As an ENFP, Career Satisfaction Means doing work that:
1. Lets you work with a diverse group of people on a variety of projects, motivated by creative inspiration.
2. Let you create new ideas, products, services, or solutions to problems that will help other people, and then see your projects become reality.
3. Is fun, challenging, and always varied.
4. Rarely requires you to handle the follow-through, routine details, or maintenance of a system or project.
5. Lets you work at your own pace and schedule, with a minimum of rules or structure and the freedom to act spontaneously.
6. Lets you meet new people, learn new skills, and continually satisfy your curiosity.
7. Is consistent with your personal beliefs and values and lets you create opportunities that benefit others.
8. Is done in a friendly and relaxed environment with humor, goodwill, and a minimum of interpersonal conflict.
9. Allows you the freedom to follow your inspirations and participate in exciting and intriguing adventures.
10. Is done in an environment that appreciates and rewards enthusiasm, ingenuity, and imagination.
Work-Related Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths:
1. Innovative thinkers, good problem solvers.
2. Can combine their talents with the interests and abilities of others.
3. Can find success in whatever interests them.
4. Good at putting the right people into the right positions/tasks.
5. Motivate others with infectious enthusiasm and energy.
Weaknesses:
1. May not be well organized or good at setting priorities.
2. Have trouble following through on details of a project.
3. May become bored and easily sidetracked.
4. Don’t usually enjoy anything repetitive or routine.
5. Usually less effective working alone.
Pathways To Success In The Job Search Process
As an ENFP, your most effective strategies will lie in your abilities to:
· Create your job opportunities. Use your ability to see opportunities that don’t presently exist, and tailor your current job to meet your changing needs or the changing needs of your employer. Invent an entirely new job for yourself that will fill a need you see or a product in the market.
· Develop and use your active network of contacts. Conduct lots of helpful informational interviews. Constantly enlarge your circle of contacts each time you meet with someone by asking them to refer you to someone else. Tell everyone you meet and all of your friends that you are looking for a new career or job. You’ll spread the word quickly and learn helpful information along the way.
· Impress your interviewer with your natural enthusiasm and confidence. Establish instant rapport and demonstrate your ability to meet people and make them feel comfortable with you. Use your sense of humor to change the interview from a formal and stilted experience to one where you and the interviewer enjoy yourselves. It will be a welcome breath of fresh air for the interviewer.
· Consider and keep several options open. Adapt to changing situations and improvise when you find yourself against an unexpected obstacle. Use your natural curiosity to gather a great deal of information about potential careers, jobs, and organizations.
· Be resourceful in getting job interviews. Use creative approaches to get yourself noticed and remembered, especially if you are one of many candidates for a job you are sure you want. Use the same energy and ability to see options to help you get around barriers or resistance you encounter during your search.
Possible Pitfalls
· Pay attention to the realistic facts of a career or job. Focus your energy and attention on seeing what is really in front of you rather than just what might be. Use resources like the library, trade publications, and other people to learn what a job is really like. Be realistic in planning your job search in terms of how long it will take, what will be required, how much it will cost, and how you will afford to live (and eat) while you are involved in it. Make contingency plans so you are ready if it takes longer than you hope.
· Curb your tendency to leap before you look! Develop a job search plan in advance so you don’t squander your inspiration and energy in areas that aren’t right for you. Generate a list of criteria for the right job, including what you can’t live without as well as what would be nice but not imperative. Continue to use that list as a guide, comparing potential opportunities to it before pursuing them fully.
· Work on developing self-discipline. Use proven time management skills and systems to help you get and stay organized. Ask an organized friend to help you (and to make it more fun). Prioritize the most important tasks, issues, and activities so you won’t become distracted as easily. Try not to let impromptu socializing take you away from the less exciting but important parts of the search.
· Don’t put off making a decision. Procrastinating may mean that you lose out on potentially satisfying opportunities because you took too long to decide. Decide when you have enough information rather than go on indefinitely gathering more.
· Follow through on all phases of the job search. Remember that some people use and respect established organizational procedures and expect others to, too. Consider it an opportunity to demonstrate your ability to adapt rather than viewing it as a repressive limitation. Develop and then use a system of your choosing to help you check your progress so that nothing slips through the cracks. Stick with whatever you decide, rather than dropping it to try a more intriguing system before giving the first one a chance to help you.
As an ENFP, armed with an understanding of your career satisfaction traits, your next step is to find jobs and work environments that resonate with your enthusiastic and imaginative nature. Look for roles that offer creative freedom, the ability to inspire others, and opportunities for personal growth. Your path forward involves exploring careers where your passion for new ideas and your ability to connect with others are not just useful, but essential elements of your professional life.
Ken Meyer
Myers Briggs Master Practitioner and Retired Senior Career Coach at Eastern Michigan University
