Photo Credit: Paul Bradbury/caiaimage
YOU ARE A RATIONALIST
Your Passion: Knowing (Defining, Deciding, Building, Leading)
You like to decide what something is, where it belongs and what its usefulness is. For you, knowledge is power and you get fired up when you’re able to be an expert, a teacher or a leader. Objective and logical, you have a strong belief in what you know, which makes you confident, assertive and decisive. You are fiercely independent and will do the right thing, despite what others think or say. This means that most of the time, you know what you want and you go after it. Your passion for knowing is enhanced by being in control of information and you’re motivated to learn all you can to keep ahead of others.
When you aren’t directing your passion, you can come off as a bit of a bossy pants -- constantly telling people the “right” way to do things without listening to what others have to say. You prefer to tell others what to do rather than ask them to do it. If you can’t express what you know, or when others don’t accept your authority, you get angry, dismiss them or simply withdraw. You have a tendency to compartmentalize your emotions and avoid situations and people that make you feel uncomfortable.
This makes you seem cold and cut off from other people’s feelings -- a walking encyclopedia, if you will. You may think being a human tome of knowledge is a great compliment, but at the end of the day, you come off as just awkward and not fun.
Find jobs with autonomy -- it doesn’t matter whether it’s information, people, money or building things. You like to be the one making decisions about what you do and when. For some, this means being in a leadership role where you direct workflow, people or the business itself. But you can also channel your passion for knowing through jobs that involve solving problems, building information systems, doing research, investigating or compiling data. Make sure you find yourself a job where you get to be in control.
Some jobs where you can use your passion for knowing:
- Attorney / Lawyer / Paralegal
- Environmental Planning
- Executive, CEO, Chairperson
- Financial Analyst/ Planner Information Services Developer / Information Officer
- Investment Banker
- Media Planner/ Buyer
- Mortgage Broker
- Primary Care Physician
- Researcher / Investigator
- Supervisor, Manager or Administrator Systems Analyst
- Teacher, Educator (Higher Education)
For you, hobbies don’t tend to be too different from work as you stay involved with activities that increase your knowledge or where you can exercise your expertise. You will get fired up when you are able to take charge of a social or family event -- planning a class or family reunion, coaching your child’s soccer team, de-cluttering your parent’s garage, or organizing a fundraiser. Try tracing your family’s genealogy, designing a database for your kid’s homework or scanning andorganizing the family pictures.