JLMC
Dilettente
I've looked at various sites suggesting careers for INTPs recently. Many included long lists with geologist, botanist, astronomer, etc. These are basically career-science gigs requiring a PhD, ending with tenured professorships or otherwise heading a lab. Since I've seen several threads with college students searching for a major, and since I started down the researcher path before leaving it, I feel I must offer my advice. A week in the life of a scientist may feature a lot of things an INTP looks for. But there are also many reasons why an INTP might not like such a career, and should think twice about it.
First, INTPs like variety, and scientific reseach requires a lot of specialization. Are you ready to commit your entire career to thinking about a small slice of an academic discipline? Even if you switch topics from time to time, which is possible, you must concentrate for years on your projects. These are often technical, and do not involve a lot of daydreaming about big ideas. In theory, if you eventually get tenure you can do whatever you want, but....
Second, the training is long and intense. Even after undergraduate work you must get a PhD, then post-docs, then a junior appointmentship before you have a chance at real stability. This could easily take 10 years, and maybe much longer. To be successful you will have to devote most of your days, evenings and weekends to thinking about your topic, so you may have little time for side hobbies and projects. Can you work this intently on a career, making many sacrifices along the way? (I.e. low pay, little say about where in the country you live.) We're all taught in school to take the long view, delay gratification and make sacrifices; but if a hypothetical job required 40 years of virtual-servitude and then paid $200k for 10 years, would it be worth it? Only you can decide.
Third, it is generally a very uncertain career track with lots of competition. It's not like dentistry (Taleb's example of "Mediocristan") where you put in your time and then are gauranteed moderate success; it's more like trying to be an actor ("Extremistan"), where a very few people make it very big, some do okay, and many more fail entirely. Research projects may or may not work; you may or may not meet the right people, etc. There is an overabundance of PhDs generally, so you might never get a tenure job; let alone be a famous scientist at Harvard. It is also a very rigid track, and transitioning out of it can be tough, unless you're in a field like CS.
In short, while the dream of a well-paying, tenure-track job on a pretty campus is great...a lot of what's involved to get there doesn't seem ideal for INTPs (or anyone) and the reward is very uncertain. I'm not telling anyone not to aim for this, but to consider the downsides too; they're not apparent from the lists online or the choices of major in college -- where it seems all careers are sort of equivalent. There are lots of things to do in life, and academia isn't the only place to think and solve problems.
First, INTPs like variety, and scientific reseach requires a lot of specialization. Are you ready to commit your entire career to thinking about a small slice of an academic discipline? Even if you switch topics from time to time, which is possible, you must concentrate for years on your projects. These are often technical, and do not involve a lot of daydreaming about big ideas. In theory, if you eventually get tenure you can do whatever you want, but....
Second, the training is long and intense. Even after undergraduate work you must get a PhD, then post-docs, then a junior appointmentship before you have a chance at real stability. This could easily take 10 years, and maybe much longer. To be successful you will have to devote most of your days, evenings and weekends to thinking about your topic, so you may have little time for side hobbies and projects. Can you work this intently on a career, making many sacrifices along the way? (I.e. low pay, little say about where in the country you live.) We're all taught in school to take the long view, delay gratification and make sacrifices; but if a hypothetical job required 40 years of virtual-servitude and then paid $200k for 10 years, would it be worth it? Only you can decide.
Third, it is generally a very uncertain career track with lots of competition. It's not like dentistry (Taleb's example of "Mediocristan") where you put in your time and then are gauranteed moderate success; it's more like trying to be an actor ("Extremistan"), where a very few people make it very big, some do okay, and many more fail entirely. Research projects may or may not work; you may or may not meet the right people, etc. There is an overabundance of PhDs generally, so you might never get a tenure job; let alone be a famous scientist at Harvard. It is also a very rigid track, and transitioning out of it can be tough, unless you're in a field like CS.
In short, while the dream of a well-paying, tenure-track job on a pretty campus is great...a lot of what's involved to get there doesn't seem ideal for INTPs (or anyone) and the reward is very uncertain. I'm not telling anyone not to aim for this, but to consider the downsides too; they're not apparent from the lists online or the choices of major in college -- where it seems all careers are sort of equivalent. There are lots of things to do in life, and academia isn't the only place to think and solve problems.
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