How does an extreme introvert find a suitable career path?

Suggestions: editor, researcher.

A kindred spirit! The way you describe your work issues, you could be me, I'm sorry to say. Have you taken the Myers-Briggs assessment? I tested as a strong INFP. Guess what? We constitute so little of the population, we might as well not exist at all. I have been through more jobs than you can shake a stick at. I'm a hard worker and care about doing a good job (I also have a degree and graduated at the top of my class), but I get overwhelmed by the social dynamics. At my last job, I got fired because it takes me a while to get used to new people and situations. I find that the first few weeks at a new job are physically painful because of all the new sensory input, the expectations, the awareness of my Achilles heel (and fear of how it will be perceived by others), as well as all the new people (and the charge that they give off). I have struggled mightily with this and there are no easy answers. I have taken up writing, but must make a living in the meantime. So, I am going to focus on jobs that revolve around working with animals or helping the elderly. I have also considered cleaning houses. Not glamourous positions, I know, but it is really hard to be creative and strongly introverted in a world filled with and defined by extroverts. I wish you the best.

My introverted friend is a copy editor, and she is able to work from home. She hustled for a while to get enough clients, but now she has more work than she can handle. You have to be very precise to do this, however.

Have you tried speaking to the Career Services at your college? As an alum, they can help you practice for interviews, etc.

It seems that machine transcription is not going to replace humans for at least 20 years (according to my guy who knows more than I do about such things), so if you have superlative language skills, it would combine well with your general interest in human behaviour to get into court transcribing. Not in court, but at home. It doesn't have to be real time (that's a thing to google) or on specialized steno equipment such as e'lan Cybra or Stentura (but it could be well worth your while to take a course in these if you like the work). A lot of court systems use independent contractors working from home on their computers, for transcripts that are required for various purposes. I got into this by taking a test at an agency, after a brave and carefully practised phone call. They don't usually hire people without legal background, but if you are excellent or develop some background, it could work for you. You can look into how transcribing is done in your region. Thing is, courts don't like to farm this work offshore or even out of the jurisdiction (here province, probably state where you are) for security reasons. The thing that got me out of it was bad audio with the new technology, because otherwise it was easy-breezy for me. I couldn't cope with the noise, but maybe you can (others do) or maybe the audio technology system management in your area is good. BTW, what was your BA in? And what were you very good at or liked a lot? I think it would help people answer your question.

Ha, Good Question! Wish I knew the answer! Honestly I have also been having the same problem. Can I firstly say your langauge skills are excellent - that shows through in your post - so that is one strength you do have. So far the ideas I've had for coping as an introvert in a similarly extroverted culture have been: - avoiding open plan offices (freelance, work from home or ideally a place where I get my own office) Hard to do but great if you can manage it. - introducing colleagues to the notion of "introvert" and mentioning it if I can in conversation, I guess to try to educate people - working part time - using my iPod to shut out excess noise e.g. on the train or in the gym. Earplugs would do as well. -being strategic about holidays e.g. work during the times when lots of others want leave - like days around easter or school holidays, and take leave when your colleagues are back. That way you can maximise office quiet time while the noisy types are off at the game. If you're stuck for small talk, always ask your noisiest extrovert colleagues about when and where they're going on the next holiday! Similarly work out whether being a morning starter or a late stayer will help either (if you have that choice that is). Good luck!

How are you at phone conferences? Not cold calls, but meetings with cow-orkers whom you've worked with in person? I ask because many modern jobs require long hours of solo work, with occasional long phone confs. Have you seen http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts.html? It may give you some ideas, and some tools, such as "one third to half of the population are introverts".

Listener -- My BA was a double major in Psychology and Anthropology. I was interested in research Psych, but saw the writing on the wall when it came to university budget slashing and decided to keep my undergrad degree terminal. I'm good at drafting documents. I may have a latent knack for statistical analysis - I can interpret numbers and explain them to other people, I am unable to crunch them, however. Unlike many social science majors who end up being fed by stats for years after graduating, my training in this area was minimal. Your transcription idea sounds great. I had an internship where I transcribed interviews all day, and my productivity was unprecedented. I'm very interested in the legal field - I saw what was happening there and decided not to go to law school, however - and looked into court reporting, but was scared off by the initial cost of the steno machines and the high attrition rate for the NCRA exam. I'm also aware of the shortage in the field, but I thought that was an opportunity exclusively available to stenographers/voice writers. How did you get started? melangell -- If I remember correctly, I'm an INTJ. Cleaning homes also sounds pleasant, and one of the few positions that ladies often get hired for that suits my disposition. That being said, in my area competition is stiff. Experienced older candidates who are limited to non-interactive service positions due to a lack of English language fluency generally dominate the field. Confronted with a lack of opportunities to be hired onto a cleaning team, I attempted to break into it as a freelance contractor, where I got absolutely 0 clients. spunweb -- I have spoken to my career services center multiple times throughout my 3 year job malaise, and unfortunately, they weren't a lot of help. at -- I'm totally fine with the idea of teleconferencing and WFH, it just seems like those opportunities are only available to those with a well-fleshed out skill set.

Become a bookkeeper or an accountant, though an accountant has to deal with bosses and the like. My terminally shy BIL became and accountant thinking he'd be left alone, but as he's fresh out of college he's finding he's having a lot more contact with people in his large accounting office than he thought he would. A bookkeeper is left alone a lot (we are the lepers of the business world) usually in an office with a door because they are handling confidential things. If you are not left alone a lot, ask where random invoices are, or why they haven't filed their receipts for their last business trip left and watch people scurry to leave you alone. If you are dealing with people about accounts or whatever it is usually over the phone or by email. Jobs in the US, don't seem to pay as well or get the same respect as the ones I had in Australia would be the only downside. The pay is OK though and you can always find work. Heck even temping while being shy isn't that hard, no one talks to the temp, they just tell you what to do and pretend you don't exist. You do not need more than basic math and a good calculator, heck in the world of spreadsheets and Accounting software most of it's done for you anyway.