Personality types create guidelines for clarity and decision-making when you’re ready to make a career choice. ENTP careers fall into a wide array of options. An ENTP understands the big picture and how details matter. How an ENTP operates in the world is based on their primary cognitive functions.

Why Personality Type Matters in Your Career Choice

Your personality type influences not only what career you choose but your comfort in the business culture, your job performance, your strengths and weaknesses, and your job satisfaction.

Use your personality type as a career guide to complement your future associates. Your department must possess compatibility to encourage team cohesion and enhance overall performance. Your work flows when you fit into the culture.

Having a career that compliments your personality will help you achieve your best job performance and boost your business performance.

Recognizing your weaknesses can help you identify areas that need improvement. While your strengths will determine the career path where you should excel, you may also learn how to reduce your weaknesses. As a result, you should develop an action plan to address these gaps in your abilities.

When you have chemistry with colleagues and greater productivity, your personality job fit results in higher career satisfaction. As a result of having tasks and assessments specific to both your strengths and character traits, you gain confidence in your abilities, giving you a more positive attitude towards your career.

As a result, you also feel valued as a worker, leading to workplace happiness.

Additionally, when employees’ values align with the company’s, they often feel more comfortable in the workplace and more committed to their role.

The Visionary ENTP

The ENTPs are inspired innovators who want to find new solutions to intellectually challenging problems.

Curious and clever, ENTPs seek to understand the people, systems, and principles surrounding them. ENTPs seek to understand, analyze, and influence others in their open-mindedness.

The ENTP enjoys playing with ideas, particularly sharing ideas. It is easy for them to keep the upper hand with other people, often laughing at their habits and eccentricities cheerfully. While the ENTP may enjoy challenging others, they usually live and let live. There are rarely judgmental people, but they may have little patience for people who can’t keep up with them.

The ENTP Personality Functions

ENTP stands for one of 16 personality types created by Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers. ENTP is an acronym for Extraverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Perceiving. The are the cognitive functions that describe how ENTPs operate in the world. ENTPs are energized by spending time with and interacting with others.

• Extroverted – focuses on ideas and concepts rather than facts and details
• Intuitive – makes decisions based on logic and reason
• Thinking – prefers to be spontaneous
• Perceiving – flexible rather than planned and organized

ENTPs are passionate about new and innovative ideas.

ENTP Motivations and Values

ENTPs are energized by challenges. They often tackle problems that others perceive as difficult or impossible to solve.

ENTPs believe they are capable of thinking creatively and may assume other people are too tied to tradition to see a new way. With their ingenuity, the ENTP rarely finds preparation necessary to deal with the world around them. They are often willing to jump into a new situation and adapt as they go.

ENTPs love reinventing the wheel and refuse to do a task the same way twice. Procedures do not inspire ENTPS. They would try a new method than accept the standard plan.

ENTP Strengths

Aligning strengths guides career and life choice decision-making. You can filter career activities that suit your personality when you know your strengths.

Here are ENTP strengths:

Fearless 

The ENTP’s greatest strength and key to success is their boldness in the face of difficulty. They are not afraid to try and fail and try again, perhaps thousands of times. They don’t believe this is a failure but another step toward success. Inventors and innovators are undeterred by doubts, barely ruffled when outcomes do not go as planned, and they see all “problems” as opportunities to meet and pursue.

Innovative

It is clear that for ENTPs in all things, including products, procedures, and systems, there is always a better way, and with the right kind of thinking, they will be able to accomplish their objective. Apparent failures seem to fill their lives, but they will also have many successes. They can be astonishingly rich and lose their entire life savings—perhaps a few times during their lifetime. They live broad and take risks.

Curious

With their inquisitive minds, they are naturally curious people. They want to find new pursuits constantly, discover new ideas, and learn as much as they can about the world around them. This lends INTPs to work well in researching capacities, and creative and inventive roles. 

Adaptable

ENTPs are generally flexible people. This is not to say that they are particularly agreeable, but to explain their ability to adapt to life and work. ENTPs can adjust on the fly and come up with creative solutions quickly. They manage fast-paced and frequent change well, and they enjoy the challenges involved.

Confident

Criticism and ostracism have little effect on ENTPs. Assured in their high skills and talents, they believe in the power of their ideas. They expect opposition to success, but they do not take it personally. Instead, they prefer proving their detractors wrong.

ENTP Weaknesses

Just as knowing strengths helps identify an ideal career path, weaknesses set parameters for work situations to avoid.

Mercurial

While idea generation is a strength, ENTPs can move from one idea to the next without following through on the previous idea. Their strength can quickly become a weakness. It’s part of the ENTPs and their idea-generating nature. ENTPs don’t want to miss the next great idea. They love constant exploration and evaluating one concept against another.

Impractical

An ENTP can have a chaotic feel to them, and they can range from amusing to aggravating, especially to coworkers and spouses. Their tendency to get caught up in their ideas often prevents them from focusing on the immediate tasks around them, such as housework, yard work, and other daily tasks, such as paying bills. A remarkable ENTP may be brilliant, but also they can seem poor, disorganized, and ostensibly ungrounded.

Unconventional

While nonconformity may be a positive trait, it often causes ENTP problems. They base their entire approach to life on charting their own path, pushing the boundaries, and following our own course. Although this leads to great creativity and advances in their field, it can also put them at odds with authority figures and superiors, which can, in turn, hinder their progress and hinder their success. Often, “incorrigible” or “stubborn” aptly describes an ENTP.

Procrastinator

Procrastination and poor time management are also characteristic of ENTPs. The Perceiving component is part of this process in which they prefer to continue taking information rather than making a decision and getting down to business. Problems are not necessarily related to laziness but rather to moving forward with a new idea. This desire breeds a tendency to stop consuming ideas and information on current ideas and projects. They have difficulty prioritizing tasks and find it challenging to keep new knowledge and ideas from getting in the way of present work.

The ENTP at Work

ENTPs dedicate work to applying innovative solutions to complex problems to optimize system efficiency and effectiveness.

They are curious by nature and love exploring the unfamiliar, seeking unique and not common knowledge.

ENTPs embody entrepreneurial ways to approach work. As they approach tasks, they use ingenuity as the first sort. Their work process is often unstructured to allow their ingenuity to expand.

Because their process is unstructured, they can extend meetings to go overtime without a focus. Or, they can exceed the budget by spending time and energy on exploration. It is common for ENTPs to be misunderstood because of their innovation efforts.

ENTPs enjoy being the expert because they prize competency. They flourish in work that requires continual improvement in knowledge and skills. Power is valuable. They want a career that allows them to contact influential people and increase their influence.

Because ENTPs are idea people, they chafe at routine. If asked to repeat tasks or attend to details, they get bored. They excel at highly conceptual work that requires creative problem-solving. They do best when their work is highly abstract and allows them to solve problems creatively without thinking through the details.

An ENTP prefers a work environment that is intellectually challenging without being rigid and surrounded by creative and intelligent colleagues. An ENTP’s ideal position focuses on developing innovative ideas and delegating responsibility for the mundane details of implementation to others.

ENTP Teamwork

On a team, ENTPs contribute entrepreneurial and inventive ideas. They love discovering the best way to do something and love the challenge of innovation. They are flexible and adaptable as they consider new ideas. You will hear them say, “that’s a brilliant idea,” repeatedly.

Their energetic and optimistic outlook gives them the confidence to solve challenging problems. They have no problem skirting the rules if they think they have arrived at the best solution. They have little interest in adhering to established procedures. On the other hand, their innovative approach may cause friction with teammates who value traditional practices and procedures.

Because ENTPs are typically open-minded, they like to hear many perspectives on an issue from their teammates. They are adept at synthesizing information and often combine the best of many ideas into a single, unified concept. But, because they are competitive, they like to take credit for team effort and success. As they are not good at hammering out details, they may want to take ownership of the organization’s overall direction but leave the details to their teammates.

ENTP Leadership

ENTP’s innovation and entrepreneurial approach serve well in leadership positions. As leaders, ENTPs can be intellectually competitive, and they expect the team to keep up. While they encourage creative thinking and independence on the team, they will subject ideas, including their own, to rigorous, thorough analysis.

ENTPs are looking for trends and want to have plenty of data available searching for patterns and principles. ENTPs tend to be focused on systems more than people. They may neglect their team’s emotional needs to pursue knowledge, understanding, and innovation. If they focus on personal concerns, they foster strategy rather than diplomacy. When they do focus on personal situations, their strength lies in strategy rather than diplomacy. They use their understanding of human behavior to influence and actualize social systems rather than a focus on individuals.

ENTP Career Choices

ENTPs love thinking and exploring ideas. They flourish in a work environment that allows them to create new approaches, projects, or ideas. When they are allowed to push the limits of their creativity, they benefit the workplace with the talents they bring.

ENTPs are naturally engaged and interested in being productive and helpful in their careers. They focus on developing solutions to diverse problems—both intellection and technical. With all those various ideas flowing in their head, they may spend some time in a career before they reach a point where they can fully realize their skills and qualities. On the other hand, their qualities suit almost any career that piques their interest.

Numerous roles fit the ENTP’s explorative talents among different industries and professions. Here’s a list to give you an idea of the diversity of careers where an ENTP might excel.

Business and Finance

• Management Consultant
• Market Research Analyst
• Advertising Manager
• Top Executive
• Operations Research Analyst
• Advertising Sales Agent
• Financial Analyst

Architecture, Engineering, and Technology

• Architect
• Civil Engineer
• Landscape Architect
• Mechanical Engineer
• Computer and IS Manager
• Computer Network Architect
• Software Developer

Law

• Attorney
• Private Detective
• Paralegal
  

Arts, Entertainment, and Media

• Graphic Designer
• Industrial Designer
• Animator
• Actor
• Composer
• Musician or Singer
• Producer or Director
• Translator
• Photographer
• Public Relations Specialist

Science and Medicine

• Economist
• Environmental Scientist or Specialist
• Epidemiologist
• Geographer
• Physicist or Astronomer
• Political Scientist
• Psychologist
• Survey Researcher
• Urban or Regional Planner
• Physician

These career paths appreciate intellectual curiosity, divergent thinking, and exploring new ideas.

ENTP Careers to Avoid

With so many career choices, it’s hard to imagine an ENTP not succeeding. It’s like an ENTP to do a good job.

Although an ENTP could succeed in any job with determination, some ENTPs have found certain occupations difficult or truly not suited for them in the long haul. Some jobs are not fitted to the ENTP personality.

• Medical Records Technician
• Dentist
• Nurse’s Aide
• Optometrist
• Family Physician
• Medical Assistant
• Dietitian
• Preschool Teacher
• Elementary Teacher
• Clergy
• Library Assistant
• Recreation Worker
• Receptionist
• Factory Supervisor
• Administrative Assistant
• Bank Teller
• Machinist
• Airline Pilot

These occupations require modes of thinking and behavior that aren’t naturally available to the ENTP. When an ENTP works outside their natural personality preferences, the job may prove both stressful and draining.

Broad Spectrum Career Choices for ENTPs

Finding the best career for an ENTP personality type demands a close look at personal preferences. Because an ENTP can succeed in many jobs, understanding core values and priorities will help you narrow the field.

For example, an attorney and an engineer may both have the cognitive functions of an ENTP. The lawyer works with words to explore ideas in written and verbal communication. And they enjoy using their verbal expression to influence the behavior of others. The engineer works to solve physical problems like construction projects, designing machinery, or working on repairs. At the same time, because the role is diverse, they will not find the work tedious or repetitive.

To showcase your skills follow the advice of Jason Shen, Etsy’s Product Manager, in his TED Talk, When Looking for a Job? Highlight Your Ability, Not Your Experience, to showcase your skills outside of your standard resume.

Because ENTPs flourish in careers requiring them to be analytical and creative, it is essential to choose an occupation that fits your interests, skills, and preferred work style.

Think about whether a visionary ENTP will be happier in a high-power position, or would they thrive more in a low-key environment with more creative freedom?

If you are bewildered by the next step in your career, Elevanation will help you sort through your ENTP career choices. We’ll clarify your personal preferences, look at your skills, and help you take the next step to success. Schedule your free action call to supercharge your career now.