Empowering career search and enrichment

Written by Catherine Rains 

Written by Catherine Rains

In continuation of our last blog, Counseling to Type Strategies - Extroversion (Part 1), here are some suggestions on what you can do to work most effectively with this preference:


Provide opportunity to talk about and experience the options they are considering. Co-op/internships and informational interviewing are a natural choice for career exploration for this preference.  Remember they are not only energized by interaction with people, but also with activity outside of themselves.

Ask lots of open ended questions to encourage them to talk even more. They usually enjoy question and answer techniques as a way to process the information coming out during the session.

Continue the discussion where you left off last time.  If your student comes back for a second appointment, there is an expectation that you will know what was discussed last time.  With my poor memory, this meant I kept a file for student appointments, which noted highlights of each discussion.

Share some strategies of your own on our Facebook or Twitter pages!

Written by Catherine Rains

Your students’ MBTI ® score measures consistency, not quantity. A student who scores 30 has answered all the extraverted questions in the extraverted direction, and therefore will more than likely agree (validate) that they have a preference for Extraversion. However, when a student scores 2 for Extraversion, it doesn’t mean they are any less extraverted than the student who scores 30. Again, the MBTI doesn’t measure how much you are of a preference, but rather how consistently you answered in one direction or the other. Our student with a score of 30 could indeed have more extraverted behaviors, but the MBTI is not measuring the amount of extraverted behaviors that they exhibit. But rather, it indicates how sure they are that they are an Extravert.

One thing you can almost certainly count on – the student with a score of 30 will agree with their result for Extraversion. Our student with a score of 2 for Extraversion will most likely be unsure and need to explore this preference pair in order to validate their best fit type for either Extraversion or Introversion. I happen to have a score of 2 for Extraversion and went back and forth for years trying to decide just this. In my mid-forties I finally realized that I am indeed an Extravert, but my score is still a 2. I express Extraversion in my own unique way, with a bit of Introverted behaviors thrown in for good measure! But once I claimed Extraversion, according to the MBTI, I am just as Extraverted as someone with a score of 30. An Extravert is an Extravert is an Extravert, no matter the score. Once you validate, that is your preference, period. A lower score could be a sign that more exploration is needed in this pair before someone can claim their true preference.