8 Careers to Avoid for ESFP Personality Types

The 3rd most common personality type among women is ESFP (Extroversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) with between 4% – 10% of the American population having this type. ESFPs are spontaneous, lively and lovers of fun. Having said this, an individual with this personality is often the life of the party, that friend who wants to entertain others and have a great sense of humor. ESFPs are also helpful people who are observant of those around them and ever ready to lend a helping hand. They also want to be in the spotlight, which is also perhaps one of the reasons behind their talkativeness. Not the type to be left behind when it comes to trends, they love fashion and can be seen wearing colorful and sensual clothes. They are also looking for new challenges and experiences.

With the vibrant and exciting personality of ESFPs, they can excel and enjoy the professions such as dentistry, cosmetology, child care, sales and public relations. However, there are also jobs they will find redundant and stressful. These are the careers people with ESFP personality should stay away from.

1. Writing

ESFPs would rather be speaking in front of many people or be on the phone and talk endlessly than sit down and spend hours writing. For these reasons, a person with an ESFP personality will be better off avoiding a career that will keep them isolated from the group and focus on details and reading data. Although some can stand a simple task of writing when the need arises like writing a letter or a report, dealing with mundane tasks required by being a technical writer, for example, can make the ESFP uncomfortable.

2. Data Mining

Being the active and lively people that they are, ESFPs love spontaneity and dislike planning and spending time analyzing and deciphering problems. Data mining is a job that requires collecting large data and creating a model or trend that identifies buying behavior of consumers. This also entails analyzing data and is used by financial institutions and government agencies. ESFPs are not the type of individuals who enjoy going into the nitty-gritty of things and going through data to identify trends in business models. The trends they are keen to studying are the trends of fashion. Because of this, they prefer to be the ones to talk to potential clients to make sales and close deals instead of being in front of the computer analyzing data and statistics.

3. Accounting

This job requires analysis and also dealing with figures and data that need to be broken down into detailed information and recorded. Not only will an ESFP individual find it monotonous, this type of job can also be stressful for him or her since it requires following procedures and sticking to them.

4. Administrative Assistant

ESFPs know better not to apply for a job that will require them to report to the office and stay there up to five o’clock in the afternoon, on a daily basis. Thus, an office job such as being an administrative assistant will not make them happy. An administrative assistant’s tasks and responsibilities entail answering phone calls, plotting schedules, dealing with paper work, replying to emails and the like. These are activities they will not feel good about because these will keep them busy but not with the things they find enjoyable to do like talking and being on-the-go.

5. Economist

ESFPs love to see results that are tangible and can be acquired in a short period of time. They are also not fond of long-term projects. These traits make a career as an economist out of the bucket list of best jobs for ESFPs. This is because an economist has to deal with analysis and research of economic issues that cannot be solved in just one sitting. This career also requires preparing of reports and forecasting market trends and ESFPs are not happy with projections since they prefer instant results. Moreover, this job requires writing articles for academic journals, a task they would rather not do.

6. Chemical Engineering

Just like any engineering majors, Chemical Engineering requires being in a classroom setting and earning college credit for structured job experience. What makes this career not suitable for ESFPs starts with the type of hard work expected from a student taking this degree. ESFPs do not perform well in a classroom setting. Moreover, if a person who is an ESFP manages to graduate and become a chemical engineer, he or she will be working full-time in laboratories and offices. This career also requires estimation of production costs, designing and layout, research and developing safety procedures that require structuring and testing. All these do not fit a person who does not like structure and routine.

7. Human Resources

Human resource personnel and managers have to deal and interact with people of different personalities. This job also entails conducting interviews, giving presentations and planning. An ESFP is not the type who loves to plan and do routine work. Having him or her sit everyday behind her desk, interview applicants, write memos, analyze and update company policies and other routine tasks can overwhelm an ESFP. This is why this job that is not popular among people with the ESFP personality type.

8. Credit Collection

A credit collector’s job is to ensure people who owe the company and are delinquent in their payments will be able pay. With this type of job, the credit collector is required to call borrowers, which means a ton of phone calls and sitting behind the desk most of the day. This can be stressful for an ESFP individual. Also, with the trait of an ESFP, which is having the urge to help other people, there is a possibility for the person who owes the company to be off the hook and not pay since the ESFP will feel bad about the plight of the person and just forget about the debt.

People with ESFP personality types are happy, fun-loving, spontaneous and gregarious people. They are not the type of individuals who will enjoy being confined to a job that does not let them enjoy life because they are required to follow rules and be in structured environment. Knowing what careers are not a good fit for ESFPs will make it more possible for them to look for jobs that will make them better people and productive employees.