careers that people with infj personality type should avoid
5 Careers that People with INFJ Personality Type should Avoid
INFJs are generally introverts, and believe a great deal in morals and principles. This Buzzle article explores 5 careers that people of the INFJ personality type should avoid.
"Sometimes we INFJs feel like tortured souls - but our personality can also be a real gift. There are two sides to it, and it's important to see both."
Research has unearthed 16 known personality types, out of which one is INFJ. People of this type are rare and rather complex. Apparently, they have the typically uncanny sense that very few possess, which means that they do have a special insight into others' minds and different situations. Have you heard a friend say, "I think the lecture is going to be canceled", to soon realize that it has actually been canceled? This could have been a coincidence, but chances are high that it was your friend's intuition; especially so, if he is of the INFJ personality type.
Well, INFJs are known for their intuitive abilities. They are not of the thinking and reasoning type. They like to go by their natural tendencies. They are introverts and possess high levels of creativity. Careers that give less or no scope to these traits of INFJs, prove to be unsuitable for them. Here is a look at five careers that people with an INFJ personality should avoid.
― Amanda Gardner, Blogger, Can't Stop, Must Think
A Background
- INFJ stands for 'Introvert', 'Intuitive', 'Feeling', and 'Judging'.
- As already mentioned, these individuals have strong intuitions.
- This feeling is often misunderstood. And ironically, these people cannot understand their own inner selves completely, making them reserved and protective about themselves.
- They are compassionate and concerned, and very creative.
- They are certainly not the kind who would wear their hearts on their sleeves; they take time to open up, and even after that, it is not necessary that they would share everything with you, even if you are their best friend.
- An important point is that most of them are highly principled, they follow the moral scruples they have laid down for themselves, and consider the implications before taking any decision.
Personality Traits
Strengths
- Reserved Nature
- Compassion
- Integrity
- Strong-willed
- Creative
- High grasping power
- Intuitive
- Insightful
Weaknesses
- Stubborn
- Single-minded
- Over-sensitive
- Cannot handle criticism
- Judgmental
- Hate monotony
- Vulnerable to conflicts
- Hate authority
Careers to Avoid
Politician
- A politician or a spokesperson is one of the most unfitting careers for INFJ.
- This is with reference to the fact that they dislike anything to do with public speaking.
- Moreover, they are reserved, and therefore, speaking in public, interacting with people, posing with a fake smile, etc., are actions they loathe.
- They are also highly principled and do not cross certain barriers. To be in politics, one needs to be more calculative and know how to push the right buttons.
- Try entering an INFJ in politics and it will most likely be a disaster. And if you push them, they may go into depression.
Sales Representative
- For the same reasons as stated above, an INFJ cannot be a sales representative.
- For that matter, any career that relates to direct marketing, advertising, promotion, and brand strategies is unsuitable for them.
- These careers require a person to be extremely efficient in public speaking.
- They also require that the person have excellent verbal communication, interpersonal, and convincing skills.
- Many a time, in the sales industry, you are required to manipulate information about the efficiency of certain products, perhaps, even lie on the face, and this ability is not present in an INFJ.
- They are very creative and hence, can be very good at written communication, but face-to-face communication is not their forte.
- To convince customers is not something they can do effortlessly, which is why a sales representative is a wrong career choice for them.
Accountant
- It is something that such people should strictly avoid and this goes without saying.
- INFJs hate monotony. They do prefer working quietly in their own private space, but on no account does this mean that they prefer a monotonous routine.
- They hate desk jobs and repetitive work. They would despise being chained to a job that involves dealing with a multitude of documents.
- Being an accountant also involves being excellent at calculations, and they may not be experts at the same. Even if they are, tallying accounts is something they would prefer avoiding at all costs.
- Since they prefer creativity at work, an accountant should be the last job to choose.
Forensic Auditor
- Forensic auditors deal with mountains of paperwork.
- The job is not similar to that of an accountant, but it runs along the same lines (not involving creativity).
- It is a desk job, and you are given enough documentation to last you a lifetime.
- Give it a couple of days and an INFJ would probably run away from the office.
- They will find the atmosphere very stifling, and the repeated documentation will suck their creative juices.
Administrative Clerk
- An administrative job can be highly boring for an INFJ.
- Clerical jobs again involve repeated work and no innovation.
- Moreover, there is an incredible authority that a clerk has to follow, i.e., he has to follow his senior's orders without question.
- This is highly impossible for an INFJ, because they can never follow commands blindly.
- This is a reason why careers related to the army, navy, and air force are a strict no-no for them.