How can I find a job I enjoy if I am highly sensitive or have high potential?

July 13, 2022
Skills Assessment

Are you feeling unfulfilled at work, lacking meaning and intellectual stimulation? Do you struggle to understand and embrace your organization's operations and values? Do you find yourself questioning your tasks, feeling repetitive and routine? Are you unable to commit to a single path, drawn to everything and yet nothing at the same time? Do you feel out of sync with your colleagues and are you more affected than necessary by interpersonal issues? Is your mind racing, swirling, and constantly ruminating, never giving you peace?

You might be what's called a highly sensitive person, or even a high emotional or intellectual potential, a zebra, a slasher, a philo-cognitive, a hyper-resourceful person…
And how do you find a job that suits you in a society that is built on foundations that you often find illogical?
A skills assessment It also serves, and above all, to help you get to know yourself better, understand your ways of working, your needs, your interests, etc. It doesn't just address jobs, but also the working conditions that allow you to thrive in your professional environment. At Aktasens, We support many people who don't fit the "mold".

Here are a few tips to help you navigate this path while respecting and embracing your uniqueness:

Self-knowledge is the first step towards a life more aligned with who you are and what you need, regardless of whether you are gifted or not. You will become much more aware of and better able to articulate your characteristics, expectations, limitations, potential, and talents, and you will more easily embrace your differences and way of thinking. This will allow you to gain more self-confidence and to assert your needs in terms of career and working conditions more constructively.

Many highly sensitive people I work with realize through career transition assessments that they need variety, novelty, and change in their tasks. Several have come to accept that they need to create a professional world that aligns with who they are. Many now have jobs that meet these needs, or hold several part-time positions that allow them to stimulate their intellect. Anything is possible if it's well thought out and planned! The important thing is to respecting one's needs in order to thrive in one's job.

Beyond the job itself, the work environment is just as important, and even more so for a highly sensitive person. You have the right and the responsibility to yourself to choose where you work and with whom. While it may seem difficult to discern whether a company, a team, and a manager will be a good fit during a job interview, your strong intuition and other tools we use in career guidance can help you prepare.

A mind constantly racing can hold you back because it can lead you to want to anticipate and control every aspect of your career transition before you've even begun the coaching process. This can be paralyzing. It's important to take the time to let your learning and reflections mature and be processed; this will allow decisions to flow more smoothly, naturally, and spontaneously. Step by step, you'll answer the questions that assail you and act consciously. You don't jump from the first step to the last in one go when you're climbing a staircase!

You feel like a black sheep, so what's the point of trying to paint yourself in white? Your differences can be wonderful assets for a company or clients. They can encourage creativity, problem-solving, innovation, and empathy in human relationships. Comparing yourself to others and being attentive to their opinions risks slowing you down because you'll tend to undervalue yourself. You can't make a fish fly. And the greatest inventions have often been criticized and rejected at first. Navigating a world that doesn't suit us requires flexibility and resilience, and sometimes it demands rethinking certain conventions and respecting our own rhythm. You're asynchronous and you like to work from 5 to 7 a.m., so what? You need to work 15 hours a day for 3 days and then rest for 2 days to recover, so what? You don't like coffee dates or superficial discussions; you prefer concepts and deep, branching thoughts—fine!

When you want to be able to both respect yourself and integrate into a society that can be harsh on you, the first thing to do is learn about its customs, norms, values, and etiquette. This will make it much easier to understand certain reactions towards you and will help you put yourself in others' shoes. And what if what surprises you about them surprises them just as much about you? In her book, "I Don't Know the Codes! Finally Understanding the World Around Us," Christel Petitcollin explains this very well. Enjoy more peaceful and guilt-free relationships!

And don't forget: "« What makes you sick is trying to cure yourself of being yourself. »Heidie Gibus

If you want to know more on our skills assessments, Find more information on our dedicated page. You can also contact us using our contact form for a free initial consultation.

Emmanuelle Rouaud

I am a professional coach and international trainer

>> My expertise

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