[infpblog]

I've always felt that INFPs focused too much on finding the perfect job without considering that the perfect job may only last a few years or even a few months.

An INFP in the Facebook forum said, " For a while I had my dream job teaching art, but budget cuts took that away."

About a week ago on ExperienceProject , a 50+ year old woman wrote how she loved her job as a nurse at one time. But she got laid off and doesn't want to go back to nursing because she had been growing disillusioned with the entire industry for years.

I've never met an INFP who's had their dream job last. Things change. They change. And the perfect job when they began it, was no longer the perfect job a few years down the line.

INFPs have an old-school 50's mentality that way where we're focused on life-long employment instead of life-long employability.

We struggle over the perfect degree that will lead to a perfect job without realizing that the perfect job doesn't stay perfect forever. We get bored. The industry changes. We think that perfect will last, but perfect is subjective and therefore subject to change.

I've had 2 perfect jobs all of which lasted until roughly 2-4 years. I temped in my early 20's. It was awesome. No commitment. Most assignments lasted 2 weeks then I moved to my next one so I never got bored. And if I had enough money saved, I could refuse assignments, not work and coast until the money ran out. I loved the freedom. My other perfect job was a lead designer for a start up. They paid everyone stupid money to work there (which is probably why they ran out of money). It was laid back and the people were fun.

Those jobs were everything I wanted at the time. But then I changed or they changed and they weren't perfect anymore.

So what about you? There's got to be one INFP out there who's had their perfect job for at least 10 years and still loves it.

Do you have the perfect job for you? Or did you have one at one time? If you had a perfect job that turned bad, what changed?

 

[GunsAndRoses]

I think you're right. I have (or had) a mentality that the perfect job is out there somewhere. If its because I'm INFP or because my parents have had more or less the same job their entire life I don't know.

I had one job for 10+ years but I can't say it was perfect. It had its ups and downs, at one time when I was system architect for a new and interesting product it felt good. That lasted for a few years, then the product went into maintenance mode and the job was boring again.

I'm looking to get into consultancy work to get the variation I need, and also to build a few software products that I've been thinking about for a long while.

 

[ponyjoyride]

Thanks for this post. It was very useful to me because I've spent the last three years trying to find out what I want to do with my life. I'm trying to find a career that I want to spent the rest of my life doing but seems like none of like that exists. Probably I will enjoy my life more if I have the freedom to change my job everytime I feel like it and have the possibility to try out more jobs than only one life-long.

So far my best job has lasted 9 months. I was working in a candy store and it was like every child's dream come true to work in a such place. But then I got bored because I felt like I had already seen everything what that job could offer me and the store manager changed and I didn't like the new one so I quit the job.

Right now I'm following a career that will make it possible for me to be a researcher or/and a teacher. Unfortunately neither of them interests me. But besides that I'd really like to go to a nursing school however I don't want to be a nurse for the rest of my life... but if I don't take any pressure on trying to find the perfect career I could try out all these and it would probably make me my life more interesting and happy. As a child I always dreamed about a steady and "normal" life but the more I grow up the more I feel like I want to experience in life as much as possible.

 

[kindaconfused]

One month, the job was unemployment.

 

[Akaharu]

For me, it was working online doing tech support. It lasted only 6 months. At this point, our dream job can chnage from one season to another season in our lives. Nothing wrong with going for those dreams, though it does take a lot of time to get there. I think a lot of us overlook the fact the journey to the dream job or whatever is just as important or more inmporant of landing that job.