10 Best Careers for INTJs and INTPs

Combining the hourly pay data from BizJournal’s survey of employers, PayScale.com’s polling of employees,[1] and US News’ career guide, I have culled ten standout careers from the many recommended for INTJs and INTPs.

• Best Bets Overall – Consultant/Lawyer: Two careers stand out as not only highly recommended for INTJ/Ps but also rather lucrative. Although a few other careers are recommended ahead of them for INTJs and INTPs, Lawyers ($58 or $68/hour) are still near the top for both and make substantially more than other career options.[2] Management Consultant ($35/hour or $61/hour) is not only one of the best paid careers but also even more highly recommended for both INTJs and INTPs than Lawyer. Do the long hours for consultants taper off with experience as PayScale’s graphs imply, or are Managers and Partners also caught up in the 65 to 75 hour work weeks? If it’s the latter, consulting might be downgraded, but US News picks it as one of the Best Careers for 2009 while calling Lawyer an overrated career so I kept them both on equal footing.[7]
• Highest-Paying Career / Career in Health – Doctor: If the absolute most important thing to you is salary or you know you want to be in a health-related field, then being a Doctor ($67 or $70+/hour) might be the way to go. They are less recommended for INTJ/Ps than Consultants, Lawyers, and Engineers but are still on many lists. Despite making more than these other options, Doctors must invest in far more school and training, so the eventual higher income might not make up for the income lost by not working. Although US News counts Physician as an Overrated Career, it also recommends Veterinarians and Optometrists as Best Careers for 2009.
• Best Careers without an Advanced Degree or Killer Hours – Engineers / System Analysts: Although an advanced degree will help, Engineers* ($22/hour or $38/hour) [2] and System Analysts ($22/hour or $37/hour) can get started making decent money right out of college and are both recommended in US News’ Best Careers 2009. The same can be said of Consultants (above), but they must also work incredibly long hours. In addition, those who stick with it might become Engineering Managers or Computer System Managers, the sixth-highest and eighth-highest paid careers in the United States, respectively, according to BizJournal. Economists/Auditors ($21/hour or $28-$37/hour) and Scientists were also options here but are not as highly recommended for INTJ/Ps or included in Best Careers 2009.
• Career with Minimum Hours / Career in Education – Professor: If you want to maximize your free time but still make a solid living, then you should consider being a Professor ($33/hour or $46/hour), which has the lowest number of required hours of any career recommended for INTJ/Ps. US News notes Professor as an Overrated Career, and the average 7 years in a PhD program without making any substantial income reduces actual lifetime earnings relative to other careers, but there is no denying that the eventual schedule is the most flexible. [2, 3] Teacher ($22/hour) is also recommended for INTPs and is on US News’ list of “Overrated Careers.”[4]
• Non-Profit/Public Sector Career: The career “Manager” is rather vague, but it is a top recommendation for INTJs and could be the ticket for those interested in public service. While US News notably warns against Non-profit Manager, it recommends Government Manager. Although it likely requires the investment of an advanced degree, it returns salary ($28/hour) and hours on par with Engineers and System Analysts, recommended above.
• Building/Design Career: The best Architects and Urban Planners could have done in my previous posts on INTJs and INTPs was the bottom tier of recommendations, because Team Technology did not really include them in their survey. Recommended for INTJ/Ps on most other sites, these careers and others like them could be excellent fits for this personality type. Kind of a compromise between Architects and Urban Planners, Landscape Architects make about the same amount ($24/hour), but can get started without an advanced degree. In addition, they have a higher level of job satisfaction and a better market outlook than Urban Planners, while regular Architects are panned as an overrated career. Unfortunately, the downswing in the economy has been particularly detrimental to these professions.
• Creative Careers: Although selecting a creative career is likely based more on the inclinations of talent than anything else, Writer stands out because it does make a little more ($23/hour or $27/hour)[5] than other options like Graphic Designers ($16/hour or $23/hour) or traditional artists (fine artists, musicians, actors, etc.). In addition, one strain of Writer, the Ghostwriter, is recommended as a Best Career 2009 by US News.
• Random Extra Career: For INTPs who want to directly help people through interacting with them, Occupational Therapist ($32/hour) could be an excellent choice. It is recommended for INTPs and is included in US News’ Best Careers 2009, but keep in mind that is not as highly recommended for INTPs as the other options above, and US News’ Report Card shows they probably barely made it onto their list.

CareerCast’s Jobs Rated ranking of 200 jobs takes even more factors into account, including stress, physical demands, and the environment. Not surprisingly, these additional elements make options for “Best Careers without Killer Hours” (System Analysts at #6) and “Career with Minimum Hours” (various research-oriented/professor-like careers) comprise more than half of the top 20.[6] All the other careers listed above comprise the middle 40% of the ranking, with Technical Writer (#60) and Occupational Therapist (#61) at the top of that group and Teacher (#127) toward the bottom. The only career for INTJ/Ps outside the top 70% is an Actor, coming in at #170.

Notes

1. PayScale’s salaries, which are the median of those reported, will generally be lower than BizJournal’s, which are skewed higher due to highly compensated employees at the top of the spectrum in their respective careers.
2. Lawyers, Professors, and Engineers who work for hospitals make about 20% more than their peers in other sectors.
3. PhD’s in Business Administration might be a different story, with starting salaries averaging $86,000 (in 2001), substantial growth potential and non-academic opportunities, and a shortage of business professors.
4. If you want to be in education, a good alternative might be Curriculum Designer.
5. Some writers can actually a little more. Technical writers average $27/hour, and grant writers, after paying their dues for 10 years, end up averaging $29/hour.
6. Biologist (“Scientist” above) #4, Software Engineer (“Engineer” above) #5, Systems Analyst #6, Economist #11, Physicist #13, Computer Programmer #18, and Astronomer (“Scientist” above) #20 are all in the top 10% along with a variety of research-oriented/professor-like careers–Mathemetician #1, Historian #7, Sociologist #8, Philosopher #9.
7. Before you run out to apply for business school, Vault’s articles on Consulting are highly worthwhile: Reality Check – Changing Careers to Consulting, What It Takes to Be a Consultant, and Consulting Caveats.

The Most Recommended Careers for INTJs

This post groups careers recommended for INTJs across the web into four groups, from the frequently mentioned possibilities to the universally recommended options.  For a more in-depth consideration of careers taking into account salary, job outlook, and job satisfaction in addition to personality fit, please see “10 Best Careers for INTJs and INTPs.”

At a crossroads in my professional life, I’ve been investigating ideal careers for artistic, socially-conscious INTJs like myself [1]. Many online sources (noted at the end of this post) provide lists of possible careers based on your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), but their suggestions can seem like personal “brainstorm lists” and sometimes contradict other lists. Team Technology did the most thorough assessment, actually surveying employees to learn about their professional preferences by personality type.[2] Most include a variety of jobs within them; for example, “Cardiologist,” “Psychiatrist,” and “Neurologist” were all recommendations for INTJs, but I just grouped them under “Doctor.”

• Tier IV – Possibilities: Three careers fall into this tier, which includes strong possibilities for INTJs that are not consistently recommended across all sites. Every single “brainstorm list” recommends that Scientist is a viable career path for INTJs, but actual scientists surveyed by Team Technology were, on average, not of this personality type. In contrast, only one “brainstorm” list suggests Human Resources for INTJs, but it is recommended by Team Technology’s surveys. However, all but two personality types appear in the Human Resources mandala, so it’s not a particularly unique field for INTJs [4]. Urban/environmental planners came up on over half the brainstorm lists but do not seem to have been included in Team Technology’s study [5].
• Tier III – Good Options: At least 3 out of 5 “brainstorm lists” suggest Computer Programmers/Specialists, Doctors, Artists, and Economists/Auditors as possible INTJ careers, and Team Technology’s surveys of employees back up these recommendations. All of these would make good choices for INTJs, though Team Technology does make a distinction between Artists and the other three that you may wish to consider.
  
  

  INTJs, this could be you!

• Tier II – Excellent Options: Like Tier II options, all of these are suggested by most “brainstorm lists,” but I have moved them up a notch for one of two reasons. Lawyers/Judges and Engineers are recommended by all of these lists, showing an overall consensus that they are excellent choices for INTJs. Kiersey’s site happens to not mention Military Officers and Writers [3] in its description of careers for INTJs, but it is clear that the write-up is not meant to be exhaustive, and the survey results from Team Technology suggest these as good options even more than the previous two.
• Tier I – Best Options: Four careers are almost universally recommended for INTJs and therefore make the cut here as the top recommendations. The clearest recommendations are Professor/Researchers and Consultants / Strategic Planners, which every single “brainstorm list” suggests and which are on both of Team Technology’s lists. [6] Also strongly recommended are Designers and Managers, but these careers are more vague. For “Designers,” Team Technology’s surveys included mostly graphic designers, but other sites also recommended web site designers, curriculum designers, special effects designers, and architects, which do not seem to fit into any better category on Team Technology’s site. As for “Managers,” Team Technology includes nearly 70 different jobs in this category, and, not surprisingly, it is recommended for nearly every personality type. A more careful assessment of this vague “career” is likely in order. [4]

Of course, the best career choice is not necessarily the one that happens to show up on the most lists. Social impact, possibility for artistic expression, and income are important considerations that personality test do not consider in when making recommendations. In my next post, I will review the most lucrative of the most highly recommended careers for INTJs.

Sources Used for Ranking Career Possibilities: Ordered from best to worst, but all are valuable.

1. INTJ Careers: A List of Professional Jobs: List of careers actually based on original survey research.
   
2. Rationals – Finding Knowledge & Competence: A descriptive approach to defining career options enhances the persuasiveness, and the Keirsey approach overall seems accurate.
3. Wayne State College Advising Services: INTJ: Advice drawn from a number of different sources, a couple of which are included here.
4. Jedi Girl & Personality Page: Both straightforward lists surrounded by reasonable explanations, but not backed by data or research.
5. INTJ (Strategist) Personality Type – Jung, Myers and Briggs: The best-looking and well-organized page overall, but sources for career suggestions are not clear.

Notes

1. I also looked at a few careers that I thought of myself, but discarded most of them for a poor fit with the INTJ personality. I have the credentials to be a Real Estate Developer, which is also a decent way to make a living, but nothing like this appeared anywhere on recommendation lists for INTJs. “Chief Executive” is a better fit for an ENTJ, though I want to investigate CFO or COO to see if those versions of the role could work. Although Foundation Officer did not appear on any lists, this job is fairly unique and probably not included in most studies, so I’m keeping it under consideration for future investigation.
2. Careers that were on one list but not others include Nurse, Mortgage Broker, Corrections Officer, Librarian, Clergy, Counselor, Marketing Specialist. Entrepreneurs/Self-Employed individuals surveyed strongly as INTJs with Team Technology but are suggested as INTJs only once elsewhere.
3. You may notice that “Writer/editor” appears only in one list on Team Technology’s INTJ, just like the options I placed in Tier III. However, the vague “Technical Specialist” in List 1 actually refers mostly to Technical Writers, so I took this as a strong recommendation for INTJs as Writers.
4. At some point, reviewing career recommendations feels like reading horoscopes; the recommendations are so broad and written in such generic language that you get the feeling that all the recommendations for other personality types might be applicable to you too. Indeed, “Human Resources”, “Marketing”, and “Manager” seem to be universal recommendations for almost any personality type. If you are confused about your personality type, go for one of these careers; with little exception, you can’t go wrong!
5. I used to think Urban Planning was the perfect career choice. Indeed, INTJs like me are quite prevalent in the field, as this forum of planners indicates, but I was unable to get my head around how planning address both my artistic proclivities and social equity issues while I was in grad school. Bicycles and public transportation, affordable housing (i.e., knowing what’s best for poor people), gentrification, architecture, worshipping Manhattan, and hating suburbs: what’s not to like for a righteously liberal white boy like myself, especially if you get to study at a fancy Ivy League for graduate school? Unfortunately, I was unable to overcome my own argument that social equity and elitist design co-exist only in utopia. In addition, earning the same salary after graduate school as I was getting beforehand made me wonder why I don’t just go back to work in the non-profit world, and, until recently, that’s exactly what I did.
6. Professors/Researchers supposedly have a preference for their “primary function” of “Introverted iNtuition” while Consultants prefer their “auxiliary function” of “Extroverted Thinking.” For more information in this terminology, please visit their page on the Myers Briggs – Dynamic Model, but do not expect to find more insight into the precise distinction between people who prefer their primary over their secondary function and vice versa.

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