http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/03/04/the-10-best-jobs-for-introverts/
What if you had a job where you spent all day toiling alone at a computer, reviewing and approving spending requests, and your boss suddenly told you he wanted to promote you to a new post where you would travel between offices and explain spending plans and budgets to accountants you’d never met? You’d make more money and get out from behind your screen. Who wouldn’t be thrilled at the change? There is one big group of people who would hate that new job: introverts.
According to a 2012 piece in Psychology Today, introverts make up as much as half of the population. They prefer to spend time alone or in small groups, to focus on one task at a time and observe a situation before getting involved. For them, the kind of glad-handing and small-talking required in that new job would be a nightmare. They’d rather stay comfortably put at their old desk and salary.
The Secret Power Of Introverts
Jenna Goudreau Forbes Staff
Contrary to the advice we get from 99% of career coverage, for a significant portion of the population, it’s not such a great idea to network constantly and try to climb up the career ladder. If you’re a true introvert, networking is excruciating and you would be miserable in a public-facing role. Take care when considering a promotion or job change. Though some shy people may want to challenge themselves to be more social, sticking with your natural personality may make you happier in the long run.
Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast, a job listing and advice site run by classified advertising company Adicio, has been writing about careers since the 1980s. In 1995, under the auspices of Dow Jones, he started a best and worst jobs ranking that rates 200 professions using a set of criteria like competitiveness, whether a workplace subjects you to hazardous fumes or other perils, and onerousness of deadlines. He left Dow Jones, brought the project to Adicio and in 20095 he helped start the CareerCast website. Lee is in charge of the best and worst jobs lists, and other lists we’ve covered at Forbes, like the most- and least-stressful jobs lists and the best jobs for veterans.
My regular readers may recall that I got myself in trouble writing about CareerCast’s least-stressful jobs list in 2012, when Lee rated university professor as the job with the least worry and fuss. I got blasted by more than 550 professors who told me how utterly stressed out they were, working 80-hour weeks and scrambling for tenure. I called out and responded to as many comments as I could and wrote an apologetic addendum to my piece. A year later Lee conceded that he should have named only tenured professors to the list because adjuncts are almost all overworked, underpaid and under lots of stress.
The refreshing thing about Lee’s new list is that it is entirely subjective. “There are a lot of people out there who are painfully shy and are looking for guidance on how to job-hunt effectively and how to succeed when they’re very shy,” he says. Instead of trying to crunch job criteria for introverts, Lee figured he and the two Wisconsin academics he works with have had enough experience with jobs that they could glean at least 10 that shy people could do with pleasure.
Check out our slide show above for the complete list. But here are a few samples:
Animal care and service workers: Though these jobs pay poorly, at only $20,000 or so a year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they can be blissful for introverts who are more comfortable with animals than with people. Ideally you’d get a job at a shelter, a pet store or at a vet’s office, where someone else would deal with the people and you’d just be handling the animals. “Think of Talia Shire in ‘Rocky,’” says Lee. “She was working in the pet store, trying not to deal with anyone.
Archivist: If you archive material in a museum or an auction house, chances are that you will fill your days with historical documents, objects or works of art, rather than humans. You’ll either be cataloguing or restoring things, usually a solitary pursuit. The BLS has the median salary at $47,430. Better than animal care workers but not fantastic.
Court reporter: You may think of a court reporter as sitting in the middle of the action but in fact, they hardly need to interact with anyone. “They are more like a fly on the wall,” says Lee. “They come, they sit, they record, they leave.” The only time they have to commune with another human being is when asked to read back a piece of the transcript. Median salary, according to the BLS: $48,160.
Geoscientists: This is among the best-paying jobs for introverts with a median salary of $90,890. Geoscientists spend at least half of their time outside, in the field, away from colleagues. When they’re inside, they’re usually in a lab and/or at a computer.
Social media manager: As we all know, it’s possible to be extremely active on social media while doing no real-world socializing whatsoever. “The job is an oxymoron,” says Lee. “It requires a lot of time online and not much interaction that’s not on the computer.” Perfect for an introvert.
See our slideshow above for 10 jobs an introvert would love. CareerCast doesn’t rank them but we’ve put the jobs with the highest salaries at the top of the pile.
What if you had a job where you spent all day toiling alone at a computer, reviewing and approving spending requests, and your boss suddenly told you he wanted to promote you to a new post where you would travel between offices and explain spending plans and budgets to accountants you’d never met? You’d make more money and get out from behind your screen. Who wouldn’t be thrilled at the change? There is one big group of people who would hate that new job: introverts.
According to a 2012 piece in Psychology Today, introverts make up as much as half of the population. They prefer to spend time alone or in small groups, to focus on one task at a time and observe a situation before getting involved. For them, the kind of glad-handing and small-talking required in that new job would be a nightmare. They’d rather stay comfortably put at their old desk and salary.
The Secret Power Of Introverts
Jenna Goudreau Forbes Staff Contrary to the advice we get from 99% of career coverage, for a significant portion of the population, it’s not such a great idea to network constantly and try to climb up the career ladder. If you’re a true introvert, networking is excruciating and you would be miserable in a public-facing role. Take care when considering a promotion or job change. Though some shy people may want to challenge themselves to be more social, sticking with your natural personality may make you happier in the long run.
Tony Lee, publisher of CareerCast, a job listing and advice site run by classified advertising company Adicio, has been writing about careers since the 1980s. In 1995, under the auspices of Dow Jones, he started a best and worst jobs ranking that rates 200 professions using a set of criteria like competitiveness, whether a workplace subjects you to hazardous fumes or other perils, and onerousness of deadlines. He left Dow Jones, brought the project to Adicio and in 20095 he helped start the CareerCast website. Lee is in charge of the best and worst jobs lists, and other lists we’ve covered at Forbes, like the most- and least-stressful jobs lists and the best jobs for veterans.
My regular readers may recall that I got myself in trouble writing about CareerCast’s least-stressful jobs list in 2012, when Lee rated university professor as the job with the least worry and fuss. I got blasted by more than 550 professors who told me how utterly stressed out they were, working 80-hour weeks and scrambling for tenure. I called out and responded to as many comments as I could and wrote an apologetic addendum to my piece. A year later Lee conceded that he should have named only tenured professors to the list because adjuncts are almost all overworked, underpaid and under lots of stress.
The refreshing thing about Lee’s new list is that it is entirely subjective. “There are a lot of people out there who are painfully shy and are looking for guidance on how to job-hunt effectively and how to succeed when they’re very shy,” he says. Instead of trying to crunch job criteria for introverts, Lee figured he and the two Wisconsin academics he works with have had enough experience with jobs that they could glean at least 10 that shy people could do with pleasure.
Check out our slide show above for the complete list. But here are a few samples:
Animal care and service workers: Though these jobs pay poorly, at only $20,000 or so a year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, they can be blissful for introverts who are more comfortable with animals than with people. Ideally you’d get a job at a shelter, a pet store or at a vet’s office, where someone else would deal with the people and you’d just be handling the animals. “Think of Talia Shire in ‘Rocky,’” says Lee. “She was working in the pet store, trying not to deal with anyone.
Archivist: If you archive material in a museum or an auction house, chances are that you will fill your days with historical documents, objects or works of art, rather than humans. You’ll either be cataloguing or restoring things, usually a solitary pursuit. The BLS has the median salary at $47,430. Better than animal care workers but not fantastic.
Court reporter: You may think of a court reporter as sitting in the middle of the action but in fact, they hardly need to interact with anyone. “They are more like a fly on the wall,” says Lee. “They come, they sit, they record, they leave.” The only time they have to commune with another human being is when asked to read back a piece of the transcript. Median salary, according to the BLS: $48,160.
Geoscientists: This is among the best-paying jobs for introverts with a median salary of $90,890. Geoscientists spend at least half of their time outside, in the field, away from colleagues. When they’re inside, they’re usually in a lab and/or at a computer.
Social media manager: As we all know, it’s possible to be extremely active on social media while doing no real-world socializing whatsoever. “The job is an oxymoron,” says Lee. “It requires a lot of time online and not much interaction that’s not on the computer.” Perfect for an introvert.
See our slideshow above for 10 jobs an introvert would love. CareerCast doesn’t rank them but we’ve put the jobs with the highest salaries at the top of the pile.
