Hey baby, what’s your type?
This isn’t just a schmutzy pickup line. Do you know your Meyers-Briggs Personality Type?
I took my first MBTI (Meyers-Briggs Typology Indicator) test the year I graduated law school. Oh yes, studying for the bar will drive you to many realizations, and one of mine was that this law crap was boring and I hated it.
I didn’t really take the outcome seriously at the time, chalking it up to bar study insanity. Oh well, 8 years later it finally sunk in.
The MBTI is the work of a mother-daughter team, Katherine Cook Briggs and Isabella Briggs Meyers. They based the test on Carl Jung’s famous Personality Types book. Career counselors are fond of the MBTI, though it has its fair share of critics (as does Jung). The premise of the MBTI is that there are four poles, or dichotomies, to the human personality. Your tendency toward a particular trait is scored on a scale, rather than an absolute. The traits are:
- Introversion/Extraversion
- Sensing/iNtuition
- Feeling/Thinking
- Judging/Perceiving
There are (doing the math) 16 personality types in the Meyers-Briggs world. None are inherently better than the other, but some types find certain kinds of work a more natural fit than others. For example, ESTJs are practical, realistic, and matter-of-fact, with a natural head for business or mechanics. They are born supervisors or administrators. Unlike, say, ENFJs, idealists who are born teachers.
The middle two dichotomies are regarded as the key traits. In other words, if you’re an “ST,” your comfort zone is using your five senses to gather information, then analyzing it. Intuition and feelings are not particularly valued by STs.
Most lawyers are ISTJs. Surprise, surprise.
Personally, I’ve found the MBTI a useful starting point for seeing my personality in a positive way, and to help me navigate toward work that I’m temperamentally better suited to.
What was my type? The one probably least suited to being a lawyer: INFP. Let’s just say God had a sense of humor when she packed me off to law school.
To get the best results out of the MBTI, you should take the paid version, and probably work with someone trained in its use, like a therapist. The paid version controls for more variables, like gender. At a bare minimum, take a free online version, which may be useful or at least entertaining.
The MBTI is not going to substitute for the voice of God, mind you, but it might help you sort out some of the competing voices in your head. Well, the ones you can discuss in polite company, anyway.
Where do you think an ENTP stands in the lawyering field?
That is me of course. But unlike you, I love learning law. I see a lawyer as a leader. Too bad they have to confirm so much to rules. :p
Honestly, I think ENTPs would be unhappy, on the whole. While their cleverness would get them to a certain point, many ENTPs go into law because they like to argue–they’re contrarian, really. But because ENTPs have that big old N in their type, they will arrive at good conclusions but be unable to show their work, as it were. As someone who also sports the big iNtuitive in my type, I can tell you it’s a special kind of hell to KNOW you’ve reached the correct conclusion but be unable to explain step by plodding, boring step how you got there. You’re gestalt in a paint-by-numbers world, if you’re an N in law practice dominated by Sensing types. If you’re close to the N/S divide and not strongly N, you might be able to make it work.
But remember: practicing law today is not primarily about coming up with clever, innovative arguments. FAR too many law students find that out after they’re already $60K in debt.
Thanks !
I’m an INTP, borderline INFP, who decided to take a post-bac. program about a year ago in Paralegal. As an undergrad I wanted to be a writer and actor, but I’ve always been a bit pessimistic and never saw myself actually making any money at those careers.
Law was kind of a random choice, but a year into my studies I’ve done really well and have had a few different instructors suggest I go to law school. I’m still young and would like to pursue it, but at the same time I don’t want to make such a huge commitment to find out I hate the practice of law like yourself. Any suggestions?
Work as a paralegal for a couple years. There’s a ton about lawyer personalities nd the realities of legal work you would see on the job that you would not see or appreciate otherwise. The law firm environment is difficult to convey in anything short of a novel.
You could also try to find a part-time law program, to try for a semester or two without incurring as much debt.
That choice is more fraught with consequences, IMO. Where you go to law school definitely determines the arc of most legal careers. In other words, going to a Tier 3 school means, for 99% of those grads, that they ain’t never working at the Cravaths or Microsofts of the world. And a Harvard JD on your wall means a much wider swath of choices. Of course, statistics are not destiny, but it would be silly to ignore them. So if you want to try a part-time program, go to the best school you can get into.
Yet another caveat: law school and law prctice are two completely different kettles of fish. When I was in school, the old saw was: “A” students become professors, “B” students become judges, and “C” students make all the money. There’s some truth in that.
interesting post. I’m an strong ENFP attorney who’s had modest success depending on the type of client I have. my business clients have been satisfied if unimpressed. my personal injury clients have been overwhelmingly happy, mostly because I kept them out of court while negotiating a good settlement for them. my estate planning clients have not been happy with the length of time it’s taken me to draft their plan, but they’ve been happy with the end result and glad that I took into consideration many of their unspoken concerns.
I’m thinking about going out solo. any thoughts on that?
I’m an INTP–have taken Myers Briggs several times and it always comes out the same. I found out I’m lousy at litigation–too much detail and probate–forget it. Have been in practice for 27 years and I’m still trying to figure things out. I like finding solutions. I work with a non-profit legal assistance program. I can be frustrating, but rewarding.
Jakeb, Solo practice may be right for you, although it’s tough in the current economic climate. Check out the General Practice, Solo, Small Firm Division of the ABA. Lots of good people to talk to and the Solo Sez forum. That’s the place to ask about going solo. Good luck.
This is so true. I am an I(but close to E)NTP. And I hated every moment of every day I spent in biglaw. It stifled my entire personality, creativity and joy for life. I was bored stiff and beaten down by partners who cared more about a typo than they did about a creative but solid legal argument. I looked around and saw people like me (drones) at all different ages and levels, too scared or entrenched to leave the job they hated.
It got to the point where I was basically begging to be fired. Eventually, with the economic downturn, I got my wish. I’m not making as much money now, and my new job isn’t perfect, but I feel like I’m finding myself again, and realizing that I’m not a failure (which is what I felt like for 5 years–funny how getting laid off can actually occasionally be good for your psyche). INTP’s and ENTP’s can be great lawyers, but don’t expect to be happy if you go biglaw.
So what kind of job/area did you move into? I’m really glad you found something that makes you feel alive and successful from the inside out.
I’m working in-house and managing litigation matters with outside counsel. It’s great, because I can be an idea person without needing to be quite as much of a detail person. The other nice thing about the job is that I work with a lot of non lawyers that appreciate my knowledge instead of competing with it. (I also teach legal research and writing part time. I love teaching and would love to eventually do that full time. We’ll see.)
In the mean time, now that I have more regular hours, I feel like I have a life back, and have been able to write creatively again, and enjoy time with my husband and my other hobbies.
I’m ENFP. The work I did could gag a maggot with boredom.
I should have gone to B-school. but no, I went to law school, went to BigLaw, sat in a room checking for commas and sifting through papers. Now I’m jobless…..but oddly, much happier.
well, I don’t think it’s that odd…
http://www.laidoffdiary.wordpress.com
I’m an ENFP who has been practicing law for three years. I liked law school, but working in the transactional group at a big firm was so horrible, I became physically sick every morning. After being laid off and searching for 8 months, I found a job doing mostly litigation for a tiny firm. I’m not on a salary, which, while scary, gives me a lot of freedom to slack off and not feel guilty or work a ton and know I’ll be paid for all of it. I get to do things my own way, since there’s no corporate policy. Also, the people I work with can be a little eccentric themselves, and are always respectful (of my time, my status as a human being).
I may not do this forever – my dream is to do career counseling or save enough money to run away to Europe and become a tour guide – but I think ENFPs can have fulfilling legal careers. You just have to find a flexible situation with less detail work or support staff that’s on the ball. I think ADR/mediation and guardian ad litem work would be ideal for our personality types – talk all day, help people, and no 30 page briefs to write!
I’m an ENTP with an MBA finding a lot of the challenges in my current workplace that you speak of in BigLaw. I find my overly cold and analytical personality limits my effectivenss and happiness in my current workplace.
I figured I might be happier in Law (scheduled to take the LSAT in Sept) and if not happy at least I’d be paid more handsomely for my toils. Then I read your post and wonder if I’d be an utter failure in the legal workplace.
Is there a place/path that you see for an ENTP to be happy in Law. Or maybe you can elaborate on how Annie’s comments may be relevant to an ENTP.
I am an NFP and have been borderline on the I/E. Miserable in law. Went for a year and quit and then (ack!) went back. That’s probably the F part of me – feeling sorry for my law school dean who was very nice and trying to encourage me to come back. I went to a top 20 school and that never happens. I needed a jerk to tell me to get out and never come back. My life would have been so different. I fear that I will spend countless hours in therapy replaying the “what ifs”. “What if I would have never gone to law school….” Growl.. good post.