Jobs and personality | INFJ Forum

Jobs and personality

Gaze

Donor
Sep 5, 2009
28,265
44,748
1,906
MBTI
INFPishy
How have your jobs or job roles affected your personality? Were there positive or negative changes? Did they bring out skills, strengths, or talents that were underdeveloped or ones you never knew you had? Did any changes have an effect on your personal or social life?
 
When I turned twenty I speculated that I'd be more joyful (on average) if I could use my creativity at work. So I've always been pursuing creative things. And so far it's been a good life.

Using my creativity at work though does wear down my desire for creativity in my personal life. And using my creativity to bridge gaps for others certainly can be taxing on my Fe.

It all depends. But I like to think that it's changed me for the better.
 
How have your jobs or job roles affected your personality? Were there positive or negative changes? Did they bring out skills, strengths, or talents that were underdeveloped or ones you never knew you had? Did any changes have an effect on your personal or social life?

Hmmm...Well, my job is music-related so I'm feeling very motivated and inspired because of this.
I have been writing a lot more songs and recording more in my studio as a result of this new job of mine on my personal time.

I feel more fulfilled creativity-wise and this is crucial for my happiness :blush:
It feels absolutely amazing to have music play such a huge role in both my professional and personal life.
Aaaand me not nagging and feeling overly stressed out about my job has been beneficial for my marriage. I'm not going to lie.

It also pays well enough to enable me to indulge in one of my other passions: travelling.

I'd like to use the same words as @SeanSquared and say that I think my job has changed me for the better. Definitely!


:m176:
 
Mostly the jobs I've had ended up improving my confidence. In the moment it has sucked a lot but after the fact I've been able to see the types of things that I am capable of, which helps me push myself toward new things. But I try to maintain a growth mindset as much as possible. In the moment it's more like

69399dc2fbb409782d3b7ea033111c21.jpg

c07779075b5c30a23e8ec35512572650.jpg
 
I've worked in different customer service jobs. I think that this role in society does not encourage people to grow. I've learned a lot about being treated badly and some of that has been valuable to me. Mostly, it has steadily worn me down. I've tried to use it as an opportunity to develop patience and endurance, and I think that I've succeeded to some extent. But retail and hospitality give you basically no marketable career skills. This kind of work hasn't helped me to develop anything about myself that could be described as a "talent"... maybe apart from recognising asshole type people faster because I've encountered so many thousands of them. For many people this type of work might be suitable but I think that for many more it's just a place they get stuck in and struggle to get out of, and some fall through the cracks. It tired me out, I'm relieved that I think, I'm finally steadily getting out of it.
 
I have worked in many different jobs prior to settling in my current position as a teacher, which appears to be the best fit so far. Every previous position led me in some way to this one. The reason it's the best fit is that I am the boss in my classes, I get to know many different people but have my core group of trusted ones, I truly connect with and help thousands of students and I use my creativity, knowledge, logic, and love of learning everyday. I love it and it shows but I had to kiss, et work with, a lot of frogs to figure that out.
 
Pursuing jobs and trying many new things has directly influenced my spiritual awakening, and I am forever glad that I took the path that I did. I challenged myself in many ways, and persevered.
 
When I was 18 I worked for the Salvation Army, me and two guys my age were placed there, on a government young peoples work scheme. Paid well tbf.
Me and the boys instantly hit it off, when we weren't on the shop floor, we where battering each other with bags of clothes out back, haha!
Anyway, we were all quite immature back then, our boss (who actually had very high standards, having come from managerial at River Island) was not best pleased with us.
Me and the guys started hanging out outside of work, naturally. Then I started banging one of them... We all got fired about 4 months in, lol.

18-19 I worked in my local bar, it's practically a right of passage for all the girls in my family, the silly bint who had taken over management barely new how to handle customers, let alone the rowdy crowds we had, I discovered a talent for being able to control the punters. Alas, this came with a lot of drinking on the other side of the bar too!

19-20 I worked in busy bar slightly further out, my work ethic was pretty solid by then, but the booze on the other side of the bar was a huge temptation to all of us young (18-25) staff members.
So when I joined an admin job from 20-23, I spent most my spare time in the bar I'd previously worked in, drinking!!! Partying!! Causing trouble!! Haha.

Blehh, that was to help block the absolute mind numbing boredom from the office environment. Turns out that most offices are run extremely inefficiently by bureaucratic twats, and my talent was for fixing the retarded systems of my seniors.
My friends said that I turned rather unduly "posh" and "professional" during my office time, I think I finally fell out of the perfectly professional/pleasant telephone manner sometime last year... Took a while to get out my system.

Ugh, fuck drone life.

And I've just been in and out of shitty jobs ever since, so I don't even know what else I'm good at. I had to leave that department, it was going through negative & transformative motions and so were my bosses, the atmosphere was draining, and I couldn't be arsed.

I can flip from professional to goofball in 0-60, and I don't think that's ever going to change. My office department was delivering the welfare-to-work program, and I was about the only staff member who treated the "clients" like human beings instead of statistics, I really got on with our regular clients.. and met this ISTP client who I sorta dated for a while. .. My general life long motto is that "rules are made to be broken", so I'm always a bit of a cheeky chappy in the work place... But I don't shy away from labour or challenges.

"You are full of so much potential" are the words that will probably stalk me for the entirety of my working life.
 
Last edited:
I've worked in different customer service jobs. I think that this role in society does not encourage people to grow. I've learned a lot about being treated badly and some of that has been valuable to me. Mostly, it has steadily worn me down. I've tried to use it as an opportunity to develop patience and endurance, and I think that I've succeeded to some extent. But retail and hospitality give you basically no marketable career skills. This kind of work hasn't helped me to develop anything about myself that could be described as a "talent"... maybe apart from recognising asshole type people faster because I've encountered so many thousands of them. For many people this type of work might be suitable but I think that for many more it's just a place they get stuck in and struggle to get out of, and some fall through the cracks. It tired me out, I'm relieved that I think, I'm finally steadily getting out of it.

I took a tour through the local Hilton the other day for work and they painted a different picture of hospitality. Accordingly to them front desk staff are able to move up to corporate relatively quickly, as was the case of one young front desk clerk. The sales manager and sales directors personal stories were ones where they moved into sales after a significant period of time, the director now having 11 years of total experience. They spoke on a somewhat muddied career advancement path, but advancement none the less. I'm not sure where you'd move up to if you were a cleaning staff person though.

Do you think that you came into this industry already equipped with the skills you would have learned or that there is truely nothing worth learning?
 
I was in the military for still most of my professional life in one way or another and that tag has been a great benefit to me. I learned that you only need discipline to accomplish things that you don't want to do. I also like to stir the pot. After finishing college, government work has suited me and I have a good personality for assisting people in crises. Apparently I have a soothing demeanor. My beard and glasses make me look smart, so people seem to feel like my advice is valid. And it is valid, I don't play games with people's lives. I also learned that typically if I am an early adopter of change,I typically get a better result than my Luddite peers.
 
I took a tour through the local Hilton the other day for work and they painted a different picture of hospitality. Accordingly to them front desk staff are able to move up to corporate relatively quickly, as was the case of one young front desk clerk. The sales manager and sales directors personal stories were ones where they moved into sales after a significant period of time, the director now having 11 years of total experience. They spoke on a somewhat muddied career advancement path, but advancement none the less. I'm not sure where you'd move up to if you were a cleaning staff person though.

Do you think that you came into this industry already equipped with the skills you would have learned or that there is truely nothing worth learning?

I think you're right. I also think 5 star is the exception. Personally, I worked in 5 star for a while, as an apprentice, but it was basically the catalyst for my decision to return to university, I just decided that I was meant to do something different and it wasn't for me. But you're right, if people are ambitious to move up, 5 star is the place where they will find that opportunity.

In terms of hospitality in bars and nightclubs, people can also probably move up to management if they're dedicated, and eventually move into ownership. I think probably, some of my bitterness about my past is showing. Probably, it just hasn't been for me.

What I've developed through many years of customer service focused interactions is a super even temperament and the ability to display a sunny disposition even when I'm juggling numerous tasks. I suppose that's pretty good. I don't think there are ZERO development opportunities exactly... just that they are very monotonous and that they tend to stay the same throughout the years. Serving customers makes you better at serving customers... year after year...

Beginning in professional work, there's so much more that I can learn and do. There are many different kinds of technical skills to learn and get involved with, so that in building a resume, it's slightly more about the skills that I have made the effort to develop than say, where I have worked. There's also more opportunity for me to tap into things that I am really excellent at, like reading complex artefacts. There's no opportunity for me to develop things like that in retail and hospitality.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Free, the and Gaze
Pursuing jobs and trying many new things has directly influenced my spiritual awakening, and I am forever glad that I took the path that I did. I challenged myself in many ways, and persevered.

To elaborate, after college I worked as a Paralegal for about a year, before the stiff energy in there consumed me (I worked for an snarky, passive aggressive ego-driven collections Attorney) and I eventually resented the work because it was not fulfilling, and I was drained beyond imagination. After that I got into Insurance, working independently as a freelance contractor. I was "free" again from the stifling energy of the office environment, but being a cold calling / door to door salesman woke my ass up, (spiritually) and after being constantly broke, I had had enough, and began partying like an idiot again, drinking constantly, this and that. Needless to say, I dropped that gig like a hot potato. I went back to my old job at Applebee's for a while. Eventually, I got back into Insurance (another commissioned office gig, which paid much better (and was more reputable, by far) than my previous endeavor, but still, it didn't take long before I quit entirely and took an overnight position receiving truck at the store I currently work for. This is more aligned to my skills and personality traits (organizing, exercising complete control, being left alone, not having to talk to ANYONE), which is a godsend. All of my work affairs have taught me what I'm good at and what skills as an employee are blossoming. I have incredible leadership skills, for one. There are so many paradoxes in finding the right work that it truly makes my head spin. I am passionate about many things, but many of those things don't provide any decent or substantial living wage, insofar as I have seen.

Point being: Fuck work, make music. Work is the necessary evil that we all have to endure. Where there is a will, there is a way.
 
Last edited:
I am so fortunate to be able to work from home... In my PJs... Blasting music... drinking pot after pot of tea.. i think if someone paid me double what I'm getting now to go work in a 9-5 office, I would not take it. I need autonomy!!!

I liked the opportunity for camaraderie in working in an office with coworkers, and I made a lot of good friends through my jobs, but the office politics can bog you down at times. Often, I would just close my office door and work without talking to my co-workers outside of breaks and lunch.

I have had to learn to be very organized and to be very resourceful on my own. So I think my job has strengthened those attributes in me. I've noticed I'm more of a planner, now.

Also, I have to spend a lot of time in my client's homes... I'm a very private introverted person who at first was super worried about being intrusive... I would feel intruded upon if someone regularly had to come to my house and ask me if I had food and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and etc., etc. I think my job has made me more confident and a better communicator. I'm not worried about being intrusive now because I have had to learn how to build rapports and establish trust with people in their home. My job does require me to be assertive with agencies serving my clients and ensure their needs are being met. I tend to be quiet and don't like to step on toes, but I think I've struck a good balance of being assertive without being obnoxiously demanding. I have learned to tell people what needs to be done, but in a polite tone. Because not being assertive means a decreased quality of life for my clients. I see this translate into my personal life. It's like I had to learn to be an advocate for others before I started to feel comfortable applying it to myself.
 
Last edited:
How have your jobs or job roles affected your personality? Were there positive or negative changes? Did they bring out skills, strengths, or talents that were underdeveloped or ones you never knew you had? Did any changes have an effect on your personal or social life?

I learned a lot doing this study, but the changes were largely negative, due to the intensity of the study, the resulting burnout, study delay, hardship in finding a rly good internship and as such my feeling of self worth really took a major hit. I also gained weight due to not exercising that much anymore due to the computer art stuff requiring so many hours put into the projects... That and It would have been way cheaper and actually more rewarding to just follow some online classes/tutorials in the subject... My social life is almost non existent.

I guess the positives are that I made some some good friends with the study. It also geared me even more towards always preparing for the worst outcome possible and hoping for the best whilst doing so. I've gotten better at drawing as well and found more strengths in my skillset which I will hopefully be able to capitalise on.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gaze and Scientia
I learned a lot doing this study, but the changes were largely negative, due to the intensity of the study, the resulting burnout, study delay, hardship in finding a rly good internship and as such my feeling of self worth really took a major hit. I also gained weight due to not exercising that much anymore due to the computer art stuff requiring so many hours put into the projects... That and It would have been way cheaper and actually more rewarding to just follow some online classes/tutorials in the subject... My social life is almost non existent.

That sounds awful. :mhug:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gaze
I've learned I'm excellent at logistics, analytics, and interpersonal persuasion. So an analyst job would be ideal.

I've met some INFJs in real life in a variety of positions. One was a manager (hated her), one did provider enrollment (she was cool), another was a nurse (Awesome), and the other guy did coding (boring).
 
  • Like
Reactions: MrSquared
How have your jobs or job roles affected your personality?
it's affected my social skills the most. My very first job was a programmer but my heart wasn't in it. so it didnt last. lol so i went to retail, sales and then customer service.. it was okay but people tire me. i don't have that much patience to repeatedly tell people how to do things. what to buy etc. it was good but i wasn't happy. so i took some subjects and later became a pre-school teacher then did two online jobs that i can work from home. i eventually had to quit because my body couldn't handle what my mind says i can. doing these jobs, it made me less anxious with people. had more patience with them and learned to trust SOME.

Were there positive or negative changes?
positive were i learned socializing. negative- emotional stress..

Did they bring out skills, strengths, or talents that were underdeveloped or ones you never knew you had?
i think i tend to have that charisma where people are just drawn to me. i had practiced and used it most times specially on sales. i have to lure people to buy things they dont necessarily need.

Did any changes have an effect on your personal or social life?
i guess so. im mistaken as an extrovert and people tend to run and ask for my help in things related to my past jobs. i try to help as much as i can. in social, i guess pthers considered me friends. lol.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gaze
I've learned I'm excellent at logistics, analytics, and interpersonal persuasion. So an analyst job would be ideal. I've met some INFJs in real life in a variety of positions. One was a manager (hated her), one did provider enrollment (she was cool), another was a nurse (Awesome), and the other guy did coding (boring).

Ah yes... Healthcare. I've heard this can be a very rewarding path for the INFJ. But it never appealed to me personally. No further comment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Gaze