Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Catherine Rains

One of my favorite ways of “guessing” whether someone has a preference for Judging or Perceiving is to ask them WHEN in their college career did they choose their major. Often times, people with a preference for Judging will say they chose before they went to college or by the end of the first semester of their Freshmen year. They need that decision to be made and checked off their list so they can get on with the business of completing the coursework required to graduate in 4 years or less. Perceiving preferences, on the other hand, will often say they chose at the drop dead date for choosing a major, usually at the end of their sophomore year.

This is an ALMOST full proof way of identifying someone with a Perceiving preference, unless something in the Perceiver’s world pressured, encouraged, and/or nudged them to choose earlier. Most Perceivers will say they were “forced” to choose, and even when they did choose, they didn’t consider it a final decision. Much more often than Judging preferences, Perceivers are willing to change majors to something quite different than the original major. For example, they might choose Biology and then switch to Business, and then switch to Philosophy, hence losing credits in the process and delaying graduation by a semester or two.

What can we do to support students with Perceiving preferences stick with their choice of a major? Stay tuned for next week’s article on this very topic!

Written by Jim Larkin

Have you been introduced to the booklet Introduction to Type® and Learning? This little gem was written by Donna Dunning, a learning, career development and work performance consultant. Donna has been around Type for over 20 years and has contributed to or personally authored several Introduction to Type® booklets. Introduction to Type® and Learning offers many insights into how type impacts how we learn, not just in the classroom setting, but by what life brings our way. The Introduction begins with:

Written by Catherine Rains

Face it – in the United States we train our citizens to have a Judging preference, whether they like it or not. Where is my evidence? It starts with how we encourage students to choose a major before they leave high school or at the latest by the beginning of their freshmen year. We feel sorry for students who are going through college as a History or Communications major, not knowing what they are going to do after graduation. As someone with a preference for Perceiving, I know first-hand the shame that is inadvertently bestowed on students who cannot quickly answer the question “what are you going to do after graduation”. On the outside looking in, it appears that P’s will never make it.

However, you and I both know lots of people with a preference for Perceiving (50% of our colleagues), and they are doing quite well in their professional lives. It’s simply another path to success, equally valid to the one that most J’s take. Ask a professional with a Perceiving preference how they got to where they are today and they will say something like this: “it just happened”. Usually without a plan or goal in mind, other than maybe to like the work they do. They began by choosing a major that interested them, and possibly a second one (and a third), and then choosing jobs after graduation using the same criteria. One simple step at a time, until they find themselves in the career they are in today - as successful as their Judging preference colleagues. Just a different—and often misunderstood—path to get to the same destination.