Truity's Personality and Careers Blog

INFPs, with their natural tendencies toward creative expression, are a personality type that's well-suited to artistic careers. Indeed, many INFPs who work in more traditional careers delight in such pursuits as creative writing, painting and theater as hobbies. When INFPs are able to build a career from their passions that is both personally and financially rewarding, they are fortunate and happy people indeed. Artistic careers for INFPs are those that give these sensitive, artistic souls the chance to fully express and explore their creative potential.

Novelist

Creative writing often comes naturally to INFPs, so the career of novelist would seem to be right up their artistic alley. Novelists write book-length fiction that may fall into any one of a number of genres: mainstream or literary fiction, romance, fantasy, horror or mystery. To craft good fiction, novelists create believable characters who drive gripping situations, thereby drawing readers into a story and keeping them there. Two things are paramount if you want to become a novelist: you must read, and you must write. To write publishable fiction, you should read widely to understand what makes stories good. And to hone your craft, you must write regularly. Always keep your mind open to constructive criticism that helps you improve. Persistence is also important. Many novelists receive plentiful rejections, whether from literary agents or publishers, before their work finds an audience.

Artist

If you're a visually-oriented, creative INFP, you might consider a career as an artist, whether a painter or a sculptor. As an artist, you'll create original artwork. To sell their artwork, artists mainly work with art dealers or art galleries, though some artists create work as requested by clients. Most artwork winds up on display in homes, galleries, private collections or museums. It's challenging to earn a living solely through the sale of artwork. Many artists work, in addition to their artistic pursuits, in museums, as critics, or as teachers of artistic techniques. If you want to be an artist, it's helpful to earn a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from a college or university that's accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.

Musician

A musically-inclined INFP might find great satisfaction as a musician. The most important quality for musicians is musical talent, which can then be enhanced by study and education, but must always be honed by regular practice. Musicians may play one or a variety of instruments, sing, perform by themselves or in bands or orchestras, write their own music, or any combination of the above. If you want to be a musician, you'll need, first and foremost, years of training and practice, much of which many people who aspire to become professional musicians start acquiring at at early age through private study. Earning a Bachelor's degree in music can be helpful, but it's no guarantee of success if you want to become a performing artist.

Actor

If you're an INFP with a flair for the dramatic, a career as an actor might appeal to you. Actors might perform in theater productions, or they might play roles in movies or television shows and series. Some even find work in commercials to help bring in money. Auditions can be grueling, and aspiring actors must prepare to meet with a significant amount of rejection on their paths. As with all artistic careers, there is a great deal of competition involved, and while talent is important, luck plays a role, too. If you want to work as an actor, you might want to consider earning a Bachelor's degree in Theater Arts from a college or university that's accredited by the National Association of Schools of Theatre. Experience is a crucial part of success as an actor. The more experience you have, the more likely it becomes that you'll win roles in significant productions.

True to the individualistic nature of artists themselves, the paths followed on these artistic careers for INFPs will be unique to each person. There isn't one route that fits all. People who want to pursue creative careers must strive to achieve goals in their own ways. But if your personality test results revealed you as artistic INFP type, you probably already knew that.