The rarest of all 16 personality types of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the INFJ type (introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging), also goes by the name of Advocate or Counselor.
The “idealists,” as some psychologists tend to call them, are driven by their feelings and the inner desire to make the world a better place to live.
Even though seemingly reserved and introvert, these people exhibit an overdeveloped sense of empathy, altruism, and high moral standards.
However, they are not daydreamers. These are people of action and capability to turn their idealism into well-contemplated action in their occupations and careers.
The four factors that categorize the INFJ personality include introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging nature.
Introverted means that they are inwardly oriented, reliving, and experiencing things within themselves, rather than expressing their thoughts, desires, and contemplations with their surroundings. They need their intimate place to retreat and spend some time alone.The fact that they are intuitive means that they use their inner senses to interpret information instead of just taking it for granted. They tend to see the big picture and go to the core of each situational setting.
The fact that they value feelings and emotions allows them to easily connect to the others, experience what the others feel, and express themselves with sensitive language rather than just stating the facts.
The judging nature of their personality means that the decisions they make are based on their own judgment, and they filter the input they receive through the way they see the things. But since they are strategic and deep thinkers, they often see-through a situation up to its core.
The basic difference between INFJ-A and INFJ-T
Despite their similarities, theAssertive (INFJ-A) and Turbulent (INFJ-T)personalities feature some nuanced differences in how they think, act, and respond to the world. While Assertive INFJs are generally more relaxed and confident, the Turbulent INFJs respond impulsively and sensitively to stressors.
Jobs and Career Matches for INFJ
Whatever work INFJs do, they seek meaning in it that matches their firmly established values. Despite being sensitive, quiet, and introverted, they can be good leaders in careers and jobs that promote peace, humanitarianism, social justice, and counseling.
What one can expect from INFJs is high academic achievement and excellence in what they do. People around them perceive them as hardworking, easy-going, positive, and progressive in their careers. The bare concept of earning money just to be rich or famous will never attract them, so corporate environments that prioritize making money on account of altruism and improvement will never make them thrive.
What they don’t like either are chaos and sudden changes. INFJs prefer to know the details in advance and complete the working tasks in an orderly manner. They strive for independence and seek quiet working environments to develop their ideas.
Good listeners as they are, INFJs can be incredibly supportive, and even if they don’t take on leadership roles, they can be powerful influencers. Since they have deeply held moral values, convictions, and highly emphasized creativity, some specific jobs make a perfect fit for these individuals.
Health Care
A good health care provider means being able to emotionally connect with other people and deeply sense what they are feeling. These seemingly rare personal qualities are generally highly pronounced in INFJs, making them apt for these jobs.
But they do not only relate to you; their ability to think deeply and profoundly means that they will take advantage of the connection to find a way to provide help and assistance.
These individuals turn out to be excellent psychologists and psychiatrists, and as some testimonials point out that they feel at their best when trying to make other people’s problems a distant past. What they tend to do is to use their personal insight to connect situations and events to bring change in other people’s lives.
Counseling and Social Service
Empathy and altruism are INFJs core characteristics, and Counselor personality is their common name, indicating a strong ability to put themselves in other people’s shoes.
Since they dive into deep thinking and relate things with one another, they are often considered an excellent source for advice and support. Plus, they can help their clients see other perspectives and focus on finding the core of the problem with a detailed plan on how to do it.
Sciences
INFJs are driven by an inner desire to help humanity and transform the world into a much better place to live. Employments based on doing research will provide these individuals with order, structure, and peace to create a new idea, product, or concept that will positively impact the world.
Since they exhibit highly prominent intellectual features blended with moral standards and compassion for others, jobs like epidemiologists, environmental scientists, pharmacists, and geneticists will mostly suit them.
Business and Law
Even though the corporate environment might not be their ideal setting, working as entrepreneurs or business owners can help them achieve their ambition to add a personal touch in what they do.
Their complex,creativity-filled mind works towards developing a business that helps others rather than just helps them get rich. Prosperity, according to them, gets obtained when other people experience the benefits they offer.
Non-profit jobs or advocacy in humanitarian organizations allows them to put their skills in action and address specific issues. They also love to connect with communities for a broader cause and provide assistance to those in need.
Education
This is the area where INFJs find themselves fully engaged thanks to the deep involvement they have with their students. Being actively involved in the education process allows them to directly impact other people’s lives and make them better.
Their need to communicate and express their insights can ignite the spark for improvement while at the same time, they can feel independent and in line with their values. Even the library can be the perfect job setting for them because they can enjoy the structure, peace, and quiet while at the same time be at the disposal of other people.
Language and Arts
Many INFJs are soft-spoken and have an outstanding vocabulary range that helps them express themselves much better compared to other types. They are often authors of popular blogs, screenplays, or stories on themes that involve deep reasoning and thinking such as morality, spirituality, and personal growth.
Due to their creative nature, they can be excellent artists and designers. The structural organization of colors and textures and the individuality of the work itself allow them to contemplate over and experiment with their designs.
Jobs and Career Paths INJFs Should Definitely Avoid
INFJ personalities are intellectually dominant and can do well in any field.
However, these people will most probably struggle if personal needs are not taken into account or are too repetitive and monotonous. Jobs that promote conflicts or involve criticism and pressure can be exhausting and frustrating for the INFJs.
The stress of the corporate environment, politics, and sales can be particularly burdensome for these people and can make them feel unfulfilled and empty.
Specific titles, financial rewards, and recognition will never satisfy them if they don’t contribute towards a higher cause or help the society.
These are the jobs that INFJs should avoid:
Sales
Exaggerating products and services qualities for the sake of earning more never appeals to the INFJ, and sales jobs can even seem hypocritical and mischievous.
Accounting
Similarly to sales, the endpoint of these jobs is profit and personal gain, which can make INFJs feel miserable at times.
Military and Police
Following direct orders with disregard of personal situations can cause emotional distress to INFJs.
Managers
Managerial work is often disorganized and chaotic and demands lots of social contacts and self-promotion, which goes in the opposite line with the rather introvert INFJs personality.
Paramedics
INFJs seek peace, order, and predictability, which is entirely opposite to the paramedic job description.
Engineering and Surveyors
These jobs involve too much focus on technicalities and repetitions, which can make INFJs tense and unfulfilled.
INFJ Strengths and Weaknesses in a Working Environment
Strengths
INFJ strengths are:
- Empathetic and sensitive to other people’s needs – this personality type can easily find themselves in other people’s shoes and feel their pain and struggle. This makes them compassionate and aware of their surroundings and helps them look for the solution to the problem, not just realize the existence of the problem.
- Well-spoken, creative, and artistic – their emphasized talent for language, arts, and writing helps them express themselves better and often in an alternative way.
- Intuitive and insightful – they have the capability of scanning through other people’s intentions and can easily see through dishonesty and manipulation.
- Reserved and introvert – This can be seen as a strength in jobs that require employing listening skills and the ability to withhold personal opinion for a more significant cause.
- Idealistic and focused on the future – their inner life is fairly vivid and orbits around the idea of changing the world to better.
- Humanitarian and altruistic – it is their inner drive that gives them the willpower to act in accordance with their moral values and thrive within various social groups.
- Decisive and passionate – Once they do the necessary planning and see the big picture, they are able to carry the most complex projects out regardless of the difficulties.
Weaknesses
- Sensitive to criticism and confrontation – the infamous INFJ door slam can be provoked by questioning and criticizing INFJs principles and values.
- Demanding – When put in leading positions, they can have extremely high expectations from themselves and others.
- Perfectionistic – Individuals with the INFJ personality set high standards and values that can be difficult to follow or maintain, especially in areas such as business, politics, or relationships. The INFJs, particularly Turbulent ones, often ignore the favorable circ*mstances in their pursuit of the ideal.
- Reserved and intolerant – Hard to establish a deep bond if you do not share the same moral values or principles.
INFJ Working in a Team
Although the ability to work as individuals or decision-makers is their ideal environment, the INFJs can cope well in teams that work in harmony and appreciate individual opinions. They are often perceived as peace-keepers and mitigate conflicts well.
They can be both team leaders or team support and often inspire others and create new visions and ideas. The fact that they are careful listeners and take care of others means that they will raise questions on ethics, morality, and meeting team members’ needs.
However, the fact that team members usually compete against each other means that they might have problems if the team is too competitive, conflicting, or immoral.
INFJ Working as a Leader
Their positive attitude and the honest desire to bring positive changes make them confident and respected leaders. Their ability to express themselves eloquently and unassumingly creates a supportive working environment, while the organizational and strong principles they have, create an atmosphere of trust and confidence.
INFJs can clearly communicate their goals and ideas and don’t leave much space for confusion, so team members often rely on their leading capabilities. They know exactly what they want from each of their team members, so little is left to chances.
Facts and Interesting INFJ Career Stats
- INFJs show lower than the average chances to manage a large team.
- They are more likely than the other personality types (+28%) to become a stay-at-home parent.
- INFJ showed the lowest discrepancy rate when it comes to the gender wage gaps, with females INFJs earning about 87% less than males.
- The average salary of INFJs is $36.575 lower compared to the average for the rest of the types.
INFJ Career FAQs
What job is good for an INFJ?
As natural empaths, INFJs are very good at jobs that are oriented towards understanding other people’s feelings. Thus, INFJs can be good counselors, social workers, teachers, and psychologists.
In fact, any career path related to health care is suitable for INFJs’ personality traits and characteristics. The reason is that they can easily put themselves in other people’s shoes, understand their perspectives, and take care of their emotional needs.
Can INFJ be lawyers?
The INFJ personality is a very hard-working type. Since becoming a lawyer requires great dedication and effort, it might be easier for INFJs to become lawyers. However, it doesn’t mean that they will feel comfortable in the position of a lawyer.
The truth is that the jobs that require empathy and care are more suitable for them. Therefore, a legal career isn’t considered the most optional professional path for iNFJs because confrontation and arguments aren’t really something for them.
What careers should an INFJ avoid?
One career path that is definitely not suitable for INFJs is marketing and advertising. They are people’s people. They’re oriented towards others’ emotional needs, and in the competitive world of consumers, chances are that INFJs will feel uncomfortable.
Some of the other careers that INFJs should avoid are politics, finance, and the military. Considering their feeling (F) and introversion (I) traits, they’re not naturally keen on such rigid and intense jobs.
Conclusion
From what we have said, it seems that INFJs are indeed unique in the way they perceive the world and commit themselves in accordance with their deepest values and principles.
However, they are not idealists who just need to change the world, but people who act upon their ideals. Passion, imagination, empathy, all shrouded with mystery is what describes them the best, and yet there’s so much more about them.
Having said this, it doesn’t mean that they enjoy life carelessly following their dreams and potentials. In environments that are not adequate for their personality, or where they feel trapped and unable to carry out their plans, they can face major issues, reveal the dark side of their character, or even suffer INFJ personality disorders.
During their childhood, they often feel different and misunderstood and never in line with common trends. And what works best for the majority of people won’t be applicable in the INFJs lifestyle.
This is why it should be an imperative for the INFJs to thoroughly understand their personality and act accordingly to find true happiness in their working and social environment. If you are an INFJ, we hope that this article has helped you understand yourself and finally make sense of everything that has been odd in your life.
