What is the Enterprising career type?

The Enterprising career type describes people who are most interested in persuading, leading and making things happen, often in business, sales, politics or law. If you lean this way, you tend to enjoy setting goals, taking risks and getting others on board with an idea. It often suits management, entrepreneurship, sales, marketing, law and public life.

It's one of six types in John Holland's RIASEC model. It sits next to Social and Conventional on the hexagon, and opposite Investigative. That means many Enterprising people like working with people or running well-organised operations, and fewer want to spend months alone on a single question. Your mix will be your own, of course.

What Enterprising interests tend to look like

You might recognise some of these:

• You started selling things to friends or neighbours when you were a kid.
• You see a problem and immediately think of who you need to talk to.
• You enjoy negotiating, even over small things.
• You like to know the score: targets, rankings, results.
• You'd prefer to run the project than advise on it.
• You'd rather try something and correct it than wait until it's perfect.

You don't have to be a loud salesperson. Enterprising interests also show up in the quiet school principal who keeps getting funding, the nurse who builds a new service or the volunteer who turns a local market into a big event.

How Enterprising interests show up

At work

Typical fields include sales, management, business ownership, real estate, marketing, law, politics, recruitment and financial services. You tend to do best when you've got clear goals, freedom to choose how you reach them and a real connection between effort and reward.

You may get restless in roles with lots of process and little influence. The usual friction comes from moving faster than the people around you. A plan that seems obvious to you may feel rushed to colleagues who need more information or who need time to raise concerns. It's useful to build in a checkpoint for that, because the person who slows you down may be the one who spots the flaw. Conscientious colleagues may be able to turn your big plans into something that holds up.

In love

You're likely energetic, ambitious and generous, with big plans for your shared life. It can be exciting to be around. The usual risk is that work takes all your attention, or that you bring your negotiating style home. Your partner doesn't want to be closed or sold to. If you find yourself winning arguments and feeling worse, read about the competing conflict style. A useful habit is asking, "What do you want our next year to look like?" and listening before sharing your own plan.

With friends

You might be the one who organises the trip and knows someone who can get a table. Friends enjoy your energy and may come to you for advice on a job or a side hustle. You probably have a wide network. It's worth checking that your friendships aren't all useful. It can be good to have some people in your life with whom nothing is at stake and nothing needs to be achieved.

Strengths and watch-outs

The strengths include initiative, confidence, persuasion, resilience after a setback and an ability to get people moving. Many good things in the world exist because somebody like this refused to take no for an answer.

The watch-outs are about pace and listening:

1. Hear the no. Ask yourself whether the objection you're pushing past has a point.
2. Don't confuse selling with truth. A strong pitch can convince you, too. Test your idea on someone with no stake in it.
3. Share the credit. People stick around for leaders who remember who did the work.
4. Measure more than money. Decide what else counts: relationships, health, or how you got there.
5. Leave room for quieter voices. You'll get more ideas and better ones. There's more on this in our article on introverts and extroverts at work.

How to work with someone high or low in Enterprising interests

Someone with strong Enterprising interests

• Lead with the outcome and the opportunity. Then raise the risks.
• Give them a real goal and freedom to reach it.
• Be ready to challenge them with evidence. They can usually handle it.
• Keep them from committing others without asking, by agreeing on who signs off.

Someone with few Enterprising interests

• Don't assume they lack ambition. They may simply measure success differently.
• Don't push them into networking or selling if another route will do the job.
• Help them make their work visible, as they may not promote it themselves.
• Respect their concerns, which often come from thinking hard about the details.

Research notes

• Personality overlap. Larson, Rottinghaus and Borgen (2002) reported that Enterprising interests were linked with extraversion (about .41), one of the stronger connections they found. Enterprising and outgoing often go together, although they aren't the same.
• Leading isn't one style. Grant, Gino and Hofmann (2011) found that the benefit of extraverted leadership depends on the team. In their field and lab studies, teams of proactive people did better with less extraverted leaders, while more passive teams did better with more extraverted leaders. If you lean Enterprising, it may pay to work out when to take charge and when to step back.
• How solid is the model? In a review of 50 years of Holland's theory, Nauta (2010) found considerable support for the six types and their order, but noted that simple matching of person and job has only modest predictive power. So a good match helps, and it's not the whole story.
• Why interests deserve attention. Rounds and Su (2014) argue that interests are often underrated as predictors of career and study choices, and of performance and success. They also say that interests can be seen as distinct dispositions, not just workplace versions of personality traits. So being outgoing doesn't by itself tell you whether you'd love running a business.

The U.S. O*NET database's Enterprising list covers fields such as sales, management and persuasive roles, including politics and law. Check local licensing and pathways, as they may differ in Australia.

A strong sense of what others feel is useful in any persuading or leading role. If you want to build it, start with what emotional intelligence involves.

Make your next move

You probably won't want to wait to find out where you stand. Take the Career Compass Expedition to see how you score across all six career types. It takes about seven minutes and uses Selfcarta's own questions, which haven't yet been independently validated. Treat your result as a prompt for a better conversation about what's next, and see which of your other interests might give you an edge.