Samantha is passionate about art, so I suggested she do an information interview with a colleague of mine who is a successful artist on the side, yet keeps a day job to pay her bills. This helped Samantha to understand that art could be an option, plus it gave her a glimpse into the reality of pursuing this as her primary career. Typical of her personality type (her report cautions “You may decide too quickly”), she began to rush into plans to enroll in a program at Emily Carr. Since she has also been considering a writing career, I offered her not only another artist contact, but also the names of 2 writers whom she could interview.

Samantha’s introverted style meant she delayed these next steps that required “interaction” (her words); plus enjoying summer vacation took priority for a while. Surely a 16 year old is entitled to this…
I spoke with her throughout the summer, keeping in mind that her preference for introversion also meant she would take her time to process privately what she had learned so far.

I loaned Samantha a book called “Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality” by Paul Tieger and Barbara Barron. This invaluable resource presents background information on the use of the MBTI for career planning, plus 16 chapters, each of which is dedicated to one of the personality types. Here, Samantha could read case studies of the career paths of people of her same type, plus themes about what work brings career satisfaction, and an expanded list of popular occupations for her type. Here she began to see a more dominant trend towards science and technical jobs.