Know Thyself

Last month, I introduced one of the more popular career assessment tools: the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (M.B.T.I.). This month, I'm going to explain how the M.B.T.I. can be used to make informed career decisions. For the purpose of this column, recent alumna Entela Barci (M.M. '04, viola), graciously volunteered to share her experiences.

Entela is an active participant in the Career Development Office here at Juilliard. Because of this, I am able to talk to her on a regular basis about her career issues. Several years ago, I suggested the M.B.T.I. as a vehicle toward greater self-understanding. She agreed to take the M.B.T.I. The results confirmed what she has always known about herself: her preferences for a large community of friends; her idealism and interest in improving relationships; and her desire to keep her future open with as many options as possible. The results also helped her recognize her potential abilities in maximizing group synergies, interpreting trends, and mediating disputes.

It is impossible to cover each of the four dichotomies illustrated by the M.B.T.I. in this one article. I've chosen to focus on only one of them: the Extroversion-Introversion scale. Please understand that the other three dichotomies also relate to essential aspects of psychological type. This article is meant only as an introduction and invitation to explore the indicator's potential for greater self-understanding.

Entela admits to being an extremely gregarious person. She enjoys meeting new people. Her mother is fond of saying, "Everyone is Entela's best friend." If you know Entela, you understand immediately why I chose her as the focus of this article.

Without acknowledging essential components of your personality, you might unknowingly pursue and accept a job that will leave you feeling unsatisfied.

Clearly, someone who enjoys meeting, talking to, and learning about people is likely to find jobs that call for personal interaction deeply fulfilling. It's a no-brainer that Entela should pursue a career with opportunities for networking with people. However, as a violist, the job choices are rather slim. Consider the relative differences between an orchestral player, soloist, and chamber musician. How much interaction is available through these career roles? Now compare these choices to, say, a politician running for a seat in Congress. How about a motivational speaker who travels from city to city each day, to speak and work with large groups of people?

Entela isn't running for Congress, and she isn't interested in becoming a motivational speaker. Her passion is music. She came to Juilliard because she wanted to give herself the best education possible to make a life as a musician. On the M.B.T.I., Entela showed a strong preference for extroversion—the primary indication for a desire to interact with people. Extroversion and its counterpart, introversion, define how we focus our energies. Extroversion focuses on the outer world of people, places, and things. People who prefer extroversion are energized by activities outside of themselves. Their primary mode of expression is verbal. They typically prefer many friends, diverse activities, and higher doses of external interaction. On the other hand, people who prefer introversion are energized by the inner world of thoughts and ideas. They prefer activities such as reading and writing as their primary modes of communication and expression. They also prefer a smaller, more exclusive circle of friends. In these relationships, they seek a deeper understanding.

For Entela, finding a career path that offered her enough people interaction was difficult. When I asked her what she imagined to be the worst possible job as a violist, she quickly replied, "playing in the pit of a Broadway musical." She added, "Playing the same music over and over would be tough. I feel very restricted in an environment where everything is followed by the rules exactly." She is also somewhat reluctant to set her long-term sights on a full-time position in an orchestra. While the work would be extremely rewarding, she suspects that a large part of her desire to be more engaged with a community would not be satiated.

So how has she resolved this so far? By diversification. Shortly after graduation, Entela landed teaching positions at Baruch College and the Globe Institute of Technology, where she teaches music history and music appreciation. For many of her students, English is a distant second language. This challenge has actually played to one of Entela's talents, as English is also her second language! Because of this, she feels a certain camaraderie with her adult students. She says that many of her students have become close friends.

Teaching isn't her only job. Recently, Entela became a regular member of the East Village Opera Company, a rock-opera band that performs contemporary arrangements of opera's greatest hits. Currently the group is on tour and is in the process of recording a segment for PBS. She has also joined with other Juilliard alumni to form a piano quartet and hopes to begin performing concerts soon.

The diversity of Entela's teaching and performing roles are exactly what she hoped to achieve after graduation. Her different jobs are putting her in touch with a diverse group of people. Because her career is fulfilling this preference, she looks forward to going to work and developing her career. Had she not acknowledged this essential component and its importance in her professional work, she might have unknowingly pursued and accepted a job with much less people interaction.

Of course, this example merely scratches the surface of the M.B.T.I. There is far more to explore in the other three dichotomies and their interrelationships. Imagine how complicated things become as you explore how each component directly affects the other. No one said that the road to self-understanding was easy.

If you would like to learn more about your own psychological type and its relationship to your career, please schedule an appointment in the Office of Career Development.

Derek Mithaug, director of career development, is a Juilliard faculty member and alumnus.