The Myers Briggs assessment provides a good indication of how a person manages relationships, what motivates and inspires them, and how they are likely to behave in the workplace. For this reason, it is one of the most commonly used personality tests in recruitment, for both employers and job seekers alike. This article offers ENFJ career advice for those that identify as this personality type, as well as the 10 best ENFJ career matches.
(E) Extroversion (N) Intuition (F) Feeling (J) Judging
ENFJs are outgoing and sociable types known for being charismatic, engaging and genuine. They place great value on the company of others and are energised by social gatherings. As they are highly intuitive, ENFJ personality types can easily read people and situations, and can respond with appropriate behaviour. As such, they can be highly influential in their methods of communication. They are also empathetic. Not only do they connect with the emotions of others; they feel them personally. Sometimes, this can become detrimental to their wellbeing, as they can become overly involved and bogged down by negative feelings. ENFJs are also altruistic. They draw satisfaction from helping others and focus their ambitions on creating positive change. Heavily led by emotions, they tend to make decisions based on feelings rather than facts, and concentrate on the future over the here and now. Despite being confident and outgoing, it is important to the ENFJ to be well liked. They place great value on their relationships and work hard to maintain close bonds with a wide circle of friends. They tend to judge themselves through the eyes of others, only achieving a sense of accomplishment when they attain outside approval.
Core Strengths and Weaknesses
As with each of the 16 Myers-Briggs personalities, there are several commonly found strengths and weaknesses associated with the ENFJ type:
ENFJ Strengths
The ENFJ personality type is known for being kind, caring and authentic, with a genuine desire to help others. They act selflessly to improve the lives of those around them and find great fulfilment in doing so. ENFJs have a high level of emotional intelligence and finely-tuned people skills. They are charming and captivating, with the ability to encourage others to succeed and to inspire action. They are effective listeners who value the thoughts and opinions of others, treating all with respect and compassion. ENFJs use this strength to further understand and help those around them. It also makes them strong team players. Due to their charismatic and inclusive nature, ENFJ personality types are natural leaders. They are often elected into leadership positions by those who respect and admire them, even when they haven’t voluntarily sought such positions.
ENFJ Weaknesses
ENFJs need to feel valued and can often be overly sensitive to criticism. Since they measure their worth through the opinions of others, they can suffer from low self-esteem when faced with a perceived failure. Since the ENFJ personality type has an innate desire to help others, they can neglect their personal needs. They also find it difficult to say no and can overstretch themselves in pursuit of their altruistic ambitions. ENFJs tend to see the best in people and situations and can be hit hard when things don’t live up to expectations or when others question their ideals. To pessimistic personalities, the ENFJs idealism can border on naivety. ENFJs aspire to motivate and encourage but their dedication to the betterment of others can, at times, be overbearing, particularly to more introverted personality types.
What Is an ENFJ like at Work?
The ENFJ personality type performs best in a supportive and cooperative working environment. They like to use their emotional intelligence and intuition to encourage others to achieve their full potential and, as such, often gravitate towards mentor roles in the workplace. Since ENFJs are altruistic, their preferred careers are those with a humanitarian or societal focus. They enjoy creative problem solving and have natural leadership skills that they use to motivate and inspire their co-workers. As sociable individuals, ENFJs prefer roles that offer substantial human contact and enjoy working as part of a team focused on action and positive impact. ENFJs are also highly skilled in organisation and planning and have an acumen for both business and finance, making them valuable assets to any organisation.
ENFJs in a Team
The ENFJ personality type makes for a strong team player. They thrive in the company of others, are effective listeners and work to create a shared vision by building enthusiasm in a group. They are supportive and their intuition allows them to identify where individual strengths and talents lie. However, as ENFJs place such value on helping others to grow, they can fail to focus on specific tasks, instead concentrating on people over process. They are also unsuited to highly competitive or conflictual team environments, much preferring a collaborative effort.
ENFJs as Managers
ENFJ personality types have natural leadership qualities. Their communication skills, enthusiasm and charisma allow them to get people on board with their ideas, and they enjoy rallying others to work towards a common goal. They adopt a supportive management technique and will often be seen to nurture their staff. They encourage cooperation and teamwork, and easily earn the respect of their direct reports. That said, ENFJs are protective and will often take personal blame for the failings of their staff. This can have a negative impact on the emotional wellbeing of ENFJ managers, as they base their own success on how others perceive them. However, thanks to their emotional intelligence and creativity, as well as their organisational and leadership skills, they are also highly adaptable, with strengths and character traits suited to various roles in multiple industries. While the list below is far from exhaustive, it offers 10 of the best ENFJ career matches across a broad range of sectors.
1. Teacher
As a personality type that likes to inspire and motivate, the teaching profession is perhaps the most obvious of the ENFJ career matches. Their creativity and instinctive ability to foster personal connections make them well suited for any educational environment. Charismatic ENFJs will find it easy to gain respect and admiration from their students, fulfilling their need to be valued. In addition, their enthusiasm and positivity make them the perfect personality type for encouraging others to achieve their full potential.
2. Social Worker
As with teaching roles, social work is one of the ENFJ careers that allows this caring personality type to act as a mentor and inspire personal growth. ENFJs can intuitively identify the needs of others and adapt their methods of interaction to suit. Their strong listening skills and empathetic nature mean they will work attentively and with care in the best interest of service users.
3. Event Management
The planning and execution of events require a combination of a business-minded approach and solid people skills – both strengths associated with the ENFJ personality. Organisation, creativity and passion are also traits that make ENFJs suited to event management, as does their preference for sociable working environments. With an additional need for effective collaboration and negotiation skills, this fast-paced industry will allow many ENFJ strengths to shine.
4. Personal/Executive Assistant
This is one of the ENFJ career matches that plays more to the organisational strengths of this personality type. As a personal or executive assistant, an ENFJ will be required to act on behalf of management, using their forward-thinking approach to successfully plan for and meet all business needs. These jobs tend to be best suited to business-minded ENFJ personality types, as some ENFJs may find these careers don’t fully meet their need to do good in the world.
5. Journalist
Good journalists have strong interpersonal skills and a level of intuition that allows them to get to the heart of a story. As such, the ENFJ strengths of communication and perception make this another good career match. ENFJs are quick to establish a rapport and put people at ease, both essential when conducting interviews. Their ability to inspire and engage with people also transfers well to the written word. However, this is one of the ENFJ career matches that requires them to work on one of their associated weaknesses. As journalists, they must learn to value facts over feelings.
6. Motivational Speaker
Since the ability to inspire others is a character trait associated with the ENFJ personality, motivational speaking is a natural career fit. ENFJs are comfortable with large audiences and their charm allows them to easily command a room. If an ENFJ is truly invested in their topic of discussion, they will deliver their message with enthusiasm and authenticity, creating maximum impact. Motivational speaking can be one of the most self-rewarding ENFJ careers, due to the gratification they gain from mass approval.
7. PR Executive
Another of the ENFJ career matches that offers a sociable working environment and the chance to put people skills to good use is public relations. Working to create a positive image on behalf of businesses and organisations will appeal to the ENFJ’s creative and altruistic nature, particularly if those organisations have a humanitarian focus. ENFJs are also well suited for damage control, thanks to their insightful communication skills, charisma and authenticity.
8. Charity/Non-Profit Fundraiser
The ENFJ’s talent for inspiring others, combined with their charismatic personality, makes them well suited to fundraising roles. Working in the charity or non-profit sector will also appeal to their giving nature. Fundraising requires creativity, vision and organisation to create effective campaigns and events, as well as strong leadership skills to motivate volunteers; all responsibilities that make good use of ENFJ strengths.
9. Psychologist
One of the scientific ENFJ career matches, psychology will appeal to the extroverted and intuitive traits of this personality type, working with people from all walks of life and using emotional insight to diagnose and treat behavioural problems. As psychologists, ENFJs will gain job satisfaction from knowing they are contributing to positive change and improving the lives of their patients.
10. Physical Therapist
Whether working with patients on rehabilitation or to effectively manage disabilities, physical therapy is a career in which many ENFJs will thrive. Their enthusiasm for helping others achieve a future goal makes ENFJs fantastic rehabilitation partners, while their caring and compassionate nature offers valuable support to those learning to adjust. As physical therapy can often bring tangible results, it can be one of the most rewarding ENFJ career matches.
Three Jobs to Avoid
Identifying which of the Myers-Briggs personality types you most closely identify with can also be an effective method of deciding which jobs to avoid. Here are some key examples:
1. IT
ENFJs are naturally drawn to people, rather than systems and processes. For this reason, any career in IT or computing is probably a bad fit for this personality type. Roles in the IT industry also involve an analytical approach to problem-solving. As such, they are best suited to introverted personalities that enjoy logical, inward thinking, as opposed to the ENFJ who prefers creative and personable methods of working.
2. Policing
Those who work in front line law enforcement need to be well equipped to handle society at its worst. As the ENFJ personality type has an idealistic world view and can be deeply affected when faced with an alternative reality, policing is another of the ENFJ jobs to avoid. ENFJs enjoy motivating and guiding others to success. Dealing with negative situations over which they have limited control will be frustrating or, at worst, emotionally damaging.
3. Scientific Research
As with IT, the ENFJ’s people-focused personality makes them unsuited to the studious, often solitary, research environment. Also, while careers in this field predominantly revolve around positive change and societal improvement, ENFJs prefer to achieve this through direct action. As such, the measured, methodical nature of scientific research would prove unfulfilling for this personality type.
Final Thoughts
As extroverted individuals with altruistic tendencies, ENFJs are most comfortable when using their skills to improve the lives of others. As such, ENFJ jobs to avoid include any roles of a solitary or self-serving nature. That said, ENFJs are not limited in their career options; their character traits and associated strengths lend themselves to many different working environments. Education, healthcare, social science, business, the arts and creative industries can all offer job satisfaction for ENFJ personality types. As an ENFJ individual, any social role that allows you to work for a cause you believe in is likely to be a good match.
