
Leveraging Introversion as a Career Strength - jchadhowell
https://medium.com/@cornett/how-to-leverage-introversion-as-a-career-strength-7a1c0371f2fa
======
pleasecalllater
I'm an introvert. I've been working on it, now I can talk with people...
however I find it terribly boring, and exhausting. I like to work on my own,
talk about technical things, and get back to working on alone. It's a huge
problem for my management promotion.

Over the last 16 years of my work I've noticed that the people who are being
promoted are mostly (not all of course) the mediocre ones, who like to talk
and make good impression (however hardly making any good work - they are just
selling this as good). But they make good impression of how great they are
(unfortunately they use lies to proof that, but seems like nobody cares).

A couple of jobs ago the whole management was made by the guys who were
petting the boss, and were going out to pub with him. I wasn't. I hate crowded
places, and insincere people. When the boss was lying about my work in my half
year review, no one from the management said anything. When I was fired
because of that - they were afraid of saying anything. They were talking with
me that it's not fair, not with the boss. And frankly, I'm really grateful for
firing me.

Now I'm still an introvert, however I have wife and kids, and I have to be
more open. However only to them.

I'm working remotely as a consultant, so I have no real chances of any
leadership promotion. Working remotely is great for people like me. No
promotion it not. However the job pays my bills, which is also quite
important.

So overall: it's harder, seems like people care more about the impression, not
the employee real work.

~~~
Taylor_OD
It doesnt sound like you would actually be interested in a manager role. Are
you looking for a promotion because you would like a higher salary? There are
other routes than management. Technical Architect roles can pay as much as
management roles and often don't involve people management.

~~~
Cthulhu_
You say that but an architectural position - to me at least - sounds like one
where you spend a lot of time in meetings and such either discussing,
explaining, or convincing. As an architect you don't just sit in a room
drawing UML diagrams or whatever, but you have to sit with - often opinionated
- developers and whatnot.

~~~
serpix
An architect has no business giving top down orders to anyone if they are not
in the team as a productive member. A leader is right there doing the work,
giving advice and support.

------
sejtnjir
I wonder how much truth the 'Introverts have hidden strengths!' and
'Introverts are undervalued underdogs!' memes actually hold. Is it conceivable
that not being able to freely communicate in a professional setting is 'just'
a weakness without hidden upside?

More generally speaking, I think people model positive and negative
personality traits to balance out. Like a fixed skill cap in an RPG. 10 points
on charisma means you have to be lacking in some other field. I don't believe
this to be true in the real world.

If I look at my personal development, I'm usually tested in the middle of the
extrovert/introvert dimension. I've invested in overcoming social anxieties
and - it suffices to say it can be done. I'm still somewhat introverted in the
sense that I need to recharge sometime in solitude. I don't believe this is a
fixed, set in stone need that will never change throughout the course of one's
life.

Are there any scientific publications to back up the idea of a fixed
personality on the introversion/extraversion skill? Same question for inherent
upsides/downsides of a personality on either side of the spectrum.

~~~
pitt1980
"This, I suspect, is one of those truths so horrible that you can't talk about
it in public. This is something that reporters must not write about, when they
visit gatherings of the power elite.

Because the last news your readers want to hear, is that this person who is
wealthier than you, is also smarter, happier, and not a bad person morally.
Your reader would much rather read about how these folks are overworked to the
bone or suffering from existential ennui. Failing that, your readers want to
hear how the upper echelons got there by cheating, or at least smarming their
way to the top. If you said anything as hideous as, "They seem more alive,"
you'd get lynched.

But I am an independent scholar, not much beholden. I should be able to say it
out loud if anyone can. I'm talking about this topic... for more than one
reason; but it is the truth as I see it, and an important truth which others
don't talk about (in writing?). It is something that led me down wrong
pathways when I was young and inexperienced.

I used to think—not from experience, but from the general memetic atmosphere I
grew up in—that executives were just people who, by dint of superior charisma
and butt-kissing, had managed to work their way to the top positions at the
corporate hog trough.

No, that was just a more comfortable meme, at least when it comes to what
people put down in writing and pass around. The story of the horrible boss
gets passed around more than the story of the boss who is, not just competent,
but more competent than you."

[https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CKpByWmsZ8WmpHtYa/competent-...](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CKpByWmsZ8WmpHtYa/competent-
elites)

\----

I'm not sure I buy this model of the world wholesale, but I think its
important to at least have this model as a competing hypothesis as to how the
world is organized

~~~
cryoshon
i think it's important to leave the door open for the perspective you quoted
here.

there's no guarantee of even distribution of traits. on average, traits are
somewhat evenly distributed, however. without both understandings it's easy to
get the wrong idea about the world.

~~~
sejtnjir
I do think traits are somewhat evenly distributed, but some traits are
multiplicative towards a person's net competence in a certain role. I imagine
the distribution is a fat-tailed one.

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dgreensp
I’ve come across a couple true extraverts recently, and it has reinforced the
idea that there are introverted and extraverted personality types. Previously,
I don’t think I fully believed that anyone felt recharged rather than drained
being around people. Note that social, outgoing, highly-connected people can
be introverts.

Because extraverts are more at home in a social setting than alone — again,
hard to even imagine for an introvert — they will tend to choose being around
people over being alone. Meetings at work. Drinks after work, followed by
meeting friends. An awesome day involves being around other people from
morning to night, and the next day they are right back at it.

Extraverts also do their processing by talking to other people, whereas
introverts talk to themselves a lot more, hence the part of the article about
problem-solving alone vs in meetings. Through this lens, the whole concept of
a meeting ought to strike introverts and extraverts very differently. This
also leads me to believe that introverts and extraverts each have unique
strengths.

------
jschwartzi
I'm an introvert but I really enjoy working with people and being on a team. I
don't really understand the trend of categorizing introverts as the isolated,
non-talkative parts of a team. What separates introverts from extroverts is
that an introvert is tired by social interaction. It takes work for them to do
it.

So many people want socializing to be effortless but it really isn't for me.
It takes effort for me to be "present" in social situations. But it's like
lifting weights in that even if I find the activity tiring I like the end
result so much that I keep doing it day after day.

As an example I just got off a phone call with a couple of co-workers, and I
really enjoyed working through a business process with them. But I'm a little
bit drained at the moment so I'm taking a short break before I start working
again.

------
announcerman
I wonder how much the "recharge while alone" feeling is due to the fact that
introverts feel a need to put a front and think their every move during social
situations thus making the situations unfulfilling and tiring while also
making them very difficult to navigate. I find that using logic and conscious
thought instead of instinct for things like social situations makes you react
much more slowly to the flow these situations usually have while also making
you less spontaneous and making the socializing tiresome. Maybe because we
evolved to be sociable before we evolved conscious thinking and thus we have
fine honed instincts that shouldnt be overidden by thinking for these things?
Who knows.

~~~
Cthulhu_
I've found social situations hard, but over time and experience and a lot of
alcohol I've probably developed a more intuitive, more indifferent approach to
social whatnots. Give less fucks - introverts will be very reflective and
whatnot about how they and what they say might come across to the other party.
Which is a good trait if you're a lawyer in court, but in a social situation
it doesn't matter nearly as much as you'd think.

~~~
magduf
I'm very introverted. Sometimes I wonder if I should have been a lawyer
instead of a software engineer.

I would have hated having to wear a suit and tie all the time though. I
really, really hate ties.

------
weliketocode
Can we stop pretending that introversion/extroversion is black and white?

It is a spectrum. Being slightly on either side doesn't necessarily matter.
It's only important to understand your strengths and weaknesses.

Now I suppose that being on the extreme of introversion might tend to be more
detrimental for one's career than being on the extreme of extroversion, but
even then I'm not so sure. You can be pretty introverted and successful as a
Doctor/Engineer or very extroverted and struggle.

~~~
maxxxxx
I think introversion and shyness/social anxiety or lack of social skills
always get confused. Plenty of introverts I know can function extremely well
in social situations although they may not enjoy them. On the other hand
others (like me) don't do well in social situations even if they want to and
try repeatedly.

In the end it's about social skills and being able to perform if needed. If
you lack these you are at a disadvantage no matter if you are introvert or
extrovert (there are plenty of extroverted people who don't have social skills
and are not successful).

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cmurf
_[introverts] have a low threshold for dopamine, so they are easily
overwhelmed._ [http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-be-an-
introv...](http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-be-an-introvert-
and-what-everyone-gets-wrong-2018-5)

I consider myself something of a bivert. I like public speaking (dozens or
thousands), and parties but they are exhausting. I feel socialized, I do not
feel energized. I definitely need recovery from social events, and sometimes
it takes days of alone time or curt replies, I just do not have the patience
to coddle other people's emotional states and I certainly do not expect them
to coddle mine. But then I enjoy advocating for people dedicated to whatever
it is they're dedicated to - the more energy (or even emotion) they have to go
down a rabbit hole that I either have no interest or expertise in, the more
I'm interested in helping them by doing the things they hate doing and in some
sense living vicariously through their effort. I also can't stand awards, do
not care to take a compliment, and am disinterested in looking good just to
get another promotion - I only care about the team and/or the project looking
good.

Anyway, I definitely think introverts are underrated and misunderstood. And in
particular the part of the thread's article about rigid workplace structure
and mandates for loyalty and respect for authority is so archaic to me: in a
previous life I was a pilot and even before my time as a pilot the industry
recognized the stupidity of blind loyalty and respect for the 'captain'
perhaps mainly due to the Tenerife accident, and the subsequent invention of
CRL/CRM (crew resource management). That style of management seems obvious and
the idea corporate workplaces still have this byzantine hierarchy is just
boring as well as a business risk lying in wait.

------
sampl
Highly recommend the book Quiet by Susan Cain for HN folks—really changed how
I think about my personality and work

------
Jtsummers
A distinction ought to be made between introversion and shyness and anxiety.

Introverts don't _like_ public speaking. They don't _like_ crowds or certain
types of group activities. But they can do them (however much they dislike it)
because they aren't anxious about it.

If you clam up in front of a crowd, get sweaty and the shakes, that's anxiety
or shyness. That is a separate thing to be addressed from introversion.

An introvert without anxiety is perfectly capable, however much they may want
to avoid it, of giving a speech in front of a crowd without a sense of
constantly suppressed panic.

To all my fellow introverts, introspect. Consider why you don't like public
speaking and crowds. Is it the sensation of tunnel vision and panic? I used to
avoid it because I'd develop tunnel vision and be on the verge of panic the
entire time. I addressed my anxiety (via counseling), and can now handle it
just fine. It's not my preference, and I'm not that skilled at it (lack of
practice), but I don't feel like I'm about to breakdown on stage if I'm in
front of a few hundred people. I avoid crowds of strangers because I don't
enjoy it now, not because I feel a need to cling to the wall.

The only thing an introvert really has to overcome is the idea of avoiding
things because of dislike. Sometimes being in a crowd or public speaking is
necessary to achieve your goals (if it's not, don't do it). It's like eating
vegetables. If you don't like it, but it achieves a desired goal, you do it.

If you're comfortable being an individual contributor for your whole career,
you have no need to practice the skills that seem natural to extraverts. I've
discovered that's not my goal. I want to change my whole organization for the
better. I _don 't_ want to become a manager, I'm stepping into roles where I
guide managers (more than one, not one at a time). This requires being more
social than I prefer (particularly more public speaking and an active role in
some types of meetings). But it's something I'm happy to do because we have
some systemic issues that hold us back, and I want us to succeed and the only
way to accomplish that is to step up and do it.

------
projectramo
I agree with the basic message: Embrace and leverage your introversion by
writing blog posts and public speaking.

