That means that based on the standard measure of personality traits, you are highly organized and have strong project management skills. You prefer to work independently and then pass your ideas or tasks on to others. When others lose sight of the big picture, you help them to stay focused to see what's important and weed out unnecessary details. This skill set will help you succeed in nearly any workplace.

The reason employers and recruiters might be on the lookout for you is that only about 3-4% of the U.S. population shares the unique characteristics of your personality type. Research shows that businesses succeed when employers create a good balance of personality types in the office. And since only 3% to 4% of the U.S. population shares your type, that means employers are looking for you.
 

INFP

That means you are more Introverted than Extroverted, Intuitive than Sensing, Feeling than Thinking, and more Perceiving than Judging.

But what do those traits really mean for you — beyond what they mean for the traditional research community? These personality types are standard throughout the entire business world and were derived from the work of renowned psychologist Carl Jung and other experts in the field of psychological "Typing."

Tons of people know their classic type, but not everyone takes the time to really understand it and exploit its strengths. Now you can.

Below is a chart demonstrating all the possible career personality types. Each type is determined by scores on 4 standard scales, Introversion/ Extraversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving.

16 Personality Types You are here
ISTJ		ISFJ		INFJ		INTJ
ISTP		ISFP		INFP		INTP
ESTP		ESFP		ENFP		ENTP
ESTJ		ESFJ		ENFJ		ENTJ

None of the traits are better or worse than any other. And before you jump to any conclusions, remember that the terms we use to describe each of the scales are just loosely associated with the definitions of those words that you're accustomed to. To find out more, read on.

The most important thing to note about the dimensions, is that just because you are an Introvert doesn't mean you don't also have some Extravert characteristics. The fact that you are an Introvert simply means that you have more Introvert characteristics than Extravert characteristics. The same goes for the other dimensions. Therefore, when you take a look at your career personality type, know that you probably exhibit some tendencies of the other types as well — it's just that more often than not, you a have a tendency to approach the world as an Introvert instead of as an Extravert. Following is more information on each of these dimensions and how you scored on each of them.

(I) Introversion/ (E) Extraversion:

This dimension describes how you approach and interact with the world and direct your energy output. The main misconception people have about this dimension is that introverts are shy and extraverts are loud. Not necessarily true. Introverts like you tend to think first and then speak, they like to reflect on a situation before contributing their thoughts. Extraverts tend to think and talk at the same time. This approach makes them more spontaneous but can also get them into trouble at times. To the Extravert, the outside world represents excitement and opportunity; they think and perform better in front of others. Because their energy is directed outward, Extraverts like being around people most of the time. You, on the other hand, direct your energy inward. You probably enjoy being around people, but prefer more intimate settings where you get to know fewer people on a deeper basis.

(S) Sensing/ (N) Intuition:

This dimension demonstrates how people tend to process information. . Intuitives are imaginative and look for deeper and abstract meanings with the information in front of them. When presented with information, people such as yourself enjoy pondering implications and consequences for the future. You look less to details and tend to capture the big picture faster than Sensors. You look at the ultimate possibilities of a situation, while Sensors tend to focus on concrete information. By using their five senses to gather data, Sensors trust what can be seen, heard, touched, tasted, or felt, not imagined. Sensors focus on the present and have great attention to detail and therefore can be relied upon for accurate information, while you are the one people look to for creative approaches.

(T) Thinking/ (F) Feeling:

This dimension demonstrates how you make decisions. For Feelers, taking into account how others will be affected is just as important as objective information in the decision-making process. You are more likely to make exceptions to rules than do Thinkers, and in fact, you might see Thinkers as somewhat cold. You are highly understanding and therefore may be perceived as too emotional by Thinkers. Thinkers value analytical thinking and are methodical and logical when evaluating their options. They pride themselves on being objective and not subjective.

(J) Judging/ (P) Perceiving:

The last dimension describes whether you prefer closure or openness. Perceivers experience the world spontaneously and don't tend to make daily schedules. You like keeping your options open and probably pride yourself on adapting to whatever situation you confront. Judgers, however, have a strong need for control. For that reason, they enjoy structure and order. Judgers are organized and will tasks once they get started. But on the whole, they are most excited when they are finished with a project whereas people like you love the exciting possibilities associated with starting new projects.

Now that you are more familiar with each dimension, here's a reminder of your specific personality type derived from your answers on the Career Personality test.

Seeing the forest through the trees is never a problem for you. When others lose sight of the destination, you keep them on the right path. You are not afraid to take calculated risks as long as you've had the chance to think deeply about it. In other words, you never jump the gun on a project. Although you may not be a religious person, being spiritual and creative is a crucial part of your identity. Others regard you as a Renaissance person and see you as an endless source of information. Your breadth is not at the expense of depth though. You are a life-long knowledge seeker who adds thoughtfulness to your character. You have the ability to work alone if need be but you do enjoy making personal connections with others. Although it may not be readily apparent to others, your work often reflects something about your values and feelings.

About 3-4% of the U.S. population has this combination of personality type. And that's a good thing. Since employers are always looking to balance out personalities in their environment, they probably have difficulty finding someone with your distinct personality traits.

Based on their personality patterns, here are some famous people who would most likely fit your personality type: Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer,  Julia Roberts, William Shakespeare, Helen Keller.

What you should look for in an employer - Your top-seven list
Learning about your personality type is not only interesting but important. When it comes to career satisfaction, you need to find a work environment that is compatible with your personality type. Fortunately most personality types can do well in a variety of occupations. Finding the right fit means finding the ideal place for you.

Relative to other people and personality types, the following list represents things you should look for in the workplace. If you're unhappy in your current position, or are looking to move into a new job, use the following as a checklist to make sure you're approaching the kinds of opportunities that will make you love your job. Here's what you should look for in a workplace.

•  A place where you can work on issues or products compatible with your values and beliefs

•  A place that demands adapt to new situations

•  A place where you can work independently

•  A place where minimal emphasis is placed on tasks that require routines or rote memory

•  A place where you can communicate with a few others about your feelings and ideas

•  A place where you can be a creative problem-solver

•  An environment that emphasizes harmony vs. competition

Making it work for you
It's not unusual to find out that some elements of your workplace already appeal to you and others don't. The trick is finding the elements that do not fit and see how you can tweak or eliminate them, while building on the things that work for you. By looking at your personality type, we can see which elements may make a crucial difference in your job satisfaction.

Given that you are an INFP, it is important that your work is meaningful. You believe your work should somehow improve the world. You can easily derive spiritual fulfillment by working at a non-profit organization or teaching. However, you find it difficult to meet these needs in a traditional workplace. There are, however, ways to fulfill your philanthropic needs even if your organization sells kitchen and bath appliances. Many companies understand the importance of developing ties within the local community to not only build a loyal customer base, but it also improves the area of the company's location. To do your part, explore opportunities for community outreach through your company. If a program isn't already in place, create a plan to develop one. Emphasizing the success of such types of programs for many other companies should help convince your supervisors that it will get them good free press and help their bottom line.

Looking at the ideal work environment is only the first step to understanding your personality type and your long-term career goals. The following paragraphs describe how your personality type is related to what some people refer to as your "transferable" or "higher" skills.

Even if you do love your job, it is easy to lose sight of your "higher" skills: what you take with you no matter where you work. Some skills are honed through work experiences, but many are innate to our personality. Some things are just easier for us to do than it is for others. For instance, you may have great people skills and may do well in sales or public relations, or you might have a knack for numbers and can excel in engineering, the stock market or accounting. Read below to see what higher skills fall under your personality type. Although you may not have had a chance to exercise these skills at your current job, keep them in mind so that you can find ways to incorporate what you naturally do at your current job or advertise these skills to launch your next successful job search. Having these skills can put you ahead of another candidate when looking for a future job. When if comes to work, you:

•  Can effectively advance communication between people

•  Can adapt to new situations quickly

•  Effectively interpret or explain other people's ideas

•  Motivate others to produce their best work

•  Express and respond to a wide range of emotions in yourself and in others

•  Are good at serving and assisting people on a one-one basis

•  Are good at evaluating problems and providing expert opinions

You have strong analytical skills and enjoy becoming an expert on one thing. This strength gives you the ability to be the foremost authority in your field. You like helping people create solutions out of their ideas and then persuading them to take action to put those ideas into motion. However, you enjoy either working alone to come to these solutions or focusing on one person at a time.

Sell yourself in two minutes
Research has shown that successful job interviewees take no longer than two minutes when answering a question. When people are nervous they have a tendency to ramble unnecessarily, jump to answers too quickly, or launch into drawn-out answers that end up boring the interviewer. Either way, these practices are not helpful. Before the job interview, practice describing your strengths in two minutes. Instead of reciting the list, which becomes rehearsed and dull, develop a story or anecdote about yourself that demonstrates your skills in action. Practice this story in front of the mirror or in front of someone else so that your nerves don't take over when you're in the interview. For instance, when an interviewer asks for a recent achievement, tell them about a great campaign you lead for your last company. Not only does this show your ability to complete projects successfully, but it will also demonstrate your presentation skills.

Inevitably, you will also be asked about your weaknesses. Don't be afraid of honesty. Rather than lying, successful job interviewees know how to strategically describe potential weaknesses. The trick is to describe your weaknesses so that they end up sounding like strengths. There is an art form to this so that it does not sound insincere. Practice this anecdote as well so that it takes no longer than two minutes. No need to spend extra time on your weaknesses.

Turning a weakness into a strength
For INFP, one potential weakness is your tendency to personalize your work. You are a sensitive person and once you start something, you wholeheartedly invest yourself in it. When projects don't work out the way you'd like them to, you have a hard time not taking it personally. This may be a pitfall for you because the time and emotional energy you devote to work may result in you shortchanging other areas of your life. Disclosing this weakness to a potential employer may end up working in your favor. In their eyes, you are a devoted employee who is committed to working hard and producing good work. It shows that you're not afraid to invest a lot of time on a project and won't be running out the door at 5 p.m.

Working Style
By now you should have a good feeling for your type and how your personality is related to your skills and work environment. That's a good base, but how you relate to others is another important piece to the puzzle. Depending on your type, you naturally work well with certain other types. However, all of us have the ability to relate to each of the different types. It just takes learning people's personality patterns and how to anticipate potential conflicts before they turn into something big. Read below to get more information on how different aspects of your type work well or don't work well with others.


Most compatible type
Having the combination of intuition and feeling influences how well you interact with others. Because you are a INFP, your most compatible types are people who are sensing feelers (SFs). Because intuitive feelers typically possess excellent communication skills, they work well with people who are supportive but also pragmatic. Sensing feelers help intuitives stay on track and work on the task at hand. Even though the NF may lose steam and would rather start another project, SFs possess the ability to persevere and follow through. A practical and friendly push is just what you need when you'd rather quit the project. This combination of SFs and NFs make a great team. Sensing feelers are people with the personality types of: ESFJ, ISFJ, ESFP, ISFP.

Least compatible type
Although having the combination of intuition and feeling makes you a visionary, you can sometimes let your sensitive side get the best of you. Being a INFP, you react very quickly to what you perceive as an insult or someone being too rigid. Your negative emotional reactions are likely to build up to resentment at some point. Given that sensing thinkers (STs) can sometimes be closed off to new ideas or sometimes can be insensitive without knowing it, they are most likely the type you will experience this type of friction with. Sensing thinkers are people with the personality types of ESTJ, ISTJ, ESTP, ISTP.

 

Can we all get along?
If you work with STs, remember that the way you perceive their comments might not be as hurtful as you interpret. Work on developing a perspective that is not so personal and perhaps based more on objective criteria. For example, if you notice that a particular co-worker can be abrasive when interacting with you, before concluding that they just dislike you, take a step back from the situation. Ask yourself: is she just cold to you or does she display this behavior to others as well? By forcing yourself to become more objective and emotionally uninvolved at work, you might end up saving yourself from unnecessary emotional upheavals.

History of Personality Types
As early as the fifth century B.C., the Greek philosopher and physician Hippocrates recorded the first known personality model. He based his four types on the amount of body fluids an individual possessed. The Greek physician Galen expounded upon Hippocrates' theory. He believed a predominance of blood led to a confident person who was cheerful and strong. A predominance of mucus led to an indifferent, slow personality. A predominance of black bile led to a depressed personality, and a predominance of yellow bile led to a violent and strong personality.

German philosopher Immanuel Kant later popularized these ideas in the 1700's, when he organized those ideas along two axes: feelings and activity. Depression represented weak feelings, confidence reflected strong feelings. Indifference represented weak activity, violence represented strong activity.

The next big step came from Wilhelm Wundt, who started to think about these categorical groups as not finite, but continuous dimensions. He proposed that the four temperaments fall on high or low positions on two axes: changeability and emotionality.

The idea that four basic temperaments existed eventually became the basis of a number of late-19th- and early-20th-century behavioral theories. Some of the most significant work on the subject was done by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung. In 1922, he introduced four categories of mental functioning: sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling in his work Psychological Types. At the time, Jung's ideas about personality types went largely unnoticed, due to the frenzy surrounding the modern psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner and others.

In the 1950s, however, Isabel Myers and her daughter Katherine Briggs revived Jung's ideas and re-popularized the idea of personality type testing.

Personality tests and daily life
Personality tests do not yield quantitative results. That is, no one personality type is better or worse than another. Personality tests can help us understand and better relate to ourselves and the world—to understand why we are the way we are. We can also use them to understand each other, not only to improve friendships but also to facilitate work relationships and career choices.

This Career Personality Test follows in the tradition of historical personality "Type" tests. The Career Personality and other tests are used everyday by counselors, therapists and employers to assess people's fit within certain occupations and organizations.

To find out how you score on a similar test, take the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator on the Consulting Psychologists Press website http://www.cpp-db.com/

Jung, C. G. & Baynes, H.G. (translator). Bollingen Series XX, Volume 6, Princeton University Press, 1971, 1976.

Myers, I.B. Introduction to Type: A Description and Application of the Myers-Brigg Type Indicator, Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press, 1985.

Tieger, P.D. & Barron-Tieger, B. Just Your Type: Create the Relationship You've Always Wanted Using the Secrets of Personality Type, Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 2000.

Tieger, P.D. & Barron-Tieger, B. Do What You Are, Boston: Little, Brown, & Company, 2001.