I know it’s most likely too early for me to be thinking about this BUT my future specialty has been on my mind for some time now. It all started with the Myers-Briggs personality test. I’m an ENFJ and I’ve known this for some time. Other famous ENFJs are Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg (author of “Lean in”), Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, and Abraham Lincoln. I’ll admit, it’s nice knowing I’m in such great company.
ENFJs are natural-born leaders, full of passion and charisma. Forming around two percent of the population, they are oftentimes our politicians, our coaches and our teachers, reaching out and inspiring others to achieve and to do good in the world. With a natural confidence that begets influence, ENFJs take a great deal of pride and joy in guiding others to work together to improve themselves and their community…They find it natural and easy to communicate with others, especially in person, and their Intuitive (N) trait helps people with the ENFJ personality type to reach every mind, be it through facts and logic or raw emotion. Source
I recently got the bright idea to look up what medical specialties ENFJs go into and discovered we’re often found in:
This was found on the UT School of Medicine in San Antonio’s website, but other sites had similar results. That’s all good and well, except for one thing: my heart is set on Obstetrics and Gynecology (Well, it has been for past 3 years). Heck, even the few career mentors I have are mostly Ob/Gyns at different points in their career. Based on this mismatch in my Myers-Briggs suggested specialty and my current specialty choice, I set about doing my own research. What do my friends in med school think? Without bringing up the results of my Myers-Briggs test, I asked what specialty they could see me in. The results:
- Internal Medicine (Majority)
- Family Medicine
- Pediatrics
- Psychiatry
One friend mentioned they couldn’t see me as an Ob/Gyn based on their encounters with other Ob/Gyns (stark differences in personalities) and another, my “special friend” R. was completely surprised when I said Ob/Gyn, because my interests, according to him, seemed a better fit for Internal Med or Family Med.
Perhaps I’ve had it all wrong. Perhaps Ob/Gyn isn’t the right “fit” for me. I suppose I won’t truly know till my clinical rotations. Another factor to consider is lifestyle – will Ob/Gyn really support the work-life balance I want to have? Just some things I have to consider when the time approaches. I will say that the ENFJ career fit did have something I totally agree with:
The desire to go into academic medicine/ teacher personality
Yessir, spot on.
A. Adejare-Smith, MD 
“Oprah Winfrey, Sheryl Sandberg (author of “Lean in”), Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln…” annnnddd sweet friend Liz! hahaha =) and i see what you did there with special friend R 😉 I just think that ENFJs are very relational and would probably thrive best where more meaningful interactions can occur, perhaps family medicine then? I could see internal medicine too because it brings challenge, and ENFJs like challenge and striving to be better =)
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Lol. Yes and my sweet friend Liz 🙂 If it was down to family med or internal med, I would definitely go for internal med. The complexity in cases is def a big magnet. Also, I love kids and all buuuuut right now treating adults sounds a little more appealing haha.
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mmm I totally agree with you that you would thrive in a complex, challenging patient population! maybe internal med is a go =)
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I am an ENFJ too! Glad to see Peds is on that list – I also love that picture above ^
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Yay! Great minds 😉
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Wow… I literally just found out I’m ENFJ and it make sense. But I am also aspiring to be an OB/GYN! I’m a student at University of Houston, but I’m currently in this boat and I just don’t know where to go from here. I work in Labor and delivery now and I absolutely love it from All perspective. Any advice or maybe insight to your roadmap?
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That’s awesome! I changed my mind a few times before I finally landed on Anesthesiology – which had everything I was looking for and was just the right fit. If you are in your first two years of med school, shadowing definitely helps a lot. It can help you discover what you like and dont like (ex. procedures vs not, OR vs not, patient continuity etc). If you’re not yet in med school, you definitely have time (people change their mind often) and I would say seek out mentors, particularly in OBGYN. Good luck!
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