Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Jim Larkin

I recently had the occasion to view a “TED” lecture. It was delivered by Simon Sinek, author of the book “Start with Why.” In a nutshell, Sinek distinguishes between “Leaders” and “those who Lead.” Leaders, Sinek says, hold positions of power or authority, those who lead inspire. We follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for their sakes, but for our own. And what inspires? Knowing the “Why” of what we do, not just the “What.”

Take a moment to think about why you do what you do. If you’re answer is to help point students in the right direction, think more deeply. Helping students find direction is what you do, it is the outcome. Why do you help them find direction? I believe you do it to help them become happy, satisfied, and content (or whatever your bottom-line is) in the direction you help them find. Sure you’ll feel good in five years when that “lost” student comes back into your office to thank you for helping them find a job/career because now they are making a lot of money and are climbing the corporate ladder. How much better will you feel when that same student walks into your office and says thanks because you helped them find job satisfaction; not because they make a lot of money or they are progressing, but just because they like what they do, they are satisfied and content in their work life?

What you do may be to help your students understand what it means to be an ENTJ or an Artistic, Enterprising, Social (AES) individual. Why you do it is to help them be at peace with what it means to be an ENTJ or AES individual. Why you do what you do is to inspire your students to be better at being themselves, to find the joy in their lives and to find a job that won’t push that joy down, make them suppress it inside, or have to find it somewhere else.

If you would like to view the Simon Sinek’s TED lecture, you can find it here. Find your “why” and let it ignite a fire in you to inspire your students to ignite a belief in themselves. You are the inspiration! Identify why you do what you do and it will inform the what of what you do.

Written by Catherine Rains

Over the last 15 years I have taught hundreds of MBTI workshops all over the U.S., and during every one of them (yes, I mean at EVERY one), someone will come up to me and “out” themselves as a P for the first time. Why does this always happen to me?


Maybe because I always share my story about being trained to have a Judging preference as a child, a process I liken to being trained to use your right hand even though you are naturally left handed. This never fails to trigger a career counselor in the audience to start questioning their preference for Judging, and by the end of the workshop, they excitedly confess their true preference for P, as if discovering a long lost best friend, or being let out of jail.

Knowing that you are really a P doesn’t suddenly change how you get things done – you still get things in on time, make lists, set goals and accomplish them. However, it does open up a world of new choices for how to integrate the world of P into what you had been trained to do as a J. What might that look like? Stay tuned for next week when we talk about how a P survives with grace (and humor) in a J world.

Written by Jim Larkin

In continuation of my 2-part post, I discuss more instructions to give students when taking assessments - specifically for the Strong Interest Inventory® assessment assessment. For the Strong, the confusion is often around the student thinking that they are indicating whether they think they could actually do the job well or be successful in a class about a particular subject. The Strong does not measure skills and abilities, only INTERESTS. You might tell them to imagine getting on a cross-country flight. When the person sits down next to them and they go through the typical introductions and find out that the person is a Broadcast Journalist, Pharmacist, or a Recreational Therapist, does that pique their interest to make them ask some questions (showing some interest or that they LIKE that occupation) or do they want to just say, “Oh, that’s interesting” and turn to pick up the airline magazine and do the crossword puzzle (showing indifference) or make them think inside, “Ugh, who would be interested in that?” (indicating they DISLIKE that occupation). Remember to emphasize that their interests are being compared with the interests of 1,000s of people who have completed the Strong, who are successful in their jobs, have been in their careers for at least 3 years AND are satisfied in their jobs. The theory states that people with common interests will have a high likelihood of achieving high job satisfaction and success in the same jobs.


I hope you found this helpful. If you have any tips or insights of your own to share, please post as a comment!

Written by Catherine Rains

Let’s face it – we live in a J world. ESTJ to be exact. Most organizations, and most schools in the U.S., validate people who exhibit Judging behaviors. From birth, you are taught to get things done on time, arrive early, keep your room neat, use a day timer, keep lots of lists, make decisions and stick to them, etc. Ok, I admit it, I’m talking about myself. I was raised as a Judging kid, by a wonderful Judging father. He was so successful at raising me as a J that I thought I was one until I turned 33.


What changed? Well my type didn’t. I was ALWAYS a P undercover, even to myself. What changed is what happened when I turned 33. At that point in my life I was the director of a college career center, managing 10 professionals. For the first time, I was able to do things in a manner that I preferred, without a boss managing my daily actions. Through the process of learning to be a manager, I realized that I had always been a Perceiver, who was trained as a J to survive in a J world.

Don’t get me wrong – I am very grateful that my father taught me Judging skills. They have greatly added to the success of my professional life. However, now I can easily access my J skills when appropriate (and it often is), and can bring in my preference for Perceiving to make the process much easier and more fun.

Stay tuned for the next excerpt on this exciting series on the “world of P”!

Written by Jim Larkin

The best results in any personality or interest inventory will be returned when the “client” has clear instructions on how to approach the questions. This is equally true for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® assessment as it is for the Strong Interest Inventory® assessment. When giving instructions to your students who are sitting down to take either or both assessments it is critical that they know how to approach the questions. With the MBTI assessment, you want to emphasize “preferences”. With the Strong you are, of course, after the students’ interests.


When instructing your students who are taking the MBTI® assessment, emphasize that they are to indicate their PREFERRED behavior when answering the questions. They may find that they typically act one way more often, but given the choice, they may actually PREFER to act more in line with the other answer. Their typical behavior may reflect what they have learned to be the “correct” behavior, but if they truly answer honestly, they may find that they are not acting in a manner that would be more natural or comfortable for them. Another way to approach this is to answer as if no one else is going to see your actions and give you their approval or judgment about that behavior; no friends, parents or teachers are going to tell you whether you did the right thing, only yourself. There are no expectations or “shoulds” included in the answers. There is no “normally” I do this, because the possibility is that they may “normally” be acting outside of their preferred behavior because of an outside expectation.

Next week, I’ll share some insights for the Strong assessment.

Written by Catherine Rains

During a time of transition or at mid-life, many people begin to explore their opposite functions. For instance, my preferences are for NF, which has been reflected in my career choices for most of my adult life, in addition to my personal interests. However, at mid-life I started to become fascinated with ST activities, the opposite of my preference for NF. For me this took the shape of a new hobby, collage, which involved assembling hundreds of magazine pieces together like a puzzle, resulting in a collage that looks like a painting. Although a creative NF activity, this art form is VERY detailed oriented and VERY ST in nature. For some people, this movement toward their opposite function could also mean that their Preference Clarity Index (PCI) could move toward the middle of the scale (their preference bar would get shorter) reflecting their new fascination with their opposite functions. However, your type does not change. Bottom line is that I’m still an NF, who is now accessing more of my opposite functions in a more conscious, deliberate way. Oftentimes if you see a client pursuing their Tertiary and Inferior (opposite functions), they will be doing it in a way that still honors their Dominant and Auxiliary functions. For me that means doing collage in an ST way, but the subject of my collages are about inspiring people to find their heart’s desire –all NF!

Next week, we’ll be talking about another favorite topic – the misunderstood world of P!