What’s the Perfect Job Type for Your Enneagram?

If you are feeling a bit lost when it comes to choosing the perfect career, try studying your enneagram. Knowing your enneagram can help you narrow down your job search considerably. Plus, once you find the perfect job type for your enneagram, you will have so much more job satisfaction too.

You’ll discover what motivates you and the kind of interactions that give you the most happiness and pride when you learn your enneagram. Each job has a different career path (or paths) that can be rewarding or grueling, and it all depends on how you see the world.

Discover Your Enneagram

Before we go too far, what is an enneagram? It’s a way of discovering your personality type. There are nine different types. And while everyone might find bits and pieces of themselves in each, one should stand out as far more dominant than the others.

In fact, major Enneagram authors agree that we are all born with a dominant personality type. These nine personality types fit into one of three personality centers.

• Instinctive Center
• The Thinking Center
• Feeling Center

There’s also a general emotional response that happens when you lose contact with the core of yourself. This emotional response is based on your personality type and which center you use most.

• Instinctive Center – Anger or Rage Response
• Thinking Center – Fear Response
• Feeling Center – Shame Response

Every emotional type has a specific way they cope with the emotion of its center.

To make it more complex, there are wings to each personality type. That means there are bits and pieces of a second personality type (one of the original nine) that complements and adds dimensions to your dominant one.

Confused yet?

The simplest way to understand the enneagram (and yourself) a bit more is to take the enneagram test. When you do, you’ll get results that will look like this: 2w3. That means you are a type 2 with a 3 wing. You might also be tied with two different personality numbers, meaning your answers concluded you could be either one, depending on the circumstances.

After you take the test, you will be ready to read up on which jobs are best for your personality at your core.

The Perfect Job Type for Your Enneagram

Taking the enneagram test will show you the motivations that make up your specific personality. Do you thrive on achievement? Or do you prefer roles that give you the personal reward of helping someone?

When you find a job that compliments your enneatype, you will actually look forward to going to work. You’ll be internally rewarded, and your motivation will go through the roof.

It’s important to remember that no one is just a 2 or only a 4. We all move around the enneagram, with bits and pieces of all of them. You are born with one dominant personality and react to situations in different ways, drawing from different personality types.

This is why it is so important to take a test and learn more about them.

After you understand which type you are and what your wings are, find your type in this list and see which jobs are going to be the best ones for you.

Type 1 – The Reformer

Type 1 is the reformer. People with this personality trait tend to be self-controlled, purposeful, and perfectionists. They thrive on making changes and seeing these changes come to fruition.

They are also extraordinarily detail-oriented and feel distraught when they think they are falling short of their goals.

The best jobs for Type 1s are:

• Management
• Researchers
• Editors
• Physicians
• Detectives

Type 2 – The Helper

Type 2 personality traits are helpers. They love being needed and thrive on knowing they made a difference. They don’t have a keen attention to detail. They think about the bigger picture and look at ways to improve.

Type 2s are perfect for these roles:

• Nurses
• Therapists
• Writers
• Caregivers
• Non-Profit Organizations
• Marketing and Advertising

Type 3 – The Achiever

Type 3s thrive on validation from their jobs. They have an internal drive to succeed and earn accolades and awards. They are image-conscious and desire to be admired. Most type 3s are extroverted and charismatic.

The best jobs for type 3s are:

• CEOs
• Small Business Owners
• Entertainers
• Pastors or Public Speakers
• Public Relations
• Politicians

Type 4 – The Individualist

The Individualist tends to be more expressive and dramatic. They are often more temperamental than others. They thrive on being unique and different.

They get the most pleasure and happiness from being different from everyone else. Whether they are finding a ground-breaking scientific discovery or building an entirely new instrument, Type 4s need to stand out.

The best types of jobs for them include:

• Artists
• Fashion Designers
• Musicians
• Creative Jobs
• Entrepreneurs
• Inventors
• Chefs

Type 5 – The Investigator

Anyone with a type 5 personality will be the most comfortable observing the world. They tend to be shy and revel in learning and watching. This means they tend to become experts in their field.

The perfect jobs for Type 5s are:

• Researchers
• Artists
• Writers
• Editors
• Accountant
• Data Entry
• Web Developers or Coders

Type 6 – The Loyalist

The type 6 personality is all about loyal devotion to interpersonal relationships. The core of this personality type is fear and insecurity. Loyalists are never quite sure where they stand in a relationship, no matter how many times they are reassured.

The good news is that once type 6 is attached to someone or something, they will be steadfastly devoted to them.

Since type 6 likes to be loyal to people and causes, these are the best jobs for them:

• Lobbyist
• Religious Worker
• Engineers
• Police Detectives
• Military
• Paralegal

Type 7 – The Enthusiast

Type 7s are fun-loving and always searching for adventure. They are typically spontaneous and inquisitive. They are convinced that something better is just around the corner.

If you are a type 7, you will love making plans, and you are a quick thinker. Type 7s have a wide variety of skills, so it’s hard to create a list of just one job at which they will excel.

The best jobs for type 7s are always changing and constantly new and full of spontaneity.

• Reporter
• Outdoor Trail Guide
• Party Planner
• Small Business Owner
• Paramedic or Fire Fighters
• ER Doctors
• Ocean Fisherman
• Wildland Firefighter

Type 8 – The Challenger

Type 8 personalities are decisive and have an inner strength that attracts people to follow them. They are natural leaders because they have such a strong will.

They are also prone to anger. Frankly, they can be aggressive when provoked and don’t put up with being challenged.

The best jobs for an 8 are ones where they are put in positions of clear authority.

• Corrections Officer
• Drill Sergeant
• Lawyer
• Judge
• Business Owner
• Sales Director
• Advertising Executive
• Stock Broker

Type 9 – The Peacemaker

The last enneagram is type 9. People with this personality type are reserved. They avoid conflicts – even inner ones. They can be described as “go with the flow” and keep the peace with everyone.

They also tend to be optimistic people that trust others easily. They prefer jobs that don’t get a lot of attention because they prefer to stay in the background and not cause any trouble.

These are the best jobs for enneagram 9s:

• Bakers
• Craftsman
• Preschool Teachers
• Yoga Instructors
• HR Managers
• Counselors
• Mediators

Conclusion: Love What You Do

It’s so important to know your personality and find a job that enhances and draws from your natural traits. After you know your strengths, triggers, and motivators, you will be able to find the right place for you, as well as communicate more easily with your future coworkers and boss.

When your career is true to your inner self, you will have more pride and joy in your work. You will also know how to cope when things cause you to stress.