Jobs for INFP experiences?

**Spew** · 09-09-2019 10:04 AM

So I have been thinking about this a lot lately since while I enjoy the pay of my current job I absolutely hate everything about it. I'm constantly having to serve people and talk to them and being an introvert I come home exhausted no longer wanting to do anything but lay down and watch Netflix.

I want to hear from some of you guys that have found the job that fits you perfectly so that maybe I can get some inspiration out of that. I've always loved art and I still am pursuing it but I do know that it is a long shot expecting to make a long-term career out of it so I'd like to hear some good options I can take for someone like me who likes to be alone most of the time and be creative but also be helpful in some ways.

**NagatoUzumaki** · 09-09-2019 10:46 AM

That's not really sufficient amount information to make a conclusion regarding your situation. Do you have preferable job alternatives (one that you have fair chance of getting) that would allow you to maintain your current lifestyle spending-wise? If not, can you spend less and still have satisfying life and would you be willing to give up certain aspects of your current life in order to measure to your new lesser income capabilities? If answer is still no then you pretty should at least for a now stay in your current job and if you really want to change things then you would need work on certain factors that would increase chances of getting preferable job such as developing skills important for preferred job, obtaining credentials and perhaps forming connections with people that that would help you in obtaining such job.

I wouldn't advise pursuing art outside perhaps hobby and semi-professionally as secondary source of income unless you make it big (what's is very unlikely in the first place) or at least get a cushy and stable job in profession, as most of the art remains unnoticed (at least receives nowhere near amount of attention that would allow you to make sufficient amount of money out of it) and won't be able to make a living out of it.Of course, depending on type of the art, industry in fact may not be much better than your current job forcing you to talk to and interact with people (eg acting).

I don't see job as activity I would want to do but more of as an activity that I need to do in order to do what I want.I don't need to like the job, simply not hating it will suffice (unless I've no other choice, at least for a time until I get better opportunity). I wouldn't work at all if I could achieve desired lifestyle with less/no effort. So if you so desperately want to be out of this job simply get some savings and put some effort in obtaining one that would be preferable and you wouldn't hate and still would be adequate one, financially.

Not exactly what you wanted to hear but perhaps what you needed to hear.

**Spew** · 09-09-2019 11:55 AM

Originally Posted by NagatoUzumaki

That's not really sufficient amount information to make a conclusion regarding your situation. Do you have preferable job alternatives (one that you have fair chance of getting) that would allow you to maintain your current lifestyle spending-wise? If not, can you spend less and still have satisfying life and would you be willing to give up certain aspects of your current life in order to measure to your new lesser income capabilities? If answer is still no then you pretty should at least for a now stay in your current job and if you really want to change things then you would need work on certain factors that would increase chances of getting preferable job such as developing skills important for preferred job, obtaining credentials and perhaps forming connections with people that that would help you in obtaining such job.

I wouldn't advise pursuing art outside perhaps hobby and semi-professionally as secondary source of income unless you make it big (what's is very unlikely in the first place) or at least get a cushy and stable job in profession, as most of the art remains unnoticed (at least receives nowhere near amount of attention that would allow you to make sufficient amount of money out of it) and won't be able to make a living out of it.Of course, depending on type of the art, industry in fact may not be much better than your current job forcing you to talk to and interact with people (eg acting).

I don't see job as activity I would want to do but more of as an activity that I need to do in order to do what I want.I don't need to like the job, simply not hating it will suffice (unless I've no other choice, at least for a time until I get better opportunity). I wouldn't work at all if I could achieve desired lifestyle with less/no effort. So if you so desperately want to be out of this job simply get some savings and put some effort in obtaining one that would be preferable and you wouldn't hate and still would be adequate one, financially.

Not exactly what you wanted to hear but perhaps what you needed to hear.

I wasn't exactly looking for advice, but I do appreciate it! I wanted to read about INFPs and their experiences with jobs they had to help push me in a direction to follow and see how I like it. Like right now I was looking into studying to become a therapist since I am a better listener than a speaker and it's quiet. If I get other people's insight though and see what tasks they had to do it's help me narrow my options down.

**coma** · 09-09-2019 03:53 PM

Like any INFP riding their Ne to oblivion, I've had my hand in plenty of pots career and academia wise. That said, I'm currently in Finance. It's one of the last places I thought I would end up considering I had a red mohawk back in highschool and always skipping class.

I moved through the ranks at my company and am now in leadership. I stay late to handle teams, I'm on calls and meetings with other managers from other companies, I implement procedures and training, etc. The list goes on for my position. I come home late all the time and start out early. I'm also an ultra runner so I stay active training in the mountains and find time to travel the world, for my girlfriend, to have tons of fun, to visit family and friends, to relax. 7 years ago I could only drool and dream of what and how I'm living like now like it was unattainable. It took baby steps.

It was stressful at first, but I had grind out the efforts to be where I am in my job and life. Finding my balance, peace, comfort, and convenience. I did it because I know what it means to just have the clothes on your back. These days I have no worries of that and I have investments to catch me for plans B, C, D, etc. Once you eliminate money problems, you can organize and isolate other problems to turn your lifestyle to what you desire and envision. When your mind is busy with money problems, you can't think of shaping and forming how your ideal life is going to look like. How can you if the most prevailing thought is 'do I have enough money to buy food?'

Finance is a huge world, I honestly learn a lot and I still love what I do and will always be a student. I learned to talk to people, de-escalate and curve their emotions and reset their expectations. These types of things were pretty foreign to me until my mid to late 20s. I find ways to be creative especially through problem-solving and I'm given sooo much freedom to manage my own work time. I enjoy helping others and most of my interactions are online or on the phone, not face-to-face. I can now calculate income and profits, assess to maximize or minimize, and in general learn relevant things that I can implement in everyday life. Makes me feel more connected to the conversations of others when I have a useful input or know what they're referring to or asking about in regards to my expertise.

Finance is not for every INFP. Typology helps guide you to strengths, but you can develop more than what you thought you were given. Goodluck with your career goals.

**L P** · 09-09-2019 10:00 PM

I worked at a tech summer camp, I was a camp counselor and taught kids how to make video games. It's very difficult to teach kids to understand a coding language, and it was exhausting, I don't think I could do it year round, but I loved the job. Oh my God I loved the job, it broke my introvert personality and I became some super charismatic camp counselor, not some actually, I actually got "your personality" written as one of my strengths on a employee review. Each week we got a new set of Kids and had to meet the parents, there was one week where a kid told me I was his favorite counselor and that made my day, and the parents liked me alot too. What I loved so much about it was that I got to use my creativity to help kids find solutions to their problems and challenge them to think out the box, also I got to let my big kid out and just play with kids on my break, the teenagers were way more fun and bearable compared to the toddlers. I felt like I got hired to be a fun older brother. I will miss it but it's forever in my memories.

**UpClosePersonal** · 09-12-2019 01:17 PM

I think the key to job satisfaction for INFP lies in being in charge of how you do your job. Like LP said above, being able to tap into your creativity will get you the best feedback on your abilities.

INFPs think outside the box and that's missing in a lot of places. Not a lot of companies will pay you to draw, but they will pay for your creative problem solving ability.

The ability to make and create art is only a small part of the creative person you are as an INFP. That's why it isn't an in demand thing people want to pay for.

Anything that allows you to use your creative sense will be rewarding.

**bigstupidgrin** · 09-13-2019 08:32 PM

Creativity and the ability to improvise. Also being a good person helps. A massive dose of nostalgia-si helps too. At least that's probably why I'm a teacher now.

**Turlowe** · 09-14-2019 06:55 AM

I quite enjoy my work, actually that's not true, more accurate to say I love my work as a stagehand.

It's certainly not for everybody though, Hours can be very long with some shows, I regularly have days where I'm on site for around twenty hours, typically working hard for around half that time with the rest being breaks and standing by to deal with whatever little emergencies pop up. The work is also very physical, I've come out of shows looking like I'd been in a fight on many occasions. Another issue is instability, unless you tour with an act you are dependent on shows coming to you and most markets don't have a ton of live shows.

On the bright side the work is exciting, demanding, frequently high pressured in the sense of "the show must go on". I frequently get to use creative problem solving on various technical an logistic issues. I get to see a ton of shows from all sorts of genres which has exposed to so many things I'd likely never have encountered otherwise. On occasion you even get to meet the talent, I've had dinner with Springsteen's guitarist Little Steven Van Zandt, I had beers with the B-52s, I even almost spilled coffee all over Sting.

More than any of that what keeps me doing this are two factors, firstly I feel good about what we do, when we go to work we enable thousands of people to enjoy an experience that will likely be with them for years, maybe for the rest of their lives. It's amazing to me to see the massive show rig we've built, to see thousands of smiling faces sharing this experience, to bask in the energy of the audience. The thing that's kept me at this for so long though has been the people, my coworkers, I love them, even the ones I don't really like that much. We are people of every ethnicity, sex, gender, background, age (well, adult age) and political agenda, and unlike most everywhere else in this fracked up world we come together and get shit done, we have no time for PC nonsense, we treat each other with respect. It's not really possible to live in a bubble doing this which is great, because of this I've been exposed to many viewpoints on a great many subjects which has bettered me as a person. There's really only one thing we really tend to have in common is that we're different, even odd, you meet a ton of real characters doing this, many seemingly larger than life. Backstage no one really needs to hide who they are, you're allowed to be different, even weird, without any repercussion as long as you do your job.

Obviously this suits me well, I've been many places and done a great many things, but I never really looked forward to going to work in other jobs. The money could be better, sometimes the work conditions can be proper brutal, but I don't want to do what's easiest. I love the challenge, I love the feeling of satisfaction, but mostly I love the people, and I really don't ever want to stop.

**king friday** · 09-16-2019 07:59 AM

Currently finished up with TMS treatment (transcranial magnetic stimulation) for my depression and made a lot of improvement along with other things I have been working on over the past couple years on my own. I am soon going to be ready to go back to school full time to pursue counseling because it is the most meaningful to me and I love talking one on one to help strengthen a persons psyche.

It was really difficult getting over my depression I have had since my teen years but I am feeling ready to move on now. For now I have put in applications for the texting crisis line counselor which is a remote job and I plan to wiggle my way into the field I know I really want to work in.

I know what it's like as a INFP to not be sure what type of work to go into. I hope all you INFP's out there are not being hard on yourselves and showing yourself some love and kindness.

**angelfish** · 09-19-2019 10:12 PM

I haven't found a job that's perfect for me, but I'll tell you some of my good and bad experiences. That said, I'm a bit different from you... I want to be engaging with people for most of my day, even though I like some quiet alone time as well. I do also like to be helpful and creative. (Do you know your Holland code? I'm Social-Artistic-Investigative.)

Here we go...