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Can an ESFJ survive in academia?

5/4/2016

5 Comments

 
​​Hello, my name is Anna, I’m a grad student, and I’m an ESFJ.

“Hi, Anna.”
​

Many don’t put a lot of stock into Meyers-Briggs and other personality tests, but the majority seem to gush over how accurately the tests “get them.” I’m with the majority.
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​My "ESFJ" means I am:
Extroverted (energized by social interaction) rather than introverted.
Observant (highly focused on the past and now), rather than intuitive (imaginative, curious).
Feeling (sensitive, empathetic, focused on harmony) rather than thinking (prioritizing logic, efficiency).
Judging (highly organized & valuing structure) rather than prospecting (improvisers).
If you’re not familiar with the Meyers-Briggs setup, it basically describes personalities as fitting somewhere along each of the four spectra above. It’s not completely black-and-white, although my results tended to be strong in each category. Take your own test here—it only took me a few minutes. All quotes and photos in this post are from this awesome site, 16personalities.com.
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Many academics—that’s scientists and researchers who work at universities and other institutes— are the rarer INTJ or INTP personality types. That “iNtuitive-Thinking” combo makes a great academic—if you enjoy sitting around pondering the world’s great theories and making new ones of your own, this might be you. The “Introverted” piece is an added bonus that makes these types content to do this pondering more or less on their own. I don’t think this a stereotype as much as it is causal: academics want to think, or they wouldn’t be academics. It’s in their job description.
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When I showed up to grad school, my goals were things like: do field work outside, learn about prairies, and do science with scientists. Which means I clashed more or less immediately with my tasks, which were to think about theories, come up with something new, do it all on your own, and work whatever hours you want as long as you graduate eventually.

​In other words, I was asked to be an INTP. 
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The INTP is even depicted as a scientist.
Forcing an S-F to be an N-T
I have been surprised by countless conversations with peers who couldn’t sleep at night because they were thinking (be it excitedly, or in a panic) about their research. I have never laid awake at night, pondering my dissertation research—or any research, for that matter. Instead, I’m constantly thinking about things like my relationships, what happened that day, that thing that happened four years ago, remember to send Mom a birthday card, we should really get the grad students together for happy hour this week, I hope so-and-so is doing alright, are my students learning anything. For a while, I thought this made me a bad scientist. Now I know it just makes me an S-F. 
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​I’ve had conversations with my advisor that go something like this:
            “Have you thought any more about x?”
            “No, it hasn’t been a priority/I haven’t had the time.”
It feels weird. It feels weird to say “no, this specific work thing has literally not crossed my mind in the past week, except that I acknowledge that it’s been creeping upward from line #25 on my to-do list.” It’s weird to say “I didn’t make time to think.” But that’s what it is to me. I am perfectly capable of “thinking,” despite my “feeling” inclinations. I just have to put it on my to-do list when it’s something outside of my usual S-F realm.
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When I do get around to having an idea, after I’ve sat down for some structured think-of-ideas time, I get thrown off if it doesn’t fly. I used to think this also made me a bad scientist, but it’s just my “F” showing.
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Forcing an E to be an I

The work of academics benefits their discipline, and it benefits themselves. There’s nothing wrong with desiring a little career advancement and recognition—it’s commonplace in all other fields, so it’s no surprise here in academia. The lucky ones do research with “broader impacts” and the even luckier do research that has immediate applicability to the world. For many, though, the hope is that their drop in the proverbial bucket contributes to what may eventually, somewhere, have some importance for the world.
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Unfortunately, none of this motivates me. 99% extroverted is no joke. I get my energy from people.
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​I thought my curiosity and love of nature would motivate me plenty, but I’ve learned that there is a very important difference between natural history (e.g., I want to know all the bird songs) and what ecological research has actually become over the past 100 years (e.g., lots of data analysis). And when it comes to a day-to-day basis, I simply need to be motivated by people-- that means doing things for other people, or just having my work valued by other people. I really benefit from a simple “can you do this for me?” or “can you help me with this?” or especially a “wow, this really helped me, thank you!” Unfortunately, my research doesn’t care if I do it or not, and if I fail or quit, it really only hurts me.
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​On top of that, there is a lot of pressure—especially at the grad student level—to figure things out on your own.  I know this varies a lot by discipline and even lab group, but so far my list of times truly doing work with other people includes 1. Weekly reminders from my advisor that I should come up with -x- on my own 2. Presenting at lab meetings or committee meetings in order to learn what I’ve been doing wrong and 3. Probably suffocating my summer field assistants and anyone who has ever helped me in the field because OMG, let’s do stuff together!!!
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Forcing a J to be a P

One of my biggest strengths is that I am incredibly organized. Unfortunately, this “J” means I also value structure in my life, of which graduate school has none, and academia has little more. Many love this flexibility. My 9-5-working friends are jealous that I don’t have to use a sick day if I want or need to play hooky. The flip side of this is that no one cares if you come to work at all, and it’s not clear how long I could disappear before someone noticed and decided to stop paying me. I thrive on clear tasks and to-do lists, so if my goal for the day/month/year is to “figure out -x-“ or something equally abstract, I flounder.

This just means I have to really commit myself to deciding, what, exactly, I’m going to do in order to get something abstract done. For example, in order to complete to-do list item, “learn how to analyze my data,” I am planning to read through a relevant book and complete the practice problems. I need to be doing something in order to accomplish anything. And that’s okay.

True or false? ESFJs can’t be academics.

Definitely false! You can collaborate. You can put “think about -x-” on the to-do list, or better yet “write about -x-” or “read this book about -x-.” You can mentor and teach and be the social chair of your department to get your “people” fix. You can set up all your meetings to be at 9am so you have to show up and schedule your days task by task. ESFJs aren’t less intelligent. They just don’t operate well under an INTP framework, and can get lost if they don’t make the proper adjustments.
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Can they cut it? Absolutely. Will they want to? Maybe not. But that’s okay. Those that abandon the academia ship will become the teachers, the communicators, the people-movers and the directors of the world. And if they can survive grad school, they can earn their science cred before moving on to bigger and better ESFJ things.
 
Have any of my readers had a completely different experience in academia? Is your lab full of ESFJs? Tell me about it in the comments!
5 Comments
Iza
5/12/2016 10:13:02 pm

Thank you! Omg i am going to take this test but all this time in grad school (just a masters) i thought i wasn't 'intellectual' enough. Thank you thank you

Reply
Clare
11/22/2016 10:27:55 pm

Very accurate, I'm an ESFJ postdoc in a lab of INTJs and an ENTP boss - I'm finally am working out what it is about the lab environment that makes me unhappy - I need people! I thrive off helping and teaching people. Is there a place for us in science? Maybe in very collaborative labs. Or maybe in more supportive roles?

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Alina
9/29/2017 02:42:43 pm

Awesome awesome analysis, thank you for pointing out how ESFJ applies to your work. I am a software developer and before starting a career, I thought about going for grad school, now I am happy I didn't follow what I think it would have been a solitary path. If I think retrospectively, indeed the project that involved team work and collaboration were the most rewarding to me. Thanks again! Hope your thesis is going well.

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roy
12/11/2018 12:27:12 pm

You're lucky. I'm an INTP. I had so much trouble turning up on time for lectures, that by the end of the first time, the dean told me that if I didn't change my ways pretty quick, I wouldn't even be allowed to finish the first year.

Academia doesn't really want INTPs. Academic wants people who will "fit in" with whatever they want doing at the moment.

In other words, when they want you at a mixer or a conference, they want you to be a big-time extrovert. When they want you in the lab, they want you to be a big-time introvert.

But mostly, they want you to be like the other academics there.

Thing is that INTPs have in large part left academia. INTPs hate confrontation and having to fight for things. Academia got horribly competitive. As a result, you're far more likely to find INTJs in academia.

Also, while INTPs like to come up with ideas, we're driven by Fe to help people. So we like to share our ideas. Without the opportunity to share our ideas, they get forgotten. So generally, INTPs like to chat to others here and there.

INTJs like to think about ideas. INTJs like to say they've come up with their own theories. INTJs in particular love working long hours, as long as they are given autonomy.

INTJs HATE regularly reporting on their progress to others. Messes with their introverted intuition.

See, your problem is not that an ESFJ was asked to fit into the world of INTPs. Your problem is that an ESFJ was being pushed to fit in with a bunch of INTJs.

Reply
Kristen
4/26/2019 07:38:54 am

I am a PhD student in environmental sciences & engineering and, as an ESFJ, identify with all of your observations about navigating the grad school/academic life. While I like some freedom and the opportunity for intellectual work, the lack of structure and arenas for verbal processing about research (vs. thinking of it on your own, writing about it, and then sharing) or teamwork (the fieldwork aspect didn't pan out for my PhD) has been a mental and emotional struggle. I also find myself battling with my procrastination/perfectionist side to finish things without input of external confirmation that something is enough.

From the Myers Briggs side (or enneagram if you look at that too -- I'm a 2 wing 1) I often get frustrated that there is little acknowledgement of the intellectual sides of our personalities and how to best meld it with how we like to operate in the world. I've found StrengthsFinder a useful complement because it was originally designed with careers in mind (unlike MBTI) and can capture or frame strengths in a different way that is helpful in the workplace. I think they also help to explain differences between people with the same personality types and similarities with those of different personality types (at least that's my theory). For example, my top 5 strengths are: Input (like collecting things/people/ideas), Arranger, Restorative (= problem solving), Woo (making new connections with people), Individualization. If you take the StrengthFinders test, I recommend looking up the strength "domains" charts that organize the strengths into 4 domains (strategic thinking, influencing, relationship building, and executing). I found these helped me wrap my head around the 34 strengths more than looking at the individual descriptions.

Thanks again for your post!!

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