A request from Donna Dunning
Please Share Your Story or Strategy
Although I have studied personality type for over 20 years, I still find it most helpful to hear from the experts on the different types. That’s you. To help others learn and develop, please share your stories. How does your career suit who you are? What have you learned to do to be successful? Thanks for sharing.
To find a sample of type-preferred occupations go to the Expeditor occupations page.
Not sure of your type? Learn more on the What’s Your Type pages.
Share Your Story
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Personality Type: ENTJ
I am probably a “poster child” for an ENTJ type; I have, or have experienced, virtually all of the “good” and “bad” characteristics of the type. I have always known that I am focused, strategic, career oriented, hardworking and generally intolerant of laziness and inefficiency, but I did not consider myself to be overbearing, “powerful”, or hard on people. I just blindly went on as I was, thinking that my style was typical and that since my intent was never to threaten or hurt others, I was therefore not doing that. It took others, both at work and in my family setting, to point my intimidating style out to me, indeed occasionally to drive this home to me. Being sensitive to criticism I tried to work on my style to recognize and be empathetic to the feelings of others, though not always as quickly or effectively as I probably should have. As one means of dealing with this I strove to treat everyone honestly and fairly and, as a manager, maintained a strict “open door” policy…I would meet with any staff member to discuss his or her concerns and problems (including with me or my management style). It wasn’t perfect, but it helped mitigate issues and led to greater mutual understanding and an improved work environment for both my staff and me.
Personality Type: ESTJ
I am a strong ESTJ. I went to college late in life (BS at 53, MA at 55). The only convenient college was a liberal arts one and I finally ended up with an MA in Counseling. Strange for an ESTJ. I realized I would never be a clinical, school, or other type of usual counseling occupation, so I opted for sex therapy. Typically sex therapy is conducted as behaviorist. “Tell me what’s the matter and I’ll tell you what you need to do to fix it.” Perfect situation for an ESTJ. I also worked for the Defense Department during the day and interacted with many military who often are ESTJ or ISTJ. I understood them and their needs and they understood mine!
Personality Type: ENTJ
My preferences are ENTJ, and there are a few examples of that.
First, my family will tell you even though I am the youngest child, I was always trying to boss around my older siblings and cousins at a very young age. I would get very annoyed with them when they didn’t listen. (In fact, I still do.)
Second, I teach college success skills classes at community colleges. My preferences are clearly demonstrated in my teaching: I love the long-range planning and strategizing that teaching requires. I also tend to decide and direct. In the beginning of the semester, I that “I am the boss: Respect me enough to know there is a point to everything I expect you to do; cooperate with the process; and in time you will understand the point.” As the students learn the principles needed, I slowly turn over control to them. By the end of the semester, I am still directing the direction of curriculum, but they are in charge of how to apply the principles to their lives, learning styles, and their life goals. When the semester is over, I am perfectly happy to “kick them out of the nest” so they can fly on their own. While we do prefer to be in charge of the big picture, we are not micro-managers. We are perfectly happy to let those under us decide how to do what we tell them to do. It is very satisfying for me to watch my students apply what I give them to their lives.
Another interesting note for other ENTJ’s: I teach the MBTI to my students and group them together by Keirsian temperaments. I often tell my students that I have learned there is no such thing as common sense: There is talent, training, and experience. One common response I get from my ENTJ students is the most significant thing they get out of my class is to realize how much they realize they assumed their giftedness was just common sense – not talent. They learn this as they sit there and listen to the other types talk about struggling with things that come naturally to individuals with ENTJ preferences.
Another thing I have seen with my ENTJs, is they often don’t register how much they value learning and education. By the end of the class, several have changed their career plans and decided they want to become teachers as a result.
Personality Type: ESTJ
The greatest benefit to me in studying MBTI was to realise that everyone didnt always see things the way I did. Being logical and focused to me “its obvious” what the correct course of action should be in most situations- and surely everyone can see this logic! Now I understand that other people are not being difficult – they really do see things differently. I have learnt that I need to spell out my logic and listen to others ( usually involving peoples feelings which I could see but to me were outweighed by the logic) before working together towards a solution.
Personality Type: ENTJ
People have described me as passionate, driven, focused, intelligent, determined ambitious, and curious about learning and self-development. Funnily, I work in field where it is dominated by sensing feeling types – not ideal I know, but it did push me to explore personality differences as a way to deal with others. I would describe my style as a soft ENTJ at work, and a true ENTJ with close friends and family. Still feel like a square peg in a round hole, but I have learned to deal and heal with my differences. For me, I am my happiest with job variety, plenty of contact with stimulating people, the opportunity to work on complex projects or cases. My current career, with some tweaking of my own doing, has given me satisfaction. Basically I have “hobby-jobs” outside of my career to keep me engaged and stimulated. Work is play for me! The MBTI has given me tools to understand where others are coming from and to really respect the core of who I am, while respecting others. Being a female ENTJ has come with some challenges of course, but as I get older, I feel that since I’m basically an honest, fair, open-minded, and genuinely helpful person, if you still don’t like me, then that’s too bad, because that’s all I have to offer.