5w4 careers

[Ernesto]

I posted this in the career section too, but i thought i might post it here since this is an enneagram specific question. Any suggestions on preferred careers for 5w4's? For those of you that are 5w4, what do you do?

[Rowan_F-W]

I'm a 5w4; I do editing for my families small press and creative writing of my own. I can't really help you beyond that, however, as I'm new to this Enneagram thing. I would be interested in reading a more informed response.

[Uberfuhrer]

Enneagram 5w4s tend to prefer 4-oriented careers, such as art and design. But unlike 4 artist, who is more geared to romantic fantasy or more personal, the 5 artist is more surrealistic and shocking.

It's the 5w6 that is more scientific and logical. This is the subtype that tends to be the stereotypical 5 -- the philosopher, the bookworm, the scientist, etc.

[Ponderous]

For those of you that are 5w4, what do you do?

I do what they ask me to as long as it keeps me happy. This means I do something new every couple of years. Thankfully the company that currently chooses to pay me has figured this out and keeps me happy.

This has meant a few things that I enjoyed for a while: Internet development, Help Desk, Integrating a variety of technology teams (design and deliver), project management (that got a bit monotonous quick), prepare, design and run planning and projection meetings, and whatever it is that I'm doing right now.

It's all been fun for a while.

I have no idea what this has to do with 5w4. I just know that I've tested that way a couple of times. I really don't have a strong interest in Enneagram, so haven't studied it.

[NkedMRat]

storyline/world designer for video games

[psychocandy]

I'm a 5w4 and I have no idea what the fuck I want to do. I was a property manager for 13 years then quit. I've done a college degree but can't see myself pursuing those avenues. Til I figure out what I am here for I am working as a disabillity support worker and slacking off.

[Zane19]

photographer.
Thats what I am, and I'm a 5w4.

[Jennywocky]

I worked in technical editing/writing/art for a number of years.
Now I design reports in Crystal and am learning more about VB.NET.

In my spare time, I will going back to more speculative writing, music comp, and/or photography/Photoshop composite art.

If I had to do it over again, I'd rather have gone into psychology or some similar profession that merges the understanding of complex human processes with the ability to help others grow (usually by providing them insight or a new frame of reference).

["?"]

Based on information from this enneagram page (http://mindheart.org/junction/oldcj/ep/index.html) it says that:
Some 5/4s find work that combines intellect and aesthetics. Cosmologists, futurists, science fiction authors. Others dive deeply into some highly specialized discipline, becoming computer programmers, nuclear physicists, theoretical scientists, molecular biologists, surface scientists, or any of a thousand other highly technical jobs. There are 5/4 science reporters, poets, painters, and photographers. Of course, 5/4s can also be found doing many other kinds of work.

[biscuithead]

I'm a 5/4 and I am a marketing director for a multicultural festival. I have my B.Ed in Eng/His but hated teaching - enjoyed teaching kids who actually want to learn and hated all the rest of it.

I started marketing in the direct mail side working with huge databases and learned some basic sql which I was rather good at. Ultimately though it wasn't satifying doing marketing for the Monsanto giants of the world.

I'm rather happy in a not for profit world and like the creative disign and writing that is a large part of my job.

I used to hop from one job to the next every 3 years because once I had mastered the challenges of the position I got bored. I'm hoping this job is dynamic enough to keep me interested - I'm on year 4 and have been presented with a rebranding and new web design so for this year at least I'm FAR from bored.

[Sarcasticus]

I posted this in the career section too, but i thought i might post it here since this is an enneagram specific question. Any suggestions on preferred careers for 5w4's? For those of you that are 5w4, what do you do?


First career: Meteorologist
Second career: Director of Software development
Third career: ? ? ?

In general any science or computer-related field is a good choice, IMO.

[fripping]

photographer.
Thats what I am, and I'm a 5w4.
the thing i've always wondered about photography is. . . how do you make money at it without being stuck taking pictures of real estate and ugly wedding guests for the rest of your life?

i mean, you have to get your foot in the door somehow, but it seems there's no guarantee you'll ever pry it all the way open. . . i only ask because i'm interested in doing it myself. for the next five minutes at least.

[Xenolith]

I'm stepping into the motion picture industry.

[Who]

I did want to be in animation originally, but now I'm going into linguistics. I think I would really like editing as well. However, I'm not particularly good with grammar, I'd be more of an idea editor and maybe for the flow of the writing and all. My mother, who is an ST type, is a much better grammatical, technical editor.

I would be a writer or an artists if I had the attention span, passion and determination. I believe I'm a 5w4 though I didn't test as that. There was definitely a 4 somewhere in my enneagram though. 4w5 or 5w4? I'm not too much into romance or any of that. So I'm probably a 5w4. I do enjoy photography, though I wouldn't say I'm a photographer...

It would seem like 5/4, having both intellect and creativity would have a broad range of interests and talents.

[manza]

I'm a forester.

[NightCrawler]

I believe I am 5w4, I am going to teach theology and philosophy, Lord willing.

[outmywindow]

I'm an inconsistent 5w4 (I sometimes test as a straight 5) and I sit in a cubicle all day pushing papers and dealing with immature office politics. Not recommended.

[Llewellyn]

Enneagram 5w4s tend to prefer 4-oriented careers, such as art and design. But unlike 4 artist, who is more geared to romantic fantasy or more personal, the 5 artist is more surrealistic and shocking.

It's the 5w6 that is more scientific and logical. This is the subtype that tends to be the stereotypical 5 -- the philosopher, the bookworm, the scientist, etc.


I'm untested 5w4 and tend to the second while longing for the first.

Hey, longing is romantic.

[Nighthawk]

Damn ... I'm a 5 with no wings. Where does that leave me? I gravitated towards the science path ... dabbled in art, but suck at it.

[ghost]

I'm still recovering from a useless business and Asian studies degree (only did it to study languages).

After thinking about doing science, engineering or something similar for a while, I've finally decided to concentrate on what comes naturally.

I'm going to try writing (screenplays), drawing, design, photography, photoshop etc. and just see which one pans out.

I'm below average at all of them at the moment, but have confidence I can actually improve and make something unique in one of those areas if I take a course, or put some effort in.... if I tried to do science, programming or something I'd just get in over my head or get bored and quit.

If I'm rich later, I'll probably go back to uni and study something interesting and relaxing, like paleontology, botany, zoology etc. just for fun.

My dad is a photographer (5w4).

[JohnClay]

More or less my whole life I've been a dreamer with no serious plans for a career. I was good at maths (but enjoyed writing and illustrating fantasy stories more, and even more I liked making stuff out of lego, especially technic lego). I was also good at chemistry and physics and fairly good at english and music. At university I just did what my dad and teacher suggested - applied maths and statistics. Then I changed to maths and supercomputing. I didn't study much at all and lost my work ethic due to becoming an atheist. I ended up getting an information technology degree. At the age of 29 the only work I've done was fixing up some computers (I got 2500 flyers delivered for $100) and also worked in McDonald's while in high school. (They didn't let me get a job while in university. Probably because I said my interests were the internet and philosophy) In the last year of my degree (year 2000) I had a manic episode and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. "EPIC" found me some work (for a few weeks) as an office assistant and then as dishwasher/dining room cleaner at a cafe. I quit after a while because I was too busy making 2 music videos for a teacher friend. They ended up paying me about $400 and they hired 2 cameras and used a blue screen and I put the people in a 3-d animated environment. My sense of space and aesthetics isn't as good as I'd like... it is a bit amateurish.
I think I might do a software engineering degree and minor in physics (or maybe 3D design and just study physics in my spare time)... and this time I think I'll study the maths subjects thoroughly (the course has a few maths subjects in it) the programming subjects are pretty easy for me.

[Llewellyn]

Never tested but inferred 5w4 from the descriptions. I am doing software engineering in the field of datawarehousing (business intelligence). I enjoy it mostly, but my "4" keeps calling for a more "romantic" (special, meaningful) activity.

[Ezion]

I've been working towards starting a career as a game designer. It seems like a good combination of technical and creative skills. Getting the position is really hard though, and I'm not there yet, so I suppose I won't be able to provide more insight for a few more years.

[Faust06]

For a time I thought I wanted to do something practical while keeping my other interests as hobbies, but really I can't think of anything of the sort I would be interested in at all.

I want to be a musician, and that's all I want to be. Or composer, rather. I'm obsessed with aesthetic, and I like abstract thinking/intellectualizing, but I could not give a fuck about tedious technical work however complicated.

I'm still, however, left in a position where I need to work a day job to fund my musical ambitions. I considered audio production, but I'm not sure if I would care much for that either.. I mean, obviously I'm going to deal with it, but as a means to an end.

Game design is something I'll pursue on my own time. I want to make 2d indie games with outside-the-box gameplay.

[ocop]

I'll eventually be an applied economist or political scientist, i suppose. For now, just a graduate student. However, i'd put the odds of saying 'fuck it' and becoming a sci-fi writer/astonomer/social psychologist/something else unexpected at 40-60

[sagewolf]

Student for now, hoping to study Animation in college and find a career in that. I like telling stories, basically, and as long as the career I choose includes that I think I'll be happy. (2d animation, BTW, not CG. Nothing against it but I prefer the hand-drawn aesthetically, and CG is just so common anymore.)

[Kirai]

I hear being a beggar is viable career path these days.

[Vaera]

... dabbled in art, but suck at it.

Why do you say that?

[Illuminazi]

For a time I thought I wanted to do something practical while keeping my other interests as hobbies, but really I can't think of anything of the sort I would be interested in at all.

I want to be a musician, and that's all I want to be. Or composer, rather. I'm obsessed with aesthetic, and I like abstract thinking/intellectualizing, but I could not give a fuck about tedious technical work however complicated.

I'm still, however, left in a position where I need to work a day job to fund my musical ambitions. I considered audio production, but I'm not sure if I would care much for that either.. I mean, obviously I'm going to deal with it, but as a means to an end.

Game design is something I'll pursue on my own time. I want to make 2d indie games with outside-the-box gameplay.

I can relate to this so much that it disturbs me a bit. How did someone pull me into a clone machine without me knowing or me getting ten clones to do my bidding?

[pan_sonic_000]

< Sound Designer. A perfect blend of technical and creative and nobody tells me when to show up to work, how to dress or talk or anything. On days like today, I close the door to my office, hang the "fuck off" sign on the door handle and hole up with my machines and make noise.

[Faust06]

< Sound Designer. A perfect blend of technical and creative and nobody tells me when to show up to work, how to dress or talk or anything. On days like today, I close the door to my office, hang the "fuck off" sign on the door handle and hole up with my machines and make noise.

Okay... I'm intrigued.


I can relate to this so much that it disturbs me a bit. How did someone pull me into a clone machine without me knowing or me getting ten clones to do my bidding?

I've heard that a few times on this forum. Somehow reassuring.

[Eliot]

I'm a 5 that tests relatively high on both 4 and 6, and I've found that research-related professions are a reasonable compromise between what I want and what's attainable. My job is essentially to perform industry analysis for startups, write reports, and prepare company documents. Exploring new companies and new industries on a regular basis seems to satisfy my desire for both variety and knowledge.

It definitely requires compromises that I ideally wouldn't have to make, in terms of dressing the part, talking to people, etc. etc., but working in the entrepreneur space can remove you a fair bit from the whole corporate ladder fiasco. It surrounds you with weirder/more unorthodox people. A lot of these people are seriously in need of someone to take an objective, borderline-clinical perspective on their company, and I'd hazard a guess that most people on this forum would be awfully good that.

[Vaera]

Being 5w4 myself, I've always found myself in the areas that are lingering between art and science, spanning trough both but with as less bullshit as possible. Professionally, I'm gonna work on the field of the interior design for few years so i could pack up my portfolio for the application into game design industry.

I;m also secretly dreaming of having my own workshop where i can work with wood.

[durentu]

I came across "the 9 ways of working" which seems interesting. google preview has much of the type 5 available.

[Swordguy]

I am 5 with balanced wings. But when I read the descriptions 5w4 is closer.

I went to school at a tech college for software engineering to get my piece of paper that gets me jobs. Barely made it through with the intentions of being a game designer/programmer. So far I've done Tech Support, Barcode Scanner Programming, Web design and development. None of which lasted more than a year.

I still think game design would be fun but I have no interest in the indie circle. I want to be involved in the blockbuster games. So I'm considering trying to find a job dialog writing, programming, or game testing in some game companies and working my way up.

Next to game designer, the idea of sci-fi writing attracts me, but I haven't written more than a forum post since high school. Fantasy writing is also appealing.

Teaching also seems appealing, but I'd only want to teach people who want to learn. And it's easy to imagine the job getting dull quickly as you drone about the same thing repeatedly. Maybe if there was plenty of class discussion.

It seems nigh impossible to find a career with the level of complex systems architecting and aesthetic beauty that I want.

[Technical]

I was going to be a designer once, but looking back on it now, no matter how "good" I was (And I'm not bad, if I say so myself), it wouldn't have been a good fit. I'm too much of a 5 to hang around with hippies all day without derogating socialism until I'm hated.

From what I've seen of the academic psychology scene, I'll do fine there. (I think I've already discovered two INTPs in higher levels, which is about as many as I've met irl otherwise.)

[orange]

med school: deciding between Anesthesia and Ophtho...

(currently rotating on general surg... dealing with S types all day every day from 5am to 7pm is a little more than I can handle)

[RavenSnow]

I have worked in the medical field and in real estate, but like many others on this thread, the dream career seems to combine art and science. Architect, pilot, writer, philosopher, chemist, history professor, musical composer, astronaut or video game designer come to mind as examples of good careers for our type.

[DoomBagel]

I plan on attending culinary school and getting a job being a chef with a slow paced work environment.

[BAJ]

.


I'm a farmer and biologist specializing in fish, but my art tends to be surrealistic and/ or shocking.

[kble]

lingering between art and science

That's a good description of the type.

I find that if I choose one, I long for the other...more artsy careers sometimes seem pointless and too hippyish and more sciency or technical ones uninspiring and too constricting/conventional. Somehow 5w4 also seems more compatible with the INTP personality.

It's interesting to see what you guys are doing.

[Faust06]

I find that if I choose one, I long for the other...more artsy careers sometimes seem pointless and too hippyish and more sciency or technical ones uninspiring and too constricting/conventional. Somehow 5w4 also seems more compatible with the INTP personality.

I often feel this way. I've decided to keep music as a leisure activity, but inevitably feel indifferent to hard sciences. I've decided to go with writing as it can cover both real issues, technical and political, as well as the arts. I am by no means a terrific writer, but with enough effort I'll manage.

[stuck]

I didn't study much at all and lost my work ethic due to becoming an atheist.

lol

[YHWH]

I'm 4w5 but it still applies. Following the Hustlerian poker footsteps for money while freely working on my art without having to worry about income.

[nirmohi]

i too belong to the ..."5w4"...lot...*sigh*...
tried my hands so far in... programming.... advertising ....web designing....
now i am planning to get into... writing ....but here too i am kinda confused.....*grins*
novels / contemporary / si fi.... lets see.... where it gets to...!!!

[DoomBagel]

I decided to be a chef so I'm getting ready for culinary school. After that I have no idea but don't see myself being a chef for more than 5 years.

[HoneyCyclical]

I'm a 5w4 with an undergraduate Media Art degree thinking about going for the (maybe virtual) Librarian route with a masters focused on research, metadata or IA. I have a natural facility for research. If I had decent equipment and networking skills I could do wedding photography *cringes* for extra income while pursuing the Librarian gig.

I can make art, write, and sing in my spare time.

Hopefully I won't talk myself out of it based on finances and fear of incompetence like I did with the Veterinarian and Audio Engineering route.

[pangolin]

storyline/world designer for video games

I *really* want to know how to get a gig doing this professionally. That describes one of my major 'personal' projects right now.