ISFJ “On My Honor To Do My Duty….”
As an ISFJ, career satisfaction means doing work that:
- Requires careful observation and meticulous accuracy, where you can use your
ability to remember facts and details. - Lets you work on tangible projects that help other people, often requiring great
accuracy and attention to detail. - Lets you express your compassion and devotion by working hard behind the
scenes, but where your contributions are recognized and appreciated. - Is done in a traditional, stable, orderly, and structured environment, where the
results are practical and service-oriented. - Requires that you adhere to standard procedures, use practical judgment, and
follow through in a careful, organized way. - Lets you focus all your energy on one project or one person at a time, working on
products or services that have observable end results. - Gives you a private workspace so you can concentrate fully for extended
periods of time and with a minimum of interruptions. - Lets you work primarily one-on-one, helping others, or with other people who
share your personal values and beliefs. - Requires you to be organized and efficient in completing your assignments.
- Does not require too frequently that you present your work in front of groups of
people without having adequate time to prepare well in advance.
Work-Related Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths: - Strong work ethic; responsible and hardworking.
- Excellent with routines requiring sequential, repeated procedures or tasks.
- Accurate, thorough, and careful with details.
- Enjoy being in service to others; supportive with co-workers or subordinates.
- Enjoy using established ways of doing things; respect the status given by titles.
Weaknesses: - May underestimate their own value; and may not be assertive about their own needs.
- Frequently overworked because they take on too much.
- May not see implications of future consequences.
- May not adjust well to constant change.
- May become discouraged if they no longer feel needed or appreciated.
Pathways To Success In The Job Search Process
As an ISFJ, your most effective strategies will build on your abilities to:
- Research opportunities thoroughly, collecting all relevant facts. Use all
resources available to you, including the local library and trade publications, to
find out as much as you can about the company, industry, or position you are
considering. Spend the amount of time necessary until you are comfortable with
your knowledge base before proceeding to the interview stage. - Make thoughtful decisions based on practical considerations. Establish a
list of criteria and refer to them frequently during the job search process, comparing
potential job opportunities against them. Try to be objective during the decision-making process so as to remain pragmatic and realistic about what a possible job
will really be like not just how you wish it might be. - Conduct an organized, well-planned job search. Prepare resumes with
individualized cover letters to address your specific interests and qualifications for
the job in question. Follow up with a telephone call to secure an appointment,
rather than waiting for a potential employer to call you. Stay in contact with
people who have given you time for an interview. Write them thank you notes and
send them a notification when you find the right job. - Capitalize on your solid, stable, dependable work experience. Provide
prospective employers with several examples of past successes, including any
citations, awards, or letters of recommendation. Demonstrate your consistency in
meeting job requirements and reaching organizational goals.
Possible Pitfalls - Look for and stay open to considering possibilities that do not currently
exist. Engage in the sometimes difficult exercise of brainstorming and generating
lists of possibilities while resisting the urge to eliminate the seemingly
impossible ones. Keep all ideas until you have generated a lengthy list.
Consider each and ask yourself “Why not?” several times before discarding it
as a viable option. You may want to call on the help of friends for whom
brainstorming comes more naturally. Ask other people currently enjoying jobs
you may wish to consider how they went about getting trained for the job or
obtaining an interview. Consider less traditional or unconventional
approaches. - Be aggressive, or at least assertive, when planning and implementing your
job search. Realize that the adage “the squeaky wheel gets the grease” is
often true, especially in the competitive world of employment. Use all your
excellent organizational and follow-through skills to stay on top of all
opportunities. Follow-up appointments with notes to remind the prospective
employer of your continued interest in the position. Contact old friends and
business associates and ask them to help you develop a list of potential people
to add to your network. Most importantly, ask for interviews and tell
interviewers of positions that you want! - Don’t underrepresent your enthusiasm and interpersonal skills. Save the
humility for another time and place. Speak up and tell prospective employers
about your past accomplishments. Demonstrate your abilities by offering past
reviews and letters of recommendation from supervisors. Work from the
assumption that you are exactly what the prospective employer is looking for
and that you have a lot to offer. You will project the confidence and energy
most employers want in employees. - Try to be objective and do not allow your personal feelings to be the sole
criterion of important decisions. Suspend making any decisions about a
person or a position until you have left the interview and had some time to
think back on it. Try to stay clear on the fact that it is easy to confuse rapport
with friendship. Consider the cause and effect of your decisions. Make a list
of possible outcomes and results of your choices, using your original list of
criteria as a benchmark against which to measure potential jobs, rather than
your personal feelings about the interviewer or the worksite. - Avoid being rigid and inflexible, seeing options as either all good or all
bad. Again, refer to your list of criteria. Adhere to those elements that you
simply can’t live without, and be willing to be flexible about those that are
less important. Try to imagine yourself in each job opportunity you consider.
Ask a friend to help you generate a list of the pros and cons of each
opportunity and look at both sides fairly before making any decisions. - Try not to take rejection personally and get discouraged. Remember that
just because you look at the world from a personal perspective, it is not
true for everyone else. Most rejections are not directed at you personally but at
your qualifications for a job. It sometimes takes several weeks or months to
find the right job. Patience will pay off if you keep going. Get support from
friends or family members when you are starting to lose your energy and
confidence. Ask for the encouragement you need. Let friends help you for a
change.
Ken Meyer
Myers Briggs Master Practitioner and Retired Senior Career Coach at Eastern Michigan University
