Myers-Briggs Personality Type and Career Choice

3-minute read

Written by Shawn Bakker, Lead Psychologist

The fall is a common time for people to explore career options and think about what type of work they will find satisfying. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® is frequently used alongside other assessments such as the Strong Interest Inventory^® to help people focus their exploration. 

Research on personality type and career choice indicates that people with the same middle two letters, which are called the function pairs (ST, SF, NF, NF), have far more in common in terms of occupational selection that those with opposite function pairs. For example, SFs are likely to be found in jobs similar to one another and likely to be in different jobs than NTs. The data is shown in the chart below: 

Occupation overlap for MBTI^® types

Percentage of people with opposite process pairs/same orientation pairs versus types with same process pairs/opposite orientation pairs 

Hammer, A. L., & Macdaid, G. P. (1992). MBTI® Career Report manual. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc. 

So where do the function pairs tend to gravitate?

If you’re a career counsellor, knowing the patterns of attraction may help guide your conversation. 

ST’s are commonly referred to as the ‘bottom-line’ individuals. As concrete and analytical people, they are often found in occupations where they can focus on pragmatic ways to use data. Many ST’s gravitate towards jobs in business or finance for these reasons. 

SF’s, or the ‘customer service’ people, like to help people in practical ways. They like to see tangible results as they relate to the service of those around them. As a result, many are found in jobs in education and health care. 

NF’s, are referred to as the ‘people development people’. In their career, NFs often want to help people fulfill their long-term potential or realize big-picture goals. Therefore, you’ll often find them working in areas such as religion or counselling. 

NT’s, the ‘systems theorists’, focus on theoretical frameworks and continuously keeping themselves challenged. They are often found in science, technology, and management occupations where they can challenge, improve, and refine long-term objective outcomes. 

Using personality type data to help guide career conversations

The data shows that career choice follows patterns and distributions as predicted by MBTI type; understanding generalities as it relates to who goes where, may just help start those important conversations around career choice or post secondary programs. Since the function pairs play the largest role in occupational choice, it is useful to help clients think about how the jobs they are considering align with their personality type, while also exploring how they can use their function preferences in the jobs they are considering.  

Additionally, if your client wants to pursue what we call an ‘an out preference’ career, it may also be valuable to encourage them to consider specialties that re-inject their personality into some day-to-day activities.  

With all that said, while similar types tend to gravitate toward similar occupations, it is important to remember that there is also a lot of type diversity within an occupation. Through development, learning and varying interests, people may be interested in any job for any reason. In most jobs, there is at least some representation by most – if not all – 16 personality types who are satisfied and effective within that role.  

Ultimately, our job as career counsellors and type practitioners is never to prescribe career choice, but to ask the important questions that lead to a fruitful discussion around a client’s options. We have a series of useful resources that can help you do just that in our Knowledge Center: Career – Psychometrics Canada