Do What You Are

Why do some people find deep fulfillment at work while others feel drained? Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron-Tieger answers that question through the language of psychological Type. The authors contend that when the tasks, structures, and relationships of your work align with how you naturally process information and make decisions, satisfaction follows. This isn’t about chasing dream jobs; it’s about designing a career that matches your authentic psychological wiring.

The book builds its argument on the Myers‑Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), a system derived from Carl Jung’s theory of psychological types and refined by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers. It organizes personalities by four continua—Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving—whose combinations yield sixteen distinct types. Your four-letter code, such as ENFJ or ISTP, summarizes patterns in how you gather information, make decisions, and structure life. The goal is not to label you but to guide you toward environments that fit your natural energy.

From Framework to Application

The authors move beyond abstract theory by creating what they call the "Fourmula" for Career Satisfaction. The Fourmula combines four interlocking concepts: temperament (your broad motivational family), the hierarchy of functions (your cognitive strengths ranked by comfort and use), how you use functions (whether you apply them outwardly or inwardly), and type development (how your preferences evolve through life). Each element helps you diagnose what energizes you now and what will suit you later as you grow.

For example, an ENFJ like Anna channels dominant Extraverted Feeling by building people connections and auxiliary Introverted Intuition by planning visionary strategies. Her work as a director of development pairs both perfectly. By contrast, an ISTJ like Maureen starts her career emphasizing dominant Sensing (detail and reliability) before later embracing Intuition as she moves into managerial strategy. The Fourmula turns these dynamics into practical tools for choosing satisfying work or predicting your next career evolution.

Temperament's Shortcut

Temperament—the broad clusters of SJs, SPs, NFs, and NTs—offers a quick lens for understanding what drives you. Traditionalists (SJs) value stability, structure, and duty; Experiencers (SPs) crave variety, action, and real-time results; Idealists (NFs) seek meaning and personal growth; Conceptualizers (NTs) pursue logic, innovation, and system-level impact. By recognizing your temperament, you can screen out environments that will frustrate you before taking a single interview.

The text turns this lens into strategy. Jay and Rob, both SJs, thrive in structured schools and organizations where service matters. Anna and Mitch (NFs) find satisfaction in human development roles. Susan (an NT) succeeds when designing new hospital systems. The book’s lively examples show how identical industries can energize different temperaments for opposite reasons.

Your Type in Motion

Throughout the narrative, you learn that Type is dynamic—it evolves across life stages. Before adulthood, dominant and auxiliary functions shape early interests; midlife brings new motivations as tertiary and inferior functions mature. This explains career pivots and midlife re-evaluations: Marty (an ISFP) later explores Intuitive work as a counselor, while Naomi (an ENTP) shifts attention from systems to relationships. Awareness of development prevents panic when your old career no longer fits—it signals growth, not failure.

That same developmental understanding powers encore careers later in life. Boomers like Guthrie (professor turned coach) or Ronnie (HR executive turned consultant) find new purpose by combining legacy strengths with emerging functions. The message: each stage opens new possibilities that still honor who you are.

Turning Knowledge into Action

The book’s final sections translate insight into movement. You learn how to design a job search that reflects your Type—Extraverts network broadly, Introverts target deeply; Sensors research specific companies, Intuitives brainstorm possibilities; Feelers connect through values, Thinkers analyze roles logically; Judgers map timelines, Perceivers improvise campaigns. Real profiles like Neil (ESFJ), Connie (ISFJ), or Rich (ESTP) illustrate these customized strategies.

You’re also taught to shape your existing job through “massages”—small type-conscious adjustments like delegating draining tasks, proposing flexible schedules, or starting mission-aligned projects within your organization. From there, many people invent entirely new roles, as Elizabeth (ENTP copywriter turned agency founder) or Alan (ENFP corporate trainer turned consultant) demonstrate.

(Parenthetical note: this approach echoes ideas from Richard Bolles’s What Color Is Your Parachute?, but Tieger and Barron-Tieger replace trial-and-error exploration with psychological precision—you don’t guess what fits; you decode it.)

Core insight

You do not change who you are to succeed—you apply who you are intelligently. When your work aligns with the natural rhythm of your personality, effort feels like flow rather than friction.

By the end, Do What You Are becomes both a self-understanding manual and a career strategy guide. It shows that satisfaction isn’t the result of luck or market trends—it’s the predictable outcome of aligning your work with your personality, your stage of growth, and the authentic way you process life.

The book begins with the fundamentals of personality Type. You learn to interpret the four letters that form your MBTI code, each revealing a distinct kind of preference. Extraversion and Introversion describe where you direct your energy; Sensing and Intuition define how you perceive information; Thinking and Feeling explain how you decide; Judging and Perceiving clarify how you organize life. None are good or bad—they are natural styles for engaging with the world.

To determine your Type, the authors recommend self-reflection combined with verification. You explore each continuum, identify where you’re most comfortable, and then read type profiles to confirm the match. Life roles can mask preferences—Joanne learned this after teaching in a highly structured setting that stifled her creative, Intuitive needs. The message: identify patterns, not isolated behaviors, and treat early assessments as hypotheses you can confirm through experience.

How Type Functions as a Language

Type becomes a language once you master it. It explains why Arthur flourishes in high-energy sales calls, while Julie prefers counseling interactions; why Ellen left computer systems for human-focused sales; and why Alex trained as a doctor under family pressure only to feel unfulfilled. When you understand these patterns, you can translate frustration into insight—you don’t simply dislike a job, you recognize that it taps your inferior functions instead of your dominant ones.

(Note: Later sections make clear that preferences are continua. Most people fall somewhere along the spectrum, not at fixed extremes. That nuance prevents stereotyping and allows flexibility in self-application.)

Practical insight

Your Type provides a compact map for choosing environments where your natural mode of perception and decision can flow without resistance.

If you adopt Type as a professional language rather than a label, you gain daily utility. It helps you design collaboration, mitigate conflict, and know why certain routines feel natural or draining. This foundation sets the stage for the deeper frameworks that follow—the hierarchy of functions, temperament groups, and life-span development—all of which make Type actionable rather than descriptive.

Tieger and Barron-Tieger refine career guidance into their signature "Fourmula." The Fourmula integrates four interdependent components: temperament, hierarchy of functions, extraverted versus introverted function use, and type development. Together, these elements show why the same job can be paradise for one person and misery for another.

Temperament Groups

Temperament defines core motivation. Traditionalists (SJs) value order and responsibility; Experiencers (SPs) seek freedom and action; Idealists (NFs) pursue meaning and growth; Conceptualizers (NTs) prize reasoning and innovation. Anna (ENFJ) thrives in human development because Idealists find satisfaction through impact. Susan (ENTJ) focuses on strategic vision because Conceptualizers delight in building systems.

Hierarchy of Functions

Within each Type, the hierarchy orders four cognitive functions from dominant to inferior. Your first two—dominant and auxiliary—drive success and satisfaction. Dominant Feelers make empathetic decisions; Dominant Thinkers design systems; Dominant Sensors rely on empirical precision; Dominant Intuitives synthesize possibilities. Herb excels at research details as a Sensor, while Abby connects ideas as an Intuitive copywriter. Using your dominant and auxiliary regularly keeps you energized.

Career rule of thumb

If a role forces you to rely on your inferior function for long stretches, stress and dissatisfaction follow.

Inner vs Outer Use

Extraverts use their dominant functions outwardly; Introverts use them inwardly. Jonathan (ENFP) processes ideas aloud, Shelly (ENFJ) reflects privately. Recognizing whether your power operates best publicly or privately helps define ideal work settings—brainstorm labs for extraverts, research or design studios for introverts.

Type Development

Lastly, the Fourmula accounts for time. Early career satisfaction depends on roles that activate your dominant and auxiliary; midlife urges growth through tertiary skills; later life integrates all four functions. Maureen’s evolution from technician to supervisor reflects natural type maturation, not random chance. Anticipating this development allows career planning without fear.

Together, the Fourmula provides a holistic diagnostic tool—identify your temperament family, confirm dominant and auxiliary functions, align them with appropriate environments, and plan ahead for development. When those parts mesh, you truly do what you are.

Temperament is the book’s simplest and most intuitive shortcut to satisfaction. It clusters the sixteen types into four families based on shared motivations and patterns. Temperament explains what you want from work at a deep level—security, excitement, meaning, or mastery—and thus acts as an early filter for choosing environments and roles.

The Four Temperaments

Traditionalists (SJs) crave stability and respect established systems. Connie, the ISFJ school supervisor, and Jay, the teacher, both show this desire for order and reliability. Experiencers (SPs) are spontaneous and hands-on; Lou, the detective, and Kristine, the biomedical technician, prove that they thrive in action and real-time problem-solving. Idealists (NFs) are motivated by connection and growth; Anna and Mitch in counseling and HR flourish when helping people realize their potential. Conceptualizers (NTs) value competence and control; Susan, the strategic planner, and Ronnie, the consultant, are prime examples.

Temperament and Environment

The authors emphasize matching temperament to organizational culture as much as to job tasks. Two people may perform the same work but experience it differently. An SJ police officer loves procedural order, while an SP officer prefers unpredictable field action. Recognizing that difference prevents the false assumption that satisfaction comes only from the occupation itself.

Pro tip

If you aren’t sure where to start, locate your two middle letters. They’ll quickly reveal your temperament family and narrow career options worth exploring.

Temperament explains why different people define success differently. It redefines career counseling from "find the right job" to "find the right environment," where your natural motivations—stability, freedom, human growth, or system-building—find expression.

Your Type isn’t fixed; it evolves through life as different functions mature. Tieger and Barron-Tieger describe development as a lifelong arc: childhood reveals seeds of preference, adulthood consolidates strengths, and midlife brings new curiosity. Understanding this cycle empowers you to anticipate career transitions rather than fear them.

Stages of Development

Before age six, preferences are malleable. From ages six to twelve, the dominant function emerges; adolescence and young adulthood strengthen the auxiliary. By twenty-five, the tertiary begins asserting itself; around forty, most people consciously integrate neglected functions. Marty, the ISFP artist, begins exploring Intuition in midlife, while Naomi, the ENTP executive, turns attention from strategy to relationships. The result is personal balance.

Midlife and Beyond

Midlife reevaluation isn’t crisis—it’s an invitation to expand. Career changes often stem from the urge to use newly matured functions. Baby boomer examples from the book—Jay the teacher, Guthrie the mentor, Ronnie the consultant—illustrate encore careers that merge earlier skills with new motivations. Development means growth, not betrayal of your type.

Plan Growth Proactively

You can cultivate underdeveloped functions intentionally. Sensors learn creativity through projects; Intuitives ground themselves in concrete tasks; Thinkers develop empathy through mentoring; Feelers strengthen logic through strategy. Phil (ENFP) practiced assertive reasoning with a retailer to expand his Thinking function. These small, practical steps build resilience.

Life-stage insight

What satisfies you at thirty may not match what fulfills you at fifty—and that shift signals healthy evolution.

Understanding type development transforms career planning into a lifelong strategy. It means designing your path so early roles build competence, midlife fosters balance, and later life embraces wholeness and legacy.

Once you know your Type, the book helps you translate it directly into concrete career moves. You learn how to search, evaluate, and adapt jobs based on how your preferences affect motivation, communication, and follow-through. The method applies to both finding new roles and refining existing ones.

Searching by Type

Your search style mirrors your personality. Extraverts network widely, like Daniel (ENFP) or Neil (ESFJ). Introverts use deep conversations, like Connie (ISFJ). Sensors ground decisions in concrete facts and timelines; Intuitives explore possibilities and connections. Feelers seek rapport; Thinkers test logic and return on investment. Judgers track daily goals; Perceivers keep flexible campaigns. Each profile turns self-awareness into strategy.

Tailored Networking

Example-driven stories show how customization works. Maggie connected during a humorous bathroom encounter—classic ENFP networking. Lilly (INFP) planned limited interviews to avoid exhaustion. ENTJs like Ted run systematic follow-up cycles. Recognizing your approach saves time and matches effort to motivation.

Refining or Inventing Roles

When ideal work doesn’t exist, create it. Elizabeth (ENTP) founded a flexible ad agency; Alan (ENFP) negotiated contractor status to keep freedom and steady clients. Others, like Julia, restructure schedules or volunteer for new projects to realign Type and role. Small, reversible changes, called “job massages,” let you test adjustments safely while preparing for bigger transitions.

Avoiding Pitfalls

Blind spots follow Type patterns: ENFPs may neglect detail, INTJs may appear cold, ESFJs may overcommit emotionally. Developing tertiary and inferior functions corrects imbalance—Ted time-manages rigorously; Kathleen practices diplomacy; Emily adds sensory hobbies to stay grounded. Growth reinforces satisfaction.

Bottom line

Use temperament for environment, hierarchy for tasks, function orientation for style, and development for timing. These layers make career planning precise rather than random.

When you apply Type pragmatically, you transform career change from guesswork into designed evolution. You are not searching for external validation—you are aligning the job market to your authentic self.