job advice for INTPs?

[aracaris]

I probably should have made my title "job advice for this INTP", but anyways....

I always land jobs that require me to deal with LOTS of people, and to speak in front of groups A LOT.
Apparently I'm good at it, but I find it incredibly draining. Some day I'd like to do something that energizes me rather than leaves me feeling exhausted at the end of every day, and I'd like to some day not have to constantly play a role that feels very very not me.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind doing some speaking in front of groups, or dealing with the public...to a point, I just end up having to do it almost more often than I can handle, and it isn't something that feels natural.
I also have to be concerned about the possibility of just burning out, and I really care about doing a good job with whatever job I happen to have, so I don't want that to happen.

But I haven't been able to find any other sort of work, I don't even know where to look honestly, and I can't say I've come anywhere close to mastering the art of job hunting.
Any advice for me?

[Adaire]

Whatever you do, stay out of retail.:phear:

[aracaris]

I've worked in retail, not the worst thing in the world (though a lot depends on who you are working for) but certainly not ideal for an INTP, and in my experience paying the bills with a retail job can be very hard anyhow, most of those jobs are part time, and pay minimum wage or just barely more.

What I don't know is how as an introvert to find that right job. Just about all the jobs I've seen available just scream extrovert. There also seems to be more jobs that are ideal for feeling types than thinking types, at least as far as what opportunities I've been seeing lately go. That and mind numbingly boring manual labor jobs, where you do the same thing over...and over... again all day ugg.

[Invoke Ninja's True Power]

If you have a vehicle you don't mind driving a lot of short trips and can read a map, or know your local area I would suggest pizza delivery. Oh yeah, evening hours are typically the best although anytime during a major sporting event is good. Especially football season. The pay is typically minimum wage but tips can be very nice, doubly so during the winter months. Bringing home cash at the end of the day 99% of the time is pretty rewarding. Being a daytime driver isn't so good though depending where you work at.

[Vrecknidj]

I teach. Two days a week I work for 15 hours, three days a week I work for 10 hours. I do this 42 weeks a year. It's exhausting. It's draining.

But, I'm good at it, it pays the bills, and I've mostly figured out how to keep my work persona and my ego separate enough to keep myself sane. Mostly.

:)

No advice. Sorry. Except maybe, stick with your job if you need the money, and just put up with the misfortune of it not being quite what you're after. In a better world, we wouldn't have to do things that exhausted us, alas...

Dave

[Razare]

Accounting? It's what I am in, and it involves talking with people. But not a LOT of people, mainly coworkers which are generally more pleasant to deal with than customers. There's also a lot of busy work you do alone and in silence, but that work is supposedly monotonous and repetitive for 95% of accounting jobs.

I plan on getting into auditing to avoid the monotony.

[Cogwulf]

On a slight tangent, I've just found a weekend job in a shop which involves a lot of dealing with people, most of them stupid people who wouldn't understand the difference between a USB cable and a VGA cable if you poked them into each of their eyes.
I took this job knowing I'd hate it sometimes and that I'd find it really difficult, but I took it anyway because I want to improve my people skills, at least to the point where I'm able to fake confidence.

I haven't got much advice, but a good job to look for would be a job in a lab doing quality tests or something similar, as long as your technically minded it should be good

[aracaris]

Yeah I have to say all the jobs I've gotten so far have done a lot to really improve my people skills, which is definitely a positive thing, and so I certainly am thankful I've had those jobs. But I don't see myself doing what I'm doing now, or even doing something similar for the rest of my life.

I'm learning computer programming, and web design, and would love to make a living off web design, and eventually programming, but I just don't ever see any entry level positions for those things.

Everyone seems to want an expert with a ton of past job experience, and how am I ever going to get job experience if everyone wants me to all ready have a ton of job experience!?

Actually I'm going to partially answer my own question now, though if anyone else has different answers to that question feel free to share, because I'd love to know how different people "get their foot in the door" with these jobs.

I'm going to look into getting a business license and just do those things as a freelancer, at least then I can say I've gotten experience by doing a number of jobs for a variety of people. Maybe working for myself will eventually turn out better than working for someone else anyhow, though I don't expect to make my income entirely, or even in large part off freelancing for the next few years or so, not with how awful the economy is.

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Perhaps some idea of your skill sets can help here. What kind of education do you have? What are you good (and bad) at? What would be more to your liking? That sort of thing.

Edit: Damn, skipped right over your last post....

[aracaris]

I have quite a few skills (including the above mentioned computer skills, I'm just good with computers in general), I just haven't had the opportunity to use them in an actual job, and there are people quite a bit older than I with many more years of experience that I have to compete with, that's the problem. Employer's appreciate a college education, but not generally all that much, they care a lot more about prior job experience.

It's a frustrating situation: I need job experience, to get a job, so that I can get job experience.

There aren't many job opportunities to begin with, that's also part of the problem. I've gone in person to inquire about jobs at a very large number of the businesses within the county I live in at this point, and the vast majority (I want to say somewhere close to 95%) say they are not hiring, or even worse, not only are they not hiring, but they are having a real hard time avoiding laying people off.