Is programming suited for extroverts?

Posted by Either_Lifeguard_966@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 13 comments

Someone I know joined a boot camp and dropped out after the first month, their reasoning was that they didn’t like being stuck in front of the computer and they preferred to interact with people (they are very extroverted). Similarly, I also know another person who’s planning to transfer into a different industry because they also didn’t enjoy being stuck in front of the computer for hours (working remotely and coding) and missed the social aspects of a job. This could also be due to working remotely but they didn’t enjoy coding for hours on end and not interacting much with their coworkers. How much of your job involves coding? I’m planning to go into a tech career but the idea of staring at a computer coding for hours doesn’t sound great to me. I also want a healthy balance between coding and interacting with people.

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13 Comments

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Click_To_Sign_In@reddit

Yes, it is, many programming jobs require interacting with people quite a lot, meetings, talking through requirements, meeting clients. I'm fairly introverted, and I'm often out of my comfort zone at work because I do meet new people, have meetings, do presentations. That's OK because I know getting out of a comfort zone is good. None of my jobs have been \*only\* coding, there is always some dealing with people in real life. That is probably because I have only worked at small companies where people wear more than one hat.

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Whatever801@reddit

Kinda depends on the company/team. I manage a team that's very social but I've had people quit and join my company who complained that they were isolated just coding all day. The more higher level you get, the more time you spend interacting with other vs coding independently. You can go the management route which is very social. To get to that level you definitely have to grind for several years. Coming from the B2B saas world, one career you might be interested is is Sales Consultant (SC), otherwise known as Sales Engineer (SE). You're basically the technical person that gets brought in over the course of a sales deal. BDR/SDR (business development) bring the deals in the door, AE (account executive) work the relationship and butter up the prospect and SCs sort of handle the "where the rubber meets the road" aspect. They get on calls with engineering or IT leadership from other companies to make sure the product will actually work. Kinda like the go-between between sales and engineering. They're also instrumental for proposing new features because they understand both sides. It's a pretty sweet gig actually. Pay is great and while you do get commission (small percent), but you're not quota-carrying (at least at my company), meaning - unlike other Sales roles, you don't get fired if you don't hit a certain sales number.

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JustanotherPeasantz@reddit

I think most jobs are suited for extroverts, as while some are more social than others basically ever job, especially higher paying ones, social skills are critical to get ahead.

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sejigan@reddit

Most of my time is spent talking to people on Slack, either asking for help, in meetings; or on Jira doing PR reviews, commenting, replying to comments, etc. Coding is the highest impact but the more you discuss and narrow down on the problem, the less you have to code (upto a certain point ofc).

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Mountain_Goat_69@reddit

> Most of my time is spent talking to people on Slack, either asking for help, in meetings; or on Jira doing PR reviews, commenting, replying to comments, etc. Communication is a core of programming. That's why it's so hard to offshore it halfway around the world, there are a dozen little conversations that need to be had before the code is written, and if each of them has to go through a 12 hour time difference, things slow down dramatically. There are so many implicit requirements.

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sejigan@reddit

Very true. Thankfully I work remote/hybrid but for a local company, so it’s actually pretty convenient. Got lucky 😊

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FiendishHawk@reddit

Eh, not really. You might want to be more in business or project manager.

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RICHUNCLEPENNYBAGS@reddit

I mean it sounds like you want to be a solutions architect or something like that.

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thedoogster@reddit

If you work for a small company, you'll find yourself directly talking to stakeholders. If you work as a contractor, you'll be directly dealing with clients.

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Mountain_Goat_69@reddit

Meetings routinely run 15 or 20 minutes over because somebody can't shut up. That's not just where I work, it's pretty routine. I'm fully remote. A lot of places have optional lunch meetings, through Teams or whatever, where you just leave the audio running while you eat, and maybe talk about the movie you saw last night, it the trail run you're planning for the weekend or whatever. The point is for people to have a feeling of connection and togetherness. I have a friend that rents an office. In a shared workspace. He says it's better than working with people you actually work with, he doesn't have to worry about anything from them, but they can tell jokes and stories.

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websculpt@reddit

I know a great developer that is all sorts of extroverted.

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pawloka@reddit

While the crowd of people you might think of (shy, introverted, preferring to stare at screen for hours) is disproportionately represented in this field, at the end of a day it's a job. You will find plenty of people with plenty of different personalities, and extroverts do make a sizeable chunk - like in any other job.

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