According to the Myers-Briggs personality test, INFJ personality types are often known as “the advocate” or “the idealist.” Some of the world’s most well-known do-gooders—including Eleanor Roosevelt and Martin Luther King, Jr—were INFJs.
But activism famously doesn’t pay the bills, and if you also have an INFJ personality type, then you might be wondering about what jobs might be best for you. Not to worry—this guide will help you find a career that is perfectly suited to your INFJ personality.
What Does INFJ Stand For?
INFJ stands for introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging. Let’s understand what each of those terms mean.
- Introverted: You recharge when you have time to yourself and usually have a close-knit group of friends
- Intuitive: You make plans and achieve goals by relying heavily on your intuition
- Feeling: You’re sensitive and empathetic
- Judging: You’re both a good judge of character and quite often quick to make judgments about people
What Kind of Roles Are Best Suited for INFJ Personality Types?
INFJs are people who have a high moral conscience and do best when they’re able to connect with people as individuals. As a result, they do well at jobs that require forming human connections one-on-one. This makes jobs like counselor, nutritionist, and social worker a great choice for INFJs.
Because INFJs are also known as advocates, they’re able to make decisive interventions where required and use creative problem-solving approaches. This is what makes them good in positions like arbitrator and HR manager.
INFJ Personality Type: Strengths and Weaknesses at Work
Here are some of your innate strengths and some drawbacks that come with being an INFJ.
Strengths
This is what makes INFJs excel at what they do:
Empathetic
INFJs are not gregarious, but they’re great at understanding people at a human level. They are clued into people’s emotions and tend to be good listeners in conversation.
Decisive
The intuition that INFJs possess makes it easy for them to make reliable, quick judgments. They’re often able to rely on their gut to chart out a plan of action without too much prevaricating.
Idealistic
INFJs are dreamers in many ways. They are aware of how people around them are feeling and aspire to create an environment that is more positive and accommodating than it currently is.
Weaknesses
Here are areas where INFJs tend not to excel:
Sensitive
Because INFJs are so empathetic, they can become a little disillusioned when they run into people who aren’t. This may lead to instances where they become easily hurt or angered by a situation.
Private
Introversion is a dominant trait in INFJs. They like keeping to themselves and may prefer not to engage with large groups of people when they don’t have to.
12 Careers Where INFJ Personalities Excel
Here are some of the best career options for INFJs.
Counselor
Counselors are professionals who help folks improve their mental health. They achieve this by combining conversations with clients and applying various psychological frameworks on a case-by-case basis. While counselors are commonly associated with private practices, they also work in community settings, in the hospital system, and in educational organizations.
General Prerequisites
A bachelor’s degree in psychology is the most common foundation for a career in counseling. You can also make your way into the field with a background in social work or education.
A master’s degree in counseling psychology or a related field is a requirement if you want to become a licensed counselor in most places. Many states also require that you complete a certain number of hours of field experience before taking a licensing board examination.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
INFJ personalities often find it quite easy to form emotional connections with individuals. They also have a strong moral compass and a forthcoming sense of empathy. These are personality traits that make them quite suitable for the role of counselor.
Veterinarian
Veterinarians are most commonly associated with working at hospitals to help people care for their pets. Vets also work at shelters and welfare facilities to care for stray or neglected animals.
General Prerequisites
Most individuals who enter the veterinary practice get a four-year undergraduate degree before getting an advanced degree. You can look up the specific prerequisite courses at the veterinary school of your choice. General chemistry, organic chemistry, and general biology are usually part of the requirements. You can choose an undergraduate degree that allows you to take these classes.
Veterinary school itself lasts four years. Once you’ve completed that, you need to take the North American Veterinary Licensing Exam (NAVLE) in order to gain eligibility for a license. You can then take state-specific licensing exams to gain your license in your state.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
Veterinarians are basically doctors, but they work with patients who cannot communicate how they’re feeling in a given situation. It’s a job that demands deep empathy and excellent communication skills so that you’re able to keep pet owners in the loop about what their animals are expressing. These are skills that connect well with INFJ personality traits.
Copywriter / Content Writer
A content writer is somebody who produces written content to be used in blogs, social media posts, etc. Copywriters write specifically with the intention of producing copy to sell a particular product. Copywriters and content writers are hired in large volumes at social media agencies, news outlets, and advertising agencies.
General Prerequisites
You can get a degree in literature or marketing to progress to a career in content writing. That said, you don’t necessarily need a degree to work in this field. Most companies will hire individuals who have a portfolio of written work and bylines at well-known publications.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
Producing good copy is a skill that requires the ability to understand and appeal to human emotions. Since INFJs have an empathetic nature, they’re able to understand how to produce written content that connects with a particular target market. The role of a writer is also one that caters to the introverted character traits of INFJs.
Social Worker
Social workers assist individuals, families, and groups in dealing with problems that they face in their daily lives. These professionals often work with people from vulnerable and marginalized groups to alleviate the issues they face due to structural inequalities in society. In some cases, social workers work in a clinical setting and diagnose behavioral problems that their clients might be facing.
General Prerequisites
A bachelor’s degree in social work is great for people who are certain about a career in social work. But if you’re not sure that you want to work in this field, you can complete any undergraduate program and still make your way into social work.
You will then need to complete a master’s of social work from an accredited college. This is followed up with fieldwork before taking the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB). If you’ve completed those steps, you can move on to taking the licensing exam for social workers in your state.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
INFJs often find that they have a good understanding of people and the problems that they face. This is often complemented by a strong desire to help people in need. Working as a social worker will give you ample opportunities to work with people closely in a way that’s both emotionally and socially rewarding.
Nutritionist
Nutritionists are professionals who provide clients with advice on diet and maintaining a healthy relationship with food. In some cases, they work with people with existing medical conditions to help them choose the right diet for the pre-existing issues that they face.
General Prerequisites
You have two options when it comes to working in the field of nutrition. The first is to work as a nutritionist. This is a role for which you might not need a certification to practice in many states.
The other option is to become a registered dietitian, which allows you to treat medical conditions and diagnose patients. If that’s your goal, then you need to gain a master’s degree in a health field and complete an exam administered by the Dietetics Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
The interpersonal skills that INFJs possess come in handy when working as a nutritionist. It allows you to be empathetic about the challenges that people face with their diet and prescribe interventions in a measured manner.
Video Editor
Video editors are creative professionals who take raw video footage and convert it into a coherent piece of content tailored to a specific medium. This is a job that’s increasingly valuable in today’s digital world, where video content is becoming more and more ubiquitous in media.
General Prerequisites
Video editing is a field in which you don’t necessarily require a degree. There are many professional video editors who picked up their skills independently and have landed jobs with solid portfolios. That said, there are bachelor programs in video editing or film and TV production that you can do if you want an academic background in this field.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
The artistic nature of INFJs is a lesser-known aspect of this personality type, and this role gives creatives a fulfilling way to use their artistic inclinations.
Human Resource Manager
Human resource managers are the professionals who ensure that employees have a healthy relationship with their organization. They lay down frameworks for employee engagement and address any problems that people face at the workplace. The goal of an HR manager is to create safe, peaceful work environments.
General Prerequisites
A bachelor’s degree in business administration is a good choice of degree if you want to work in human resources. You can then complete a diploma in human resources management to become eligible for entry-level human resources roles.
You can boost your profile by completing an MBA in human resource management. This will make you eligible for more senior HR roles. There are also a range of certifications, such as the Society of Human Resource Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP) and Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP), that you can complete to become further qualified in specific areas of the field.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
Human resources is a field where you need to have strong communication skills and the ability to build relationships with employees on a personal level. The emotional intelligence that INFJs possess makes them a great fit for the human resource manager role.
Landscape Architect
Landscape architects come up with designs and oversee the construction of landscape environments in spaces such as colleges, private homes, and parks. Their work involves creating designs using computer-aided software, analyzing local environmental laws, and identifying the right materials and tools for a project.
General Prerequisites
You need to have a bachelor’s degree in architecture if you want to work as a landscape architect. If you’re certain that you want to work in landscaping early on, then you can go in for the Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture or similar degree.
You need to get licensed by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards if you want to work as an independent landscape architect. The board requires that candidates complete an internship under a licensed landscape architect before writing the exam.
A master’s degree is not mandatory if you want to work in this field. However, it does open you up to more senior roles. Joining a professional organization like The American Society of Landscape Architects can help you with networking and keeping up with the goings-on in the field.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
Landscape architecture is a job that takes you out of a straight-jacketed corporate environment. Practitioners get to be in the field most of the time and work in a wide variety of spaces. This makes it an appealing option for INFJs.
Tutor
Tutors provide students with subject- or test-specific guidance outside of a school setting. They usually work with students who are at the school level, but there are cases where undergraduate students seek the help of a tutor. There are also tutors who help in non-academic pursuits such as learning a musical instrument or knitting.
General Prerequisites
The requirements for becoming a tutor depend on the subjects that you teach. If you intend to tutor on an academic subject, then you need to have at least a bachelor’s degree in that field. Parents of students often prefer when tutors also have a master’s degree.
You can also become a tutor if you’ve excelled in a particular area without having an academic background in it. For example, let’s say that you’re an accomplished writer who has popular self-published works. You can use that to create a career tutoring aspiring authors.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
The teaching profession is a field that taps into INFJs’ intrinsic desire to form personal connections based on providing value or help. Tutoring also allows you a great degree of independence since you don’t work within an institutional context.
Clergy
Clergy members are leaders within religious organizations. They are given responsibilities that pertain to guiding members of that religious organization and administrative duties.
General Prerequisites
The path to becoming a member of the clergy varies from religion to religion. You can look up the process for your specific religious group online. In most cases, it’s a good idea to get a bachelor’s degree because that tends to be a requirement if you want to go on to become ordained.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
Working as a member of a clergy taps into INFJs’ empathetic nature and capacity to form human connections. This is a job where you will have to work with other people but without the pressure of having to be too gregarious in most cases. This is what makes it a job fit for INFJs.
Arbitrator / Mediator
When people run into legal disputes, going to court isn’t the only option they have. In many cases, you can hire an arbitrator to act as a third-party legal professional to help resolve the dispute. Arbitrators help ensure that both parties are able to interact in a cordial manner and come to agreements that are legally viable.
General Prerequisites
A degree in law is a prerequisite for working as an arbitrator in many states. Some even require you to have worked as an attorney for a certain number of years before you become eligible for a mediator role.
The requirements also depend on the area that you want to work in. For example, if you want to work in real estate arbitration, then you might need to become a certified realtor. Make sure to look up the laws in your state while charting your path in this field.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
There are two key skills that arbitrators need to possess. The first is communication, which is an important skill for making disputing parties feel heard and accommodated. The second is the ability to take decisive actions when the situation calls for it. Both of these character traits come easily to INFJs, making arbitrator a career choice worth considering.
Researcher
Researchers are academics who study a specific field and broaden perspectives in that area through their work. Apart from the core job of conducting research, researchers also present papers at conferences and sometimes teach, too.
General Prerequisites
You need to have a deep understanding of your field in order to work as a researcher. That means that, at minimum, a master’s degree is a prerequisite to work as a researcher. In most cases, PhD holders do the bulk of the research work in their field.
What Makes This Career Suitable for INFJs?
INFJs are known to be deep thinkers who sometimes like to work independently. Research is a field that will afford you both of those things. What’s less talked about is the fact that research also demands creative problem-solving skills, which is a muscle that INFJs enjoy flexing.
How Can INFJs Be More Successful in the Workplace?
As an INFJ, you possess certain strengths and some things that you might need to work on when you’re in a professional setting. Let’s see how you can leverage your specific personality traits to have a flourishing career.
Manage Your Energy
INFJs are introverts by nature. That means that you need to have time to yourself before you can go back to being in a demanding social environment. Although you might feel the pressure to be a social butterfly at work, make sure that you give yourself time to recharge your batteries so that you can be there for your colleagues or clients when they need you.
Build One-on-One Relationships
INFJs find it hard to socialize with groups at large at times. Walking into a new workplace can be daunting as a result. One of the ways you can make that process easier is by focusing on the individuals at your workplace instead of your entire team or project at once. The more people you get to know on a one-to-one basis, the easier it’ll be to socialize with groups of people at work.
Expand Your Comfort Zone Slowly
Let’s say that you know that your job will require doing presentations in front of large groups of people. You can build up to that by practicing doing presentations to a few of your colleagues at a time. As you slowly expand your comfort zone, you will find that the intimidating situations become a lot more manageable.
Best Careers for INFJ FAQs
We’ve got the answers to your most frequently asked questions.
Are INFJs Usually Successful?
INFJs possess a variety of traits that can set them up for professional success. They are people who are empathetic and can be deep thinkers, which translates well to a whole host of job types.
What Are Some High-Paying Jobs Suited for INFJs?
INFJs can do well at jobs like physical therapist, HR specialist, and technical writing.
Are INFJs Good at Math?
Mathematicians tend to be highly conscientious, which is a trait that INFJs possess. They have the capacity to be good at math as a result.
What Are Some Careers Suited for INFJs That Don’t Require a Degree?
Video editing, writing, and nutrition are fields that INFJs can work in without a degree.
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