The Best Careers For ESFP Personality Types

ESFP careers best match a person with the personality types of extroverted, sensing, feeling, and perceiving. The ESFP is also known as “the entertainer,” as they can connect and engage with others easily. If you’re a job seeker with an ESFP personality, it’s essential to find a career that fits your unique traits and allows you to find satisfaction in your job.

In this article, you’ll find the best jobs for ESFP people, ESFP jobs to avoid, and some of the highest-paying ESFP careers.

Key Takeaways:

Good jobs for ESFP personalities include physical therapist, real estate agent, and interior designer.
ESFP careers to avoid include data analyst, copywriter, and auditor.
ESFP personalities want to do active, hands-on work in a social environment where spontaneity and enthusiasm are encouraged.

What is an ESFP personality?

An ESFP personality is:

Extroverted rather than introverted. Extroverts are energized by being around people, while introverts need alone time to recharge.
Sensing rather than intuition. Sensing individuals process information by observing what they can sense, while intuitive people use their instincts to process new information.
Feeling rather than thinking. ESFPs trust their emotions to make decisions instead of relying on logic.
Perceiving rather than judging. Perceivers prefer a flexible process that considers moment-to-moment changes, while judgers like to have carefully planned processes in place.

ESFPs at work

There’s no single great career for ESFPs, but many of the best jobs for ESFP personality types do share some common characteristics. Here’s what to look for in the best careers for ESFP personalities:

Sociability and service to others. ESFPs enjoy heping people and seeing tangible results for their work. They enjoy solving practical, people-focused problems.
Creativity. ESFPs are often creative and prefer work that engages their senses, whether that be in food, music, or design.
Flexibility. In general, the best ESFP jobs don’t have strict rules, bureaucracy, or long-term projects. ESFPs prefer to take each day as it comes and make flexible changes as needed.
The ESFP on a team: ESFP jobs are all about teamwork. They love socializing in casual settings and are always looking for where they can help others, whether with coworkers or clients.

ESFPs aren’t especially task-driven and prefer to work on practical problems they can fix quickly. They’re good at listening to all points of view and encouraging collaboration. ESFPs don’t enjoy working on abstract problems, on task-oriented projects, or with competitive colleagues.
The ESFP as a leader: ESFPs make great leaders, as they straddle the line between encouraging enthusiasm and down-to-earth pragmatism. They’re especially observant of the emotions and motives of others, allowing them to energize their subordinates.

ESFP leaders may struggle with conflict and aim to keep everything positive and casual, even in a crisis. ESFP leaders also struggle with long-term decision-making and planning and prefer leading a team to tangible, short-term results.

The best ESFP careers

If you see yourself in the ESFP personality, then you might discover that you’re interested in a job that lets you engage with others, keeps you in the center of the spotlight, and doesn’t involve a lot of long-range planning. These are some of the best careers for ESFP personalities:

Firefighter

Average Annual Salary: $39,000

Firefighters are thrown into drama and high-stress situations. They need to be able to make snap decisions and trust their intuition with their lives. This is a strong point for ESFP personalities. They’re ready to dive right into things based on intuition alone, which is good because they have great intuition.

They love being in the middle of the action and can be lighthearted and fun in their downtime. Those are great personality traits for someone who is a firefighter.

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Brand Ambassador

Average Annual Salary: $30,000

Handing out samples, working at events and tradeshows, and even coming to someone’s home to throw a party are all great traits in ESFP careers. That’s why being a brand ambassador is an easy fit for them. They love engaging with other people, and people love to be around them.

Another aspect of this job is that it’s often different every day. Some brand ambassadors sell different brands from day to day. Others stick with one brand, but they frequently have new products. This sort of change and flexibility is divine in the mind of an ESFP.

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Entertainer

Average Annual Salary: $61,000

ESFP personality type jobs are those that love the spotlight and making people happy. This means that they can be phenomenal entertainers. They shine when people are watching them and kick it up a notch, adding personality and charm to everything they do.

While an ESFP usually isn’t a great tragic actor or orchestral musician, they are phenomenal with lighthearted bits, comedy, and pop or impromptu music. In fact, impromptu is something they do brilliantly. With their ability to read a room without even realizing it, they could even find work as a psychic.

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Interior Designer

Average Annual Salary: $54,000

Aesthetics matter to ESFPs, and the best jobs for ESFP personality types reflect that. They like to look their best and are often ahead of the trends. They tend to be foodies, influencers, have the coolest stuff, and their homes spark envy in others. That’s why you want an ESFP to be your interior designer.

Being on top of trends, or even ahead of them, is part of their instinct. They can see when people have tired of gray walls and need to add color. They can sense what colors look best on people and surrounding them.

When it comes down to the little things, the innate ability to understand people will help them connect the homeowners with objects they’ll love.

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Influencer

Average Yearly Salary: $62,000

ESFPs can be considered fickle, but they simply want to be entertained, to be entertaining, variety. This makes influencing a good job for ESFPS personalities.

They’ll try something, and, if they love it, you’ll know because they love to rave about how wonderful things are. They’re actually people you’ll want to follow because they tend to be brutally honest.

While their inner desires make them great in this job, their ability to connect with people also helps. They’re those people who everyone leans toward and gathers around at a party. They bring lightness and joy to events. They have a problem being serious and thinking long-range, but those are not job requirements for influencers.
Coach

Average Annual Salary: $47,000

Coaching is an excellent choice as ESFP careers go. They get people to listen to them, are incredibly enthusiastic, and have boundless energy.

But an ESFP is typically not a great head coach. They can’t plan out for the future, and they’ll retreat into the corners when there are serious moments. Of course, that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be coaching.

Assistant coaches are still critical to any team, and the ESFP will be happier without all of the stress and pressure of a head position anyway.

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Physical Therapist

Average Annual Salary: $69,000

If you’re an ESFP and drawn to the medical profession, then you might want to consider going into the field of physical therapy. This requires a lot of educational dedication, which can be difficult, but the rewards will be worth it.

Physical therapists often work with people after injuries or surgery to help them get back on their feet and move as close to “normal” as possible. This takes a person with an inspiring personality to encourage others to get up and move and try to do just a little more.

It also takes a lot of creativity to reach the right muscles and to do it in a way that inspires patients to stick to their therapy.

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Real Estate Agent

Average Annual Salary: $99,000

Becoming a real estate agent is one of the highest-paying ESFP careers available. Much like ESFPs are great at interior design, they’re also fantastic real estate agents. They can instantly pick up on what their customers like or don’t like about a home. That helps them either sell the high points to them or find a home with what they really want.

Also, because ESFPs are often referred to as “people persons,” they are enjoyable to be around, and homebuyers like shopping with them. Home buying is incredibly stressful, so having an agent who makes you happy and you enjoy working with can change everything.

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Food Critic

Average Annual Salary: $50,000

ESFPs love the finer things in life; they want to treat themselves to nice things and have a discerning palate. These are great qualities for food critics to have.

Their personalities draw other people to them, so they easily get the viewers, listeners, and readers they need to thrive. Their ability to gush over things they like makes them popular, but they’ll point out the bad aspects, too.

Trying new food constantly is a dream for many ESFPs because it’s all about novel experiences, and being one of the first or the authority in anything will fuel their desire to work.

One thing to note: ESFPs might not enjoy being a food critic who writes about their experiences. Writing can be a solitary activity and take a long time, which isn’t in their wheelhouse. But they would be excellent on-camera critics.

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Restaurant Host

Average Yearly Salary: $26,300

Speaking of working in the food industry, ESFPs make fantastic hosts. They don’t need to do any long-term planning or deal with anything more serious than being overbooked or running behind. They get to meet and greet people constantly and show off their interpersonal communication skills.

All of these things make this job an easy fit for a restaurant host. They’re there to make diners feel welcomed and to set their expectations for a great experience. That’s easy for any ESFP.

ESFP careers to avoid

If you’re an ESFP, the following careers might not be your best option. It doesn’t mean you can’t succeed in these areas or go into them, but you may find that they don’t align with your personality.

Here are a few ESFP jobs to avoid:

Attorney

Attorneys are often dealing with very serious matters, and they need to be able to see the big picture and do a lot of long-range planning. These are not areas that typically appeal to an ESFP, nor are they ones that they excel in.

Attorneys have very stressful jobs, and this is not something most ESFPs feel comfortable with. They’d rather play and enjoy spending time with others.
Auditor

Another serious profession is that of an auditor. Just the job title often puts fear into some company accountants and CFOs. The auditor is there to look at the books and make sure a company is being financially honest and upright. They could work for the government or banking institutions.

While they have a lot of flexibility and diversity in their job, which would appeal to an ESFP, auditors are typically not encouraged to be lighthearted and engage with others in a friendly manner.
Data Analyst

Sitting in a room and crunching the numbers or analyzing numbers and statistics will sound like torture to most ESFPs. This is a solitary job that doesn’t really solve anything and is often just tracking trends.

All of this is exactly what ESFPs shy away from. Collecting data might be a more interesting part of this profession for ESFPs, but they’re probably happier staying out of this business entirely.
Copywriter

Writing can be a very lonely profession, especially copywriting, which will not appeal to an ESFP. Copywriters often work alone on assigned topics.

In most situations, they get a lot of flexibility and versatility, but the work can be tedious and rarely leads to accolades and excitement. ESFPs will go a little stir-crazy if they have to spend their entire day stuck at a computer.
Administrative Assistant

Clocking in and out at the same time every day and doing what you’re told to do by others is not going to appeal to many ESFPs.

They would be great receptionists because they get to greet people and chat them up before they go in for appointments, but when it comes to doing the daily work of an administrative assistant, they’d rather avoid it altogether.

ESFP careers FAQ

How rare is the ESFP personality type?

Approximately 8.5% of people are ESFP personality types, making it the 6th most common personality type in the Myers-Briggs system of 16 total personality types.

ISFJs are the most common personality type, and INFJs are the least common.
What do ESFPs struggle with?

ESFPs struggle with long-term planning, criticism, and boredom with uninteresting, repetitive tasks. Additionally, inflexible work environments with a lot of competition rather than collaboration are a struggle for ESFP personality types.

ESFPs also struggle with delayed gratification and tasks that don’t involve socializing or contributing to a group effort. Jobs with a lot of bureaucracy are also something ESFPs should avoid.

What are ESFPs best at?

ESFPs are best at communicating, collaborating, and making social connections. They’re creative problem solvers who thrive in flexible work environments without strict rules.

Most ESFPs are observant, adaptable, and positive. They’re great leaders when working with a team that is supportive and collaborative, and are great at coming up with diplomatic and creative solutions to social problems.

Never miss an opportunity that’s right for you.

Author

Kristin Kizer

Kristin Kizer is an award-winning writer, television and documentary producer, and content specialist who has worked on a wide variety of written, broadcast, and electronic publications. A former writer/producer for The Discovery Channel, she is now a freelance writer and delighted to be sharing her talents and time with the wonderful Zippia audience.

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