Recently, my workplace required all management to take a professional personality assessment. The goal was to better understand the personalities, preferences, and working styles across our management team so we could collaborate with greater empathy, cohesion, and effectiveness.
We had all taken the same assessment six years earlier—during the height of COVID-19, and our entire management staff remained remarkably consistent since then, so we not only are understanding current personalities but how they’ve changed in those six years.
Then and now, I have found the assessment results remarkably accurate—for myself and my colleagues.
The timing fit perfectly into my recent path of self-discovery and understanding as I’ve uncovered the layers of my recent identification of being neurodivergent, aromantic, and asexual. Analyzing the current results and also comparing them to 2020’s results has offered profound insights under the lens of my other recent understandings of myself.
The assessment categorizes you into an acronym grouping based on these:
- Introverted/Extraverted
- Intuition/Sensing
- Thinking/Feeling
- Judging/Perceiving
Then and now I resulted in “INTJ,” which the test categorizes as “The Mastermind”: analytical problem-solvers, eager to improve systems and processes with their innovative ideas.
While my group didn’t change, the subcategories within the profile did—to the point of being within two points of flipping to an ISTJ (“The Inspector”: responsible organizers, driven to create and enforce order within systems and institutions.). What’s most interesting is not what changed but why.
What Changed Between 2020 and Now?
In the time between these two tests, I survived the stresses of a global pandemic, worked remotely for over four years, and then transitioned back to full-time in-person office work in 2024. During those same years, I navigated major domestic changes—including accepting my mother’s permanent cohabitation in my home following her stroke—and actively explored single fatherhood paths.
While all of these events carried weight, returning to the physical office full-time had the most jarring impact on my nervous system.
It was during those two years back in the office that I gradually accumulated a heavy cognitive tax: profound emotional burnout and escalating sensory sensitivity. At the time, I didn’t fully understand the underlying mechanics, completely unaware that my mind was quietly recalibrating in the background to survive them—a subconscious adaptation recorded right in my most recent assessment results.
Analyzing my assessment results alongside my therapist and through analytical AI models provided clear data on what had actually happened to my mind.
First, the fact that my core INTJ baseline held firm across six turbulent years confirms my fundamental cognitive architecture. While many of my colleagues shifted primary categories entirely, my core wiring remained remarkably consistent.
The shifts inside the subcategories, however, told a vivid story of adaptation under stress:
- A Massive Surge in Introversion and Judging (+20%): One interpretation characterized the shift as “the exact neurological blueprint of stress-induced, neurodivergent adaptation against burnout.” My mind instinctively pulled inward to protect my battery. I’ve always been a private person, but I had noticed myself becoming hyper-solitary in recent years. While I initially attributed this to age or long-term singleness, it was actually a protective “shelling” of my mind—a defensive posture triggered by moving from a quiet home environment back into a noisy, unpredictable office.
- A Shift from High Intuition Toward Sensing (62% down to 52%): Moving closer to a moderate balance on the Intuition/Sensing scale is what brought me within two points of flipping to an ISTJ. In an office environment filled with constant interruptions and sensory noise, my mind lost the quiet freedom required for abstract, big-picture wandering. It was forced into a state of singular, hyper-vigilant focus on immediate, practical realities.
- A Nudge Higher in Thinking over Feeling: As emotional and sensory fatigue set in, my reliance on pure logic increased. I began using pragmatism and analytical reasoning as a shield against workplace politics and social diplomacy. As environmental fatigue and sensory load increase, the capacity—and willingness—to engage in social performance naturally dropped.
A “Spiky” Profile with an Unexpected Balance
The detailed metrics revealed several extreme traits, with scores hitting 89% or higher in six specific areas:
- Aloof
- Solitary
- Private
- Placid
- Conscientious
- Insightful
In psychological terms, this distribution is known as a “spiky profile”—a pattern featuring high peaks and deep valleys rather than an even, rounded distribution. Spiky profiles are a recognized signature of neurodivergent minds.
Yet, what has made me feel like a walking contradiction my entire life is how these “spiky” traits intersect with another element of my personality results: high agreeableness.
Agreeableness reflects one’s capacity to understand others’ perspectives, practice calm diplomacy, and seek harmony. Most INTJs score very low in agreeableness, which is a major reason why neurodivergent people are often perceived as abrasive or cold by neurotypical people.
My unusually high agreeableness counterbalances my absolutist, analytical traits, creating a blend of pragmatic empathy. I’ve been told it is evidence of becoming a lifelong anthropologist of human behavior from adapting to the neurotypical world effectively—learning to study, understand, and navigate neurotypical social dynamics smoothly as an adaptive survival strategy.
Full Circle Reflection
I took the first assessment in summer 2020, just a couple of months after experiencing a complete cognitive freeze at a corporate convention in Atlanta. By then I had been working remotely about five months, only coming into the office when absolutely required in constrained, isolated blocks. Looking back, transitioning to remote work just days after that convention saved my nervous system from immediate collapse.
Returning to full-time in-person work in 2024 gradually brought me right back to the edge of that same cliff. This time, however, taking charge of my data, understanding my personality shifts, and recognizing my neurodivergence has given me the manual I need to protect my energy, adapt intentionally, and build a sustainable life.
