Successful INTPs In Business/Technology

[alkarion]

Hi there everyone!

I was curious if anyone here identifies as a successful INTP working within Business and Technology?

• I was wondering how you found yourself leading up to your position and if you found it difficult acclimating yourself to corporate culture, if experienced.

I finished a technology training program and internship around July and have been working as a full-time SQL Data Analyst at a healthcare company; it has been a great experience but I am finding it hard to focus on the day-to-day.

Examples: Managing CRM databases (data loading & cleaning), time-tracking and account management. (aka monotonous stuff)

• Additionally, in one's experience of corporate culture, how have you managed to overcome/exceed corporate expectations, that go against INTP-likeness? (Conforming to expectations, motivation via power/money, being social.)

Thank you for any thoughts/time!

-Alkarion

EDIT: If you just started working or have any thoughts which might contribute to the topic, please feel free to respond as well! (Regardless of said 'success' being it is somewhat subjective and likely to cause bias.)

 

[Architect]

The difficulty with your question is that there is no 'corporate environment', what you find is it varies wildly. Turn it around instead; what kind of corporate environment would an INTP do well in? Obviously a relaxed one that isn't traditionally 'corporate'. I've stayed at my job for so long because it's like this, the company was founded by a couple of engineers. Modern Silicon Valley engineering companies are all like that, really relaxed. As you move out into traditional IT it gets more corporate. Health care is a whole different culture too, very ES.

But that doesn't tell you either as they all are different. Most young companies have long tables where people sit next to each other at their computers, I'd crawl out of my skin. I've lived in a cubical which is OK, but still too open to the rest of the world (they do it because it's cheap). The INTP gold standard is a closed office, which you get at Microsoft, but MS is very corporate, so you lose points there.

• Additionally, in one's experience of corporate culture, how have you managed to overcome/exceed corporate expectations, that go against INTP-likeness? (Conforming to expectations, motivation via power/money, being social.)

I used to fake it until I couldn't anymore. No big deal, I found a spot in a small team and management recognizes my personality. They used it to advantage too, giving me oddball assignments, really blue sky stuff. So if you're an established person you can often work it into something that is tailored for you, but you have to prove yourself (easy for an INTP and an environment with few of them)

I was wondering how you found yourself leading up to your position and if you found it difficult acclimating yourself to corporate culture, if experienced.

Long story ...

 

[alkarion]

The difficulty with your question is that there is no 'corporate environment', what you find is it varies wildly. Turn it around instead; what kind of corporate environment would an INTP do well in? Obviously a relaxed one that isn't traditionally 'corporate'. I've stayed at my job for so long because it's like this, the company was founded by a couple of engineers. Modern Silicon Valley engineering companies are all like that, really relaxed. As you move out into traditional IT it gets more corporate.

Hello Architect; thank you for your input. I like your point regarding the variety of work environments. I think of the saying: “sometimes all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.”

My workplace is highly structured, almost to a fault. I deal with it because I believe it does help create more competent results, or at least the potential. (But has had the side-effect of process creep and etc.)

• Have you found your motivations to differ from your peers? (Or, what have been your motivations to progress within your career?) For example, I have colleagues who work to become rich (An entj) or to gain control and influence. I find this doesn’t quite impress/motivate me and seems more consequential than required. (The only positive I can see in acquiring these social capitals would be increased potential for others to be open to my ideas.)
• How do you meet the act of ‘selling yourself’? This makes me downright sick, but I have learned how to do it for the purposes of meshing with social expectations. (poorly) I feel like I shouldn’t have to sell myself and people should automatically understand that I’m awesome. (I realize that’s kind of pretentious, but it’s my true inner monologue)

Health care is a whole different culture too, very ES.

The thing I like about this is that it keeps me on my feet; it helps to balance my lack of ES.

I used to fake it until I couldn't anymore. No big deal, I found a spot in a small team and management recognizes my personality. They used it to advantage too, giving me oddball assignments, really blue sky stuff. So if you're an established person you can often work it into something that is tailored for you, but you have to prove yourself (easy for an INTP and an environment with few of them)

• Have you considered becoming a manager, in these respects? I've read that INTP's are considered not the best managers and the claim frustrates me, mostly because I don't like the idea of being told I can't do something. Ha!

 

[rbpinheiro]

I am a software developer and the corporate culture really stress me. Fast paced, short time projects where you can't do a decent job too.
I solved those issues by working on smaller companies with a more flat hierarchy.
About becoming a manager, I did it for about a year. But I find the burocratic work really tedious, so I would procrastinate and stress myself to the point of having physical reactions to it. But those above me were pleased with the work I was doing and were not pleased when I asked for a demotion, so I guess I did well enough.

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[alkarion]

I am a software developer and the corporate culture really stress me. Fast paced, short time projects where you can't do a decent job too.
I solved those issues by working on smaller companies with a more flat hierarchy.
About becoming a manager, I did it for about a year. But I find the bureaucratic work really tedious, so I would procrastinate and stress myself to the point of having physical reactions to it. But those above me were pleased with the work I was doing and were not pleased when I asked for a demotion, so I guess I did well enough.

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Hi there rbpinheiro, thanks for your input!

I can agree with the bureaucratic point, I'm finding this type of thing to be monotonous, though I myself am aspiring to move into management or some type of leadership role.

Best of luck with everything you're currently working on though; your work must've have been influential if you were able to make a statement on those above.

 

[rbpinheiro]

Hi there rbpinheiro, thanks for your input!

I can agree with the bureaucratic point, I'm finding this type of thing to be monotonous, though I myself am aspiring to move into management or some type of leadership role.

Best of luck with everything you're currently working on though; your work must've have been influential if you were able to make a statement on those above.

My suggestion is that you aspire for some kind of tech leadership instead of people management. I appreciated much more helping people learn or solve problems instead of managing their timesheets or reporting things to the client.

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[Intolerable]

Corporate culture is in my mind synonymous with corporate decay. What is really happening here is the rape of the founding philosophy.

You seize a product afforded to you by a small group of very talented people and then assert in your ignorance a more structured, sick way of looking at production.

This view of yours didn't put the company where it is and it certainly isn't going to move it forward. It's just you, what you've done all your life as a corporate exec and people manager trying to manage people yet again.

Usually in this way small successful companies are gobbled up by corporate dickwads who couldn't design a functional paper bag. There are numerous examples of this in the software world. In my mind I scream that there should be laws against this sort of acquisition but then I realize natural law fixes it. Adobe's flash is a great example.

If you couldn't tell by now, corporate culture sickens me. I would much rather work on a small team of honest, hard working people than to spend five minutes of my time entertaining the thought of forced communication for the sake of a spreadsheet.

 

[alkarion]

My suggestion is that you aspire for some kind of tech leadership instead of people management. I appreciated much more helping people learn or solve problems instead of managing their timesheets or reporting things to the client.

I agree with this; I'd much rather enjoy helping/guiding people & ideas than managing paperwork. What type of positions would have these responsibilities? Like a Lead Developer?

Corporate culture is in my mind synonymous with corporate decay. What is really happening here is the rape of the founding philosophy.

You seize a product afforded to you by a small group of very talented people and then assert in your ignorance a more structured, sick way of looking at production.

This view of yours didn't put the company where it is and it certainly isn't going to move it forward. It's just you, what you've done all your life as a corporate exec and people manager trying to manage people yet again.

Usually in this way small successful companies are gobbled up by corporate dickwads who couldn't design a functional paper bag. There are numerous examples of this in the software world. In my mind I scream that there should be laws against this sort of acquisition but then I realize natural law fixes it. Adobe's flash is a great example.

If you couldn't tell by now, corporate culture sickens me. I would much rather work on a small team of honest, hard working people than to spend five minutes of my time entertaining the thought of forced communication for the sake of a spreadsheet.

Hi Intolerable!

Thank you for your perspective,— I think its an important point regarding the adverse effects of the hyper-corporate mentality. It seems like the rigidity of the process enters a self-perpetuating morose of self-consumption. Like, so "efficient" it kills itself.
The real issue though,—like you said similarily, is that there is a separation between the 'head' , the 'brain, and the 'body' of the organization. (The corporate dickwad managing people/production just because.)

I think this is one thing that led to developments like Agile management; iterative response to change instead of blatant denial and change-restriction.

I would hope an environment was only as corporate (rigid) as needed to facilitate creativity.

What do you think?

 

[rbpinheiro]

I agree with this; I'd much rather enjoy helping/guiding people & ideas than managing paperwork. What type of positions would have these responsibilities? Like a Lead Developer?

It really depends on the company structure. When I had the opportunity to do that I was the Lead Developer of the Front-end team. But the company structure that separates the teams by front-end and back-end instead of by projects seems to be disappearing (it's a good thing).
Many companies are now allocating developers to focus on training by promoting talks, dojos, bringing new technologies, and training new devs.
At Facebook this training for new devs is called bootcamp, and it's not only about how to code and technologies: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150411360573109

 

[alkarion]

It really depends on the company structure. When I had the opportunity to do that I was the Lead Developer of the Front-end team. But the company structure that separates the teams by front-end and back-end instead of by projects seems to be disappearing (it's a good thing).
Many companies are now allocating developers to focus on training by promoting talks, dojos, bringing new technologies, and training new devs.
At Facebook this training for new devs is called bootcamp, and it's not only about how to code and technologies: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150411360573109

Thank you for sharing this video, its good to see a real-world example of this type of concept. Its also good to see iterative approaches to managing projects like this... the ever changing nature of technology has really disrupted and challenged the status-quo as far as typical business practice is concerned.

There seems to be a rise of bootcamps and the like in the current tech-culture. I think of pop-culture shows like Silicon Valley for instance... and the message and themes it portrays in its dialogue.