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INTJ Career - Commercial
I've written the following specifically for those INTJs that are commercially focused and are looking to career in commerce. However, many points should be relevant to other INTJs pursuing other career paths. Hopefully one or two pointers will be useful as signposts. Ok, let's start at College/University.
Commerce courses, they sure are boring. Everything seems to be about remembering lists rather than knowing concepts. Its Sensor territory. You may well excel in Business cases and Strategy because they rely on interrelationships and multiple scenario assessments, list learners are left in the dust. Harvard business cases are the pinnacle of all this and offer multiple layers of thinking to come up with a comprehensive solution. That's the most likely area you will self actualise within a business orientated course. You probably will do well in Economics as it has many similar aspects. It could be said the same of Marketing papers, although the ENTJ extrovert types will probably put you in the shadow while they scream for attention.... Interestingly, while you're at College/University you probably will get on better with people not doing commerce courses, and in hindsight its evident why I preferred Science students, because often they are INTJs. Commerce seems to be filled more with ST types and they tend to be focused on self centred materialism and getting that 9-5 professional job to "impress others". INTJs want to develop the means while others often simply want to benefit from the means. While College/University can be endless lists, admittedly it provides the primary blocks and framework of information that you can leverage in the future. Making yourself submit to low level thinking is a discipline in itself and Universities force you to conform - or fail. (This is one of the reasons why I believe INTJ managers are so able, simply because they have had to become low level thinkers while their natural tendency is high level thinking. Now if Sensors had to throughout their academic schooling (From age 5 to say 25) spend 80% of their time on high level intuitive thinking and fail if they did not match Intuitives ability then you could see the reverse happen. INTJs are a product of the system which they have had to compete wrong footed in for most of their lives). Entering the workforce Firstly, wherever you start you will be on the lowest rung. You may well report to a Sensor that has been there for years as a low level manager. They may love process and they won't like you trying to outshine them by changing their processes. You may work with Sensors (you're in a numbers industry) they are good at process and you actually may find it hard to shine out. Frustration is more than a possibility. If you're in a large enough organisation then you could and should look for key people that can be your mentors and likely protector. These people invariably are going to have the same type (or near NTJ) as yourself (I asked 6 very able consultants what type they were and it was roughly a 50:50 split INTJ & ENTJ). The reason why I have pointed out mentors and protectors is that if you see potential to improve processes and create change, it becomes almost a battle of wills. Some people will like you and others may well hate you (You may actually get people the sack and you may be reporting to them! That's the consequence of pointing out inefficiency (They may well see you as an enemy or colluding with it, and try to take you out). Creating change requires you to have some heavy hitters on your side to create the necessary groundswell. Mentors can also second you to projects/change and act as pointsman and lifeguard. Each time you over deliver for a Mentor it's a valuable investment in your career and job security. One thing I would always say is that your day job need not be your "intellectual life"¯you can actually do a well paying "mechanical"¯type role at work and do the offset balance of conceptual "stuff"¯outside work. Because INTJs are effectively "self taught" they have the ability to pick up new activities and interests. Business career roles for INTJ?
Things that require conceptual thinking e.g. Strategy.
Things that can be observed as requiring improvement e.g. Change/Project management.
Things that require plenty of common sense and detail e.g. Procurement improvement, Contractual analysis, Value for Money.
Things that lend to innovation - Financial engineering.
One thing I would say is that working at the Head office in a large company is where an INTJ is probably most valued. That's where the real power is, Strategies developed, Global change etc. Lots of leverage. That is where Intuitives can really excel.
INTJs and ISTJs.
I haven't I guess sounded too complementary with ISTJs. Well, good ISTJs are the INTJs perfect mirror. The Dream team :).
You can observe the business and think of improvements and innovations but to convince people you need information, and generally that information is contained in systems. The good ISTJ analyst will gather/extract/manipulate that information far better than you probably could ever do, or have the patience with. What's more they probably will tell you all sorts of information they can or cannot get their hands on and also devise ways and methods to streamline and improve any process idea you had.
Development for INTJs
It would be fair to say that INTJs need to evolve over their career. While they have flexed both the Sensing and Intuitive sides through courses they may not have paid as much attention to a skill that becomes far more important in order to migrate to a role that is often more intuitive and less process orientated. What is that skill? It's closely aligned to Extroversion but is in realty team building, networking and making everything cohesive on a personnel level I.e. Interpersonal skills.
A large number of roles that tend to fit the INTJs natural traits tend to be project focused and thus dealing with people. Getting change requires influencing people. Think of a commercial organisation being roughly 50:50 people and processes. You want to be scoring high on the people side as well as the process side; otherwise you will always be stuck at the level of "Innovative analyst".
If you want to be a consultant or Director/Senior manager you need to become a process AND people person.
Outside work (In a professional context).
As mentioned previously you can complement or offset any deficits in your day role by taking courses or having businesses / Hobbies that soak up excess enthusiasm/needs.
The previous paragraph is quite an important statement as people can change jobs searching for some self fulfilling role, when in fact it doesn't exist, often the roles that appear most fulfilling tend to pay considerably lower.
As a specific example I know of a situation where a director of IT in a major professional services firm chucked his role in to buy a franchise that did coffee and sandwiches on the basis that he needed to make a lifestyle change. Well, the business didn't work, lost the house the other half and everything else. The question I posed to a person that knew about this (and at the outset) was "why doesn't" he just keep the well paying day job, perhaps do less hours or act as a consultant and then take up some hobbies?. Just remember, your job does not have to be your life and your life does not have to be your job.
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