ENFP Careers Advice - Use Your Career Strengths 2 of 2

You may have read that if you use your ENFP careers strengths, the qualities that come to you naturally as part of your ENFP personality, you will enjoy your job more.   But did you realize that as well as making you happier, they can also be an asset to some employers?

Rather than spending your whole working life trying to shape yourself into a career that doesn’t fit you very well, how about looking for employers who value and even need the personality traits and career strengths that you naturally possess.

Flexible and adaptable
ENFPs and ENTPs are known for being flexible, adaptable and open to change.  This ability to embrace change and variety, and even be enthusiastic about it, is a real plus point to some employers.  This particularly applies to companies who experience change on a very regular basis.  This includes:

• Organizations in fast, rapidly changing or chaotic environments, for example high tech and IT.
• Areas which are dependent  on technology which is changing quickly, e.g., marketing,  media and broadcasting Project-based work e.g., consulting or an agency environment, like a PR, new media or marketing agency
• If the work calls for working with many different clients and needs someone who can adapt quickly to all of the different people involved.   This could include many of the helping professions, and on the commercial side client-focused work like customer support, marketing agencies or consulting.

Good people skills
It is often said that ENFPs are good at reading people, i.e., figuring out their motivations.  They can also excel at quickly building up rapport with lots of different sorts of people and networking easily.

These ENFP careers strengths can be a major plus point in areas where you need to work with a lot of different types of people, build and maintain a large network of business contacts, or in fields where you need to be able to put people at their ease quickly.   Areas where these are useful skills include customer service, some sales roles, HR, recruitment, counseling, event planning and training.

Creativity
ENFP and ENTP creativity often takes the form of being good at coming up with new ideas.  Ways that this could manifest include devising new and fun ways to teach kids, creating new workshops or developing innovative sales and marketing campaigns. 

• The sorts of careers where these skills are valued include:
• Marketing, PR, advertising, event planning, wedding planning
• Graphic design, interior design, home staging
• Personal development including coaching, counseling, teaching and training and HR

So as an ENFP or ENTP don’t just rely on your skills and qualifications to guide you in career selection, use your innate strengths as they may well give you greater job satisfaction as well as being a great asset to a potential employer.

Careers Advice for ENFPs - Use Your Career Strengths. 1 of 2

You may have read that if you use your careers strengths, the qualities that come to you naturally as part of your ENFP personality, you will enjoy your job more.   But did you realize that as well as making you happier, they can also be an asset to some employers?

Are you using your ENFP career strengths?
You may want to make your career selection based on what you enjoy doing and what comes naturally to you.  Many career advisers however will tell you just to think about your qualifications and expertise when finding the right career.   

Although experience and qualifications are certainly important they are only part of what you to have offer an employer, and they may not even be your greatest assets in today’s job market.  In fact you may find that the less tangible elements that come with being an ENFP are what really set you apart.

What does this mean for me?
The career strengths that many ENFPs possess are becoming more valued by some employers.   That doesn’t mean 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 seen as an asset to their employer.   ENFP careers strengths of particular interest include:

Flexibility, adaptability
Open to change in many forms, embracing change and variety, and may even be enthusiastic about it.

People skills
Being able to quickly and easily build up a rapport with all sorts of people, network with ease and do well in jobs that involve reading people

Creativity
This creativity isn’t always in the traditional artsy form, it may take the form of ideas, or ideation as it’s sometimes called.  For example, creating new ways of working with people or marketing something. So if you’re like me and you can’t draw a thing, no need to worry!

You may also want to bear in mind that these qualities are not always valued as much in some of the more traditional areas of employment.  It’s definitely worth thinking about this when you make your career selection.

In the next post I’ll look more closely at the each of these ENFP careers strengths in more detail and areas where you may find that they are in demand.

ENFP Careers Advice - part 2

4. Don’t make a career selection on personality alone
Personality is very important and a useful guide when choosing a career, but it shouldn’t be the only factor taken into consideration.

Other things to think about are your skills, qualifications, what you like to do, areas of interest and the jobs and careers paths that are available and growing.

5. Build variety and change into your career path
Some more ENFP careers advice that may upset traditionalists who would prefer a stable one-company career path.  

Many ENFPs love variety and may have a rather low boredom threshold, so if their current job doesn’t offer them some variety or challenge they may end up job hopping.

To avoid becoming a job hopper, an ENFP can try building variety and change into a job or career path.  Ways to do this include working in environments with a lot of change,  doing project-based work, having 2 very different part time jobs or working for a small company where you get to ‘wear many hats’, i.e., do many different roles.

So if you’re an ENFP and have been following ‘generic’ careers advice and 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.   Perhaps now you need to look at ENFP careers advice!

ENFP Careers Advice

ENFPs are one of the 16 personality types from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  They are known for being fun-loving, enthusiastic and friendly.  ENFP careers strengths are different to those of other personalities and this means that there are some jobs and careers areas that they are very well suited for and others they won’t enjoy as much, and may even find challenging.

As a career coach I believe that everyone needs career advice specific to their own personality and situation rather than generic guidance.  ENFPs are no exception to this, and as an ENFP myself I know that the advice below is spot on!

1. Start with your heart

The traditionalists will no doubt be up in arms at this as it doesn’t sound very sensible does it.  But I didn’t say ‘Follow your heart’  without taking anything else into consideration. No, I don’t believe that’s a very good idea at all. 

But for ENFPs I would definitely suggest that they start with their heart, i.e., the first thing they should look at is what they would like to do, as ENFPs need to enjoy their careers.  For them work isn’t just something that they do, it’s an expression of who they are and it needs to be meaningful and personally fulfilling.

2. Build on your career strengths

Although it sounds obvious to build a career based on your strengths, unfortunately it is very easy to follow a career that is more suited to someone else.  This is usually because you’ve received inappropriate advice, or maybe weren’t aware of what your strengths were.

ENFP careers strengths often include great people skills, creativity, adaptability and the flexibility to turn your hand to many things if you want to.

There are many fields in which these strengths can be used including marketing, design, event planning, counseling, teaching, social work and psychology as well as many creative areas.  Likewise, it makes sense to avoid career paths which don’t call for any of these strengths.

3. Avoid your weaker areas

It makes sense to avoid career paths which don’t call for any of your strengths but instead demands skills in an area in which you are less talented. 

For many ENFPs this may include attention to details, solitary working or impersonal or critical environments, following routines and strict procedures, inflexible deadlines and work that needs consistent follow-through.  The sort of careers that may involve this include computer programming, cold calling, admin work, auditing and accounting and manufacturing.