Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Catherine Rains

Ok admit it all you Perceiving preferences out there, you really think you are happier in your careers than Judging preferences. Why? Because Perceiving preferences constantly monitor the environment for the best possible career (major), and are willing to make a 180 degree change in their career to follow a new option that appeals to them more than what they are currently doing. Judging preferences also want to be happy in their careers, but they are much less likely to change course mid-stream after they have already gotten an education and experience in a particular field. For instance, if a Judging preference student decides the major they have chosen is "wrong”, they will either stick with their major and figure out a way to make it work, or change majors to something very related to the original major so they don’t lose any credits and can still graduate in four years.

In other words, once a decision is made on a major and later a career, Judging preferences are much less likely to change course, even if a more appealing option reveals itself. So this must mean that Perceiving preferences are more satisfied long term, right? Wrong! According to research, Judging preferences report higher career satisfaction because they aren’t always looking for more options, but rather look for ways to make where they are now work for them. Most Perceiving preferences I know live with a touch of dissatisfaction with where they are because they are always in search of something even better!

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 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.