INTJ Personality profile: The Scientist

INTJs are basically scientific, objective individuals and so getting to know them or to get emotionally close would be very difficult as they don’t really see the need for an emotional connection, they would prefer people to make logical sense, so feelings are hard for them to fathom. INTJs are private and very difficult to know as they are so unforthcoming on personal issues, in fact on anything unless it’s a topic that they find interesting. INTJs struggle to read other people as they are emotionally more switched off and so they can project as a little cold and aloof as they don’t tend to engage, especially in the early stages, at anywhere near an emotional level, preferring to keep it in the realms of the intellectual and the more transactional.

INTJs tend to be full off or full on in that, if it’s an interesting topic they will happily debate and have strong views that they project, demonstrating their mastery of the subject. However, if it’s personal stuff, chitchat or routine, they’ll withdraw completely into their own world where they can solve their complex puzzles, content in their own company. They are basically quiet individuals, but will switch to being a real chatterbox, but this will be only on issues that stimulates their interest and, once it’s over, it’s over and the INTJ will switch off. They think so deeply about things, tossing ideas around inside their heads, loving to solve complex problems that they are capable of becoming real experts in their chosen fields, but they will see dialogue as having a purpose, to test out arguments, or clarify points, never for its own sake. INTJs are often misunderstood or misrepresented but for the INTJ it just goes with the territory.

INTJs are perfectionists, and their decisions will be made after long periods of reflection and testing their theories out. They don’t jump in, so everything will have been carefully thought through and modelled. Once they’re clear they’ll happily share their views and they will usually be right, as they do not take decisions lightly. Because INTJs are quiet and slightly closed off, it may appear that they have just come up with a theory, or idea, or innovation, but it will have been honed over a long period of time and this will make them very difficult to argue against, as they will have all the bases covered. INTJs are long-range planners, they see the goal, the vision, and they’ll build steadily and relentlessly towards that point, very little will get in their way. This is why INTJs are sometimes seen as ‘smart Alecs’ as a little superior, they’re not, they just have a superb command of their subjects.

As INTJs are so deep and private, and non-emotional, they tend to be quite impervious to their environments, and so if they’re involved in a discussion or a debate, they’ll put their case forward strongly, and well-evidenced, which may upset those who are less robust and more emotional. Their intention would never be to upset people, though to be fair they probably wouldn’t really notice if they did, as their only intention is to get to the truth. Someone slightly more emotional might feel a little bruised after the ‘conflict,’ but the INTJ would be surprised, thinking “what conflict, I though it was a discussion?” INTJs love intellectual pursuits, and debating would simply be an extension of that process, never anything personal but, as it’s when the INTJ really becomes far more vocal, people will notice the change, and this is why they can be seen as argumentative and relishing conflict.

In a work situation, the INTJ is the radical innovator, coming up with interesting theoretical ideas and they are superb at ensuring the team covers all the bases. Although introverted, the INTJ can bring out very strong opinions, honed over much mulling around inside the head, and may surprise others by how much is 'in there.' They love to immerse themselves in deep, reflective, intellectual thought and use this in the team to come up with genuinely unique solutions.

The INTJ loves the intellectual challenge and will come to the fore when there are difficult problems to solve, but those which require a complex understanding of many disparate issues. They love to deep dive, a solitary pursuit, then they come to life when the team is stuck and are superb at cutting through the extraneous issues and getting to the real meat of the problem. The INTJ is a genuinely free and radical thinker with an incredible ability to pull together all the disparate strands into one cogent whole.

INTJs will overturn established practice be forward thinking and truly radical. They love the intellectual challenge, coming alive with difficult problems to solve then step back again when it becomes mundane. The INTJ will be at their best with the facility to work for long periods on their own. If they do lead they prefer like-minded people who also love the intellectual debate and complex challenges. They are so forward thinking and the downside is that once it becomes tedious the INTJ will revert back to their introvert nature and seek to go off, satiate their thirst for interesting tasks and analyse more complex data. The INTJ is capable of holding masses of complex and often contradictory data in their heads and then bring this to bear on ‘big,’ strategic problems coming up with solutions that are leading edge.

An INTJ personality type will choose to speak (if they choose to speak at all) only on issues close to their heads (very rarely their hearts), and have been known to hijack whole meetings and drag the agenda towards ‘their’ issues. Once the meeting is back on track, however, and the day-to-day, or factual is being discussed, the INTJ will again disappear into the intellectual cocoon and say very little. Certainly the INTJ will not want to work as part of a large team and prefers an environment of solitude or with a small number of people who are as competent, diligent and quietly focused as they are.

The INTJ will often find the mundane and routine tedious and energy sapping, and may prefer to make an individual contribution, excelling at deep diving and working on the unique, the interesting and the complex. INTJs are perfectionists, with an endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. They will work long and hard on such tasks, driving towards closure, impervious to the outside. INTJs are ideas people. Anything is possible. INTJs love developing unique solutions to complex problems, and, conversely, if it were not complex or interesting then why would they bother?