ENFP Careers Advice

As a career coach I would say that everyone needs career advice specific to their own situation and ENFPs are no exception to this.

We have different career strengths to other personalities and this means that there are some career areas that they are very well suited for. Likewise, there are others which they may well find challenging.

And they want to do work that is both enjoyable and meaningful to them. They're not just looking for a job, they want far more out of life than that.

So if this is you and you've been following very 'generic' careers advice and have found yourself miserable in your job, that may have been where you've been going wrong. There's nothing wrong with you, you've just been following the wrong advice!

It's very important to us ENFPs want to do work that is both enjoyable and meaningful to us. Check out the figures below to see how people have answered our poll question on this topic!

We're not just looking for a job, a paycheck.

We want far more out of our career than that. Many of the ENFPs we're heard from say that a good career match for us needs to be something we enjoy, a workplace we feel comfortable in and work that is meaningful to us.

Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for us to find ourselves in careers that are less than ideal for us but are instead someone else's idea of a great career. There are many reasons why this can happen, but one is that we've been given, and then duly followed, careers advice that was totally wrong for us. Much of it was well intended, the common being "Just go for the big money" but that doesn't cut it with most of us, we're looking for something else out of our careers.

If this has happened to you, you can discover 7 reasons you may be in a career you don't enjoy.

A good career for anyone is one that plays to their natural strengths. Sounds obvious doesn't it, but this is the best piece of enfp careers advice I can give as it is all easy to follow career paths that are really better suited for other people.

ENFP career strengths often include creativity, adaptability, great people skills and the ability to turn your hand to many things.

The good news is that these sort of skills are becoming more valued by some employers especially those in creative industries, fields involving a lot of people contact and some high growth areas. That doesn't mean to say that qualifications and expertise aren't also needed, but these are areas where some ENFPs may find it easier to thrive as their natural talents will be valued and will often been seen as an asset to their employer.

These strengths can be used in many fields including commercial areas like marketing, design, event planning, wedding planning and strategy work. They are also applicable in caring professions like counseling, teaching, social work and psychology as well as in many creative fields.

If your strengths are creativity, people skills and flexibility it's a good idea not to set yourself on a career path which doesn't use any of these but instead demands skills in areas in which you are less talented.

For many us enfps this may include attention to fine detail, solitary working, following strict procedures, rigid deadlines and projects that need consistent follow-through.

How are you with these sort of things? Does doing them for extended periods of time make you feel tired, washed-out and exhausted?

Does this contrast with how you feel after doing something that comes to you naturally? Think of what it's like when you do something like this, maybe speaking with lots of people, helping people, designing beautiful things, starting something up from scratch? Then compare that with the list just above it, the one with the details...notice any difference?

You'll probably find that many jobs have an element of something you're not too keen on, that's pretty much unavoidable. But if you're not keen on something try not to have it as a major focus for your job.

ENFPs love variety and change and often have a desire to explore new things. This means that a traditional career path doesn't always suit them, indeed they can find the rules and regulations of many working environments incredibly stifling.

Fortunately this isn't as much of an issue now as it would have been when the corporate ladder was the only choice available. Changing career is much more acceptable these days, as are career choices such as having a portfolio career (getting income from a number of part-time jobs or project work), freelancing and setting up on your own. And as long as they are comfortable with the level of financial insecurity that can sometimes come with career choices that don't follow a standard career path, these more project-focused work patterns may be more suitable for people of this personality type.

So if you're an ENFP and a 'normal' career path just doesn't appeal, don't worry, you aren't the only one. Just make sure that your restless nature and love of change doesn't mean that you end up as a job hopper.