Choosing a career can be tough for people with the Advocate (INFJ) personality type. Sure, a lucky few seem almost to be born with an innate sense of what they want to do professionally. But many Advocates struggle to select just the right career – one that satisfies their values and honors their creativity and takes advantage of their full potential, so that they can make a difference in the world. No pressure, right?
That’s why we at 16Personalities have created a step-by-step guide – the Advocate Guide to Your Dream Job – to help Advocate personalities find their way to a career that inspires and empowers them.
But why is choosing a career especially difficult for people with this personality type? Let’s talk about some of the stumbling blocks that many Advocates face.
Stumbling Block #1: Not Putting Yourself Out There
If you’re an Advocate, you probably have a vibrant, active mind – and perhaps also a tendency to get caught up in it. You might view choosing a career as a thought exercise that requires careful reflection, soul-searching, and maybe some pro and con lists.
But thinking about your choice of career can only get you so far. You have to find ways to gain real-world exposure to it as well. This requires creativity, gumption, and a certain degree of putting yourself out there. But actually speaking to people in the field and seeing their work with your own eyes will tell you so much more about whether a career is a fit for you than researching or contemplating it on your own ever could.
Stumbling Block #2: Confusing Your Must-Haves with Your Nice-to-Haves
As an Advocate personality type, you’ll find that certain aspects of your career choice are nonnegotiable. For you, a career that’s a good match must align with your values and support your passions. A job that goes against your core principles or bores you to tears is just not going to work out.
The key is to distinguish these must-haves from your nice-to-haves. This is essential because it’s 100% possible (and perhaps even inevitable) for your nice-to-haves to conflict with one another. For example, maybe you’d like to work with children and you’d like to help address climate change and you’d like to work for yourself and you’d like the mentorship of an experienced boss. If you try to find one career that honors all of these preferences, you’ll spin in circles.
Stumbling Block #3: Underestimating Yourself
Advocates tend to set high standards for themselves. They find it hard to relax unless they believe that they’re living up to every last inch of their potential. This trait can make Advocate personalities incredibly driven – but it can also lead them to underestimate what they’ve already done and achieved in their lives. If your standard of success is a Nobel Peace Prize, are you going to recognize how ably you mediated a conflict between two friends or give yourself credit for the fundraiser that you started?
Here’s the problem with that mindset: sometimes the best clues to a career in which we’d thrive can be found in the things that we already do and have done. As an Advocate, you might be thinking, “I haven’t done anything” – but is that really true, or are you underestimating yourself? Think about your hobbies, the clubs and organizations that you’re drawn to, the school projects that fascinated you, the ways that you’ve helped friends and family members, and so on.
Next Steps
Choosing a career can feel like a big deal to Advocates – and, in many ways, it is. But there’s good news too. These stumbling blocks don’t have to trip you up in the long run. Whether you’re looking for your first job or weighing a career change, you can put yourself out there, figure out which values and passions matter most to you, and allow the things that you’ve already done and achieved to guide you on a professional journey that lights you up from the inside.
Searching for a career that suitsyourunique personality and experiences? Check out theAdvocate Guide to Your Dream Job – we made it just for you.
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