Top 7 ISTJ Careers to Avoid For Excellence

Top 7 ISTJ Careers to Avoid For Excellence: This Myers-Brigg personality type forms approx 10% of the total US population.

That is a fairly large chunk, isn’t it?

These duty-bound and honest people are said to be the salt of the earth and are majorly found in the corner-stone positions of society.

Most commonly the ISTJ group of people are entitled as “Logicians” and “Logical Inspectors”.

Being a logician is what makes it hard for any career to reach the touchstone of your personality demands.

Natural Behaviour of an ISTJ:

As an ISTJ you are a born introvert and can operate well in settings that involve a quiet, calm working environment with a minimum number of people around.

Being in big gatherings, noisy and crowded surroundings can drain your energy.

You are an organized, orderly, and down to earth person who focuses more on the factual details rather than ideas or concepts.

Your orderly nature pushes you to work on a set schedule and you would be the happiest when your life has a productive daily routine.

Although these people can be creative in their own particular way yet they prefer to facilitate rather than innovate.

You chase regularity of daily actions. This essentially means that having an adventurous and unpredictable routine can be your worst nightmare.

And this is exactly where the quest to choose a suitable career begins for you

We aid this quest by pinpointing the top 7 careers out of your list that you should definitely avoid.

ISTJ Style of Work:

ISTJ’s are dependable and hardworking. They can work well both ways, i.e independently as well as when in a team.

Preference though is to work independently but with a cooperative and professional team, they can really work well.

However, they demand clear expectations and a straight hierarchy of work to know who are they answerable to and what are the demands and nature of their job.

They enjoy the regularity of work and are often not much fond of surprises regarding work.

Perseverance, planning, detailed orientation, regularity, and loyalty are the prime strengths of this persona type.

Yet a couple of weaknesses make it hard for them to fit into most career choices available.

The stubbornness, tactlessness, resistance to change, guilt, and the habit of going by the book is what keeps them from questioning the odd.

Keeping in view all these pros and cons of an ISTJ here we present a list of careers to stay away from.

Top 7 ISTJ Careers to Avoid:

First and the foremost thing to keep in mind when choosing a career for an ISTJ is that any job that demands great social and inter-personal skills meets a big No.

The reason being ISTJ’s are true introverts. Meeting and mixing up with society doesn’t come to them naturally.

Moreover, unpredictable and adventurous jobs can be a threat to a personality that craves schedule and regularity.

Maintaining order, meeting the deadlines, following a schedule, creating a detailed plan of action is all that perfectly defines an ISTJ work habit.

So, anything that deviates from this clear approach can be considered a career to avoid by an ISTJ.

Career in Bartending:

When communication is not your forte, you can never excel in a profession as extroverted as bartending.

Being an ISTJ you would hate to take orders from people and make small talks.

Moreover, this career from the hospitality industry may never sit well with your comfort zones as a bartender is required to be in front and center of people.

You need to have excellent interpersonal skills to be a good bartender. You need to be an expert at initiating conversations and not just that but should also have a strong grip on a number of topics.

Only then can you create a friendly and welcoming environment and can comfortably converse with your customers.

But is all of this parallel to who you being an ISTJ  are as an individual.

Certainly not.

Your tactlessness as an ISTJ makes you extremely committed to truth. Which can affect your inter-personal skills even if you try to acquire some.

This behavior can also sometimes really offend your customers

Job Being a Receptionist:

Receptionists are required to be in constant interaction with people. They meet many people with many different temperaments every day and are required to be always cordial with their clients no matter what the situation is.

To a tactless ISTJ, this behavior might not come naturally as they are brutally truthful and quite often don’t care about what impact their truthful nature will have on someone.

A receptionist needs to be in contact with his/her customers and make sure that they get comfort during their stay. From their arrivals throughout the duration of their stay, a receptionist has to be available.

This can never comply well with an ISTJ personality as they are certainly not known for their good hospitality.

Being an ISTJ awry situation with some clients can also leave you mentally disturbed as you are not much fond of tolerating rudeness for the job’s sake.

You might feel that this profession is a cool choice as you are good at planning and orienting things in detail but you must keep in mind that being a receptionist is all about dealing and interacting with people.

Which is not your forte as an ISTJ.

Becoming Journalist:

Yet another profession to completely ignore if you are an ISTJ.

For a couple of reasons, this career fits into our list of careers that an ISTJ should avoid.

Like we have mentioned earlier you are a true Introvert and dealing with different people every day can be a horror for you.

But talking about journalism, it is all about interviewing a variety of different people every day, taking points of their opinions, and asking them questions in order to make and create new news feeds and stories.

How appealing does that sound to you?

Exactly, it cannot sound appealing to any ISTJ out there. This job is very extroverted and only an extrovert can handle it.

Moreover, your judgmental nature would never approve you of this career as journalism demand’s its reporters to be objective.

Another important reason to avoid this career is that this profession has no order or schedule. You can be ordered anytime to reach any place.

You will have to face different circumstances, different people, and different places all on the same day.

So, this is what the life of a reporter is and surely it goes 180 degrees opposite to what the life of an ISTJ should be.

Event Management Jobs:

Event managing is a tough job in itself as it is very demanding.

First of all, it demands high artistic intellect of a person, creativity is one of the core demands of this career path.

And do you carry this core demand ingredient of an event manging career, as an ISTJ?

Right, you don’t. ISTJ’s are certainly not known for artistic abilities. Hence this marks the first No towards this.

Secondly, it again is an extraverted job. Demanding high quality socializing and inter-personal skills, this career is a big No for an ISTJ.

Moreover, being an ISTJ you demand a clear scale and defined set of responsibilities, but for an event manager, the nature of responsibilities can change from time to time and can be different for different projects.

However, you can be a good management critique and can work well with any event manager in case if you are a typical ISTJ with the ability to observe the detailed orientation of things.

Observing the holes and gaps in management and pinpointing even the minute errors that sometimes broader thinkers can ignore makes you a good critique.

Acting Related Jobs:

Being an actor again is an extroverted job. An actor needs to be in the spotlight and he should certainly be someone who enjoys and craves fame.

But neither are ISTJ’s interested in being the center of attention nor do they enjoy fame. That makes this career unsuitable for an ISTJ personality.

Moreover, acting may not come naturally to an ISTJ. even if they practice and learn some acting skills, still they can never be famous for this one category of being an excellent actor.

The reason for this is that ISTJ’s are known well for their brutal honesty. They are clear-minded, straightforward people. For such personalities acting on certain given situations is never easy.

First of all, they will ruin the role or the character they are playing. Secondly, such a task can ruin their self-integrity as well.

As they might not be able to digest this task of acting out situations they are not really facing. You can say that it will hurt their honest nature to some extent.

Another important reason for this career is on our list is that ISTJ’s are not much fond of following orders and acting is all about doing what the director says.

So, for all these reasons acting can get tough for an ISTJ.

Retail Salesperson Jobs:

Sales again demand an outgoing personality.  Whereas, ISTJ’s being introverts are not making up to this demand.

They can otherwise make a sale but retail sales are not their zone of interest.

Reasons being that ISTJ’s will never feel comfortable with meeting new people, showcasing them their product, elaborating why they should buy it, and explaining all the minute details about the product.

Making appropriate recommendations is also not an ISTJ.s forte and is one of the basic demands of sales.

Moreover, once again the extremely honest nature of an ISTJ will never help them in selling their product. These people will certainly not bother convincing others to buy a product that they themselves won.t like.

So, this will result in a bad sales record. Thus, short in short an ISTJ can never excel in sales.

Last but not least, the competitive nature of sales adds another big no to opting for this career.

ISTJ’s are introverted, peace-loving people and would never enjoy working in a competitive environment.

Becoming Public Relation Specialist:

This career is even more demanding than the rest.

Being a public relations specialist you are holding the high responsibility to represent and hold the reputation of your organization.

Which in turn, automatically makes you the center of attention which is a major requirement of this career. As you need to be highlighted in the public’s eye.

All of this is an ISTJ nightmare. They would never appreciate being in such a spotlight.

PR specialists often have to deal with media reporters and even the local public in order to get proper know-how of their queries. They have to deal with both consumers and investors.

And all of this is apparently impossible to be enjoyed by an ISTJ.

Moreover, high-quality interpersonal skills and the ability to mold according to the situation and circumstances is also one basic requirement.

Which makes an honest core kinda ISTJ a complete misfit for this career path.

With that said we conclude our list of top 7 ISTJ careers to avoid.

Winding Up:

But before really concluding this article, a few important points need to be explained.

As all of us are differently created and are unique in our own ways the same goes for people who typically belong to the same group of personalities.

So, these 7 career paths may seem appealing to a few ISTJ’s while others may agree with our approach.

So, even with these careers, you need to know that you may fit in somewhere depending on your particular abilities or interests.

eg, you may not do well as an event manager but can definitely excel in leaps and bound in some supporting position to an event manager. Considering the fact that you have a brain that is detail-oriented.

All you need to do is observe everything related to these careers in detail and compare it with the type of individual you are. Only then will you know why a certain career is not a perfect fit for your particular type.

According to our detailed research any career that demands interaction with people, being in the spotlight, or a continuous cordial attitude are definite NO’s for an ISTJ’s.

Careers that suit an ISTJ:

Now that we have discussed in detail why some careers are not suitable for ISTJ’s it is important that we enlist a few that comply with an ISTJ personality.

ISTJ’s being hardworking, introverted, and loyal beings will definitely like to be in a job where they can work in a closed, peaceful orderly, and schedule oriented space.

Keeping in mind all the aspects of this persona type we suggest that careers such as finance manager, bank officer, administration, management, accounting, and law enforcement, etc are well-guided by their meticulous and quiet nature.

They can earn well as teachers, judges, librarians, and paralegal, etc.

A number of opportunities are available for ISTJ’s to work as per their zone of interest and choice. You only need to explore what lies within.