Ha Ha
I'm a therapist and social worker - I currently work at a dialysis clinic and I'm working to start my own therapy practice.
wonder how many of us are serving the public in some way..

I have worked with youth for many years as a counselor, case manager, and most recently school counselor. I'm taking a break from that right now to work with the staff of a school district on professional development and teacher retention via facilitated support groups, but am starting a charter high school for alternative youth opening Aug 2, 2005. I'm also a tarot reader and life coach.

In my volunteer life, I continue to work with youth at our local LGBTQ Center, am on staff at Diana's Grove (www.dianasgrove.com), and a whole lot of other volunteer stuff.

I'm guessing most of serve people in some way!

another therapist here! currently working on my psy.d. in clinical psychology.

As I mentioned in a previous thread (The INFJ and Working for a Living), I have been:
* a nuclear engineer in Toledo;
* an actuarial student in Manhattan;
* an underwriter in Phoenix;
* a consulting actuary in Manhattan and then in Somerset, New Jersey;
* a stock plans manager in Morristown, New Jersey;
* a compensation manager in Allentown, Pennsylvania;
* a pensions manager in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey; and
* a health & welfare benefits consultant in Warrington, Pennsylvania.

I now work as a client administrator for an executive benefits practice in Princeton. My job is, essentially, to help the rich stay rich. I feel like a little bit of my soul dies each day I'm at work.

On the morning show of a local radio station yesterday, the topic of the hour was "useless college degrees". Some study just came out that indicated that the most lucrative college degree is chemical engineering, while the least lucrative is psychology. When I heard that, I just *had* to call. *I* have a degree in chemical engineering, which hasn't proved to be the least bit useful in my current field of financial services. Wait, there's more! I'm pursuing a master's in counseling psychology. My career path is going around in circles -- as well as backwards.

Hi, I am a clinical herbalist and medical astrologer. I work with people that have not been helped by the allopathic and technological medical system. I am also involved as a political activist in distributive justice philanthropy. Sometimes I think I am an archetypal INFJ.

I work for a media company and spend all the rest of my time pursuing music and photography

My day job is bill collecting.

But that doesn't count.

What counts is that I am a Santería priest and I consult for people with my skills in Santería and also with my skills in dowsing.

What counts is overtaking what doesn't count, just as it should ;-)

i'm a yoga therapist. most of my students are terminally ill and are tired of traditional type therapies...i use yoga, meditation and a lot of dialogue to teach people ways of coping...


i'm new to this group and i have to say...WOW - you're all amazing!

;-)

I am a teacher, artist and writer; I teach computer animation at the college level and write textbooks on 3D graphic software. Also, I am a college radio DJ and tribe addict.

I have been programming computers since the IBM card days.

Writer, user interface designer (computers), filmmaker, artist, musician; not all these bring in the dough -- guess which ones. I'm an armchair psychologist -- I probably would have pursued that if I didn't have such a strong drive to create various sorts of media since I was a kid.

Hmmm... looks like I'm the odd one out. I'm a civil engineer who works in marine construction babysitting my inspectors, surveyors, and contractors (my job description calls it "construction management", but you and I know better). Not a typical career for an INFJ, I know. However, I get to spend half my time outdoors in the middle of the woods somewhere or on the water, and my people skills (much better than the average engineer!) give me kind of an edge in this line of work. There's surprisingly little technical skill required for this job anyway. Mostly it's all about communication between different levels of management and the people in the field. Except when one of the bulldozer operators brings a gun to work and shoots an alligator (which has only happened once, thank heaven). Then things get interesting.

At the moment I mostly worry about having a career. Mid-life career-change Master of Library and Information Science student here. Undergrad was English, last position was event planner. It was an exciting career and allowed me to work "behind the scenes" to do some pretty cool things, but it was also a very high stress position.

I would have loved to have been a counselor, but I am at times too empathetic. As a librarian I can satisfy the need to help people and be introverted too. I am in agreement with Shannon on this, but teaching is not for me. Let them come to the reference desk and I will be glad to help, and I believe I will know just what they are looking for too!

I'm a student in the School of Metaphysics studying to become a Spiritual Counselor. :-)

After spending four fantastic undergraduate years studying art history and english literature (including studying abroad in Florence for a year), I found myself faced with the same question asked of double majors in English and Art History world-wide - that is, "Are you going to teach or are you going to law school?"

With the knowledge that I loved studying and academia in general, but that I also liked my expensive highlights and the occasional pair of Prada moccasins, I decided to take the red pill (i.e. law school). And life began a slow downward spiral therefrom. I should have known I was in for bad times when my legal research and writing professor remarked on a paper, "Get rid of all of the adjectives."

I decided last year that my existence essentially consisted of moving the same $1,000,000 from business to business in Los Angeles. This was a rather soul-depleting realization. So after five years of practicing, I quit.

I suppose I am in "transition." I should use my law degree in some way, but my INFJ tendencies and my general hatred of conflict in general make me particularly poorly-suited for the practice (choosing the litigation track rather than corporate may not have been the best choice for an INFJ, in retrospect). I'm completely conflict-adverse and just want to do something positive at this point. I'm looking at non-profits at the moment.

Hello everyone! I'm new here...just finished a graduate degree in spirituality, I now teach in the program and I also make films.

hello all...this is my first post on this tribe and i have to say how glad i am to have found you! life as an infj can be...strange...but once you realize there are other people like you (even if it is only 1-2%of the population) you feel a bit less lonely! As for what I do for a living, I have worked in social services for11 years now, even though i went to college for something completely different (music). I've worked extensively with adults with mental retardation. I currently run a daycare program for adults with Alzheimer's Disease, along with a program for elderly adults with MR. I also head that Alzheimer's Caregiver Support group. In my free time I perform in community theater and I'm an artist.(the medium depends on the day) Glad to meet you! Lori

All I am is an artist right now.

I have always had a day job, always needed one, I always adapted to them but really wanted to find a day job I'd like and be a total contrast from making art.

Making art for me, highly detailed crosshatching is almost meditative, a state of mind women who knit might understand, but it can't be a social activity like knitting can because one must keep their visual attention focused when so much of real conversation is as much reading faces and gestures of people you're talking to as the words themselves...and I am not good at multitasking anyway. I also work in bursts, because I hate stopping and having to build up momentum to start again I'd rather let momentum carry me. As a result I could go for spurts of two to three days at a time of not speaking to anyone, not really eating, it feels like giving birth. It's always limited the amount of art I can do, because I go through periods of obsession and then crashes... in total solitude, almost a prisoner of my work. I need a day job that is very different. something that is social... something that takes me out of my inner world and makes me feel connected to people. If I have a bit of both in each vocation I am happy.

But what usually happens is that I find that in my dayjobs I have not been able to find things that make me feel connected enough to other people. I worked with cerebral palsey one time and I liked aspects of it, I learned to feel connection with people on a non-intellectual level which probably saved me from being a total geek later on in life. But still, with the staff and the clients I didn't feel a real intellectual connection.

With retail work I found interesting and quirky people, some of them really cool, but the pay was so low, and really customers can be arrogant pricks. It always galled me that a person who had no real culture, read no literature, just a well paid third level Tech MCSE who doesn't even have a degree talking to me as I served them their latte as if I were a stupid waste. No, retail was just too hard on the ego. And though I certainly needed to stop thinking like a snob, it didn't seem worth rubbing my face into at 7:00hr

my last dayjob was Construction related work that I actually I liked at first. It can be like a brotherhood. It can attract some totally stupid people but most of them are actually very smart and just didn't care for academics, street smart, common sense... I got in with a somewhat criminal element because I liked weed back then, but more because I felt flattered and priveledged to be an insider with people who's culture I was not at all a part of and never pretended to be a part of. It was nice to be trusted, I almost felt like an anthropologist at first, there were many qualities I admired with this working class anti-hero snub your nose at authority crowd though I must admit I could never relate to the whole "gangst" front many of them were making. Sure, they did an illegal thing here and there but they were way more small time than they pretended to be.

But I woke up to the reality that only a few of them were worthy of trust, that most would con or hustle anyone and were not exactly safe company, I liked that at first. Prowd of myself for being able to run with wolves and come out unscathed and all, I enjoyed the mental acrobatics and game of cat and mouse I got to play with people who really won't respect you unless they can't con you... but will always try. It's an art form almost, like a ballet between one another, how they'd play clueless as they backed gracefully out of one another's nets. I got hustled a few small times but I was almost more amused than mad and really it was never about grudges in a crowd like that. Most of them had pretty long rap sheets. The problem was, I really missed out on ever feeling true connection with them fun as it was, it's lonely in that crowd even if it's an adventure. I'm glad I ran with them, heck, they really taught me a lot... I overcame a lot of personal demons in their company.... but there's nothing more to get from them though I think of these interesting characters I associated with quite warmly and see them on rare occasions even now. I just know that for me to grow further I need to move on to a more functional cast of characters. There's only so long that you can surround yourself with people who belong in either Tom Waits tragedy songs about hustling and riding boxcars and gangsta rap video wannabees.

I am going back to graduate school now, hope to go into psychology, not particularly because I really think I'm particularly wise but because I seem to be able to get people to open up and tell me their stories with ease and quite a bit of candor. Most people just need to talk things out and they usually find their own answers what they do. Helping people after all is not about telling them how to live, it's just about being curious and asking them the right questions. I like it, especially when I turn the same questions I ask them onto myself if I never asked myself that question before... that's when I usually learn something big. So I think psychology might be my thing, and given my experiance with my former crowd of freinds I might consider doing some of that practice for the state prison system, I'd be very comforable.... and I know most of the games by now. A typical person who never hung around that set with just an academic understanding of psychology would really get played every way but sunday, so I think in that case my past would be a professional asset.

Once I have a really solid psychology practice I beleive I will have the flexibility to really throw myself into my art completely the way I work with the kind of dayjob that'd be a ballence to what my art demands of me.

What an interesting post!
As for me...I was a psychology major in college but ultimately decided to practice medicine - and not psychiatry (although I was very drawn to the theory, I would have much rather chosen psychology over psychiatry if that were my path)!
The counseling and education part of medicine is what I really love...that and the ability to connect to people when they need that connection the most.

I went to law school following my college graduation to study public interest environmental law. I do not recommend going to law school right out of college (to anyone, not just INFJ'ers). instead, take time to check out the real world and what you want out of life.

While I finished the program I was very unhappy in law school, and have not pursued a career in the law. I work in environmental politics right now, though that is not fulfilling me, either. I realize that this is because I have been trying to do what I feel obligated to do to heal the world, and not what makes me happy.

I am beginning to "study" myself to learn more about what I am really passionate about, and what kinds of things I naturally enjoy doing. Joining this INFJ tribe has been very helpful; particularly this thread! I also have a natural inclination for counseling, mentoring, and alternative healing:)

My true passion is music, and I am looking into careers in the music industry. I need to move back to CA as well, for my own sanity:) No particular city requirements- I'll move where I can find a career that's a good fit for me.

I don't know much about the music industry, though, and thought someone on this tribe who is already in the music industry might have some career suggestions for INFJ'ers. It seems I might be a good fit for street teams, marketing, promotions, event planning type stuff? I do a lot of volunteer promotions stuff for my fave band, ALO, and others in the general Jack Johnson genre right now ...

At some point I'd like to combine my passion for ocean and coastal issues with music, but working from the music side, not the enviro organization side. Like maybe helping to organize festivals or benefits or something. That might help you identify career options for me, too.

Any thoughts?

THANK YOU!!!!

I set out to be an environmentalist and ended up working in IT - programming,
systems analysis, data analysis. Most of the rest of you guys seem to function
really well with people ... anyone else have a tendency to avoid them almost entirely ??

I'm a classical musician who is forced to work in a wine bar to pay the bills, in addition to freelance chamber music gigs. It's not so bad as far as restaurant gigs go & the hours work well with my cello practice. Still, I wish I could just be a full-time musician.

Working on a bachelor's in anthropology, thinking about a master's in public policy...focusing on social policy (big surprise!)

I'm the king

I am working to pay the bills right now. Bouncing from job to job, although I am quite capable of being a workaholic and devoting my entire life to whatever boss seems to take an interest in my potential/unique contributions.

What's sucky is that working isn't making me happy at all anymore. it's not that I'm lazy, I just have hit a rut of pointlessness.

When I am attending classes I am a cultural anthropology and natural resources major. I've said that I would like to go into field research on subsistence and sustainability usage/issues. And eventually publish something brilliant-and be a professor . I'd also like to put a few years into the peace corps.

Thing is, I checked out the grad materials at Naropa--and if I could resolve my spiritual doubts/crises/and had a strong faith system-I think I would really enjoy being an interfaith chaplain.

I used to think I also would like being a park ranger, eco-tourist guide, a management consultant (of the leadership motivational sort), an army officer, a librarian, sex therapist, police officer--eventual hostage negotiator, heavy equipment operator, fema groundworker, primatologist, ranch manager, tai-chi instructor, bar tender, activist, and life/employment skills educator for at risk kids.

Most of my instructors and friends have said I should be a lawyer or a therapist.

My degree is in Interior Design but I prefer to be an artist (abstract painter). I 've painted off and on for the last 20 yrs. I have two teens and have always preferred to work at home (husband travels a lot). I love doing and seeing anything visually creative...and often have some creative project going on. I am alone quite a bit during the day, but never lonely or bored.

I work in a special needs school now, have been thinking of becoming a teacher for some time but it doesn't feel right. But still I can't figure out what else i would like to do . But yeah, people centered for me too.

Im presently a full time mother but for when my son is a little older im looking either into going back to university (id like to do an Art and Design course, or if thats not a possibility, to resume the archaeology course i was studying in the past) or open my own shop selling cross stitch supplies.

I absolutely adore cross stitching, and would like to start designing my own charts in the future. However ive never studied art before so dont know if id be any good at it. Im presently teaching myself to draw in my spare time, in between stitching things for friends and family. The other option i was toying was using photography, taking a photograph, editing it and then converting the picture into a chart using a computer programme i have.

Anyway if that doesnt happen and i dont turn out to be any good at it, then opening a shop specialising in cross stitch supplies is something id enjoy as well.

As for resuming the archaology, i just love studying, and it was an interesting subject.

I plan on getting my MBA in 4-5 years to pursue management and human resource consulting. I have always though in terms of maximizing my impact and it makes sense for me to be attracted to institutions and politics. I don't mean to knock on people in health professions, that is not my intent, but what kept me from going into those professions was that they are, by nature, limited by the time, and there are only 24 hours in a day. I wanted to opt for a profession that least restrictive. I'm interested to find what roles people like us play in the corporate setting.

another therapist.. did my undergrad in polisci and women's studies..took a year off and then did my MSW 15 years ago.. it is a good fit.

Not in the work force as such, for more than 20 years. I work very privately at home as an artist(painting and digital arts). I just don't the personality to be "out there tooting my own horn" either, especially when people ask me what I'm doing to promote my art(nothing at the moment). At this point in time, it's a huge accomplishment just to get back to painting, as for a time, my husband and I had to move nearly 15 times within a 3.5 year period, and I need lots of time to recouperate from that. We've been in our present location for nearly two years, and I still feel this need. Right now, I'm not worrying about marketing, selling or anything else. I still feel like I'm undergoing some other larger inner process anyway, and I miss my shamanic energy practitioner terribly at the moment....

Library

Well I have done quite a few things but nothing I ever wanted to do. Currently I own a small store which I have paid off outright even at the age of 23. It provides me with a six figure income even tho I had no help getting into this store and also no college at all, something very few people could say with my back round. Honestly tho, I hate it as I feel very tied down. The job that I would like to do most would be a teacher, as I absolutely love to teach. To myself, I really feel as I haven't done anything in many ways because doing something I want to do is much more valuable than any money I make doing something. But as someone that was forced into work at way to young of an age this is where I have ended up. One reason I have done as I have, is because of my infj personality, it provides me insight to which business ventures will be good and which ones not, it also provides me with a natural drive and relaxed feel about hard work.

One thing that made school very hard for me and why I don't have a college degree is that I couldn't hear at all until i was 5 making writing something very hard for me and thus writing in college an absolute nightmare. While my language skills may not have come along as they may considering my personality type, I instead received some very interesting math skills, as one could say math was my first language. Possibly my writing skills are just fine, but I am simply to self absorbed or have too little confidence as my desire to be perfect is too great and I am simply being too hard on myself, or too sensitive of others opinions.

I was a "jack of all trades" many years ago. Now, I am mostly a musician/songwriter/singer.

Hi I’m an INFJ in England who has just discovered all these wonderful like minds from around the world – what a great surprise. I know all INFJs obsess about their calling and careers for their whole life, but sometimes I think I am simply subconsciously working my way through every job listed in the INFJ section of a careers book!

My first degree was Environmental Science and I worked as a writer, designer and editor for about 15 years, moving into all sorts of publishing and communications roles. I loved the words and stories I got to tell but hated the competitive work environment, the duplicity of my colleagues and the NOISE of it all.

So about 7 years ago I quit a well paid communications job to retrain. My parents were appalled – my Dad said “but it’s got a good pension” – I was 30 at the time, but he genuinely seemed to think there was nothing wrong with me staying in the same job for the next 35 years just to take advantage of that!

I took postgraduate qualifications, firstly in Digital Media and then in Acting. I loved both audio and film-making and the acting in terms of what you have to do but, again, hated the people you have to work with. At drama school my tutor told us we had to go for any job and do anything to get on in acting. I pointed out that I was not in the least bit interested in acting in anything I didn’t believe in- I was passionate about affecting the audience and myself through the work, not in becoming famous. He just snorted and said I’d never get anywhere. He was right – but through my choice – having met many more people like him, I decided that performance was too soul destroying for me.

And there’s the problem: I love to write, act, draw and communicate stories in all forms, and have been fortunate to have been told I am pretty good at all these things by people I respect. But I HATE using them solely for someone else’s commercial gain. It makes me loose a little of my love for the medium itself.

I’ve tried coaching and drama therapy, but I get too involved. I’ve worked with people with disabilities, but I can’t forget them at the end of the day. Mindless jobs like typing and organising are fine for a month or so, but then I loose pride in myself and worry I’m not doing what I ‘should’ be doing.

I see the same thing in so many of your posts. You choose a career because of your passion to change and help, and then are worn down and disillusioned as no-one you work with seems to care. How do they all motivate themselves to get up in the morning, I wonder?

So I continue to muddle through, trying to find my path. But, I am truly grateful for my lot - I have a husband I adore, a decent family and I like myself. And all of your posts give me hope that there are others like me and maybe, one day, we’ll all meet and start an enterprise together to open people’s hearts and minds.

Sorry that's so long! It's my first ever post and it just kind of spilled out...

WOW!!! What a great group of people! I'm proud to be an INFJ!

Currently, I, like a lot of you, are in limbo. I'm playing as a professional tubist in the houston area. I've played in the Kingwood Pops Orchestra, The Housotn Symphony North, and the Houston Grand Opera. I play quintet gigs on the weekends at churches (no free chicken, though) and a wedding here and there. Teaching is another story. 95% of the time you get the kids who's parents drop them off at the band hall after soccer practice and take off to run arrands (as if they're saying, "Make him better!" as they're driving off). Those are the kids that have absolutly no motivation to succede in music. Every once in awhile you'll get someone with an interest...but it's rare. It's monumentally frustrating. I don't care how much they pay me - I can't make the kid better if he doesn't want to get better. Depressing as well. Definetly a challenge.
I thought about getting a degree in music, but am now convinced, with all circumstances applied, $$$, that it would not cover medical bills (as in - The union doesn't offer insurance-). I'm going back to school to study (breeze through) network engineering in hopes of finding an IT position at a nice, big, fat cooperation that has a nice medical plan that can pay for my 11 different psych. meds. It'd also be nice to have a job with normal hours...--==time of this post 2:56 am==--
My career choice is limited by a number of factors and I can't afford to be choosy, but if I could; Definitly....Therapist.

Quite a few things, it started in childhood trying to raise a little bit of cash by selling items and candy. I've always leaned toward becoming self-employed, but I haven't found true success at it.

As an artist, I have been a T-Shirt Painter, Illustrator, Graphic Designer (by far my longest job), and now a Mural Painter, and soon a Teacher. But I have also been a Waitress, a Telemarketer, a Security Supervisor, Convience Store clerk, Customer Service Rep, Receptionist, and a Rural Carrier for the US Post Awful.

I am a writer who has been published, but I have yet to be paid.

My passion is my religion, I am a priestess and I have been running a Wiccan and Pagan Temple for the past 13 years, and I run its large festival as well. I teach, I lead ritual, and I organize most everything. It suits me as a "Jill of all trades." I also did prison clergy visitations for five years.

I ran my own Witchcraft store for several years, but had to close it due to divorce and the recession. I still read tarot for my former customers, and quite frankly, it was my skill with the cards that kept it going. I am also a Reiki Master, and I teach it as well.

www.myspace.com/aliciafolberth

I'm a floor director, audio engineer and camera operator for a local tv news staion. It goes totally against my personality but that's what makes it exciting. Luckily I just have to deal with my co-workers and not much with the public! In the past I've been a barista, a server and even a retail clerk at a porn store. I hated all those jobs.