Hard work may pay off, but there’s a big difference between tackling a difficult task and putting in a lot of hours. Cal Newport, assistant professor at Georgetown University, decided to look at the work habits of talented people and found that busier wasn’t better. In fact, it was much worse than limited, focused work.
Cal analyzed a study from the Universität der Künste in Berlin that looked at the practice habits of violinists, his own behavior, and a few other sources to find patterns amongst talented people. Long hours wasn’t one of them. In fact, that turned out to be a problem rather than a solution. Instead, focused work for about three to four hours made all the difference:

Whether you’re a student or well along in your career, if your goal is to build a remarkable life, then busyness and exhaustion should be your enemy.

If you’re chronically stressed and up late working, you’re doing something wrong. You’re the average players from the Universität der Künste - not the elite. You’ve built a life around hard to do work, not hard work.

The solution suggested by this research, as well as my own, is as simple as it is startling:

Do less. But do what you do with complete and hard focus. Then when you’re done be done, and go enjoy the rest of the day.

Putting that advice into practice may be easier said than done. If you have the ability to focus for a good chunk of time and not waste your day trying to do everything on your list, however, research will back you up.

If you have a big job interview coming up and you know the name of the person conducting the interview, consider spending a few minutes stalking that person online so you can find hobbies or clubs shared in common—finding a connection that you can bring up during the interview will help help you stand out amongst the other candidates.

Financial weblog Free Money Finance lists several methods to encourage an interviewer to like you. They posit that the general rule of thumb with online stalking is that anything listed on LinkedIn is okay to use for conversation starters but you want to stay away from Facebook revelations as they can be more private and/or awkward. Since most of is posted on LinkedIn is generally considered public knowledge, you should be able to reference information about the company and that specific employee without giving off the creepy stalker vibe.

If it takes you a long time to finally fall asleep because your mind keeps racing, use what you did earlier in the day to help you focus and drift off more easily.

Leo Babauta on Zen Habits posted this tip as part of an article on becoming an early riser (it’s hard to wake up early if it takes you forever to fall asleep):

Close your eyes and get comfortable, then think of the first thing you did that morning - the very first thing, like turning off your alarm. Then think of the next thing, and so on, replaying your morning in as much detail as possible. I never get to mid-morning.

This is easier than counting the Fibonacci sequence to fall asleep to cure a monkey brain sleep problem.

Steps

1. Read through old textbook, organize the contents into Q&A form
2. Compile the questions into a deck of flashcards.
3. Input the deck of cards into a memorization software/website
4. Setup a time, everyday (say 2 pm), review the selected cards from the software
5. The software will automatically generate the desired selection/amount of memory to deal with each day.
6. Repeat until the software no longer pop up unknown cards.

Why this is helpful

1. Memorization is essentially a cycle-repetition work, no tricks can be made. So the best method is to make the repetition convenient and efficient.
2. Q&A form stimulates active thinking and reasoning, rather than hard, tedious reciting.
3. The selection of cards is made by application of the memory curve.
4. The memorization process actively feeds backed into the software, helping it to decide which questions need more work. Therefore modifies the memory curve.

Whether you’re a young adult trying to find your place in the world, or a not-so-young adult trying to find out if you’re moving along the right path, it’s important to understand yourself and the personality traits which will impact your likeliness to succeed or fail at various careers. It’s equally important to understand what is really important to you. When armed with an understanding of your strengths and weaknesses, and an awareness of what you truly value, you are in an excellent position to pick a career which you will find rewarding.

INTJs generally have the following traits:

• Able to absorb extremely complex theoretical and complex material
• Driven to create order and structure from theoretical abstractions
• Supreme strategists
• Future-oriented
• See the global, “big picture”
• Strong insights and intuitions, which they trust implicitly
• Value their own opinions over others
• Love difficult theoretical challenges
• Bored when dealing with mundane routine
• Value knowledge and efficiency
• Have no patience with inefficiency and confusion
• Have very high standards for performance, which they apply to themselves most strongly
• Reserved and detached from others
• Calm, collected and analytical
• Extremely logical and rational
• Original and independent
• Natural leaders, but will follow those they can fully support
• Creative, ingenious, innovative, and resourceful
• Work best alone, and prefer to work alone

More so than any other personality type, INTJs are brilliant when it comes to grasping complex theories and applying them to problems to come up with long-term strategies. Since this type of “strategizing” is the central focus and drive of the INTJ, there is a happy match between desire and ability in this type. Accordingly, the INTJ is happiest and most effective in careers which allow this type of processing, and which promote an environment in which the INTJ is given a lot of autonomy over their daily lives.

Professions

The following list of professions is built on our impressions of careers which would be especially suitable for an INTJ. It is meant to be a starting place, rather than an exhaustive list. There are no guarantees that any or all of the careers listed here would be appropriate for you, or that your best career match is among those listed.

• Scientists
• Engineers
• Professors and Teachers
• Medical Doctors / Dentists
• Corporate Strategists and Organization Builders
• Business Administrators / Managers
• Military Leaders
• Lawyers / Attorneys
• Judges
• Computer Programmers or Systems Analysts

Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging

As an INTJ, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you take things in primarily via your intuition. Your secondary mode is external, where you deal with things rationally and logically.

INTJs live in the world of ideas and strategic planning. They value intelligence, knowledge, and competence, and typically have high standards in these regards, which they continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, they have similar expectations of others.

Outcomes

With Introverted Intuition dominating their personality, INTJs focus their energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities. Their mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. They are tremendously insightful and usually are very quick to understand new ideas. However, their primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. Unlike the INTP, they do not follow an idea as far as they possibly can, seeking only to understand it fully. INTJs are driven to come to conclusions about ideas. Their need for closure and organization usually requires that they take some action.

INTJ’s tremendous value and need for systems and organization, combined with their natural insightfulness, makes them excellent scientists. An INTJ scientist gives a gift to society by putting their ideas into a useful form for others to follow. It is not easy for the INTJ to express their internal images, insights, and abstractions. The internal form of the INTJ’s thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not readily translatable into a form that others will understand. However, the INTJ is driven to translate their ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable, rather than to do a direct translation of their thoughts. They usually don’t see the value of a direct transaction, and will also have difficulty expressing their ideas, which are non-linear. However, their extreme respect of knowledge and intelligence will motivate them to explain themselves to another person who they feel is deserving of the effort.

INTJs are natural leaders, although they usually choose to remain in the background until they see a real need to take over the lead. When they are in leadership roles, they are quite effective, because they are able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and are adaptable enough to change things which aren’t working well. They are the supreme strategists - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against their current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.

Feelings

INTJs spend a lot of time inside their own minds, and may have little interest in the other people’s thoughts or feelings. Unless their Feeling side is developed, they may have problems giving other people the level of intimacy that is needed. Unless their Sensing side is developed, they may have a tendency to ignore details which are necessary for implementing their ideas.

Arrogance

The INTJ’s interest in dealing with the world is to make decisions, express judgments, and put everything that they encounter into an understandable and rational system. Consequently, they are quick to express judgments. Often they have very evolved intuitions, and are convinced that they are right about things. Unless they complement their intuitive understanding with a well-developed ability to express their insights, they may find themselves frequently misunderstood. In these cases, INTJs tend to blame misunderstandings on the limitations of the other party, rather than on their own difficulty in expressing themselves. This tendency may cause the INTJ to dismiss others input too quickly, and to become generally arrogant and elitist.

INTJs are ambitious, self-confident, deliberate, long-range thinkers. Many INTJs end up in engineering or scientific pursuits, although some find enough challenge within the business world in areas which involve organizing and strategic planning. They dislike messiness and inefficiency, and anything that is muddled or unclear. They value clarity and efficiency, and will put enormous amounts of energy and time into consolidating their insights into structured patterns.

Difficult to understand

Other people may have a difficult time understanding an INTJ. They may see them as aloof and reserved. Indeed, the INTJ is not overly demonstrative of their affections, and is likely to not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. That doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t truly have affection or regard for others, they simply do not typically feel the need to express it. Others may falsely perceive the INTJ as being rigid and set in their ways. Nothing could be further from the truth, because the INTJ is committed to always finding the objective best strategy to implement their ideas. The INTJ is usually quite open to hearing an alternative way of doing something.

When under a great deal of stress, the INTJ may become obsessed with mindless repetitive, Sensate activities, such as over-drinking. They may also tend to become absorbed with minutia and details that they would not normally consider important to their overall goal.

INTJs need to remember to express themselves sufficiently, so as to avoid difficulties with people misunderstandings. In the absence of properly developing their communication abilities, they may become abrupt and short with people, and isolationists.

INTJs have a tremendous amount of ability to accomplish great things. They have insight into the Big Picture, and are driven to synthesize their concepts into solid plans of action. Their reasoning skills gives them the means to accomplish that. INTJs are most always highly competent people, and will not have a problem meeting their career or education goals. They have the capability to make great strides in these arenas. On a personal level, the INTJ who practices tolerances and puts effort into effectively communicating their insights to others has everything in his or her power to lead a rich and rewarding life.

Jungian functional preference ordering: Dominant: Introverted Intuition Auxiliary: Extraverted Thinking Tertiary: Introverted Feeling Inferior: Extraverted Sensing

Most career problems stem from the fact that we are terrible at picking jobs. We think we are picking a good job and then it turns out to be a bad job. It’s almost impossible to pick a good job on the first try, actually. So don’t think you’ll be the exception.

Economist Neil Howe says that only 5% of people pick the right job on the first try. He calls those people “fast starters” and in general, they are less creative, less adventurous, and less innovative, which makes a conventional, common path work well for them. So it’s questionable whether you should even aspire to be one of those people who picks right the first try. But, that said, we all still want to be good at choosing paths for ourselves. So, here are some guidelines to think about—whether it’s our first career or our fifth career.

Don’t Believe the Hype

We have a grass-is-greener approach to professions that are not our own. For example, this award-winnng video from Chipotle about farmers becoming more animal-friendly pretends that it’s just a mental and emotional evolution for farmers to realize that going back to nature, and being good to animals, is what feels best, so they should do it. It’s so easy, for example, to take the pigs out of an assembly line.

The Chipotle video is total crap, to be honest. It’s not that farmers don’t know that pigs on pasture is nicer. It’s that there is no market for pigs on pasture because consumers won’t pay enough to eat humane meat (without farrowing crates, for example, pork prices would quadruple). So the idea that being a farmer is so beautiful and back-to-the land is just absurd. Being a farmer is actually really complicated, hard entrepreneurial work with very low wages.

Another example of a hyped up job is a lawyer. You see their exciting life on TV: a gloriously safe path from college to law school to a high paying job. But behind the scenes, each year the American Bar Association conducts a survey to ask if lawyers would recommend their profession to other people, and the vast majority of lawyers say no.

Pick a Lifestyle, Not a Job Title

Look at the lives you see people having, and ask yourself whose life you would want. That’s easy, right? But now look deeper. You can’t just have the life they have now. You have to have the life they lead to get there. So, Taylor Swift has had great success, and now she gets to pretty much do whatever she wants. But could you do what she did to get there? She had her whole family relocate so she could pursue her dreams in Nashville. Do you want a life of such high-stakes, singular commitment?

Look at the successful writers you read. Most of them wrote for years in obscurity, risking long-term financial doom in order to keep writing. Do you really want that path for yourself?Marylou Kelly Streznewski, author of Gifted Grownups, finds that most people who are exceptionally creative have to give up almost everything else in order to pursue “creativity with a big C.” For most people, that path is not appealing.

The same is true for startup founders. It’s a terrible life, to be honest. Your finances will be ruined, you won’t have time for anything else in your life, and your company will probably fail. So when you decide you want to do a startup, look at the life the person had before their company got stable. Most people would want to run their own, well-funded company and control their own hours. Very few people would want the life you have to live to get to that point.

Don’t Overcommit

Testing out lots of different jobs is a great idea. Job hopping is the sign of someone who is genuinely trying to figure out where they fit. Quitting when you know you’re in the wrong spot is a natural way to find the right spot. A resume with lots of wrong turns is not cataclysmic. You can hire a good resume writer to fix the resume so it looks like you actually had focus and purpose. (Really, I rewrite peoples’ resumes all the time. It’s about telling a story and everyone has a way to tell a good story about their career no matter how many times they’ve changed jobs.)

The important thing is to not overcommit to one path. Graduate school, for example, is overcommiting because if you don’t end up liking that field, you will have spent four years gaining entrance into the field. Taking on college debt is overcommitting because you are, effectively, saying you will ony take jobs that are relatively high paying in order to service the debt.

Buying a big house has that same effect: you overcommit to a high-earning field. Very few people want to have the same career throughout their life. Leave yourself wiggle room to switch because there is little reason to believe you’ll be able to predict what you will like in the future.

Daniel Gilbert, head of the happiness lab at Harvard, has shown that evolution has ensured that we are terrible at guessing what we will like. We guess that we will like stuff that is possible for us—that looks attainable—which is what makes us keep going in life. We are generally optimistic that things will get better. This is not rational because, for the most part, things stay the same in terms of how happy we are.

Gilbert explains in his book, Stumbling on Happiness, that we have a happiness set point, and that’s pretty much how happy we are today and it’s how happy we will be tomorrow. But evolution has made us certain that something will make us happier tomorrow. Which means we are generally poor at predicting what will make us happy since that was not a necessary trait in preserving humanity.

The Bottom Line

Gilbert says you need to try stuff to see what will make you happy. Do that. It’s scary, because it’s hard to find out that what you thought would make you happy will not make you happy. But then, it’s true that being a realist is not particularly useful to human evolution either.

How to pick a career you’ll like | Penelope Trunk

Spelling Mistakes

Don’t use words with which you aren’t familiar.
Use a dictionary as you write.
Perform a spell check on your finished resume.
Carefully read every word in your resume. If you write “from” instead of “form,” your spell check will be unable to detect your mistake.
Have a friend or two proofread your resume for you.

Punctuation Mistakes

Check for periods at the end of all full sentences.
Be consistent in your use of punctuation.
Always put periods and commas within quotation marks (i.e., Won awards including the “John H. Malcom Memorial Service Award.”)
Avoid using exclamation points.

Grammatical Mistakes

Do not switch tenses within your resume - be sure they are consistent for each job you list. The duties you currently perform should be in present tense (i.e., write reports), but ones you may have performed at past jobs should be in past tense (i.e., wrote reports).
Capitalize all proper nouns.
When expressing numbers, write out all numbers between one and nine (i.e., one, five, seven), but use numerals for all numbers 10 and above (i.e., 10, 25, 108).
If you begin a sentence with a numeral, spell out that numeral (i.e., Eleven service awards won while employed.).
Make sure your date formats are consistent (i.e., 11/22/05 or November 22, 2008, or 11.22.08. Choose one and stick with it.).

Choose Your Words Carefully

Be on the lookout for the following easily confused words: accept (to receive), except (to exclude), all right (correct), alright (this is not a word), affect (to bring about change), effect (result), personal (private), personnel (staff members), role (a character assigned or a function), roll (to revolve).
Use action words (i.e., wrote reports, increased revenues, directed staff).

Other Potential Mistakes

Check dates of all prior employment.
Check your address and phone number - are they still current and correct?
Check the number of returns separating your categories: are they consistent?
Check abbreviation of state names. All state abbreviations are two letters - no periods. For example, New York is abbreviated NY, California is CA, and Florida is FL. Look up other state abbreviations.

Design Is Important

Don’t overcrowd your resume; allow for plenty of white space.
Keep your resume to one page whenever possible.
Keep the number of fonts you use to a minimum – two at the most.
Use a font that is easy to read. Do not justify the lines of type on your resume. Allow the right side of the page to “rag.”
Do not overuse capitalization, italics, underlines, or other emphasizing features.
Make sure your name, address,phone number and email address appear on your resume and all correspondence, preferably at the top of the page.
Print your resume on white or cream paper using a good-quality printer. Print on one side of the paper only.

What To Omit

Omit salary history.
Omit sex, age, race, marital status, or other similar personal information.

“Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it.”

Other than reading your interviewer’s body language or coming right out and asking if he or she thinks you’re fit for the job, one simple question may be all you need to gauge how an interview is going or went: “Why do you work here?”

Steve Browne, an HR director, says on HR Bartender that the way the person answers can be a sign that the interview went well (or not):

I recommend that people ask “Why do you work here?” as their first follow-up question every time. When they do this, the interviewer will inevitably let their guard down and the candidate can judge how the person answers. If they seem to relax and engage the candidate, the interview went well. If they are aloof and give the Company “line” as a response, then it may have not gone well.