INTJ Personality Type Guide

INTJ Personality Type Guide

To get detailed insights about your personality, you can take a free personality test at the end of this article. The test uses the latest advancements in artificial intelligence to give you deep insights into your personality.

This comprehensive personality guide will provide you with detailed information about the INTJ personality and the careers that suit this personality type. Once you take our free AI-powered personality test, you will discover amazing things about yourself and find out which career is perfect for you. 




Why You Need to Know Your Personality Type 

Firstly, it’s important to understand that personality typing is not designed to pigeonhole a person or to say that one personality is better than another. Each personality has its unique characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses. An empowering personal development tool, personality typing will help you to:   

  • Understand your thoughts, feelings, and motivations 
  • Identify your strengths and weaknesses  
  • Make smarter education and career choices    
  • Be confident in a job interview
  • Become more productive at work  
  • Maintain happy and healthy relationships  

 

Introduction to Personality Typology  

INTJ Personality Type
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The road to modern personality typology was first paved by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst. Based on Jung’s work, psychologists Isabel Briggs Myers and Katharine Briggs created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI identifies 16 different personalities, and it’s one of the most popular methods of personality typing today.  

To further explain how people differ in the way they use their cognitive functions/preferences, Myers and Briggs use the following preferences for their self-evaluation personality assessment. 

  1. Introversion (I) or Extraversion (E). Where you get your energy from. Do you draw your energy from your inner world or the external world? 
  2. Sensing (S) or Intuition (N). How you receive information. Do you prefer to use your senses to receive information from your surroundings, or use your intuition to interpret and add your meaning? 
  3. Thinking (T) or Feeling (F). How you make decisions. Do you take a logical approach, or do you prefer to look at people and circumstances before deciding? 
  4. Judging (J) or Perceiving (P): How you interact with the outside world. Do you prefer to have things decided and organized or do you like to remain open to new information and options? 

The letters that are assigned to each of the above preferences make up a four-letter code for each of the 16 personality types. This simple coding system shows you how each of the four preferences interacts, and which one you tend to use first.  

How you use these preferences can change over time and some of these preferences may be used more often than others.  

For example, the INTJ uses the following preferences in this order: introversion, intuition, thinking, and judging. 

 

INTJs are introverts 

As introverts, INTJs focus on and draw energy from their inner world, and they prefer a solitary life.  

Introverts are often misunderstood due to their reserved manner and others may label them as being too quiet or even shy. Don’t be put off by their apparent aloofness or assume they don’t enjoy being around people. They like to make meaningful connections with a small group of close friends and will need some time alone to get re-energized.

 

Personality Profile of the INTJ and Characteristics 

INTJ Personality
Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

The INTJ personality is one of the rarest personality types, making up approximately 1 to 4% of the U.S. population. Like the INFJ personality, which is rare as well, INTJs have some contradictory characteristics that are opposites to each other, but despite this, INTJs put their traits to good use. 

INTJs are logical, analytical, and rational but also imaginative and creative. They are mild-mannered yet determined to reach their goals. Their view of the future is optimistic but sometimes pessimistic. While they prefer order and stability, they can adapt to changing circumstances when it’s necessary. 

The INTJ personality is also referred to as the Architect, Strategist, or Planner because these types of people enjoy thinking about theoretical data, concepts, and ideas. They possess an extraordinary ability to understand technical information and how complex systems work and are extremely organized. 

INTJs are perfectionists and they pursue excellence in everything they do. While excellence is important, meeting their unrealistic high expectations can put a lot of pressure on other people, and INTJs can be overly critical of others who make mistakes.   

Fear of failure can be a problem for INTJs, so they tend to procrastinate over things that are unfamiliar to them. However, they usually have more successes than failures as they like to improve themselves by learning new things, adding to their skill set, and thinking about future possibilities.

While they are optimists, they can get pessimistic about what may happen in the future, so they need to have reality checks. 

INTJs are task-orientated, they are uncomfortable expressing their own emotions and they can be blunt and even rude in their interactions with people. However, INTJs just want to bring out the best in others and they will be friendly once you get to know them.

 

Cognitive functions 

Intuition 

Intuition is very important for INTJs as it helps them to receive information from their surroundings and determine future outcomes. They interpret and add their meaning to this information by using their insightful impressions and perceived patterns they have picked up from the external world. 

Some INTJs will explain their intuition as having a ‘hunch’ or a ‘gut feeling’ about a situation or person and the astonishing thing is, they are usually right about their ‘hunches’. 

Their intuition may tell them that a certain person is not genuine or has suspect motives, and an INTJ may even warn you to stay away from that person.  

Thinking  

INTJs have sharp minds, and they make decisions based on logic and reason. 

They place great emphasis on intelligence and objective information rather than subjective emotions and they prefer rational explanations for events. INTJs have total confidence in their cerebral abilities which can make others view them as stubborn and dogmatic, but these ingenious thinkers just want to make the world a better place for everyone. 




Judging  

INTJs need to feel in control of a situation, and they value order and stability. By making careful judgments about situations and people, they can live the orderly life they desire. 

Although INTJs can be adaptable, their adaptability can only go so far. When things are out of control, they can get very stressed and anxious, but when their life is well-organized, they are happy and content.   

How do INTJs achieve their highly prized ordered life? They avoid hasty decision-making, streamline their responsibilities, and make sure their work is completed before they can relax.  

 

In the workplace 

INTJ in the workplace
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INTJs excel in a workplace where they can work independently in a quiet, structured environment. While they prefer autonomy, INTJs are happy to be part of a small team and collaborate with colleagues that are intelligent, competent, and productive, just like they are. 

However, you must remember that INTJs have an introverted nature. Before a team meeting or project brainstorming session, they will need time to gather their thoughts. They may get irritable when co-workers are late and the meeting deviates away from the original subject matter.  

Cautious and methodical, INTJs never rush into anything blindly as it can affect their work quality. Their motto is “Always Be Prepared for Everything.” As they like to strategize and plan, these characteristics help them to be better equipped for the unexpected.  

INTJs may take a long time to finish a project as everything must tick all the boxes, so they need to be reminded of the deadline. They can get bored easily if they aren’t challenged enough or if there aren’t enough complex problems to be solved.  

As ‘Big Picture” people, INTJs are fantastic future forecasters. They not only consider the good things that can happen but also the not-so-good things. This seer-like gift is essential for company executives who need practical, easy-to-implement strategies that help to increase business growth and enhance employee performance.  

INTJs are great communicators. Their careers usually require them to transform complex information into easy-to-understand text, so they understand the importance of brevity.  

 

In relationships 

INTJs are very perceptive and have a keen understanding of human nature, but they aren’t overly sociable as they tend to live in their head a lot, so you probably won’t see them engaging in small talk. But they will make friends with people who share their values and interests.  

Establishing long-term relationships can pose a challenge for INTJs. Their future-orientated outlook on life can make them think that long-term relationships may not work out anyway, so they tend to avoid them. 

However, don’t be put off by their seemingly cold and disinterested manner, or think it does not work trying to make friends with them. Once you persist and get to know them, they will devote their energy to creating a rewarding relationship.  

Best of all, INFJs are stable, rational people and certainly not drama queens. 

 

Strengths  

  • Highly intelligent 
  • Logical  
  • Analytical 
  • Rational 
  • Stable 
  • Organized planners 
  • Strategic 
  • Strong work ethic 
  • Self-confident 
  • Multi-skilled 
  • Independent 
  • Hardworking 
  • Diligent 
  • Determined 
  • Decisive 
  • Perfectionistic 
  • Efficient 
  • Reliable 
  • Imaginative 
  • Creative 
  • Insightful future-forecasters 
  • Good listeners 
  • Great communicators 
  • Committed 

 

Weaknesses 

  • Reserved 
  • Hard to get to know 
  • Not sociable 
  • Judgmental 
  • Has very high expectations 
  • Overly perfectionistic 
  • Can be pessimistic 
  • Has trouble expressing emotions 
  • Can be callous and insensitive

 

Careers That Will Suit INTJs 

INTJ Careers
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INTJs are at their brilliant best when they are intellectually challenged and turning their exciting ideas into reality, so they will do well in careers such as engineering, research, education, law, sciences, and medicine.  

These highly specialized careers are not the only fields where INTJs can showcase their terrific talents. 

INTJs have an incredible imagination, and intuitive nature, and top-notch communication skills, so they will also do well in finance, marketing, media, and the arts.




Popular INTJ careers 

  • Engineer 
  • Architect 
  • Town planner 
  • Computer programmer 
  • Computer systems analyst 
  • Software developer 
  • Network administrator 
  • Website designer 
  • Chemist 
  • Mathematician 
  • Statistician 
  • Scientist 
  • Doctor  
  • Psychiatrist 
  • Dentist 
  • Pharmacist 
  • Lawyer 
  • Accountant 
  • Economist 
  • Industrial designer 
  • Graphic designer 
  • Editor 
  • Writer 
  • Journalist 
  • Translator 
  • Director 
  • Cinematographer 
  • Musician 

 

Conclusion 

Intelligent, organized, perfectionistic, imaginative, and creative, INTJs do a sensational job of improving the workplace. Now more than ever we need the expertise of these clever people as our modern world is growing rapidly.  

With INTJs at the forefront of the industry, we will see our future world powered by more efficient systems, smarter techniques, and cutting-edge technology.  

If you think you have INFJ characteristics or want a deeper understanding of yourself, take our free AI-powered personality test. You will receive fast and accurate feedback and discover intriguing insights into your personality that will help you to live a successful life.  

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Based in Sydney, Diana has worked as a freelance writer for over 5 years. She is passionate about writing and helping people reach their full potential and to live a more successful life.