I’ve begun doing some informational interviews in the area of gay rights law, in order to see what the work is like and (more importantly) where the jobs are, and also to start making connections. I met with someone yesterday at a prominent gay rights organization and learned a lot.

If any of you have any connections at gay rights organizations in New York with whom I might be able to speak about working in gay rights law, feel free to contact me.

In other news, last week I got the results back from my personality tests. I’d taken the Myers-Briggs (MBTI) and the Strong Interest Inventory.

On the Myers-Briggs I was classified as INFP. This means I am more:

Introverted as opposed to Extroverted
iNtuitive as opposed to Sensing
Feeling as opposed to Thinking
Perceiving as opposed to Judging

More explanation of the different qualities here.

Two of the categories were close calls. I was classified as only three points more introverted than extroverted, which makes some sense, because I do like parties and I do value relationships with people, but I also really need my quiet alone time. Even closer, I was only one point more feeling than thinking. That’s understandable, too, as I have a long-standing conflict between the emotional and logical sides of me; I find each mode of existence highly appealing in its own way.

I came out six points more perceiving than judging, and a whopping THIRTEEN points more intuitive than sensing.

As for the Strong Interest Inventory, it judges you on six characteristics: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. I scored most highly in the Artistic and Investigative categories.

The job categories with which my answers to the various questions correlated most closely are: Librarian, Translator, Technical Writer. I have no interest in being a translator, some interest in being a “technical writer” (which apparently encompasses such things as legal writing), and not a whole lot of interest in being a librarian.

Another job on which it ranked me pretty highly, though, was college professor. That’s another thing I’ve thought about before.

Anyway, I tend to think these kinds of tests are largely self-reinforcing – they confirm what you already know, and if you disagree with the results, you discount them. Still, they’re fun to take, and they’re not wholly unenlightening.