As an ENTJ, career satisfaction means doing work that:
1. Let you lead, be in control, organize, and perfect the operating systems of an organization so that it runs efficiently and reaches its goals on schedule.
2. Lets you engage in long-range strategic planning, creative problem-solving, and the generation of innovative and logical approaches to a variety of problems.
3. Is done in a well-organized environment where you, and others, work within a clear and definite set of guidelines.
4. Challenges and stimulates your intellectual curiosity and lets you work with complex and often difficult problems.
5. Gives you opportunities to meet and interact with a variety of other capable, interesting, and powerful people.
6. Gives you the opportunity to advance within the organization and to increase and demonstrate your competence.
7. Is exciting, challenging, and competitive; where you are in the public eye and where your accomplishments are seen, recognized, and fairly compensated.
8. Let you work with other intelligent, creative, ambitious, and goal-oriented individuals whose competencies you respect.
9. Let you set and meet goals and implement your organizational skills to keep yourself and others focused on the larger goal while accomplishing all your objectives in a timely and efficient manner.
10. Lets you manage and supervise others, using logical and objective standards and policies that utilize each person’s strengths but without having to deal daily with interpersonal squabbles.
Work-Related Strengths and Weaknesses of ENTJs include:
Strengths
1. Can be visionary leaders.
2. Work best in organizations where opportunity exists to rise to the top.
3. Ambitious and hardworking, honest and direct.
4. God complex and creative problem solver; able to make logical decisions.
5. Able to keep long-term short-term goals in mind.
Weaknesses
1. May be demanding, critical, and intimidating.
2. May place work above other areas of life.
3. May overlook relevant facts and important details in haste to make the decision.
4. May not express encouragement or praise.
5. May not invite or permit input and contributions from others.
Pathways To Success In The Job Search Process
As an ENTJ, your most effective strategies will build on your abilities to:
· Develop and follow an effective job search strategy. Establish your goals, including the criteria for the career or job you want, and map out your plan for obtaining it. Keep copies of your letters, log your appointments, and keep track of people you have followed up with or still need to contact to keep you organized and on time.
· Anticipate trends and forecast future needs. Use your ability to look at current situations and project how they will need to be different to meet the changing context. Demonstrate your ability to forecast the future needs of potential employers by explaining how you see the market changing and how your input and involvement can help the employer meet those new demands.
· Solve problems creatively. Approach obstacles as challenges, rather than roadblocks. Rise to the challenge of overcoming them by using your creativity. Demonstrate your ability to develop innovative strategies by preparing an assessment of the prospective employer’s biggest problems and how you would help to solve them.
· Network extensively. Develop a list of everyone you know who knows you and your abilities, and make appointments to meet with them to discuss your career goals. Ask the people who know you to refer you to other people who might either be interested in your area of expertise or might have some knowledge that you will find helpful.
· Become knowledgeable about the organization and the position of interest. Do some research at the library through industry trade publications or by talking to people already in the field or organization to find out as much as you can about what’s happening at the company and in the field. Also, find out what you can about your interviewer so you can find a common ground upon which to establish rapport. Synthesize the information you have collected and distill it into a mini-report to review before a subsequent interview or to refer to during the interview to demonstrate your interest in and knowledge of the business.
Possible Pitfalls
· Avoid making decisions too quickly. Take time to gather all the relevant, albeit mundane, facts about a job or career before deciding whether you are interested in it. Refer to your list of criteria and be sure to ask all the necessary questions so that you have an accurate and realistic picture of the job and its opportunities. Be sure to reflect before acting. Ask yourself what you want and how a potential job fits with the things you believe are important to you. Be honest with yourself and add those values and desires to your list of criteria.
· Try not to appear aggressive and pushy. Be aware that other people may be put off by your energy and drive and consider you too aggressive. Take time to establish rapport, finding some common personal ground early on in an interview. Take time to recognize the contributions of those around you. Try to be understanding of the unpredictable delays and postponements that are a fact of life. These may slow down your journey toward your goal but try not to let them frustrate or discourage you.
· Don’t discount opportunities you consider to be below your competency level. Realize that you may appear overconfident and arrogant and unintentionally insult a potential employer by refusing to consider a position you see as beneath you. Think of everyone you meet as someone with whom you may have to work one day and do all that you can to establish good relations with them.
· Be patient with all phases of the process, even the details. Don’t overlook the practical considerations of a job search instead of the more interesting aspects. Check out the time investment and costs associated with a quality job search and be sure they are budgeted into your overall plan. Delay starting your job search until you have fully researched your resources and are sure you will be able to complete it to your high standards before plowing ahead.
· Work on developing active listening skills. Realize that you sometimes may interrupt others before they finish speaking because you have anticipated (correctly or incorrectly) what they are about to say. Instead, wait a few seconds after they have finished speaking and check with them to make sure you understand what they meant. Remember that, rather than appearing confident and competent, you may come across as impatient and domineering. Make a conscious effort to curb that tendency by giving the other people plenty of time to gather their thoughts and finish their sentences.
For you, the ENTJ, with an understanding of your career satisfaction characteristics, the next step is to seek jobs and work environments that align with your strategic and commanding presence. Look for roles that require visionary leadership, complex problem-solving, and a direct approach. Your path forward involves finding professions where your ability to drive efficiency and innovation is not only a necessity but also a key to thriving in your career.
Ken Meyer
Myers Briggs Master Practitioner and Retired Senior Career Coach at Eastern Michigan University
