In a previous life (BC) I was an executive recruiter for over 35 years. I actually got into the business by accident when as a struggling CPA, I spoke to a recruiter to help me find a new position. Instead, he suggested working along side him at a place called Source Finance. It turned it to be a job and industry that suited my skills to a T.
Now, after transitioning, I have a heart to help to advise our trans sisters with their own careers. From my local trans life support group, one of the most frequent issues is difficulty in finding a suitable and fulfilling job or profession.
What would you recommend? What do you like about your own job(s)? What would you avoid?
My own strengths are empathy and problem solving, which dovetailed nicely with my recruiting career. I score in the top right quadrant of the Meyer Briggs personality test, INTJ, and would be interested to find out about my fellow trans girlfriends if you would like to share.
If you want to post here or send me a dm I would be eternally grateful and will also post the results, along with my conclusions and suggestions in a later blog.
Thank you in advance and also a big thank you to all who have posted in the Resolution Contest. I'm almost afraid to post my humble entry. :DD TAF
Comments
As the Good Lord says . . .
“Be not afraid.” :)
As to your broader question, I’ll PM you. It’s complicated.
— Emma
The Last Company I Worked For
Had all Management do a Meyer Briggs test. I'll have to dig out my personal results because I can't remember where mine landed. I do know I was the only one in the company with that particular result. I didn't fit in any of the boxes.
I believe
Meyer Briggs may need a new box for us girls Jo. I am really more interested in what kind of work that trans girls enjoy, thrive in, and would allow advancement and enrichment. Like Emma and Jessica below mentions, Meyer Briggs is just a tool that some use for management. It's always best that we realize what our own strengths and weaknesses are. As Dirty Harry would say "A man's gotta know his limitations."
My goal is to help advise trans girls of possible career paths, both in white collar and blue collar areas that would allow them to take advantage of their skills in an environment that would be safe and rewarding.
Thank you in advance. :DD TAF
DeeDee
Not familiar with MBTI
I am not familiar with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, but I have taken the DISC Assessment on several occasions with varying results. According to Wikipedia both tests are considered pseudoscience with no formal scientific validation.
I know that the DISC Assessment results vary depending on the situational context as well as over time. The time factor shows that we can learn to adapt our default responses as we become aware of our personality quirks and/or traits. While the situational context factor shows that we respond and react very differently depending on the who, what, when and/or where of the stimulus. For example, we react very different to an insult depending on if it comes from a parent, a sibling or a child.
I found the DISC to be a tool that allowed me to become more aware about myself and explain to myself why and how I function. The first time I took the test I scored extremely high on two vectors and extremely low on the other two vectors. Several years later my results landed much more in the middle of every vector, though with the same bias as the first test I took.
For example, I have worked in accounting but had no explanation as to why I soonest got completely stressed out and totally frustrated with the job in very short order. After the DISC I got a good explanation for that past experience. I now know that any job that requires me to perform a “repetitive” action with constant precision is not a good match. On the other hand, a job with a lot of variety in activities and approaches is where I can thrive. I seem to be more the pioneering type, build a prototype and then let others refine and build the final product.
Insight, not destiny
Meyers-Briggs can provide useful insights. Certainly it was helpful to me, as a parent, in trying to make sense of the different behavioral patterns I was seeing, appreciating strengths as well as seeing weaknesses. But, corporations misused the test a generation or so back to kind of pigeonhole employees. The fact that something is hard for an employee— like, for example, an introvert taking a public-facing role — doesn’t mean they should be kept from trying it. They may appreciate the challenge, and be good at it.
The test was pretty accurate for me, and my INTP score’s write-ups fit me. It was also accurate for most people I know that have taken it, with maybe one exception. There are things about the test I don’t like, and things about the analysis I question (like Meyers and Briggs assumption that types are constant over time), but it’s a useful tool within its limits.
— Emma
Maybe I Was Too Old
I didn't do a Meyer Briggs test until 2008, so I was already 66. I had just been head-hunted by a Singaporean company with the specific task of extracting payment for work done from organisations who tried their damnedest not to abide by their own contracts and pay for legitimate variations. I was actually very successful at this, so successful that the government of Singapore tried to get me thrown out of the country, but their own rules didn't work for them (and my employers were too canny)so they were stuck with my presence for the next six years.
Anyway, what the MB test said was that I would make a very good mentor for the younger professionals and so I had weekly sessions with my junior colleagues, one-on-one, and tried to impart the lessons I had learned over the previous fifty years. About two-thirds of my mentees seemed to enjoy our sessions and listened to what I had to say, which was very gratifying. I guess I'll never know if they ever put any of it into practice.
The other third were there on sufferance. They already knew it all and didn't need an old dinosaur like me telling them how to do things. However, on the basis of that experience I have to give the MB test a plus.
This was not what I was trained for, but as you rise in your chosen profession you cannot keep on doing what you loved in earlier years. I was a bloody good civil construction engineer, but age catches up with you. If you think I am immodest I can show you some of the jobs I worked on and am proud of.
I had the specific results somewhere but I can't find them now.
Dee, please submit as many entries to the New Year's competition as you can!
TAF Worldwide
Immodest? You? You are one of the most humble amongst us. Thank you Joanne.
I am now in the process of establishing a charitable foundation with the name above to aid trans women (and men) worldwide to establish and advance their careers. Feedback on suitable trans careers will be a start for me to research and publish to aid trans women now and in the future.
Thank you for the feedback, but you had best get back to reading and ranking comments! No rest for the weary, Missy! :DD TAF
DeeDee
No moss . . . .
No moss grows on this Sylvan prospect! Dee, your energy and perseverance are amazing!
Also, I just love the name!!! TAF forever!
— Emma