INTP Careers - 4 Work Styles Of The Personality Type | Podcast 0490

11 comments

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  • Karen
  • January 20, 2025 at 5:15 pm

  I grew up age 0-14 under the DOMINANT subtype I believe. During that time period I was in an abusive environment on a spiritual; mental; emotional and physical level; so I fragmented massively and as an Enneagram One honed in on perfecting whatever goal my birth family had set out to achieve, out of loyalty/honouring my makers/captors. I lived in two worlds : one of “underground” relentless sacrifice stemming from an age old hierarchical impressive structure actively working against what is pure, and the second, a life covering the first where societal constructs are displayed almost like a Shakespearean act of perpetuating deception. The first world was systematically erased from memory, thus resulting in it seeping through into the cover life, causing me to sit in between like being encased in a wall between two rooms. I took on leadership roles in both, where within the first I was infused with strategy to stay alive and within the other parentified, leading to a strange detachment towards peers who seemed less “aged” in their behaviour or thinking. And as in the HARMONISED subtype a certain detachment was possible and a need for processing in order not to get affected, I would say it wasn’t the harmonious way. I was suffering in secret, even from myself, whilst out in the “normal world” always being the wise one whom complete strangers would open up to within half an hour almost as though I was their therapist, like a child reincarnation…without the reverence. The “what do I do” frustration indeed grew as I became a teenager.

  Then, at 14 (as far as I know now) I was relieved of the DOMINANT subtype role on a practical level, but not on a spiritual one, yet enough for me to relinquish leadership and so I quickly – due to already ongoing social structures like sports and school – eased into the CREATIVE subtype for the next 20 years.
  In that period, my “desire to merge hobbies and profession” was actually very hard to do, if not impossible, seeing I had just gotten out of what could be likened to a very high stakes career, as well as serious enmeshment causing me to assign my motives to other people’s. So my hobbies were sort of on autopilot… so when I became an adolescent it was my fragile inner structure and relational distress (CPTSD) and we – as a family – had also lost the riches we had gained in my childhood, so I did a 1 year study to become a chocolatier and worked that job to pay for college. The family unit being one of small scale cult essence, where one is tightly fused to the ideals as prophesied by the sociopath, my breaking out of that to go to college opened up some space for integration, but it wasn’t easy. I still mostly heal through working with psychosomatic re-experiencing, so in other words I was suffering physically and emotionally…. which in terms of interests eventually steered me towards a profession in the medical field. Sadly, when time came to choose a college degree, instead of becoming a researcher, I studied to become an Executive Management Assistant in HR and Sales. Again, in part due to the use it would have for the family business. That said, I am a Sagittarius and (did not know at the time/now) diagnosed autistic, so the languages, psychology and social rules of conduct taught during those college years were actually very helpful and even subliminally validated the strategies used in the childhood phase. It was there that I took a course called “managerial psychology” which was basically a semester on the Myers-Briggs typology. So at age 21 I was typed as an INTP by taking the actual MBTI test.

  After graduation, I worked temp jobs in which I took over operations of administration yet also craved to learn about the technical or engineering knowledge my bosses had, as they were usually engineers or small business owners in technical fields. Finally, I landed a long term executive assistant job at a hospital. Although I am now, age 36, identified as a healer and caretaker, I at that time thought I was in the right place. Off course, because I wasn’t handling any medical data, I soon grew tired of managing people and social situations without any increase in knowledge of actual healing techniques applied by the medical professionals… and because my spreadsheets and handling of my little corner had become rather impressive, my work started stockpiling because they’d noticed my competence ; not only did I get more work, I got an entire extra department, thus a second boss, for the same hours and wage… without my first boss giving me the courtesy of a heads up!! So, as my older and wonderful coworkers in the secretary pool had suggested (“get out while you can”), I applied for a one year course in C# programming and gave them my notice. I got accepted, and thrown into a 3 year Bachelor crammed into a year of writing code, designed to fast-track foreigners or native nerds into a steady job in IT. My governments’ way of job creation at its best. I succeeded, once again confirming my type A educational conduct, but I knew I wouldn’t want to work in IT.

  My dream was actually to do data-analysis on medical data, and I had one specific psychosocial project in mind as well, but it turned out to be too complicated with the then available technology (algorithmic challenge and I wasn’t a mathematician nor did I trust anyone with the idea at the time). My plan was to enter into university right after to study Physiotherapy so as to have a disciplined manner to study anatomy and physiology and wane myself off of the sociable overwhelm life had become… little did I know the university I’d chosen was the worst at encouraging self-study (mandatory appearance in class?!?) and their curriculum was very little hardcover book and a lot of dumb powerpoints with zero logical or in-depth information… which only exacerbated my autism symptoms, so luckily it did lead to an official diagnosis and a financial loan. I also received free student counseling, leaving money for Neurofeedback therapy… . But I soon realized, both during jobs, as well as in study, that the commonly used “modern medicine” or just in general whatever field and method revolved around monetary gain. It did not only not align with what I had in mind, I never had money in mind myself — all that time jumping from one job to the next had allowed employers to keep me at a wage minimum and I never thought to ask for more.

  I had by then still severe amnesia of the first 14 years of my life, thus no recollection yet of alternative healing experiences of the previous years, so I also had no confidence in my own substantial skills or knowledge, thus suffered in silence and rebelled where I could. The lack of confidence may be natural for any adolescent INTP, even those with a less harmful upbringing, but my Enneagram One and perfectionist conditioning kept the inner tension at an all-time high. Thus my standards were indeed not met in this subtype, and because I had not managed to find a sustainable job (meaning financially supportive to be a single woman recovering from a bucketload of ACE’s), I had to make a change, quickly. Before Covid restrictions hit, I’d finished all courses of a full first year successfully and ended my studies, managed to become a vanlifer and move down to Southern Europe,

  Through those years though, I’d been gathering crumbles of the vision pie*** that I would really work on in the next phase, which is the one I am in now. So yes, I definitely would have called myself, mostly, a librarian at that time, where what I always did was gather, sort and give out information to others freely, even if it is just a directive to other people’s works.
  ***great metaphor this FYI, because I really do everything ass-backwards, not kidding
  Also, during those years, I worked 11 months out of the year and volunteered the 1 month abroad, using platforms such as Couchsurfing and Workaway, or having been invited by friends of friends of friends. So despite my frustration of lack of solid or “blinder-”focus in those years I had the craziest and most versatile lifestyle, and frankly it is quite insane looking back now how little stability there was throughout it all. Yet that creative playful and “open” attitude allowed me to discover security in self, which is what I needed to detach from the poisonous cradle, and be guided by an inner moral compass … yet there was no wind in my sails.

  In seeking for a place where my Ti+Ne is allowed to soar, where there would be smooth sailing… I actually needed more “focus” or motivation based in something anchored (metaphor mishap? :-D). Arriving South, first on a friend of a friend’s invitation, then more South, living amongst full-time vanlifers, which had a lifestyle I did aspire to, and an outlook on life that somewhat matched my own principles… I finally lived closer to the lifestyle I feel would fit me, supported by a passive means of income… The CREATIVE curiosity and outgoing energetic time I was spending did still seem infused with a DOMINANT advisory role, but my personal power was still at large – as you said – “perpetually ignored”… however, I did also acknowledge by now that this “being ignored” is for reasons of childhood trauma needing to be overturned… so basically I was furthering my awareness of external life and my processing of mirroring by dismantling belief systems, a.k.a. looking to how to shatter the illusion of having lost my power and understanding the resistance to using it.

  In other words, even if this environment already suited me a little bit better, being “stewards of objective truth", however seasoned and “stirring the pot”-tery, does not necessarily change anything substantial, especially when you’re not happy with your own available strategies… I recognized the pattern of being ineffective was tied into not being acknowledged for being in a perpetual advisory role. So I definitely don’t think as an INTP it is the easiest to change any sort of system from within, especially not in these times, because there is just too much nonsense that not simply denies truth but actively conceals it under pseudo or semi-truths, thus the people who I would advise in the current landscape, may not be keen on receiving objective truth.

  I remained in other words torn, on the one hand I noticed I thoroughly enjoyed advising from my DOMINANT subtype, but my childhood conditioning and autism suggested my being focused on people had been conditioned in order to recognize the serpent’s head. So even when I was really good at operational management, it never felt solid unless I could really trust my boss and – this never happened – the company they worked for…. I acted like a captain who knows his sailors but not his boat. In that sense I appreciate you mentioning “strategist” and “analyst” often, because the “resources” in “human resources” has a very different meaning to every person you meet.

  I jumped between housing, careers, social circles… . It seemed automatic and thus insanely easy. All the while I dreamed of being persuaded in making a career as a healer or caretaker, which is the only real identified way I can satisfyingly approach people with, but every time I straight away figured I didn’t like people enough or being sociable enough to do such a crazy thing. I discovered there was a block set against it for good reasons. Eventually, I came to find that all this disillusion with the laws of man was a mere reflection of my inability to ground things into reality – as you said “hard to find practical outlets”, but also proof of a direct line to the Creator.

  To give you an idea of having spiritual acuity without physical stability ; the thing I believe I would have studied if I had had a healthy childhood, is ecology or biology or biochemistry… thus using food and plants for healing… I can smell through touch (synaesthesia) so I can hold plants and smell them from afar, but also am very sensitive to their usage, though when it comes to medicinal plants that are toxic in nature I have built up a certain resistance, thus my tolerance for poison is high… I could in other words read the books and feel the plants to make a database for medicinal use. ‘Easy enough! Just get on with it!’, right ? As a Sagittarius Sun, I need to experience in order to really understand and not just have the knowledge, so I must create a personal relationship to each plant. The gathering/buying and reading books is only effective if truth-approved. I also wasted some time looking to volunteer in farm or permaculture projects where someone would want to teach me what they know, but even with that logical intent, as a human design Projektor, I never got an invitation (in reality Workaway is another free labour mechanism where you just won’t get hungry or (in most cases) lack a proper good nights’ sleep…)……so things are never as simple for me because I never “half-ass” anything. In other words, there is a level of commitment and acceptance of the limits of physical life that needs doing in order for me to start a project, let alone a career. And yes, Youtube helps for gaining knowledge, but I would never use it to create/express myself unless I had a videographer etc. in my corner. And as an INTP, if you don’t have that “King” there is no kingdom…

  In conclusion, during this CREATIVE subtype period, even though I knew people via people and had some good experiences, I was rarely given something of use and I was getting too old for volunteering without growing my interest… So, even amongst these more enjoyable people who do not pile their grievances on me without demanding my respect, there was and IS no one I can advise or co-operate with. So when after a last side-track/financial investment of shamanic healing and more disappointment of the people in charge of communities and ceremonies etc., I crossed 9 countries in 4 days to gain stability in terms of physical safety by moving in with someone I’d met on Workaway who felt like a brother to me. The country I ended up in, was on my list due to the ecological and biological interest, as people here live largely off the land and don’t tamper with or shy away from nature.

  As I settled in here, I noticed a desire to finally start delving into the books in the library myself and take a holiday from being the helpful librarian. And the single men around didn’t match my partner wish-list, so after moving in with my brother-from-another-mother, my Enneagram One wing Nine kicked in almost right away and I’ve been in isolation ever since. Now, collecting data without any institution or sponsor or lab tech or… but one very supportive friend and emotional therapist, and leaning heavily on my faith and mental capacity, I basically admitted I never needed anyone to develop my own theories. And I’m not going hungry yet for now, and with that, also practically opening myself up to receiving support from a future partner. I’ve in other words become the center of my own life to a degree where I am receptive, in my spiritual development, my analytical thinking… and eventually my emotional and physical love-life.

  Instead of, as in my childhood, absorbing for productivity purposes, I am absorbing for internal nurturing purposes. From this NORMALISED place, I can start a family of my own, turning the fused dysfunctional family inheritance into a healthy family life enjoying the separation from warped society and subliminal governmental slavery or satanic rulership, i.e. building “strong models” of experiential data, as well as setting a rather fixed routine so that “the challenge of daily details for self-maintenance” will not be an issue in the coming phase of HARMONISING expression.

  For with that nurtured, competent self, having become a specialist in the areas that will make up the end goal / mission (“having their mind wired around the things that they do” – and what I do is heal people, but as a silent leader…ask me about it and I can elaborate), I will eventually become sociable again, leading a tribe and operating a sanctuary from my own expertise as a mother, wife, daughter, SRA survivor, and investigative healer… in other words, I am gladly milking this isolation and asocial time as much as possible, because without it my advisory co-creation won’t make any sense, or be “steady”. In closing, I very much want to be the cream of the crop and look forward to having an ENFP by my side to be the face of the creation ahead, yet have it be done my way…

  …and before delving back into personality typing and Enneagram I honestly had worries and mere hope, but I did not yet have faith that it could happen…. But now that I do NORMALISE my life, with divine timing, I appreciate listening to your wonderful podcast and am so shocked at how my life’s progression showcases such a logical flow between subtypes…

  So thank you both, and to Dr; Nardi. I will definitely listen to your other episodes in due time and further enjoy your teachings ! I hope this was helpful. I know my profile is a bit peculiar and I usually am the most rare of all things, but there is no way around the type and now I know there is great joy in discovering your subtype! – x -

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  • Christian Capehart
  • August 25, 2024 at 3:20 pm

  I would say I am more of a Creative INTP. I think there can be a bit of the Dominant INTP as well, but that tends to come out when it is needed. Generally though if working in a group I want to have someone I know is knowledgeable and able to lead well. I want that person to lead the group so I don’t have that responsibility but can still provide ideas. But if that person is not present in the group and I know this task needs to get done I will take charge and try to get things moving. I don’t prefer to do this but I will if I need to and can do well at it. I think primarily I just don’t want the responsibility of things not going well. I work as a GIS Analyst currently but am in the middle of transitioning to a Civil Engineering role in Stormwater and Flood Mitigation. I have enjoyed my GIS role because I get to blend coming up with creative processes and tool to solve a spatial problem and then get to work on visualizing my findings by developing maps that effectively and aesthetically present that to others. But recently with a couple new hire of people with more experience and skill than myself, I have gotten more of the grunt work of filling out data tables and documenting many many points of data manually. I’m not always doing this but it does drive me crazy. But then when a project comes along that requires me to really think and solve a problem or get to create a new set of figures for a client or project the day goes by way faster! I am pursuing this new role because I think it will provide more of an ability to problem solve and because I have always loved water, I love topography, and I enjoy mitigating damage. My co-workers think it is super weird, but I will sometimes pull up google earth and follow powerline all over the place to try to see where each goes and how it is all interconnected. I also do this with rivers and such trying to see where it ends up flowing and how the streams all come together. I have spent hours at a time doing this. This also applies for roads. I love figuring out where various roads go and this makes me an excellent navigator and good with directions.

  Also I wanted to add that I have found your resources and podcasts super helpful. I have gone extensively through the owners manual and have listened to pretty much every podcast about the INTP. It has been pivotal in helping me understand myself. For so long I felt like a social chameleon not really having an identity of my own but being whatever would help me to blend in. But with these resources I have been able to see who I am, what my tendencies are, and to become okay with that. I’ve become so much more comfortable in my own skin and feel a new sense of life. I hope to be able to show others around me how much this stuff, the cognitive functions in particular, can help them! But often times I get the feedback of “stop trying to put people in a box” or “that is just junk science.” But I feel like if I can understand myself well enough and demonstrate how it has helped me and can learn how to effectively communicate these things to other types then they too could see the power of it.

  That was much longer than I though it would get, probably another typical INTP trait there. Are INTP’s generally keyboard warriors? Haha!

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  • Joel
  • June 18, 2024 at 5:03 pm

  Started as an INTP and my career path initially started out as Normalizing: Navy Nuke, super-introverted and nerdy, only left the house to play D&D, intense focus on my small areas of study (programming and electrical engineering). When I was about 30, however, I let myself be bitten by the sales bug after hearing from some sales reps at my company making well over 300k by, in my opinion, basically doing nothing but rizzing up the client.

  So, I went into B2B sales, working from the bottom as a 100 cold calls a day sales development rep with my value-add being an understanding of what was actually going on in the customer’s workspace besides brochures. I got fired at my first couple of jobs for not making quota, but I told myself that I probably didn’t like the job because I hadn’t tasted success yet, so I kept with it. Getting much more comfortable with confrontation and talking to strangers but also forcing myself to get better at social cues and conversation and listening. I took a very ‘Ti’ approach to my sales calls, such as ‘okay, what information or ask do I want, and what am I offering in exchange’. And at my most recent job, which required project manager and estimator skills in addition to salesmanship… I made a huge sale and got a gigantic commission check and realized that I didn’t like sales.

  Currently I am back to being an electrical engineer, but both my family and peers have noticed that I am a lot more energetic and conversational than I was as a kid. My spectrum of interests is much wider in my late 30s than it was in my 20s, and not just with ‘childish’ hobbies (though I have plenty of those), but also with psychology, bioenergetics, history (especially the 1860s – 1920s in both the USA and Eurasia), anthropology, astronomy, and artificial intelligence.

  I guess the advice I have to the creative subtype or wannabe creative subtype is this: don’t stop learning weird crap. It’s definitely good to have a skill that pays the bills, but you will learn much faster and more deeply cross-connecting domains of knowledge than just hyper-fixating on one skill. For instance, I didn’t really understand even the basics of linear algebra until I just spent some understanding how mode 7 on the SNES worked. Websites like Brilliant.org are, well, brilliant.

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  • Kim Racanelli
  • June 4, 2024 at 12:07 am

  I really relate to the Harmonizing subtype I have wanted to be a Clinical Psychologist since High School it just clicks !

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  • Luuk
  • December 16, 2023 at 11:16 am

  Thanks for this episode (and many other ones)! I found a lot of recognition here and it cleared up some uncertainties for me. At one point, I laughed out loud for describing me so accurately. I felt a bit caught. Like “oops, that’s not normal behavior?”