and structure from theoretical abstractions
• Supreme strategists
• Future-oriented
• See the global, "big picture"
• Strong insights and intuitions, which they trust implicitly
• Value their own opinions over others
• Love difficult theoretical challenges
• Bored when dealing with mundane routine
• Value knowledge and efficiency
• Have no patience with inefficiency and confusion
• Have very high standards for performance, which they apply to themselves most strongly
• Reserved and detached from others
• Calm, collected and analytical
• Extremely logical and rational
• Original and independent
• Natural leaders, but will follow those they can fully support
• Creative, ingenious, innovative, and resourceful
• Work best alone, and prefer to work alone

I would be hard pressed to argue against any of these characteristics if they were applied to me.

And here is a set of INTJ weaknesses:

• May be unaware (and sometimes uncaring) of how they come across to others
• May quickly dismiss input from others without really considering it
• May apply their judgment more often towards others, rather than towards themselves
• With their ability to see an issue from many sides, they may always find others at fault for problems in their own lives
• May look at external ideas and people with the primary purpose of finding fault
• May take pride in their ability to be critical and find fault in people and things
• May have unrealistic and/or unreasonable expectations of others
• May be intolerant of weaknesses in others
• May believe that they're always right
• May be cuttingly derisive and sarcastic towards others
• May have an intense and quick temper
• May hold grudges, and have difficulty forgiving people
• May be wishy-washy and unsure how to act in situations that require quick decision making
• May have difficulty communicating their thoughts and feelings to others
• May see so many tangents everywhere that they can't stay focused on the bottom line or the big picture

Again, I can recognise all of these within myself. Although I have learned various coping strategies to either mitigate or disguise most of these, most of the time.

Some interesting information here but I'll need to see whether or not it can be harnessed to provide any practical use.