If you’re an ENFP and you’ve been struggling to find a career path that makes you happy you need to be aware of ENFP jobs to avoid. We spend a large portion of our lives working, finding a career that you enjoy is going to make you a lot happier.
ENFPs are social creatures, they need to be in environments that allow them show some of their creativity. They also need other people to bounce off, being stuck in a room on their own all day is going to drive them crazy.
Knowing what it means to be this personality type, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how they fit into certain roles can help you find a career that you may not even have otherwise considered. Yet, once found feels like a perfect fit and brings you happiness and professional satisfaction.
ENFPs are known as ‘The Campaigners’ . Its abbreviated form and meaning is:
(E) Extraverted – good in social situations, motivated by others, outspoken.
(N) Intuitive – focusing on the larger picture, not the specific details.
(F) Feelers – choosing social implications and feelings over logical answers.
(P) Perceptive – keepings their options open instead of passing judgment.
As you can see from these four pillars of this personality type there are plenty of characteristics that make ENFPs great team players, role models, and will allow them to fit into a wide range of roles.
Careers ENFP Should Avoid
With the almost endless amount of careers and job roles out there it’s hard to narrow down the careers an ENFP should avoid. However, here are some typical careers that you can see are a clear mismatch to their skillets.
Here are some jobs to avoid if you’re an ENFP:
Proofreader/Editor
Proofreading and editing requires a certain set of skills. Skills quite different to those of an ENFP. They will struggle you keep their attention on task for long periods of time and still find and make edits. It’s also much isolated with little to no social interaction with others.
Software Engineer
Software engineers often follow steps and protocols and is quite regimented. ENFPs love to work with others and use their creative side to go off the track and work on something unique. This kind of role will not allow them to flex their creative muscles and they will become bored fairly quickly.
Finance Manager
They find it difficult to be in a position of power and will continue to behave like their colleague instead of their boss. ENFPs value friendships and prefer to work with others instead of delegating work to others. Being extroverted helps communicate with others and inspire them but it’s not something they feel comfortable with.
Carpenter
The autonomy of a carpenter and responsibility of their own work is not something that appeals to an ENFP. They don’t get a great deal of satisfaction for their own work and would much prefer working with others on a collective project. This isn’t a career that will keep them interested in the long-term.
Cold Calling Sales Rep
Thr repetitive nature of cold calling people and reading a script to try and convert into sales will get boring very quickly for an ENFP. Sure, they will be good on the phone or in person meeting new people, but they will tire of the repetition and soon go off track.
ENFP Famous People
It’s always interesting to look at some famous personalities that fit this type. You can sometimes learn from their own public career and lifestyle choices and see how they compare to what you’d expect. Here are a few of the more notable famous ENFP personalities:
- Hunter S. Thompson – Journalist and Author
- Julian Assange – Founder of WikiLeaks
- Walt Disney – Founder of The Walt Disney Company
- Fidel Castro – Dictator of Cuba
- Ricky Gervais – Actor and Comedian
- Sandra Bullock – Actress
Best Jobs and Career Choices for ENFPs
With the careers to avoid in mind, here are some of the best-suited careers for this personality type:
- Politician
- Artist
- Actor
- Teacher
- Journalist
ENFP Career Choices in Summary
It can be hard for an ENFP to stick to a job for a long time because they tend to have so many interests. They do have drive, ambition, and a desire to do well, but their role needs to evolve and keep them interested.
They have great people skills, which of course is so vitally important in so many careers and the working world in general. This is why there are a lot of well-known public figures for this personality type, communication was a big part of their success. As well as having advanced social skills and an innate ability to read others well.
Ideally, their working environment will be relaxed and give them the freedom to express themselves and put their creative side to use. They are best suited to progressive and open minded companies that encourage personal development.
Phil lives in England, UK, and has around 20 years experience as a professional life, career and executive coach. He started this blog to help others find and define their own self development journey. Blogging about a wide range of topics to help facilitate a better future.