Hello, Hello

[Geoff]

Hello all,

I guess it is polite to introduce myself here before launching into comments on any threads!

INTP (gasp! No, really?) Male, Early 30's, resident in the Sunny South of England (so I am helping increase your Old World members, if not the gender split!).

My main hobby is photography, as an NT I take lots of pictures of skies, water and mountains, will post one or two if there is any interest! I am a semi-retired amateur poet too.

I work in the business world, and have successfully swallowed my INTP tendencies enough to manage people and actually try to be organised (not always a success :shock: )

As for INTP profile, when properly tested I still sit somewhere exactly between E and I - I was informed that my I dominates due to the other scores, but I have a distinct E shadow. Just depends what day of the week it is!

I find that a bit difficult at times, I am sure a few of you out there know that tendency we INTP's have to refuse invites to social gatherings and then mope about being alone! Not that I am particularly shy, I just occasionally need my 'me' time in a little cave somewhere.

N and P were extremely pronounced. The T was close to F and again I am not always sure where I sit. I have taken some other tests and always come out INTP though!

So there we go. Any questions? :blink:

-Geoff

[heeroyuy]

Welcome :) What type of things do you manage/company do you own/work for?

Also, if anyone else recalls, I'm forced to recall Arioch's old siggy in which there was a song..."Just a spoonfull of J helps reality go down..." seems like you got to the cup of J before the rest of us :)

[Geoff]

Manage? I am a chartered tax adviser in a management position.

I look after 3 people below and 2 above (if you see what I mean!).

The 3 below are all blonde, 2 of them are female, and quite a trial for an INTP without a distinct F! :devil:

I actually scored 100% P. So whether I have a dose of J I am not so sure about... I (like many people) learn to wear an external 'suit' to get buy in the business world. In my case, I am outgoing and try to get other people to organise things for me 8O

I do however have an annual appraisal that usually comments on the state of my desk...

-Geoff

[matthew0028]

Welcome :hello:

[Boneca]

Welcome to the forums!
It seems you have managed to balance yourself quite well. It does probably help in dealing with that boring outer world, doesn't it?


I find that a bit difficult at times, I am sure a few of you out there know that tendency we INTP's have to refuse invites to social gatherings and then mope about being alone! Who, me? :whistle:

[indie]

Welcome to the boards, Geoff.

I'm also a business person; but, unlike you, I would never in a million years go into tax. :) How on earth do you manage the tedium?

[Geoff]

Tedium?

I dont do much compliance, I am more advisory. I spent my time in earlier years in tax compliance (and still help organise it) but it is indeed a fairly tedious thing to spend much time on.
However, I dont spend my time on compliance now, I help people plan their businesses, structure their lives, solve problems and come up with creative solutions.
I also spend a lot of time helping people understand systems around the world and structure their affairs accordingly.

I also get a big kick out of working with the general public (yeah, I know not standard INTP). So I spend a lot of time listening and help people.

Not too tedious. Sure, it has its dull moments, but it satisfies the technical guru tendencies of this INTP. I have become a 'guru' type thing in my firm for a number of technical areas and people come to me to help with interpreting fine detail, research into specialist areas etc etc. So this is how an INTP finds their niche :-).

-Geoff

[indie]

Ah, well I'm sure that England's tax system is much less complicated that the US's. :)

[Geoff]

I spy a wind up!

Let's just leave it that we were building up the concepts of our tax system before North America was settled, and we have to cope with the overlying principles of the EU over the top, and agree to differ :-)

-Geoff

[indie]

Er, that came out wrong. Guess I meant "different". . . US tax and corporate tax, especially, is probably different from England's. Ours is this big. . . hairball . . . at least from what I know about it (which, to be honest is very little).

By no means did I intend to say that your job is easy or non-demanding.

[Geoff]

That's OK I didnt take it as an insult.

Anyway, I am an International Tax Practitioner so I spend a far bit of time with the US Corporate system too!

Different is a better way to describe it...

-Geoff

[mgb]

Hi.

My taxes are quite easy to do. That's all I know about taxes.

[Clara]

Hello Geoff :)

It sounds like you're the person jgreensp (also a new member) was hoping to find, of whom to ask questions... 8O . Small world ;)

Welcome to the forums (or fora). :)

[Geoff]

Wow so many canucks...

Looking at the posts above.. well I was in Calgary 3 months ago and today I was working with someone in Quebec. (not that easy with the time difference!)

Clara, whereabouts? I have been to Quebec a few times, and today was doing work stuff for Sherbrooke.

-Geoff

[Clara]

Sherbrooke people have a lot of heart - I know someone whose face lights up when she talks of the years she lived there. (I'm between Sherbrooke and Montreal.)

I laughed when I read that your Nova Scotian SO had croosed the Atlantic "in the other direction"... then blinked, because, my bias comes from knowing that some of my ancestors arrived on our East Coast from your side of the Atlantic. *goofy assumption of patterns, for emigration* :rolleyes:

[Geoff]

The other direction was a contrary reference to the 'normal' direction Europe->Canada (or the US).

So I think we both meant the same thing!

I still may end up at some point moving myself in the normal, direction, who knows!


-Geoff

[jgreensp]

Welcome Geoff. As Clara mentioned, you indeed sound like someone who I could obtain some valuable advice from. Hearing about your successes in the business world is very reassuring to me. I feel uneasy about entering the corporate world partly because of my INTPness. My business school classmates seem to be quite different from me. My interests seem to be in international business(love the big picture and studied abroad in Western Europe), organizational Behavior(very theoretical and again big picture) and finance(particularly market analysis because it nicely combines politics/economics and philsophy all of which facinate me and motivate me to analyze with INTP prowess. I'm in my last year and looking for a job. Any general advice on how to be a successful business INTP? How can I stand out?

[Geoff]

How to be a successful business INTP?

Mostly, hide the unhelpful INTP tendencies, and then make the best of the positives.

Despite your natural tendencies, learn to speak up in meetings and warmly enthuse with people (works well fo r me!). Then when it comes to the technical areas, destroy the opposition as you will probably have better knowledge and insight.

In my case I ended up in management positions because of my technical ability - I was placed first in the country in my Chartered exams, and I guess they had little choice but to promote me. Not that I didnt otherwise deserve it, I think, but that my technical abilities were the draw that pushed me up in my career.

Try hard to make the use of your ability to see the big picture. When everyone else is arguing about the fine detail of why something doesnt work, you will probably have that insight to try something completely different. Trust that instinct and swallow your 'I' tendencies enough to speak up and bring it to people's attention. You will quickly be seen as an ideas person, and that is a useful thing.

Learn to live with the difficulty you have with organisation, and just get on with things. Make use of people who love organisation - worker ants are your friend and usually you can find enough in any business environment to keep an eye on the piles of paper that threaten to bury you under an INTP creative maelstrom :whistle:

I cant speak for others because I have a strong E tendency, but the 'I' I think is the biggest weakness for progression in the business environment. If noone notices you it does not matter how good you are. If you find speaking up difficult, concentrate on signing your own praises by well of carefully targetted minutes of meetings with clients etc etc.

I also learned to hide my INTP ability with computers, otherwise instead of progressing professionally I would have spent my career fixing people's IT problems.

Look for a business world environment where you can satiate your desire to work on INTP strengths. In my case ensuring I ended up advisory in nature means I get to solve problems, research cases etc etc. Pure management is not something we are built to do!

HTH.

-Geoff

[t]

it's nice to see another intp w/ a really weak i. :)