Empowering career search and enrichment

(Managing your transition home – Part 4)

Written by Catherine Rains

Finally, we get to my favorite set of cues. The outer letters, the attitudes, show how we express our middle letters, and can thus be sometimes more obvious in terms of behavior cues. Remember too that the J and P were added by Myers and Briggs to indicate what a person shows to the world, or what they extrovert. So again, this attitude is often something that we can see, more so than the middle letters. This is ALWAYS assuming that someone is actually showing us their true preference for J or P. I am a case in point with this one as my behavior and appearance look J, but I have a preference for P. But I’ll share this next week when we get to behavior cues for Perceiving. Meanwhile, let’s look at common cues for the Judging preference.

Here are some things that I look for. They….

• Usually chose a major before they get to college, or by the first semester of their Freshmen year (this is a question I sometimes weave into a conversation!)
• Might show up 15 minutes prior to an appointment or engagement 
• Often will get assignments done days before the deadline 
• Could have a neat, crisp appearance with clothes pressed, hair well groomed, more conservative and angular in style 
• Often have a very organized back pack, purse and/or daytimer 
• Might plan out their weekends and vacations with a schedule, and don’t want to move forward without a plan 
• Could appear closed to new information once a decision has been made  
• Might decide quickly to get a decision checked off their list 
• Sometimes love the 4-year plan the career center provides, and follows the plan year by year

What else gives you the impression that someone has a preference for Judging? Please share what you have observed.

Written by Catherine Rains

Of course this is another trick question. Perceiving preference students often are labeled as “procrastinators” because of the way they wait until the deadline to complete a project or make a decision. But as we’ve discussed in previous blog entries, they aren’t actually procrastinating with these behaviors. They are simply energized by the deadline, and/or want to keep their options open to make the best decision. Yet, even though we know this about Perceiving preferences, they still get labeled as the procrastinators, even by themselves, because in America we culture our citizens to have Judging preference behaviors.


So the real question is not about who procrastinates more, but what do you procrastinate on? To put it simply, everyone procrastinates, and what you procrastinate on will be with those behaviors associated with your non- preferred preferences. For instance, my preferences are for ENFP, so I tend to delay doing things that will require Sensing or Thinking skills, which are preferences I’m just not as comfortable doing. These take much more energy, so I procrastinate. When I wait until the deadline to complete a project, I am not procrastinating; I’m simply using my energy in the most efficient manner!

Written by Catherine Rains

Now here is a trick question if I ever saw one! To answer this question you have to look at how each preference goes about approaching a project with a deadline. When a student with a Judging preference is assigned a term paper, they usually begin working on it soon after it is assigned. They choose a topic quickly, outline what needs to be done, and start working through all the steps. In fact, they keep working these steps in a fairly focused manner until at some point they decide they need to get this off their to-do list. So then they focus their energy to get this project done. Consequently, they often get the paper complete long before the deadline.


Our student with a P preference, on the other hand, also begins working on the paper soon after assigned, however much of the actual work is in their head. They are thinking about the topic, maybe researching different ideas for it, talking it over with fellow students or their teacher, writing down ideas for how they want to approach the topic, etc. Then close to the deadline, and this could be a week before, three days before, or the night before, they get a flood of focused energy, and they bring all of their ideas together to write the paper in an efficient manner, finishing it on time.

Therefore, the question isn’t who gets things done quicker, but instead: when does each preference get energized to complete a project? Judging preferences are energized in the beginning and Perceiving preferences are energized at the end, with both using their energy when they are most efficient. So the answer to the original question is: Judging preferences are “quicker” in the beginning of a project, and Perceiving preferences are “quicker” near the deadline of the project. The trick is to tap into our student’s natural way of getting energized so that they are do things in a manner that is most efficient and energizing for them.