February 3, 2017

Personality-based summary for the professional profile of an #INTP

Today, I made a significant change to my LinkedIn profile.

I dropped the typical summary I had so far - which was basically (as the name suggests) a summary of my professional life, repeating information covered elsewhere in my professional history.

The old summary was starting like this:
"Since early days of the commercial Internet, I design and implement IT solutions which are changing the way companies do their business on-line. I was working with big and medium companies across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and South Africa on building business strategies and..."
And then there was a long list of various tasks, duties, responsibilities and experiences. It wasn't bad, for some it might even looked pretty impressive.  However, apart from providing a list of things I did in the past, it told a little about which of them I enjoyed, and was excelling with joy and no effort, and which were just things I completed, without any passion for them.

I realized that this might not be the best way to introduce myself to people, and decided to take a different approach.

I recognized that when I'm meeting someone, I often check online where they worked and what they did, but this information is not sufficient to know, what kind of tasks and duties would be most suitable to let them unlock their potential. It's very hard to identify their personality type and preferences not knowing their attitude to tasks listed in the CV.

Putting myself in a position of someone, willing to learn more about me, I understood that my profile on LinkedIn is not helpful either. As I work in a multinational company, I'm part of a virtual team it makes it even harder for my team mates to know me. As we hardly ever have a chance for face-to-face interactions.

I decided to change and refocus my profile's summary to make sure that anyone with whom I will happen to work, will get a clear understanding of my strengths and natural capabilities. In the same time I didn't want to simply write "I'm Introvert" - as still (too) many people mix its meaning with shy, anxious or asocial - which I'm not.


Tweet this:
My #CV shall let the reader understand my #INTP #strengths without using the often misunderstood word #introvert


I used several web pages discussing personality traits to structure the content and created a new summary which is focused on my personal traits of an introvert, an INTP (a Logician, an Architect, you name it).

I was getting inspiration from following pages::
And of course, I focused on strengths, not really touching much on weaknesses - I believe it's enough that I know how to deal and work around my shortcomings :-)

My idea was, that after reading my summary, the reader shall feel like knowing me like a real person (at least a little), and not only knowing me as a list of things which I did.

And this is the result:

"I am an open-minded, self-driven, logical, rational, and introspective person. I am intensely curious. I see the world around as something to be analyzed and understood. 

 I am a learner and an information seeker. I naturally strive to explore how things are structured, built, and configured. I create models for underlying principles and ideas. I quickly gather available knowledge and take in every fact and idea when developing a structured and thoughtful understanding of things. I see how parts are interrelated and how, even seemingly unrelated, factors tie in with each other. 

 I like to share my knowledge with others. With the ability to grasp complexity, I also have the capacity to explain complex ideas in simple terms. I can well organize my understanding of any topic and present it verbally or in writing.

 I easily detect patterns and analogies as well as inconsistencies, contradictions, and anomalies. Once I spot a problem, I am inclined to drill through all possible factors and details that encompass the issue to develop a unique and viable solution.

 I am a listener, observer, and synthesizer. I am aware of my surroundings, reflective and focused. I avoid making assumptions about what others are thinking. However, I am often able to understand others' perspective by picking up nonverbal cues, reading things that were not said, and connecting disparate dots.

 I have an entrepreneurial, innovative spirit; I like to explore possibilities and focus on conceiving new and exciting ideas.

 Over the years I gained a broad technical knowledge which is backed up with business acumen from key areas of business administration including marketing, sales, customer analytics, negotiations, finance, and legal.

I hold an MBA degree from the University of Warwick - Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom and MSc and Engineering degrees in IT and Telecommunications from the Warsaw University of Technology (Politechnika Warszawska) in Poland."

I don't know yet, how (or if) this will influence my future career. I hope it will help others understand me better.

What do you think?


Tweet this:
Personality-based summary for the #CV and professional profile of an #INTP


PS. FYI, I do NOT look to change my job (I have the best job I ever had), still, as in every big organization, changes are happening on a daily basis and this includes new structures, new managers, new colleagues. Nowadays, my social profile is rather serving a purpose of being an introduction to people I work with. Still, I believe it will be equally useful in case I will decide to search for a new job :-)