I’m an eNTj. It says that only 2% of the population are eNTj’s.
I wonder what percentage of the population have Napoleon complexes?
Wait. Don’t answer that!
I, and interestingly enough, all three of my daughters are INFP. I scored particularly strongly on the “I” part, and the rest were a little closer to the middle of the road. The introvert part of me is drawn to communicating through the computer because it seems less intrusive and I feel less intruded upon.
While I don’t have the results near me, my department took this test for the heck of it at a meeting a while back. Just for the heck of it I ran a couple of copies of the quiz and every couple of weeks re-take it. Out of the 3 times I’ve done it so far I’ve come up with 3 different combinations. If I remember I’ll get back to you on this tomorrow…
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by sandyr *
Just for the heck of it I ran a couple of copies of the quiz and every couple of weeks re-take it. Out of the 3 times I’ve done it so far I’ve come up with 3 different combinations. If I remember I’ll get back to you on this tomorrow… **[/QUOTE
The trick is, sandy, is to listen to only ONE of the voices in your head.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Danielinthewolvesden *
**
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by sandyr *
Just for the heck of it I ran a couple of copies of the quiz and every couple of weeks re-take it. Out of the 3 times I’ve done it so far I’ve come up with 3 different combinations. If I remember I’ll get back to you on this tomorrow… **
[/QUOTE
The trick is, sandy, is to listen to only ONE of the voices in your head. **[/QUOTE]
That’s why I’ve started seeing a professional, hon 
ESFJ - me and George Washington. I don’t mind the company, but I get the impression he wasn’t a whole lot of laughs. Must have been the dentures.
ISFJ here, but very close to the center of the continuum on all but the first category.
I took the test as part of a staff training day at my school, and we wrote our names in a grid of all 16 types. Some types were not represented at all, and there were more names by far in the ISFJ box than any other. The person who administered the test commented that ISFJ is very common among teachers. Though what the implications of that are, I’m not sure.
I’m curious, did you guys get typed by a professional Myers-Briggs administrator, or did you just do an on-line survey or something? To be truely typed, you take the survey, and put the results aside. You then learn what each letter means, and YOU decide if you are an I or an E, etc. Once you have a fairly good idea of what YOU think you are, you then score the survey and see how close you were. I was like one letter different.
MG is a self-scoring tool, if you feel that what you scored is incorrect, then it is.
EN f/t P here (slightly higher on the F than the T, but not much). The ‘look, a BIRD! - oh, what were we talking about?’ type… 
Fortunately I have enough T to keep me from floating too far.
A friend of mine is a trained M-B tester, and she describes the P/J thing as - Perceivers: Those who view time as a flow, with neither start-points nor end points (often are late to things because there isn’t a STRICT definition of when things start). Judgers: View time as a series of sections, with definite beginning and end points. P’s like to be spontaneous, J’s like to be orderly.
The thing with M-B is that it is EXTREMELY complex. It isn’t that you are ALWAYS in that ‘box’ - it is that you are USUALLY there or OFTEN there. Everyone shifts over time, and ALSO shifts based on what the situation is. Some shift more easily than others. So you may be an I most of the time, but with SOME people or groups you may gather more energy from being with them than from other groups (even as much as you’d get being alone). You may be an F most of the time, but in a crisis, your mind is clear of emotion and you function first on fact and logic - and only later break down. Etc. It is VERY rare for people to have NO aspects of any of the traits - and if you have ANY of those traits, you can USE them. In combination, even.
Hence, I am MOSTLY E with some I (increasing levels of I over time), MOSTLY N but can do detail S stuff when I need to, pretty near an even split of F and T, and Mostly P, but manage to be on time for many things and deal with order and sequence pretty easily. Plus, the older you get, the more you learn to do the things you are not already good at - and hence you get closer to the middle. But I ENJOY the ENFP stuff and the ENTP stuff most.
Using types at work is interesting, but only to the same degree that observation without bias is useful - you’ll notice if someone isn’t organized but is great at ‘off the cuff’ even if you don’t know they are a P. Using the types DOES encourage managers to see the strengths of that ability as well as (or instead of) the weaknesses. The types have no VALUE, good/bad, they just are resources and information. Any aboservant manager will be working with the very same info anyway, this just gives a non-loaded method for approaching the content. (M-B books seem to emphasize that there is no good or bad, just different, and that people all move toward the middle - get better at things they were less good at.)
And I come up as a good salesperson, too - but when I TRIED being a salesperson, I sucked at it. The ‘job’ types are VERY general… turns out I am good at selling ideas, perspectives, and such - showing one person how they really COULD understand another person’s perspective, even if they don’t agree with it themselves. I just don’t sell objects well, because I don’t value that. So take the ‘job’ part with a BIG grain of salt.
Obfuscarist, some of the types are known to hate this kind of test (at least until they find an actual use for it). My DH’s type generally thinks this kind of test is stupid because people are WAY too complex for a simple test to be accurate, and besides, NOBODY can see inside MY head, period. You should have seen his face when, after he said almost exactly that, we read the expected response from a book … and then the general things he would find important in life, have problems with in communicating, the things that frustrate him most, etc. He FIT that type, no fooling.
I find M-B useful in the sense that if I AM having difficulty communicating with someone, I can step back, get a handle on their type, and adjust my communication so they can see my point. I’m a technical writer, so I need to be able to communicate with an audience whose types I don’t know. If I am writing for a mixed audience, I tend to incorporate a wide variety of approaches, so that the users can EACH find what they need. Knowing what kinds of responses are out there is VERY useful.
I’m an INFP. I’ve taken the test about 6 times in the past 10 years, for various reasons. All but one of them was conducted by an administrator. I’ve scored almost exactly the same every time. My father, who was an executive with the CIA before he retired, was given the test in an agency sponsored management training session. They were told to use it to help them understand and manage the people who worked for them, i.e., how to motivate them, how to address disciplinary issues with them, etc.
Trouble: you said that INFP’s might not normally be suited to customer service jobs, but I think the type description indicates that they would be. INFP’s are supposed to be motivated by helping people and improving their world (as opposed to making a lot of money, competing with coworkers, etc.). I could see how an INFP could work well in a customer service position. I do understand what you mean, though…just because your “type” says you would do better in one area, doesn’t mean you can’t do anything else. These are just indicators, not rules, and I’ve never been in a position, at work or otherwise, where the M-B was used as anything but a different way of looking at and understanding people.
INTP, but barely. The breakdowns consistently show me as pretty even across the board…go figure.
I’m an ENFP.
Here’s the scoreboard:
E 6, I 4
N 7, S 3
F 6, T 4
P 9, J 1
I would have guessed myself an ESFP, but I’d be wrong.
INFJ. VERY strong everything except between J and P…that one is about even. And the description I saw fits pretty well. I’m the “doesn’t open up until I know you pretty well” type. Which is true.
ISTJ… Very introverted, as in +10. Borderline J, +0. Pretty accurate as far as I can tell, though I agree the pigeon-holing of people into specific jobs based on this is a very bad idea.
Just so you don’t feel alone I am also an ENTJ I have gone from border line I to about 3 points towards E, odd how things work out, huh? 
Well, well, well. A myers-briggs thread huh?
I thought my days of MB types were behind me. I was the person someone complained of earlier in the thread - I used to analyzed everyone I came in contact with. I remember after only a few minutes with an stranger I actually started point out to him that the things he was saying were consistent with this or that type. Boy was I annoying.
Anyway, I’ve taken it 2x (though the most recent being over 4 years ago). The first time I was an INFP, the second an INTP, which I believe I currently am.
BTW C3, I don’t believe INFP’s have anything to do with customer service or helping the world as opposed to being motivated by money. INFP’s are generally most concerned with self-discovery, finding out who they are, and they often suffer from major identity crises. INFP’s are likely to become immersed in something that seems particularly interesting (e.g. a social scene, yoga, a diet, etc.), then move onto something else without ever really completing or sticking with anything for too long. They are questors, always in search of themselves, rarely finding themselves.
Actually,when I said INFP’s don’t immediately come to mind for customer service, I was thinking more of the I part…some I’s don’t do well when forced into continual contact with strangers/angry people, etc. The F part and the N part both make us VERY good at customer service, because we can empathize with the customer, see how they are being affected by whatever their crisis is…we’re pretty good at seeing the “big picture” and coming up with an interim solution until the problem can be resolved. On the other hand, that F thing can also be a kick in the pants, because we tend to take things personally. You have to learn not to do that in customer service. The funny thing is, in my tech support dept. alone there are at least 3 or 4 out of say 12 or so that are INFP’s or INFJ’s.
Does this stuff have any basis in empirical reality? There’s assertions like “some I’s don’t do well when forced into continual contact with strangers/angry people, etc.” and “enfj is sometimes referred to as cult-leader personality”. Have the designation actually been shown to correlate strongly with these, or any other “objective” personality indicator? If so, can anyone give a cite?
Consider the following approach:
If you took this test, and then gave it to the people who know you best - your spouse, SO, children, parents, friends, co-workers, etc. and had them answer the questions on your behalf, would they agree with each other? Would they agree with you? Would you be MORE RIGHT than they are? By what measure?
It may seem at first like you know yourself better than other people, and in most ways that’s probably true. But to my observations it isn’t ALWAYS true. Many people are not very good at seeing certain aspects of themselves which are often painfully obvious to those around them.
This is especially relevant to using the test to design groups or teams, or asssign jobs in the workplace. You may think you’re very logical and well organized while the people around you think you’re a flake. So which is more relevant to teamwork, who you think you are, or who your teammates think you are?
This told me all I needed to know about it. Our company is shelling out to have us do this silliness. I’m very disappointed.
Well Flang,
I disagree with a lot of what I read on the link you provided (e.g. there should be a 3rd type added to the I/E parameters for those who derive energy from spirituality, etc.). Just on that example, deriving energy from spirituality, the occult, metaphysical beliefs, etc. has nothing to do with the way people react to social situations, or people’s general comfort in social situations. There are spiritually oriented introverts just like there are spiritually oriented extroverts. But I don’t really have the energy to comment on every point I disagree with right now.
I will say this though. Near the bottom in bold 3 short paragraphs describing 3 different MB types are given. I give you my word that without looking at the answers I felt that the first didn’t describe me at all, the second came a little closer, the 3rd (describing an INTP-my type) hit home.
Also, the article compares the MB types to astrology. I promise you, when I was very into it, after getting to know someone for a few days I could determine their exact type with a very high degree of accuracy, simply relying on my observations. I doubt astrologists have that kind of accuracy trying to guess people’s signs.
I will agree that I think it is stupid and wrong to try and use it to benefit the work place. It should be used simply to learn more about yourself and only in fun. And it is fun. But I believe it is also valid.