There is an MBTI qualifying class and exam in a few weeks in my region. I’m planning on attending and mentioned this to one of the consultants. He had come to MBTI after his graduate degree in education; he admitted he has not yet tired of type talk.

I wonder if my background in government and information technology would be useful for moving into some kind of organizational psychology area?

On another note, I am getting control of my less helpful selftalk, but I find it requires constant vigilance. I wonder if Introverts have a greater tendency towards selftalk than Extraverts? It seems we have so much rattling round our skulls all the time.

On the other hand, Human Relations Departments are a growing area of necessity within many corporations over here and many Organisational Psychologists have gained full-time employment (and very highly paid) within these corporations although some remain as freelance consultants contracted to the company for specific purposes. Crowsie, have you ever thought of simply doing a degree in Human Resources and Industrial Relations if your interest is in Organisational Psychology since you are worried about future employment? This type of degree would help you with a career transition.

I need to do something radically different. I look at this as the normal progression of me. After nearly 20 years of using computers for publishing and 11 years of computer support, I’m really ready to veer into something different.

Where my interests lie–increasingly–are in myth, archetype, and psychology. Transformative psychology mostly, but maybe organizational. I have doubts that I could make a successful career transition, though. Probably too hindered by my own bad-selftalk, to tell the truth. What kind of income would I find in this subject area? Probably not much…. And statistics absolutely terrifies me.

I think you really need to address why you are wanting to acquire this type of knowledge via academic degrees. Is it in order to seek recognition by others because of this “certified stamp of approval” in order to further your career, or is it to acquire knowledge for your own personal development?

To acquire degrees for the purpose of furthering/cementing yourself in your chosen profession is at most times difficult, since motivation to follow this type of course is often marching to an external drum beat. This external drum beat pushing you through these degrees often only serves to replicate/maintain the existing hierarchal order and system within academia itself, leaving you feeling personally unchallenged and unfulfilled.

The degrees I found personally fulfilling (other than those I had amassed as the “norm” dictated via my educational career/professional path) were the ones in areas that many saw as “unrelated” to my actual paid professional path. These “unrelated” areas, I never saw as “unrelated”, as from what I could see, all disciplines overlap and interact with each other at some level, especially in the field of education. So I set off to learn, demystify and understand certain areas within academia during my time when I occupied an executive position within the Teachers Union. I found that I was wanting to know and understand more on Industrial Relations matters which lead me to undertake a LLB and a B PSYCH .. yeah, although they may appear to an outsider as areas that are very unrelated, for me they were crucial for my own curiosity and personal development and they were degrees I actually enjoyed doing. Not once did I find them to be a drag or a chore.

I guess the base line is crowsie, enjoyment comes when you are marching to the inner beat of your own drum. It is a shame that the $ cost of embarking on such courses for the sole purpose of personal development makes it near impossible for people to do now though. Still, I wish you all the very best and lots of luck in finding some area/course of study you can enjoy, whilst marching to your own inner drum beat.