MBTI Type ISTP

Preferred Work Environment

• Needs a more practical environment, where they can master skills and do things and see tangible results.
• Need variety and the opportunity to dip in and out of activities.
• The environment where their natural disregard for rules, authority and structures allows them to focus on and tackle the emergency at hand in the most effective way

ISTP and Career Exploration

An ISTP tends to find career satisfaction with careers that have the following characteristics:

• Applies their technical knowledge to practical situations
• Provides an opportunity to master and use their skills for specific tasks
• Involves efficiently working with their hands or tools
• Provides clear instructions for projects that produce concrete or useful products
• Involves working with other competent individuals that they respect
• Provides an opportunity for problem solving, crisis management, or other action-orientated activities
• Permits independent work with minimal time guidelines
• Involves challenging and fun work with minimal supervision

When exploring career options, an ISTP will often:

• Compile specific facts and statistics that pertain to their career options
• Naturally focus on current opportunities and benefit from predicting future career possibilities
• Take all available time to examine their options and chose only when required
• Feel uncertain about their career choice

How Type Affects Career Development

During their job search, an ISTP will often:

• Gather specific job related information
• Need to intentionally organize a job search plan with specific deadlines
• Need to expend extra effort in their job search
• Convey skills and past experiences through their job search documents
• Take risks and adapt quickly to new job possibilities
• Use uncommon techniques to find jobs
• Only network when they understand the benefits
• Objectively analyze and logically assess each option

During an interview, an ISTP will often:

• Appear quiet and reserved when initially meeting employers
• Answer questions in a straightforward manner
• Benefit from practicing to discuss their skills and abilities
• Need to be cautious of the amount of detail they provide, be able to discuss future projections, and assess hypothetical situations

ISTP and Work

At work, the ISTP will often:

• Maintain their concentration while completing projects of interest
• Gather and organize information in a way that makes it understandable
• Be drawn to work with real or tangible products
• Focus on the ‘doing’ aspect of a project
• Prefer working on their own
• Respect colleagues for their ability to complete tasks
• Potentially break the rules when challenging inefficient processes
• Focus on completing tasks without unnecessary discussions or effort
• Readily adapt their work load to address immediate needs
• Approach their work with a flexibility that responds to problems when they occur
• Desire freedom to complete a task within their own timeframe
• Remain calm during crisis or difficult situations

At work, the ISTP should be aware that they may:

• Need to spend additional time in the planning stage of a project
• Need to anticipate future possibilities and plan accordingly
• Be easily enticed by new projects and need to ensure they complete their current commitments
• Lose patience with broad discussions
• Need to persevere to complete a task
• Take shortcuts and appear disorganized or unconcerned with their work
• Become easily bored with routine tasks
• Benefit from learning to be more reliable through improved organizational skills
• Be uninterested in long-term solutions and prefer immediate fixes
• Appear irresponsible from their inclination for spontaneity
• Become critical or negative and withdraw or delay their decisions when they feel unappreciated
• Focus on the task and think personal feelings and needs are unnecessary

Teamwork

On a team, the ISTP will often:

• Provide the necessary data, facts, and information
• Organize and analyze their work in an efficient manner
• Resolve conflict through logical explanations and reasoning
• Motivate team members to action
• Persevere when working on tasks of interest
• Treat people in a fair and equitable manner

On a team, the ISTP should be aware that they may

• Avoid dealing with interpersonal conflict
• Irritate their team by only focusing on specifics, jumping too quickly to the next task, or when being too unorganized
• Become frustrated with irrational team members who are too dependent on their feelings, expend too much energy on unnecessary tasks, or conduct pointless meetings
• Need to remember to appreciate peoples contributions
• Need to intentionally developing rapport with team members

Leadership

ISTP generally enjoy and pursue leadership positions. As a leader, the ISTP will often:

• Use a quiet approach that sets an example for others to follow
• Desire freedom from policies and procedures
• Compile all necessary information to persuade others
• Use their logical framework to accomplish tasks
• Consider all opinions before deciding
• Expect all team members to equally contribute

Communication

The ISTP will often:

• Desire to hear logical, objective, and practical information
• Refrain from unnecessary communication
• Rely heavily on non-verbal communication
• Dislike surface level conversations

The ISTP should be aware that they may need to:

• Intentionally communicate their thoughts and important information with people
• Prevent hurting people by becoming more comfortable with sharing their emotions
• Be more considerate of some people’s need to express their feelings
• Focus on developing their listening abilities
• Intentionally provide feedback and be cautious of their abrupt communication style

Decision Making

When it comes to decision making, the ISTP will often

• Gather real or tangible data and base their decisions on this information
• Rationally and logically evaluate their options
• Need to intentionally examine the larger picture or additional possibilities
• Benefit from examining the impact their decision has on people
• Need to intentionally incorporate their values

Stress

An ISTP will often experience stress when

• Feeling that their emotions are out of control
• Working within strict guidelines and requirements
• Perceiving their coworkers or supervisors are incompetent
• Confronted with a situation that cannot be logically assessed or explained
• Overwhelmed with their required tasks and neglect their personal needs
• Unable to determine the most efficient process
• Required to participate in too many extraverted activities
• Dealing with people who are excessively emotional

When they are affected by stress, an ISTP will often

• Develop a firm and unwavering focus on logic
• Respond poorly when others provide helpful ideas
• Become overly sensitive to how other people perceive them
• Feel alienated from the people around them
• Use a tone that is underlined with complaining or sulking
• Under excessive stress, express emotions through outbursts of anger or tears

Advice: An ISTP can reduce stress by

• Evaluating the facts in a situation to gain new insight
• Participating in independent activities that diverts their attention from the stressor
• Focusing on what they value
• Spending time on their own to reenergize
• Ignoring their concern of how other people perceive them