Do What You Are

I have purchased 4 career books and will discuss them all here. I've only actually read one so far. It's called "Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type". The title is a little misleading; while it does help in discovering good career choices, it never tells you what the perfect career is for you. In fact, I think it even says somewhere in the book that there is no one perfect career for anyone.

The book is based on the Meyers-Briggs personality test. The theory is that a human being's personality can be divided into 4 dimensions, with two preferences each (one on either end of the scale for each dimension). This leads to 16 distinct personality types. The book has an interesting self-test in which you decide what your four preferences are after reading some discussion and examples. By the end of the self-test, you will understand the Meyers-Briggs scales and have a good idea what you are. The next five chapters help to ensure that you are the type that you think you are by supplying more information about each type.

For example, from the self-test, I learned that I'm INFP (introverted, intuitive, feeling, perceiving). The next chapter provided me with a few pages about how I probably act, what I value in people and activities, and my potential weaknesses. The next chapter described how there are four categories of people (based on the middle two letters of your type) - I'm an Idealist. Then, the book describes which of the four preferences is your strongest (based on your type) and where (internally or externally) you are strongest using that preference. You are also taught at which ages you can expect various preferences to become stronger. All of this additional information can be used to ensure that you selected the right types during the self-test.

Then, once you are sure of your type and are armed with some broader information, you get to read a whole section about you. My section discussed the career paths of three INFPs, followed by what sorts of things INFPs need from their work, things we are good at/bad at on the job, and even insightful advice on how someone like me should perform a job search (I checked it against a different type - it seems that they do give different advice for different types). The book ends with a little worksheet you can use to essentially filter out the advice that doesn't apply to you. After that, you can begin a job search with a better idea of what you should be looking for.

I haven't had much of a chance to use this information yet, but I do at least feel that the book helped. For my sabbatical (which is looking like it's going to happen), I'm going to look for a job that meets the needs described for my type. Maybe I'll learn something.