Sep 25, 2008

"We Are Hiring Logical Intuiters..."

Today I got a message in Russian from a legal company in Kiev looking to hire logical intuiters:


We are hiring logical intuiters...

We are hiring attorneys of logical-intuitive and intuitive-logical types!

A Kiev-based legal company that provides services to major industrial companies of Ukraine in corporate, business, banking, and other types of law, announces the opening of new vacancies for the position of attorney/lawyer. We invite representatives of logical-intuitive and intuitive-logical types, as well as a Sensing Logical Extravert. 

Our team is made of highly professional young lawyers and attorneys. We provide a complete technology package (laptop, cell phone, company car, etc.). Pay is more than decent.

Requirements: Man (!) between 25 and 35. At least two years' work experience. Full-time work. Knowledge of foreign languages is not mandatory. Work will be in an office in Kiev. We are interested in employees who can devote themselves entirely to their work and perform their tasks quickly and creatively.

Resumes can be sent to... . For inquiries call... 

I have mixed feelings when I see something like this. On the one hand, it's good that people in business are becoming aware of the importance of types and are looking for ways to make their teams more productive. On the other hand, I have doubts as to whether socionics is being applied competently or on a whim. It is well possible that an influential person in the company learned about socionics and got excited about using it to make the hiring process easier. This could be his first try (and quite possibly his last):

  •  The e-mail was apparently sent to all the members of a Russian language socionics forum. Do high-powered, ambitious young attorneys hang around socionics forums? Hm...
  • Why specifically logical-intuitive types? What about the job necessitates that selection? Does the hiring company specifically want to rule out competent and effective LSIs, LSEs, and other types? 
  • Does the company have a sufficient number of sensing-ethical types to make life tolerable for all the intuitive-logical types it expects to hire? 
  • Does the company realize the ramifications of hiring a group of people from opposing quadras? Is there intention to polarize the company and develop groups with clashing work styles? Perhaps each new employee will be working wholly on his own?
  • Why the lone Sensing Logical Extravert? Presumably it will be his job to whip the others into shape or "build a team," while being alienated and scoffed at by the other attorneys?
In other words, it seems that socionics is being applied as an MBTI-esque test of professional abilities with little awareness of intertype interaction and information flow between types. The fact that the e-mail was sent to members of a socionics forum confirms to me that it is a "first-time experiment," following which they will probably revert to more conventional methods of looking for employees to hire. 

7 comments:

Unknown said...

It has begun....

Anonymous said...

Some time ago (1990s) there were many similar hiring sugests in Russia but about astrological types. Now, Jung's typology has come.

Current condition of typology is rather questionable at applicability in hiring. How will they accurate identify/prove type (while existing great divergence in typings, and still there's no relible and not questionable in validity type-test)? Is there any scientific research that NT types are better as lawers?

There's the saying: "Worse than a fool, is a fool full of initiative."

Anonymous said...

>> Do high-powered, ambitious young attorneys hang around socionics forums?

You'd be surprised ;)

anyz said...

socionics is dangerous...

Ezra said...

">> Do high-powered, ambitious young attorneys hang around socionics forums?

You'd be surprised ;)"

Indeed you would. :p

As an SLE, it looks like I'm sorted if socionics ever finds its way into giant corporations.

Anonymous said...

creepy.

Anonymous said...

Yeah this is concerning for sure. I can just imagine this spiraling out of control into every field of work. Perhaps it would create a utopia where everyone is doing what they love? I do think it would squash creativity and progress however as having a variety of people in different jobs can make a big difference :)

Funnily enough i have a ILI friend who is a lawyer and he suits the position perfectly. Hes climbing up the ranks of the law firm quite successfully. He has good social skills and of course is extremely intelligent.