Best Career Paths For INTJ Personality Types

It may not seem like it, but your personality types and the traits and characteristics that make you, you, can play a big role in your career and your long-term professional success.

Before investing years and even decades into your career, it may be a good idea to understand your Myers Briggs personality type and how it could affect your professional development. Depending on your specific talents and personality type, there are plenty of occupations best suited for you based on your character, behaviors, and psychological tendencies.

If you’re one of the millions of people worldwide with an INTJ personality type, you came to the right place.

To help you get a good sense of what character traits are most commonly associated with your personality type and what career paths are best suited to your characteristics, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about INTJ personality types as it relates to your professional life.

Top Careers For INTJ Personality Types

Professionals with INTJ personality types typically excel in creative jobs in structured and dynamic work environments and in positions that require complex thinking and refined analytical skills.

Here are the top careers that INTJ personality types typically excel in:

Musician

Average Yearly Salary: $67,000

Research suggests that careers in the arts and humanities are especially well suited for people with INTJ personality types. It allows individuals to bring their ideas to life, work independently, and turn their appreciation for arts and culture into a lucrative career.

Musicians and other musical performers make recordings and perform for live audiences by playing instruments or singing.

Although the job does require a certain level of social interaction, musicians can make their own schedule, make judgments on their sound and music, and exchange ideas with like-minded people, making it a great gig for INTJs.

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Photographer

Average Yearly Salary: $49,000

Because of their creative, judgemental, and confident qualities, working as a photographer could be an especially rewarding career choice for INTJs. Professional photographers can work independently, implement innovative ideas, and make decisions and judgments on artistic style.

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Writer

Average Yearly Salary: $57,000

Working as a professional writer can be an especially attractive line of work for people with INTJ personality types as it requires almost no social interaction. The independent work environment allows INTJs to thrive while also using their analytical thinking skills to compose accurate and useful reports.

As a working writer, someone with an INTJ personality type would be able to use reason and logic to guide their writing, share their systematic ideas with a large audience with little to no social interaction, and learn new things almost every day.

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Web Designer

Average Yearly Salary: $61,000

A web designer’s structured and predictable schedule makes this the perfect career for individuals with INTJ personality types. This line of work is especially well suited for INTJs since it requires varying levels of creativity, critical thinking, and analysis.

Their ability to work well independently, look ahead, and remain focused on an end goal—in this case, designing and launching a website—makes people with INTJ personality types a top choice for careers in web design.

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Marketing Manager

Average Yearly Salary: $106,000

Although INTJ personality types are generally very strategic, serious, and systematic, they also have above par creative abilities.

INTJ’s judgemental and perfectionist qualities make them a top pick for marketing manager roles. Their skills allow them to think critically and make the best decisions to advance a company’s mission.

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Software Developer

Average Yearly Salary: $80,000

INTJs are detail-oriented professionals driven by logic and reason, making them perfect for software development roles.

Designing and implementing software leverages most of the skills INTJs portray since they’re generally pinned as natural problem solvers dedicated to improving the world around them.

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Finance Advisor

Average Yearly Salary: $79,000

The structured schedules that most financial advisors stick to make this job a shoo-in for professionals with INTJ personality types. Financial advisors are usually required to use analytical and critical thinking skills while being confident and blunt in their analyses, talents which are common among INTJs.

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Civil Engineer

Average Yearly Salary: $70,000

Working as a civil engineer, or in most other engineering fields for that matter, requires many of the skills that INTJ personality types typically have. The project-driven qualities, determined nature, desire to learn and commitment to following procedures makes INTJs a perfect fit for careers in civil engineering.

Typically, established civil engineers work on a range of infrastructure projects, so having clear ideas, high standards, and precise plans is the key to success in the field.

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Lawyer

Average Yearly Salary: $121,000

As natural problem solvers dedicated to improving the world around them, it’s no surprise that professionals with INTJ personality types typically do well working in law. The judgemental, systematic, and perceptive nature of most INTJ personality types makes working as a lawyer a great option for them.

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Guidance Counselor

Average Yearly Salary: $47,000

While the judgemental qualities associated with INTJ personality types can sometimes be a professional hindrance, they are a great advantage when seeking work as a guidance counselor. Using their problem-solving and critical decision-making skills, INTJs can thrive as professional guidance counselors.

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Pharmacist

Average Yearly Salary: $119,000

If you’re one of the 2 percent of people with an INTJ personality type and you’re interested in medicine, working as a pharmacist could be a rewarding and lucrative career path for you.

Unlike other medical personnel, pharmacists have limited social interaction with patients and can work independently while still helping to improve the world around them.

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Physical Therapist

Average Yearly Salary: $69,000

INTJ personality types love figuring out how things work, and the human body is no exception. Due to their problem-solving skills, commitment to knowledge and reason, and strategic decision-making abilities, INTJs do especially well working in the field of physical therapy.

The job is especially well suited to INTJ personality types. It allows them to work one-on-one with clients instead of a larger group where they feel uncomfortable due to their introverted and sometimes reserved nature.

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Librarian

Average Yearly Salary: $50,000

Working as a librarian is one of the best jobs for INTJs since it’s an independent position that allows for constant learning and self-improvement. The introverted nature and thirst for knowledge exhibited by INTJ personality types make working as a librarian a perfect gig.

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What Does INTJ Mean?

If you’ve ever taken a personality test or a class on human psychology, chances are you’ve heard of the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. This popular personality test assigns individuals one of 16 personality types based on their demeanor and behavior.

INTJ is one of the personalities included in the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, developed by Katharine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Myers in the mid-1900s. INTJ’s are the third rarest personality type globally, with only 2 percent of the general population classified as having an INTJ personality.

Standing for introversion, intuition, thinking, and judgment, individuals with INTJ personalities are usually confident, hungry for knowledge, and comfortable in small groups where they can exchange ideas with like-minded people. Guided by reason, those with INTJ personality types are usually natural problem solvers dedicated to improving the world around them.

In terms of work environment, professionals with INTJ personalities tend to thrive in structured settings that fully use their analytical and critical thinking skills.

Since INTJ’s are classified as having introverted and judgemental qualities, those with this personality type tend to have perfectionist tendencies, low patience tolerances, be uncomfortable on large grounds, and struggle to understand people who rely on emotions when making decisions, all of which makes INTJs especially well suited for individual work.

Some other key traits associated with INTJ personality types are:

Perceptive
Systematical
Project driven
Reserved
Serious
Curious
Blunt
Strategical
Self-assured
Confident

Careers That INTJ Personality Types May Want to Avoid

While there are plenty of lucrative career paths for people with INTJ personality types, others are less suited for professionals guided by logic, introverted in nature, and perform best in situations requiring interactions with like-minded thinkers.

It’s important to note that people with INTJ personality types can excel in any occupation with the right professional skills and determination. However, the requirements of some jobs may clash with the values of INTJ personalities, requiring INTJs to put their all into their work.

Based solely on the characteristics of INTJ personalities, here are eight jobs that INTJs may want to avoid:

Real Estate Agent

Generally speaking, professionals with INTJ personalities tend to do better in positions that require minimal social interaction. As such, working as a real estate agent might not be the best option for INTJs.

Successful real estate agents are usually required to engage in a high level of social interaction and have a more fluid and spontaneous work schedule.
Police Officer

Working in the field as a police officer often involves unpredictability and spontaneity. Typically, professionals with INTJ personality types tend to prefer more structured, predictable, and even rigid work environments.
Childcare Worker

Working with kids, who may be hard to reason with and impulsive at times, could be a nightmare for professionals who tend to be more introverted and judgemental. Due to their strategic, systematic, and serious personality, working in the childcare industry might not be the best option for people with an INTJ personality.
Secretary

INTJ personality types usually do best in occupations that provide them with an intellectual challenge and an opportunity to put their problem-solving skills to use.

Since most secretaries and receptionists interact with the public often and are not required to have refined analytical thinking skills, this field tends to be less attractive to INTJs.
Dental Hygienist

While working as a dental hygienist would allow people with an INTJ personality type to use their natural problem-solving skills and engage in work that would help improve the lives of people around them, the job isn’t best suited to their introverted nature.
Teacher

Teachers must keep an open mind and interact with a diverse group of people, from students and alumni to parents and colleagues. Because of the high level of social interaction required to be a teacher, this line of work may not be the best option for people with INTJ personality types.
Telemarketer

Heightened social interactions are usually not a strong suit for individuals with INTJ personality types. Since telemarketers are expected to spend their workdays on the phone talking with a high volume of people, the job is usually not an INTJs first choice.
Nurse

Nurses, nurses aides, medical assistants, and licensed practical nurses must interact with new patients each shift and usually work on a medical team that reports to an attending physician.

Because of the nature of the job, especially the reduced opportunity to work independently, the skills required to be a successful nurse may come less naturally to INTJs.

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Elsie Boskamp

Elsie is an experienced writer, reporter, and content creator. As a leader in her field, Elsie is best known for her work as a Reporter for The Southampton Press, but she can also be credited with contributions to Long Island Pulse Magazine and Hamptons Online. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism from Stony Brook University and currently resides in Franklin, Tennessee.

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