The Logician: A Guide to the INTP Personality Type

INTP, which stands for introverted, intuitive, thinking and perceiving, is one of the rarer Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality types. INTPs are innovative inventors, constantly searching for understanding and knowledge. Understanding this personality and how it affects the workplace can help you incorporate practices for this type of person, especially if this happens to be your personality type.

In this article, we explain INTP traits, how people with this personality type operate in the workplace and how to highlight your personality type on your resume, cover letter and even in job interviews.

What is the INTP personality type?

The INTP personality is among the rarer personality types, comprising around 3% to 5% of the population, according to the Center for Applications of Psychological Type. More men than women identify as INTPs. Individuals with an INTP personality are often referred to as "The Logician," "The Thinker" or "The Architect."

INTPs are often brilliant, philosophical people. They're thoughtful and pensive and enjoy working independently on their own ideas. They're independent and often have only a few close friends. INTPs are creative geniuses, and when in the correct work environment, they can make remarkable progress toward solving challenges and completing creative tasks.

Related: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: 16 Personality Types in the Workplace

5 INTP traits

Key characteristics of an INTP personality type include the following five traits:

1. Analytical

While they have a quiet demeanor, INTP personalities have powerful intellectual abilities that are beneficial to any work environment. They're logical, fast thinkers who excel in analyzing the connections between fine details and small pieces of information and explaining challenging concepts. INTPs view the world as a complex machine with many interrelated parts to study, understand and connect.

Related: The 16 Myers-Briggs Personality Types in the Workplace

2. Imaginative

INTPs think deeply to fully understand and explain difficult concepts. They search for ways to improve systems or products. They may view ideas and concepts differently than other personality types, as they're focused on the potential possibilities.

Related: Personality Type Test: Definition and Examples

3. Objective

An INTP personality type is relentless when searching for truth, understanding and objectivity. They focus their energy on finding mistakes and getting rid of inconsistencies. They approach challenges with their analytical nature, creativity and open-mindedness. They welcome the opinions of others, as long as facts and logic support them.

4. Enthusiastic

While naturally reserved, INTPs are excited by new ideas and concepts. When they find a topic or idea that interests them, they become enthusiastic. Their excitement tends to encourage others and can make for an enjoyable work environment.

5. Straightforward and honest

INTPs are straightforward and honest. They believe in being sincere and transparent and expect others to do the same. This is especially important in the workplace, as many INTP personalities expect and provide honest feedback, improvements and other helpful information organizations can use to improve.

Related: Myers-Briggs Personality Types and Their Job Compatibilities

INTPs in the workplace

The INTP personality type is motivated by solving complex issues and accomplishing challenging goals. They prefer to analyze challenges or ideas thoroughly to develop a clear understanding and develop innovative solutions. Their ability to find patterns allows them to easily identify discrepancies.

They dislike being bound to bureaucracy and rules, especially regarding their own ideas. INTP personalities have the ability to retain and comprehend a lot of information. They work well in specific, nontraditional workplace environments, independently or with a small team. To an INTP personality, developing a deeper understanding of complex problems is essential to finding solutions.

For teamwork, INTP personalities prefer working alongside those they perceive as intelligent, competent and logical. They work best on a team that allows them to have the freedom to think carefully about how different processes work and come up with new ideas. They favor calm, conflict-free work environments and prefer working with others as equals over hierarchical relationships.

Related: INTP vs. INFP Personality Types: 5 Key Differences

INTP career types

Because of their desire for a flexible work environment and a specific team structure to help them come up with innovative solutions to problems, INTPs tend to thrive in the following careers:

• Architect

• Business analyst

• Computer programmer

• Forensic medical examiner

• Information security analyst

• Technical writer

Read more: 10 of the Best Careers for INTP Personalities (And Salaries)

How to highlight INTPs at work

As an INTP, you can include your transferable skills on your resume, cover letter or during an interview. Here are some ways you can highlight them:

INTP personality type for resumes

You can highlight your INTP skills on your resume in the summary, within your employment history or in your skills list.

Example: In your resume summary as a computer programmer, you might say: “Successful problem solver with five years of coding experience using strong analytical skills when designing, writing and debugging software.”

Related: 13 Jobs for Intuitive Thinkers To Explore

INTP personality type for cover letters

Determine the skills an employer has included in the job description and add examples of where you have used those skills in your past work experience.

Example: A multimedia artist with an INTP personality might include the following in their cover letter: “During my previous role as a head animator at E&F Lightsgalore, I relied on my innovation and imagination to lead up to 12 projects that involved developing a script, planning narrative sequences and creating animations using hand-drawing techniques and computer software. Each project had a specific and tight deadline.”

Related: 7 Key Components of an Effective Cover Letter

INTP personality type for job interviews

INTP personalities are best at analyzing information and finding ways to bring it all together. Before your interview, make sure you have a clear understanding of what the job is and its requirements, and then find ways to connect your skills and establish yourself as the right candidate. Be sure to provide specific examples that demonstrate how you have used your intellect, logic and analytical skills to solve a challenging problem and how you can use these to the benefit of the company if selected for the job.

Example: An interviewer may ask how you might handle a certain situation and your response may be: “On one occasion at AS Developers, we had a planned rollout that was to go live the next day. One of the junior developers mistakenly checked in an old code, which deleted the existing code. As I ran the final checks, I discovered there was a problem. I examined the issue thoroughly and found that by changing the database we could avoid a week's worth of recoding. The rollout went ahead as planned and on time.”