There are so many potential ENFP careers that it is difficult to list everything in one short article – however, we hope that the below details will help some ENFPs in their search for the ideal job. This is one of the most universal personality types, jack of all trades and master of some – as long as the ENFP does not get into a career path that is definitely unsuitable for them, they are likely to do well in any role. Your comments and suggestions would be much appreciated – please do not hesitate to leave us a message below if you can think of any other careers that could interest ENFPs.
To begin with, ENFPs have excellent social skills and are astonishingly perceptive. This personality type is unsurpassed when it comes to networking and finding out what makes people tick – this is a great skill in any career. Furthermore, ENFPs have a unique ability to communicate with others on their own level – this allows them to create strong and lasting relationships. Due to these traits, typical ENFP careers involve a lot of personal interaction and require good people skills – for instance, ENFPs can be excellent psychologists, teachers, counselors, diplomats or politicians.
Next, ENFPs tend to be very talented, energetic and future-oriented. They can easily compete with NT types in the career field when it comes to seeing the bigger picture or finding the underlying principle. Furthermore, despite being an F type, ENFPs excel at using their logic, forming a very potent combination of intuition and rationality – they can focus on the main goal and then put together the plan to achieve that goal. There are many potential careers that make good use of these ENFP traits – people with this personality type tend to be brilliant system analysts, scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. This is where ENFPs can truly shine – for instance, scientists and engineers with great networking and people skills are extraordinarily rare. The same can be said about other ENFP careers, but this is an excellent example of how chillingly effective ENFPs can be in certain jobs.
Finally, people with this personality type have excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. ENFPs can also be truly inspiring leaders in many careers, but they do not try or enjoy controlling other people. However, there are several weak spots in their armor. Firstly, ENFPs need to feel appreciated by their colleagues and superiors – this can threaten their emotional stability in certain cases or careers. Secondly, ENFPs get bored quite quickly and consequently tend to jump from project to project looking for some new and exciting ideas. Thirdly, ENFPs dislike dealing with monotonous tasks and are likely to do everything to avoid them. These traits may hinder their progress in certain careers – however, some ENFPs turn them into strengths. For instance, ENFPs do very well in careers such as writing, journalism, acting or TV reporting – such jobs can ensure that the ENFP never runs out of interesting ideas and have a big audience to keep them going for a long time.
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i think cdarrers in HR and development, team building etc. will alos suit enfp s because of the involvement of development of people, coaching mentoring and all. they might wanna switch companies every 5 years or so, fairly standard or work for HR consultancies…what do u think?
Manish, great point. The training and development side of HR seems like a great fit! It involves psychology, counseling, personal development etcetera! I’m an ENFP and recently started looking into HR, but have a background in environmental engineering. (obviously leaving the field for something more personal and fulfilling
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Really! I have a degree in industrial engineering…looking for something more personal and fulfilling. How hard is it to get into hr with an engineering background? What have you experienced so far?
Definitely agree. I’m in HR and love it. I’ve had trouble with keeping interest in anything else and I’ve tried a few fields by now.
Mediator is also a very good career path for ENFP’s.
I’m an ENFP and an event planner, and I love it!
It’s project-based, so each new event means fun new ideas; it uses big-picture thinking and a very wide variety of skills; lots of interaction and relationship building; and managing the event itself means flexing the tertiary Te muscle
Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn’t an ENFP’s tertiary Te make a management or planning position a more natural fit than “system analysts, scientists, and engineers”, which utilize Ti… a function that is quite a ways down the list of our preferred functions?
SALES!!! ….assuming, of course, that they’re selling a product or service they genuinely believe in…..I’m and ENFP & have always been in sales/customer service – in fact I’ve ALWAYS been one of if not the top sales person & i truly believe that’s due to my outgoing enthusiastic genuine attitude that people immediately pick up on. I’m great at comfortably approaching strangers, speaking to them as if we’ve been life long friends, building solid rapports & conveying a genuine interest in their best interest. ((Opposed to the typical polished “Hello Ma’am” type of impersonal sales personality.)) When you approach a potential customer as a friend rather than a robot intent on taking their money, you tend to be much more successful. Not to mention the exceptional customer service skills that come so naturally to us ENFP’s.
Here I am at 40 (in January), still struggling to find some direction in my life, constantly wanting “solid” ideas to come to me, when I know nothing in life is fixed. Is ES/NFP the same as ENFP? I’ve often thought of Management – aside from the dry aspects, it’s generally people oriented, would you think this is a good one to look into?
Start “Dean Consulting” and just start doing little project work, whatever it may be. Do not over think it. If you are talented in your field the work will come. BTW, I do this even with full time employment just because I need the stimulation.
I’m an ENFP and I teach Secondary School English. I absolutely love it and wouldn’t want to do anything else. I have also spent several years in sales. However, teaching is most definitely my prefered career due to the variation of topics, classes and the relationships built. It is also a lot of fun spending time with the other teachers at school; the large, witty group of English teachers and the other specialists. There are always people you can talk to on any topic – music teachers, maths teachers, dance teachers and carpentary teachers etc. So, as well as having students who are full of energy and creativity, you have a fun group of colleagues. I can’t think of a more stimulating environment for “people” people and “ideas” people. As well as this, it is a very fulfilling and satisfying job overall. Teachers have a chance to inspire and motivate students and give them the tools they need to succeed. We can make a positive difference in young people’s lives.
I am a 19 yo ENFP who is very interested in creative marketing and maybe branding consultancy for companies that I believe in of course would this career path be a good fit for me?
I am a 25 yr old, female ENFP – I am a Digital Marketing Specialist – building websites, email blasts, display advertising strategies, search engine marketing, content writing etc etc and I love it! Most reporting is done for me in Analytics or Adwords so none of that boring stuff plus I can be creative and see results instantly! It is something I fell into by accident after studying tourism at university but I feel like I have definitely found my calling!
This ENFP has been let go from many jobs being told, “You just don’t fit here.” I have a degree in theater. I was raised by a parent with Borderline Personality Disorder and have PTSD. It’s been quite a journey trying to recover from that. I’m finally finding out that the ‘F’ is what makes me not fit in the ‘day job’ market. At least in the business world. I’ve done a lot of custodial and retail work. Now I’m over 50 and trying to figure out what to do to support myself–my ENFP road hasn’t been an easy one. I work on it every day.
Oh my lordy! Me too, regards the mum, the ptsd, the not fitting in etc etc and am on my umpteenth career path. Im 47. I always wanted to be entp cos it sounded stronger, but im realising that the F is actually a very stubborn, thus strong trait. My boyfriend is ENTP.
Can I be all in one!? …i hate to stick to a certain activity or work or behavior or even emotion ….i love to jump from one role to another …life is like a stage for me , playing different roles and never stick to a certain theory or character or persona or whats so called reality, cause reality does change from time to time …and so do we.
It is getting me no where to find a clear career path…for example i love (creative) commercial ads and the ideas around them, hence, working with creative team to generate ideas and concepts of Ads is really tempting…I love dancing (Jazz/hip hop and Contemporary) and sure would really like to be a dance coach one day!…I love helping people and would also consider thinking to work for the United Nations and volunteer in Africa or so…I am fond of Nutrition and Fitness , hence another role to be added to the above
The question that has my mind going around in circles…Not can I do but can I “be” all of that?
I was happy to find many of the pictorial examples of ENFPs to be actors and to have acting as a recommendation for a career path. I wouldn’t want to stand so far into the spotlight as actors do because of low self-esteem issues. However, I do want to write screenplays and direct movies and I found that everything I learned here really falls under that career. I’m an incredibly unfocused person because of the constant jumping to new ideas and I do get bored easily. I can focus during job circumstances on a daily basis but after a while I’ll lose interest and most of my enthusiasm and motivation. I was pleased with all the results that came up with ENFP readings and I think learning about all of this will help me with my weaknesses!
Wow! The last paragraph is so me, it’s amazing! I’m 27, and I’ve done so many things for work, it’s almost discouraging. Service Station handyman, Customer Service Rep, Agriculture, Graphics Designing, Carpenter (for a winter when I was 16. Total no go), Outdoor Photography, Substitute Teaching, the list goes on. I’d so love to settle down in a job I’m good at… I love interacting with people, but the jobs I’ve had, doing graphics designing the past 6 years, have put me in a back room the entire work week. I really miss people, and seems I can do many different things for work, but nothing REAL good. I’m moving on from graphics designing in a few months to work on a haying crew (again) for the summer. Thing is I’m a family man with a wife and two kids, so I can’t dabble in just anything, but it needs to bring in an income that will support the fam. This article helps narrow down what I’m looking for & hits the nail on the head. Love music. I’ve lived in Uruguay for about two years. Love the outdoors. I know I work best around people, and probably care too much what others think. Bla bla bla, but I find the similarities interesting… As I grew up in CA, different of my out-of-state friends I’ve made have called me the “Actor From California”, though I’ve never been in a play. So I find that similarity intriguing as well.
To the commenter interested in creative marketing and branding – I am a 25 year old textbook ENFP in the first stages of my career as a writer in a creative advertising agency, and I couldn’t have found a better fit. It is an upbeat environment with constantly changing projects. My job isn’t just to write – mostly, it is thinking creatively to come up with unique concepts and solutions. This job is an excellent blend of both logical and creative faculties. Even if writing is not a strong suit, everyone in the agency (planning, strategy, digital teams, etc) are encouraged to think outside the box and work on many different projects. Although downsides include sometimes stressful hours and a good amount of creative rejection as your ideas pass through many higher levels, I highly recommend any ENFP look into the advertising industry.
I am an ENFP and i’m studying psychology and i absolutely LOVE it!! I believe ENFP’s can become great psychologists
I’m a 32 yr old ENFP. At the age of 17 I joined the Army (because it seemed to me what my Dad wanted me to do and winning my dad’s approval was very important to me at that time in my life); as you can imagine, it was a horrible fit for me! Here’s an idea for the armed forces: forget the math and science test they give you when you sign up, give a personality test!! I was the soldier who was always looking for a way around authority and a short-cut to get me through (to me) another meaningless task. My military experience did do one amazing thing for me that I wouldn’t trade for anything (hell, I’d even do it all again!); I have incredible self confidence and inner strength… maybe it was there all along, but it took that experience to pull it out of me… and it’s still here, many years later
, this lead to me pursuing a rather successful career as an Executive Recruiter. I went on to become a Company Trainer for a 3rd party recruiting firm, teaching new recruiters. This career was a good match for me because every day I was talking to a new person the phone, trying to understand their wants/needs/personality as quickly as possible and evaluate if they’d be a good fit for the job search I was working on, if they’d be a good candidate to market to my clients. It was rewarding to me because I felt like a BadAss; I helped people get into better jobs, they told me how amazing I was at it, and I made really good money (which I spent and didn’t do anything responsible. I think the most “responsible” thing I did during that time of my life was to buy a washer and dryer.) The pitfall was the stress factor- 3rd party recruiting, at it’s heart, is sales. And there’s always a boss over your head telling you MORE MORE MORE.
I ended up packing up and moving across the country on a whim and starting a new life when I was 22. I found myself as an administrative assistant for an Executive Recruiter (aka, Headhunter
In 2009 I ended up being laid off from my job and coincidentally (or not!), expecting my first child. I was able to become a stay-at-home mom to my son and put my remaining energy into what I discovered was my real passion – painting!!
Fine Art is the perfect career for me. I love manifesting my ideas on canvas and disguising them as something that everyone can relate to. I always loved writing when I was younger, but painting is a whole other level of communication with the world. Now that I’ve identified what it is I love doing, I know I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. I get really excited thinking about how much my art will grow and change as time goes on. I’ve never had “writer’s block” ..there’s always a new painting in my mind waiting to be born. That is freedom for me. This is one (Finally) happy ENFP.
PS – thanks for reading… really, I started out wanting to agree with the previous poster about HR being a positive career choice for ENFP folks, but then I end up telling you all about myself… Classic ENFP?
Best wishes to all my fellow ENFP-ers out there!
~Christina
This young ENFP has found very rewarding jobs in sales! Clients tell me that I really “get” them (that’s the N) and also that I care (that’s the F). This combination means they feel they can trust me right from our first conversation. I take their trust very seriously and work hard to get them what they need. With sales, the customer wants to know that you have really listened. My natural curiosity and inquisitiveness is an asset here, because I ask a lot of questions. Spending this much time understanding a customer’s needs results in great relationships and a high level of trust, which is crucial in this type of role.
Rather than being motivated by commission (which is how most of my colleagues are), I find it much more fulfilling when a client says “This is exactly what I needed, Thank you so much, no one else before you was able to help me.” Sales also takes strategy, and I love putting all of my cleverness to use, and facing new challenges with every client.
Sales also means you’re surrounded by people all the time, and have to work collaboratively to get things done – strong interpersonal skills are required – but the end of the day, negotiating and closing the sale is my sole responsibility, and I take a great deal of personal pride in that. A lot of sales jobs (especially outside sales) allow for a flexible work schedule, which works very well for my life and dislike of structure! I really do think a career in sales is the right direction for ENFPs who are highly extroverted and friendly, like myself.
My biggest career struggle is that I get bored easily and have a strong flight response… I’m not very good at sticking things out. Sales is great for me but I have jumped industries often. It’s hard for me to turn down a job offer, even when I’m not looking, because the desire to try something new is so compelling. I would really like to find a company where I am passionate about the service or goods offered and fully develop my career there.
Recently I discovered I’m a textbook ENFP and I’m 23, got into college at 17 for pharmacy (for the money, make parents proud) but wuickly found math/sciences classes killed me and I dropped out a year later. I was just too unfocused and not mature at that age.
I’ve always been drawn to music and I produce music. I’ve been playing guitar/piano for half my life and I love it but at my age I still don’t have a degree doing many useless retail/food /IT jobs.
Music is very unpractical where I’m from, I have some IT certifications but after being laid off my current one I actually HATE it.
I’ve been unemployed for more than a year trying to find a job basically stuck at home withdrawn from a nice social life. I’ve just been reading a lot and trying improve various skills.
Compared to my peers who have careers, are getting married, etc. I feel like a big loser.
I’ve been depressed more than ever and I want to go back to school but I just have no idea what to do. I love interacting with people.
If anyone that’s been in my shoes has any advice that’d be appreciated
To LUKEDALUKE and all other ENFP’s
Luke,
I can tell you that from personal experience that making a choice based on what our parents wanted us to do or for money is BAD BAD BAD. As ENFP’s, we are natural born freedom riders. Many of us, even if we are in a career or job that we love, get so excited about a future possibility or new idea and think “Ooooh that would be awesome!! How fun!!”..”Wait. How do I get there?”
I was told all throughout my childhood that I should be a lawyer because my dad is successful at it and makes a lot of money. Well guess what family? I am not my dad!! I cannot stress this enough. You have to follow your heart.
Currently, I am 24 years old and currently enrolled in a master’s degree program for couples & family therapy. Holy crap! What a blast this career track is for an ENFP. As a couples and family therapist, I will get to set in a room with a family and let my intuition go to town. They will have the feeling that I “get them” by the third or fourth session. Maybe even earlier. That is the N of our four letter acronym.
As ENFP’s we are trendsetters. We like to go against the grain. When my family told me to be a lawyer, in my mind I went “Oh.My.God. That is the most boring career I can think of. Law is black and white!” As ENFP’s I also think we love uncertainty. Something about it thrills us to the bone. Counseling is a wonderful fit.
However, I will close with this in hopes of having other ENFP’s give some insight and advice.
I recently was hired on as a freelance writer for a local newspaper. Even more recently, I was promoted to the position of sports editor/writing and I have fallen head over heels for the job. The job is a combination of interviewing, reporting, and writing. It’s marvelous and I am extremely gifted at it. I get to bounce around from many tasks within one job. Boredom never exists.
My ENFP mind has already begun to wander with the possibilities of being a journalist however. I think to myself “How fun would it be to write for a travel magazine? Write for a sports magazine? Report on interesting stories around the world? Do I really want to do ONE thing for the rest of my life?”
So yes. I am currently struggling with the “flight” response that comes with being an ENFP (e.g. You’re in a job and maybe it’s even one you like, but you have an idea and want to run with it).
I love counseling but I could equally see myself doing journalism. My philosophy is never get bored and live from your heart.
Cheers and thanks for reading.
I just found out that I’m an ENFP, i was a Quality assurance specializing in meat processing plant. i was transferred recently to Industrial Engineering and right now i don’t feel happy with what i do. i crave for something new and exciting. i don feel motivated and inspired but i feel compelled to finish my projects first before deciding what to do with my career. i love interacting with other people,i love going to the gym, i love to travel and explore, i like graphic novels and books that entices my imagination. I think i might be up for sales and HR, but maybe Store Manager or Auditor would do. any suggestions please? thanks!