Are You The Right Personality Type to Be A Composer?

I’m doing all this business planning-type-stuff at the moment and part of it is to work out what you’re actually good at and not, your strengths and weaknesses, and to take responsibility or delegate accordingly rather than doing the lot yourself.

So I took this Myers-Briggs Test and it turns out I’m an ‘INTJ’… sometimes called a ‘Mastermind’! That’s right, I am secretly plotting to take over the world. Mwahahah!

INTJ = Introverted – iNtuitive -Thinking – Judging

(Wikipedia summary here, as well as a bit of background to the test)

I’m a schemer, plotter, planner, solutions-finder, details type of gal. I mull over options, weighing up pros and cons before coming to a solution. I like systems and efficiency, and am rather objective and practical when it comes to the work I create. I plan contingencies, just in case something goes wrong. I’m constantly learning about some new thing or other to solve any problems I have or may come up against.

Often suited to… being a scientist. Or a librarian! Ugh.

Though there’s hope… there was mention of this INTJ type going into the arts, so all is not lost.

I know I’m in the right career, no worries about that, but what’s interesting about this is that it illustrates my approach to whatever I do… and the blog posts and articles I’ve been writing here and on ScorecastOnline for my Composer’s Tips and Tricks column.

Am I successful in this business because of my personality type? My last post for ScorecastOnline about what it takes to become and stay a ‘Pro’ composer and this post about plotting the sound design for the experimental theatre show Silica were both perfect examples of my approach to business and work: planning, systems, constant improvement and self-education, deep focus and the challenge of finding a solution by thinking, lots and lots and lots.

Even this post on What to Do When You Hate Networking is clearly a workaround for the Introverted bit of me.

I love the basics of music theory. Not just like it, I adore it, that music can be broken down into numbers and logical progressions, that it’s written out like a graph of pitch vs time. That I can analyse a piece of music just from listening and tell you exactly what interval is in there that people love when they hear it but don’t know why or what chord progression is being reused again and again or what musical ingredients are perfect for a particular project, because of this theory. Again – perfectly to type. Soooo predictable!

Bit weird I know. But when did you ever meet a successful muso who wasn’t just a little bit weird?

It’s quite fun to see what other famous peeps share the INTJ trait. I got Michelle Obama and the lovely John (my other half) got Barack. We may be on the right track.

Most importantly, I share this personality type with Jean-Luc Picard and Seven of Nine. Awesome.

I’d be seriously interested to find out what the personality types are of the composers, filmmakers, writers, designers and other media- or arty-types out there, my lovely readers.

Does your style of being in the world help or hinder your career?

Have you found workarounds to your traits, to the ‘bugs in the system’?

Let us know in the comments!

Tagged as: Business, INTJ, myers-briggs, personality type, SCORECastOnline