Job Search and the “Observer, Thinker, Analytic”

Type 5 of the nine Enneagram social styles, the thinker, gets social energy by thinking things through. When they act on the conviction of their thoughts they can provide vision and leadership which allows the five to persevere when everyone else is uncertain and taciturn. They control their emotions and can come off as intellectually arrogant.

Sometimes I wish that the five would have a row of lights on their foreheads, so I could see the lights blink while they are thinking. They can seem so distant and disconnected. Their job search can stall while thinking things through. The more information they get the more they think and research, and research and research. The job search process is about brainstorming potential target organizations, but it is about “doing” because the real research is done person to person. Fives often work alone and are independent thinkers.

The key measurement metric of a professional job search is the number of informational interviews conducted weekly. Three informational interviews is an absolute minimum for a week, but a robust search would have the person doing at least three per day. The five will do well to think of informational interviews as research which is an acceptable process for a five.

When a five finds herself out of work, they can have difficulty because it is seems so much like a failure of their intellect. They can be absolutely lost about where to go next with their career. They need to accept the fact that brainstorming and research are reasonable processes required to envision a new career choice. Very few people really understand what their dream job truly would be. It takes active research and brainstorming to create a number of choices to explore.

The five needs to go against their nature to withdraw and they can do that by adopting the right attitude regarding networking. They need to network with people that they admire for their intellectual capacity. Having another five as a search buddy, someone who is an intellectual peer, someone whose insights make sense to them can make a big difference.

If you are a five, set some networking goals for yourself. Join at least two job search groups and one professional organization in your target market. Get out of the house and get engaged with people and consider it all research.