ENFP Careers Advice - Hubpages

If you are an ENFP this heading and subheading will resonate with you.

Possibilities and the love of possibilities is the very foundation of the ENFP MBTI personality type. I have a small confession at this point. I am an ENFP and to add to this - I have gone loopy because of careers. I think though - fingers crossed, although I can never be sure! - I have made it to the otherside and I wanted to share the love with my fellow ENFP bretherin and give you guys and gals some career advice which should hopefully ease your career woes.

ENFP Background Info

Some of you reading this may be well versed in the ways of the ENFP and some may be new to what this code means and what, more specifically, it means in reference to you and your life. Here's a very quick summary.

The MBTI is a personality profiling system developed to categorise people into one of 16 broad personality types. ENFP is one of those types and basically breaks down into the following building blocks which make up the 4 letter code. (If I have lost you already see my hub in this hubpage group on MBTI basics). ENFP thus means Extraverted (E), Intuitive (N), Feeling (F), Perceiving (P) - which outlines the preferences we have that comprise our personality - namely (using myself as an example) I get my energy from my environment, external to me (E), I am intuitive (N) and prefer abstraction and concepts, I make decisions using my feelings (F) and values as opposed to logic and last but not least I hate deadlines, structure and having things scheduled for me, preferring instead to leave things open ended (P).

ENFP Career Dissatisfaction

What this means in career terms is we find it difficult to find a single path that we wish to dive into for a longtime and we often shift around because we like variety and diversity and often find we are attracted to the next novel thing without sticking to what we have. ENFPs seem to always be on a continual quest for that missing treasure, elixir for life, gold at the end of the rainbow that will sustain our interest and make us generally happy bunnies. This thing never exists and we get frustrated that we can never find it. Add into the mix our tendency to procrastinate and you have a wasteful combination.

This though is the juncture that I get a little controversial and say we as a personality type are deluded. We are hardwired to make connections - as per the picture - we are learning machines stringing together everything we come across into a giant web or neural network if you will of experiences that help us relate to and understand the world. Settling down although quested after is actually misaligned to who we are and how our mind works.

Solution Step 1 - Be Like a Rainbow - Single String Many threads

The frustration thus can be avoided in the following simple way - wait for it - accept that you like (love) learning and that instead what is needed is NOT a career where you settle down and get bored NOR is it many single careers where you flit around from one path to another BUT what is actually needed is a SINGLE career that allows you to do a MULTITUDE of many and diverse things to keep you stimulated.

This way you actually get the best of both worlds and get to integrate your need for stability and a career path to feel anchored AND at the same time get to have the novelty that your brain is designed for. This sounds overly simple and yet it is so obvious that it seems to be overlooked by many ENFPs that still insist on finding their panacea in the realms of some illusory nirvana that always escapes them.

So what careers allow this singularity with many threads - writing, journalism, documentary making, blogging, entrepreneurship, marketing, consulting, coaching. The astute ones amongst you may notice something very intriguing about the list I have just skimmed off the top of my head. They are all process oriented jobs NOT content oriented jobs.

Let me expand upon this - writing is a process ie you can write about anything (any topic or content) you wish, the same goes for documentaries, you set them up and produce them but again the content is ever changing, likewise with creating businesses, or consulting, marketing or coaching. You see this is the key - you get to have your cake and eat it because your skills for making connections and learning are perfectly suited to making frameworks (remember those neural nets) which you can then apply to whatever content takes your fancy.

I can hear the discontent amongst you - the murmur of but we just don't want to do anything - what's the point? This is when I now introduce you to the second key piece of advise. Only do those projects (I love projects) that both inspire you and that you feel are worth your time and energy - and by that I don't mean money but your emotions and values.

Solution Step 2 - Engage Your Values By Ignoring Your Thoughts

Now you're asking how to decide what's worth your time and energy - it's easy - feel your way, allow your gut instinct to take over. Don't think about it but follow your impulse. There is an internal guidance system which are your emotions and values that whisper to you perpetually - the key is simply to turn up the volume on them and follow them through. Thinking analytically will hinder this voice which is more true to who you are and will guide you the right way.

Putting this altogether we get the following career solution for ENFPs - choose a single career that will allow you all the diversity, variety and learning experiences you crave and then only choose those projects in line with your values - so for example using documentary making - set up a documentary making company, go where you want, when you want and only make documentaries in line with what your values say are worth your efforts.

Solution Step 3 - Just Do It! Because You Don't Yet Know Your Capacity For Success

I can hear the wail of discontent again - the doubters saying: 'that sounds great in theory but reality is a different matter' - in answer to that I have this to say; and I say it from experience. ENFPs need a huge shot of confidence as they are one of the most insecure personality types but perhaps paradoxically one of the most able and resourceful groups of people once they are either inspired or truth be told they have no choice - i.e. last minute deadlines which forces them into action.

So what I would say to you in response is only you can live your dreams and fortunately you have the wherewithal to actually make your dreams into reality. What you need is to get inspired and to surround yourself with positive people that you can 'feed off'. What you seek is within you and from that wellspring is the life you desire - you gotta love the possibilities as they are what make you who you are.

Embrace yourself instead of trying to artificially fit into a system that you will not thrive in - do this and you will flourish.

Thanks for reading this - any comments please leave below or if you wish to contact me, please feel free to do so