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ENFJ Careers - Best Jobs and Career Growth Advice

What traits do ENFJs bring to work, and what should they look for in their career?

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ENFJs are fantastic to have in the right work environment. They are mission-driven individuals that seek harmony, and they want to engage and work with colleagues. Their passion for improvement is often contagious, and they can be a leader within a team and for a team of their own. They bring support and understanding to interpersonal operations, and they can be counted on to finish what they start. However, too much harsh criticism or negative feedback can hinder the efficacy of the ENFJ.

ENFJ Career Opportunities to Seek Out

The ideal ENFJ career is one that allows them to practice the following qualities. When the work matches what ENFJs naturally enjoy, there is a greater chance of success.
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Service to Others

ENFJs crave a deep understanding of those they meet. They use this level of understanding to act in service and support. Any career path that allows the ENFJ to improve someone else's life will be rewarding.

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Co-ordination

ENFJs can anticipate the emotional reaction of various perspectives. With anticipatory insight, roles that require balancing or structuring personalities or teams are well suited for the ENFJ personality type.

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Leadership

With the ability to build consensus and consider the perspectives of others, positions of leadership are great career opportunities for ENFJs. Their selfless nature makes them prime candidates for equitable and ethical leadership.

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Emotional Decision Making

It isn't that the ENFJ wants to make decisions without considering logic or facts. Instead, they believe that taking the emotional/human element into the equation is necessary for attaining ideal outcomes. The ENFJ appreciates set procedures but will be the most fulfilled when they can bend the rules to accommodate decisions that defy some logic.

ENFJ Career Elements to Avoid

Like all types, some ENFJ careers are less viable due to ENFJs being less suited to some tasks and styles of working. If these can be avoided, there is a greater chance the ENFJ can have a happy and productive working environment.
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Frequent, Critical Feedback

Constructive criticism is aimed to drive improvement, but too much critical feedback chips away at the ego of the ENFJ.

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Manual Labour

The strengths of ENFJs involve people; inspiring, recruiting, understanding. Types of work that involve skilled labor and handy work are not the best fit for the personality type that would prefer to understand another person rather than the inner workings of a machine.

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Objectivity

The natural empathy of ENFJ personality types contrasts with thinking through challenges with pure logic. Context is vital to the ENFJ, and an ENFJ career that require objective, emotionless decision-making will be a poor fit.

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Isolation

The ENFJ is a social creature and needs to be engaging with others. Engagement can come from colleagues, superiors, subordinates, or clients, but there must be personal interaction. How can the ENFJ find joy in supporting others if they are alone?

Managing an ENFJ at work

Best way to manage and work with ENFJs

Managing an ENFJ requires a more sensitive touch than some other personality types. Frequent positive feedback will fuel the everlasting engine of the ENFJ, where regular negative feedback will take the wind out of their sails. Keeping the ENFJ happy and motivated indirectly does the same for the rest of the team. ENFJs bring passion and enthusiasm that is infectious to those around them. An ENFJ can be filled with incredible accomplishments, and they will often agree to take on more work, regardless of their current workload.

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Make friends, work hard, help others.

ENFJs would take on all problems of the world if it were possible. Because of this desire to improve the world on a grand scale, criticisms can sting harder than they should. Criticisms can be internalized as a failure to fulfill their larger purpose in societal improvement. Lean primarily on positive feedback for desired behaviors and package criticism gently to keep the ENFJ on track.

ENFJs are excellent leaders of teams and leaders within teams because of their ability to communicate well with nearly everyone. They can sense the emotional response in advance and navigate the path to compromise for a group. Their sense of mission and contagious enthusiasm will improve other team members.

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ENFJs can be star team members with frequent praise and strategies to avoid taking on too much at one time.

As a people pleaser, the ENFJ is keen to say 'yes' when asked to take on new projects. This is great until it isn't. The ENFJ, normally self-managed and capable of taking on several tasks at once, can find themselves overburdened by taking on too many responsibilities.

  • ENFJs need to hear they are doing well.
  • Allow them to be leaders within the team, and the team will improve.
  • They may need oversight from overloading.

ENFJs will be your leader within the team if you can provide regular, positive feedback to fuel their drive. They are excellent communicators, always seeking to improve themselves, and interested in supporting others to their successes.

Working with ENFJ Colleagues

Best way to work with ENFJs as your colleagues

ENFJs are often the ideal colleague. Their naturally supportive tendencies make them great allies, and their collaborative nature means they'll consider the feelings of everyone in the group when tackling obstacles. The ENFJ seeks compromise, collaboration, and will take charge of fulfilling the mission if needed.

ENFJs will make themselves available to support colleagues. Support is not limited to just work. Their emotional intelligence permits them to help in personal affairs as well. Leverage their support wisely because the ENFJ may have a hard time saying no, even if it's in their best interest to do so.

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The ENFJ will want to know what makes you tick.

Your ENFJ colleague is likely the social maven of the team, and they will use the knowledge they've gained from their teammates to make decisions they believe to be in the best interest of the group. This means they'll be considering your thoughts and feelings, but it also means your specific concerns may not be addressed if they don't line up with what's best for the group.

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Brainstorming solutions to an abstract problem is exciting and fun to the ENFJ. They will be more than willing to speak up in a group setting to share their idea or expand on the idea of others.

While the ENFJ will take charge, they will do so as a necessity or because they are asked to do so, not because they crave to be in charge. They want to see things get accomplished, and they believe their work serves a greater good, so they will take the reigns without hesitation whenever necessary to see things through.

ENFJs are reliable, supportive colleagues. They will go above and beyond to help team members, and they will push you to improve.

  • The ENFJ colleague will want to get to know you.
  • Having an ENFJ on your team will likely make you more productive.
  • ENFJ colleagues will usually be available to help.

Data: Careers reported by ENFJs

Survey data on ENFJ career choices

What are most and least popular ENFJ careers?

Figure 1: Survey data of which career sector ENFJs currently work in

career choices

What this chart shows

This chart shows the percent of ENFJs who work in each industry sector compared to all types. This highlights which careers have an above-average and below-average proportion of ENFJ types working in them.

Notes:
  • 1. n=27985
  • 2. Population: all
  • 3. This data shows self-report data to the question "what is your primary career?". Results do not necessarily imply these are the most or least suitable career choices, just the most and least frequently selected by people with ENFJ personality type.
  • 4. Live dataset last updated:
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Ellie Simmonds, MSc

University of Bath, Psychology

Ellie Simmonds, MSc in Psychology from University of Bath. Ellie is an associate lecturer on psychometric assessments and has extensive knowledge of the 16-type model.