Do What You Are — Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type
Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, Kelly Tieger
40 min
9 Key Points
4.8 RateWhat's inside?
Explore your personality type and uncover the ideal career path for you, leading to a fulfilling and successful professional life.
You'll learn
1. Figuring out your personality and how it affects your job choices2. Tricks to find jobs that match your personality3. Ways to use your strengths and handle your weaknesses at work4. Making smart career choices based on your personality5. Boosting job happiness and performance by working with your natural traits6. Using your personality insights to handle job changes and hurdles.Key points
01Why Hard Work Alone Is Not Enough
We are often taught from a very young age that sheer determination, a strong work ethic, and a good education are the only ingredients required for professional success. Society pushes a narrative that if you simply put your head down and grind through the tough days, eventually, you will reach the pinnacle of career happiness. Yet, look around your office or think about your social circle. You will undoubtedly notice brilliant, hardworking individuals who are utterly miserable in their jobs. They are not failing because they lack intelligence or drive; they are failing to thrive because they are swimming against the current of their own natural personality. This fundamental disconnect is the core focus of Do What You Are, which introduces the concept that career satisfaction is intrinsically linked to how well your job matches your innate psychological wiring. The authors utilize the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator MBTI, a widely respected psychological tool based on the theories of Carl Jung, to help individuals decode their natural preferences. Before diving into the complexities of personality types, it is crucial to understand that your personality is not something you merely developed out of thin air to cope with the world. Much like being right-handed or left-handed, your personality type is innate. If you are naturally right-handed, you can certainly train yourself to write with your left hand. You could practice every single day, and eventually, your left-handed writing might become legible. However, it will never feel completely natural, it will always require immense concentration, and it will drain your energy far faster than simply picking up the pen with your right hand. This is exactly what happens when you work in a career that demands you to operate outside of your natural personality preferences. You might be competent at the job, but it will leave you perpetually exhausted and unfulfilled. The first major dimension of personality discussed in the book revolves around where you focus your attention and how you draw your energy. This is the classic divide between Extraversion E and Introversion I. It is vital to discard the common misconception that Extraverts are endlessly loud party animals and Introverts are shy, socially anxious wallflowers. In the context of personality typing, this dimension is purely about energy management. Extraverts are charged by the external world. They draw energy from interacting with other people, engaging in lively discussions, and participating in dynamic, fast-paced environments. When an Extravert has a complicated problem to solve, their instinct is to talk it out with a colleague, using the conversation itself to figure out the solution. They thrive in collaborative workspaces, open-plan offices, and roles that require constant networking and presentation. On the flip side, Introverts are energized by their internal world of thoughts, ideas, and reflections. Social interaction, while often enjoyable for them, acts as an energy drain rather than a battery charger. After a long day of meetings, an Introvert desperately needs quiet time to decompress and restore their mental reserves. When faced with a complex problem, an Introvert prefers to retreat to a quiet space, research the issue, think it through deeply, and only then present a fully formed solution to the team. They flourish in environments that offer privacy, autonomy, and the ability to focus deeply on one task at a time without constant interruptions. Consider the profound impact this single dimension has on career choices. Take a natural Introvert and place them in a high-pressure, cold-calling sales environment where their income depends on aggressively interrupting strangers all day long. Even if they memorize the script perfectly and master the sales techniques, the daily act of forcing an outward, extroverted persona will lead to rapid burnout, severe stress, and a deep-seated dread of the workplace. Conversely, take a natural Extravert and place them in a solitary, highly technical data entry role where they sit alone in a cubicle all day with zero human interaction. They will quickly become restless, bored, and intensely depressed, feeling starved for the social stimulation that fuels their brain. Understanding your preference for Introversion or Extraversion is the very first step in taking control of your career trajectory. It allows you to evaluate potential jobs not just on the salary or the prestige of the title, but on the day-to-day energy demands of the role. When you stop fighting your natural energy source and start seeking out environments that naturally sustain you, the concept of work fundamentally changes. It ceases to be a daily battle of endurance and transforms into a platform where your genuine self can effortlessly shine.
02How Do You Gather and Process Information?
Moving beyond how we recharge our batteries, the next critical aspect of our personality dictates how we actually perceive the world around us. Every single minute of the day, our brains are bombarded with an overwhelming amount of information. How we choose to filter, gather, and trust that information forms the second dimension of our personality type: the divide between Sensing S and Intuition N. The authors of the book point out that this is often the source of the most significant misunderstandings in the workplace, as these two types literally see two entirely different realities when looking at the exact same situation. People with a preference for Sensing live predominantly in the here and now. They rely heavily on their five physical senses to gather information. For a Sensing type, reality is defined by what can be seen, touched, heard, measured, and proven. They are highly practical, pragmatic, and detail-oriented individuals who trust past experiences and concrete facts far more than abstract theories. When tasked with a project, a Sensing individual wants clear, step-by-step instructions. They want to know exactly what is expected, what the historical precedent is, and what tangible resources are available. They excel in fields that require immense precision, a strong grasp of factual data, and practical application. On the other hand, individuals who prefer Intuition are naturally drawn to the abstract, the theoretical, and the future. Rather than focusing on what is currently happening, they are consumed by what could happen. Intuitive types are the ultimate big-picture thinkers. They naturally read between the lines, look for hidden patterns, and trust their gut instincts or their "sixth sense" over raw, hard data. If you hand an Intuitive type a detailed, step-by-step manual, they will likely feel stifled and bored. They prefer to be given a broad, overarching goal and the freedom to brainstorm innovative, unconventional ways to achieve it. They thrive in environments that require continuous innovation, strategic forecasting, and creative problem-solving. To truly grasp the difference, think about how these two types might approach learning a brand-new software system at work. The Sensing employee will likely open the user manual, start at chapter one, and meticulously follow the instructions step-by-step, ensuring they understand each individual function before moving on to the next. They want to master the practical usage of the tool. The Intuitive employee, however, will probably ignore the manual entirely. They will click around the interface, experiment with different buttons, and try to grasp the overarching logic and potential capabilities of the software, figuring it out through trial and error and sudden bursts of insight. This difference in perception dictates which careers will feel exhilarating and which will feel like a prison sentence. Sensing types often find immense satisfaction in careers where their attention to detail and practical skills are highly valued. They frequently excel in accounting, law enforcement, nursing, applied engineering, dentistry, and hands-on trades. In these professions, a mistake in the details can be catastrophic, making the Sensing type's natural meticulousness a superpower. If you put an Intuitive type into a strict accounting role, the repetition and rigid adherence to established rules will likely drive them to distraction. They will make careless errors, not because they are unintelligent, but because their brain naturally glazes over mundane details in search of broader concepts. Conversely, Intuitive types shine in careers that demand vision, creativity, and the ability to synthesize complex, disparate ideas. They are often drawn to psychology, strategic business consulting, creative writing, theoretical science, and high-level marketing. In these roles, the ability to forecast future trends and invent new paradigms is heavily rewarded. If you place a strongly Sensing individual into a purely theoretical think-tank where they are asked to constantly brainstorm abstract concepts without any grounding in practical reality, they will feel completely unmoored, frustrated by the lack of tangible progress and concrete facts. The friction between S and N types in the workplace is legendary. A Sensing manager might view an Intuitive employee as unrealistic, scatterbrained, and overly idealistic. Meanwhile, the Intuitive employee might view the Sensing manager as rigid, unimaginative, and hopelessly stuck in the past. By recognizing your own preference for gathering information, you can purposefully steer your career toward roles that value your specific way of viewing the world. Furthermore, understanding this dynamic allows you to communicate far more effectively with colleagues who possess the opposite preference, translating your ideas into a language—whether rooted in hard facts or overarching visions—that they can actually understand and appreciate.
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03The Secret Behind Your Daily Decisions
04Structuring Your World for Maximum Success
05Combining Traits to Reveal Your Unique Code
06Navigating the Job Market With Your Type
07Adapting and Thriving in Any Work Environment
08Conclusion
About Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, Kelly Tieger
Paul D. Tieger, Barbara Barron, and Kelly Tieger are renowned authors specializing in personality type assessment. They have extensive experience in career counseling and personal coaching, using Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to help individuals discover their ideal career paths.
