When Should You Take Career Risks?

The last letter of how you scored on the Keirsey Temperament Sorter gives a hint at how you are most likely to react when faced with a potential career change. Generally speaking the probing Perceiving types are more likely to take risks and move faster than the scheduled Judging types. The scheduled Judging types usually investigate and carefully plan before they make a career change.

There are many triggers for taking career risks. The current salary may be too low to survive on or the person can be driven to become wealthy. The company may be laying off people or going belly up. The career may be a poor fit causing the person to feel anger, sorrow, or anxiety. The person is driven to follow a long-held dream. The person moves to a different area and can no longer ply his/her trade in that area and must make a change. I'm sure you can think of some others.

Career changes require some skills in risk assessment. The probing Perceiving types are the most likely to seek out and accept risk. The scheduled Judging types are the most likely to want to contain and minimize risk. If the probing Perceiving types jump without assessing, they may land in hot water. If the scheduled Judging types keep trying to contain risk without assessing, they may miss opportunities and find they are the lobster in the pot of now-boiling water.

All Guardians are scheduled Judging types as are two of the idealist types (Teacher and Counselor) and two of the Rational types (Fieldmarshal and Mastermind). They need to focus on getting answers to these questions, especially the ones about benefit, since they tend to focus more on cost. If they do not gather their information in a timely manner, they may dither around and miss the boat.

All Artisans are probing Perceiving types as are two of the Idealist types (Champion and Healer) and two of the Rational types (Inventor and Architect). They are all more drawn to change and risk and need to look more closely at the cost questions, as they tend to focus on benefit rather than cost. If they do not move quickly enough while they are still excited about the opportunity, they will lose their motivation.

Now matter how much you plan, nor how much you are excited about the change, there is always a chance it won't work out. It's always a good idea to have a plan B and a plan C in case A doesn't work out.